The real Van Halen, once & for all

I remember being 13 years old & hearing the news Van Halen was breaking up. That was probably the 2nd kick to the teeth I endured as a young shit in the streets of OC (the first one was discovering Led Zeppelin at age 14, a hypnotic love with all their stuff ensues & then I find out the band broke up years before I even knew they existed). I didn’t take it well & honestly, I took it a hell of a lot worse when Sammy Hagar decided to join up amid wild rumors & being I was so desperate to fill my VH void, I eagerly awaited. “5150? I have no idea what the hell that is, but lets listen and give it a sho……wtf is this? This doesn’t sound ANYTHING like Dave and what? Dave is singing something about being a gigalo? Omgomgomg. ” I wanted to throw Eric Marshall’s VH tape out of my VW bug going 50mph and would have if I didn’t have a screwdriver in the tape recorder to keep the tape from eating itself (true story, kids- our technology ate itself). I took it hard & never listened to another Sammy/Van Halen tape again.

I was listening to 95.5 KLOS this morning & one of the guys talked about “the only Van Halen I know is with David” & that brought back great memories. Amen brother! The David Van Halen brings back good times- young, not having a clue in hell what you’re doing, cute girls in your jr high classes, street football (the touchdown zone is the stationwagon), playing vid games at the liquor store before school- all those great carefree things you did that wasted time but just proved you were having a blast.

I still know all those Van Halen songs by heart.

Best damn thing ever.