Van Halen: Live Without A Net

[Sidler72]

Loved Y&T and your right Dave’s voice would have been a great fit.

 

[joezlo]

Y&T has been fairly frequent on the various Sirius channels I listen to on my drive time and I would have been super down for Dave Meniketti singing after DLR left. Lyrics would have been in a similar vein but probably a bit less cringe and his voice would have done great with all the material they did in both eras I'm thinking.

Hot take:

Sammy was the only way to go.
DLR was becoming cliche in the mainstream, and the imitators were the predominant reason for it. (Super shredding guitar players were next in line after the front man)
Ed stepping out on keys broadened what they could do, and Hagar was right guy, at the right time.
5150 is an amazing VH record, I don't care what anybody says.
ou812 is a pop rock record with leftover guitar riffs from earlier days (DLR, Hagar, and Anthony have commented) - and I still enjoy it.
F.U.C.K. is a VH record only achievable because of Hagar being in the band & VH embracing their LZ influence. (Andy Johns produced the tracks!)
Balance only happened because Bruce Fairbairn kept them together after Leffler's passing.

Anything after that has merits, however not many reaching the heights of the aforementioned.

Highlights:

BOV1 tunes, the 2000 snippets of a failed DLR reunion (which are non existent for public consumption), some tracks off of A Different Kind of Truth (As Is, is one of my personal favorite VH songs) and Unfinished from Alex's biography, which might be bones of the unrelease song Between Us Two.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Hot take:

Sammy was the only way to go.
DLR was becoming cliche in the mainstream, and the imitators were the predominant reason for it. (Super shredding guitar players were next in line after the front man)
Ed stepping out on keys broadened what they could do, and Hagar was right guy, at the right time.
5150 is an amazing VH record, I don't care what anybody says.
ou812 is a pop rock record with leftover guitar riffs from earlier days (DLR, Hagar, and Anthony have commented) - and I still enjoy it.
F.U.C.K. is a VH record only achievable because of Hagar being in the band & VH embracing their LZ influence. (Andy Johns produced the tracks!)
Balance only happened because Bruce Fairbairn kept them together after Leffler's passing.

Anything after that has merits, however not many reaching the heights of the aforementioned.

Highlights:

BOV1 tunes, the 2000 snippets of a failed DLR reunion (which are non existent for public consumption), some tracks off of A Different Kind of Truth (As Is, is one of my personal favorite VH songs) and Unfinished from Alex's biography, which might be bones of the unrelease song Between Us Two.

I think that's not as hot a take as you think. Sammy was a great choice; even if I don't dig his lyric slants. Definite contrast to DLR while still having perv capabilities DKOT is one of my favorites for a variety of probably oddball reasons.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Loved Y&T and your right Dave’s voice would have been a great fit.

He kind of has a "Sammy-ish if he sang smoother" vibe. Great guitar player as well!

 

[Blix]

LWAY was "game changing" for me, was obsessed with it for years!

Wish we got more than the two songs from the short DLR reunion, those were bangers.

My hot tak: I rate ADKOT down there barely above III. Crap tone, Ed is phoning it in for Wolfie's sake.

 

[joezlo]

I think that's not as hot a take as you think. Sammy was a great choice; even if I don't dig his lyric slants. Definite contrast to DLR while still having perv capabilities DKOT is one of my favorites for a variety of probably oddball reasons.

All the songs on that record where people had never heard demos, ie: You and Your Blues, China Town, As Is, & Stay Frosty, hit well as songs - we could argue about production and vocals, yadda yadda yadda. Regardless it was like hearing fresh VH! Blood and Fire, and Hunniebabysweetiedoll, as well even though Ripley & Act Like it Hurts existed first.

 

[JiveTurkey]

LWAY was "game changing" for me, was obsessed with it for years!

Wish we got more than the two songs from the short DLR reunion, those were bangers.

My hot tak: I rate ADKOT down there barely above III. Crap tone, Ed is phoning it in for Wolfie's sake.

I think Tattoo ruined the intial perception of ADKOT for a lot of people. I can see why you feel that way about the album, too. I can also see EVH being a great dad in this way and doing it for his son which endears the record to me actually even more, even if it isn't a real thing that happened

On that short lived reunion stretch; "Can't Get That Stuff No More" ESPECIALLY was

 

[Blix]

I think Tattoo ruined the intial perception of ADKOT for a lot of people. I can see why you feel that way about the album, too. I can also see EVH being a great dad in this way and doing it for his son which endears the record to me actually even more, even if it isn't a real thing that happened

On that short lived reunion stretch; "Can't Get That Stuff No More" ESPECIALLY was

Hell yeah, Can't Get That Stuff No More". is awesome!