This is great. Thanks to a great bunch of Van Halen fan friends of mine I got to hear it back on January 10th when it was posted at another site.

By the way, I saw VH in Worcester, MA on November 6, 2007. Michael was NOT missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUyVa90EOSc

Going to see them again in about 6 weeks in Manchester, NH.

I always thought dlr was a lot more interesting and entertaining than his bad. US election coverage is at the top of www.darrellepp.com.

Agreed.

Van Halen without David Lee Roth is simply NOT Van Halen.

Van Hagar.

This is what The Flying Curmudgeon's two teenage sons call the group, when referring to the period when The Red Rocker was their Front Man.

This is not a slam against Sammy, however.

Sammy Hagar is a classic rocker in his own right. For a time, he put his own stamp on Van Halen's sound and style. (Check out Sammy's vocals on the classic hit "Dreams," as the soundtrack to an inspiring Blue Angels video on The Flying Curmudgeon's blog.)

There is simply something special about the sound (and style) that Diamond Dave brought to V/H.

With his towering vocals and over-the-top antics, Van Halen without David Lee Roth is just not the same.

Enjoy the show.

TFC

I'm a huge fan too but this is still funny ass hell. Just listening to this comedic singing got me nostalgic. Too bad musicians are such a goofy bunch. Who would've guessed that the Stones would still be around. Occasionally.

Alex Van Halen said somewhere once that in the early days when DLR first unsuccessully auditioned for the band as its lead singer, he "couldn't sing for [expletive]."

If you look on the back of Van Halen's self-titled debut album, it offers "special thanks" to Dr. Roth (ostensibly for bankrolling the band) and Gene Simmons (who originally discovered the band, produced their 15-track demo and tried unsuccessfully to get Kiss's label to sign them. Bill Aucoin, Kiss' manager, passed thinking that Van Halen would not have any commercial success).

Being able to sing is subjective. To me, Joe Cocker and AC/DC's Brian Johnson cannot sing. Bon Scott--listening to him sing was like hearing a fork dragged across a dinner plate. Then there are the countles indie band frontmen and women who CAN sing but never get the lucky breaks.

I've actually heard lots of rave reviews of Wolfie's playing...Alex and Eddie were talking about how blown away they have been and that if he wasn't any good, he wouldn't have been put into the band.

A friend who's a professional musician calls Michael Anthony the luckiest guy in the world--a so-so bass player who happened to be on a band that just really took off.

My daughter came into the room toward the end and asked me if that guy was being tased. She couldn't believe I used to listen to this stuff on purpose - even after I played the full track on Rhapsody for her.

In any event, it seems clear that the Dean Scream was an homage to DLR.

richardzowie

Since I went to Junior and High School with Mike Sobolewski, aka Michael Anthony, I can tell you are just plain wrong that he was lucky to be in a band that "just took off". I first met him when I was in the marching band in Junior High School where we both played trumpet.

Mike's popularity was a result of the block parties that were very popular back in the 1970's. The parties started out with 50 or so people and grew to over 500+ people showing up to hear the bands Snake and Mammouth.The local police were not impressed but that is another story.

The Van Halen brothers auditioned Mike mostly because of the popularity of Snake and the HS weekend parties that were drawing huge crowds.

Mike's bass lines and vocal harmonies became a distinctive part of the Van Halen sound that resulted in 80 million records sold.

The rest is history.

See the Arcadia HS webpage to learn more:
http://www.arcadiaapaches.com/memories/rock_history/vanhalen_story.htm

BTW-Mike is a regular guy and a family man still married to his high school sweetheart.

ScottyDog: thanks for the comments but, again, it was my musician friend (a bass player) who said this--not me. His opinion...I've heard from other bass players who like M.A. a lot.

Also read that he has his own line of hot sauces. And, yes, he's one of the few rockers who's been married 20-plus years to the same woman.

He looks an awful lot like Gollum in the picture on the right. Eewww.

Oooh! Gave me douche chills. Somebody get me a doctor!!!

Great posting! Thank you
For all, please review this link to see DLR in all his glory.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=64e_1196279818

as for Michael Anthony- I agree he was not simply lucky to be there. His backing vocals were critical to their sound and his easy going manner helped grease the friction between DLR and Eddie.

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