You have to remember, back when it came out, the big 4 were Led Zep, Aerosmith, Nuge, and ZZ Top. Zep was becoming a keyboard band as Pagey stuck needles in his arm. Aerosmith likewise was burning out. Nuge was huge, but it was cartoon rock. ZZ Top was getting into the plinky Roland Jazz-chorus guitar sound. The Bee Gees and Donna Summer were ruling the charts.

    Along came VH-I. LOUD. Mean. Raw. “Runnin’ with the Devil!” These guys can play! Then, “Eruption.” There are not enough OMFG’s in internet parlance to describe how much we were blown away! The whole rest of side one was a rollercoaster trip of amazing histrionics!

    The next two albums were lesser things. There were teases of greatness, but then they’d spoil the moment with oddities like “Spanish Fly,” the accoustic version of “Eruption.” Then there was the ridiculous “Cradle will Rock” thing where Eddie plugs an electric piano into one of his brown-sound, wanked out amps. And the early VH albums were SHORT, maybe a little over 30 minutes, total.

    “Fair Warning” got back close to the original, with less cute and more rock, but “Diver Down” had maybe two real “Van Halen songs,” and lots of wacky cover stuff like “Big Bad Bill” and “Pretty Woman.” Roth BUTCHERED the Orbison classic…

    I went out and bought “1984″ the first day it was out at the record store. I put it on, and out of my speakers… I thought they had messed up and put a Ric Ocasic/Cars disk in there by mistake. What the HELL was this crap?!? Yes, there turned out to be some redeeming moments in that record (”Hot for Teacher,”"Panama”), but all the blatty synth stuff was NOT cool, to me!

    When “5150″ came out, you heard the single on the radio. Just like Loverboy, just like Night Ranger, like Journey. Yes, EVH would still stick a few noodlie guitar bits in, but we now had radio-ready vocals, banks of keyboards, and the guitar sound was muted and sanitized. I kept checking VH out, but the “loud guitar-driven rock” aspect was missing till the “Balance” LP, in the early 1990s. The growl was back, the indulgent playing, the flange… Then van Hagar was over. Biggest problem with Sammy Hagar as a vocalist? No male over 13 can sing along. Not that high. We’re all still mad at him over that, even as we approach the AARP age!

    I enjoyed the VH-III disk. It was nice to hear Eddie playing a lot of different styles and sounds, with an actual lyricist worked in there. Finally, Van Halen had grown past stuff like “Ever-buddy wants SUMMMM!” And the CD-buying public didn’t care…

you know, it embarrasses me to admit it, but as a kid Van Hagar was my first experience with the band (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge era) so it was a few years before i knew the singer from Van Halen hadn’t always been the same guy.

*well OK fine, maybe T. Rex

The album is that good.