Van Halen Fair Warning

Pllllllease!

Dirty Movies!!!

Look, I’m a Halen fan from waaaaay back…and this song sticks to the VH theme of “Fuck it, this is WHO we are and this is HOW we sound!”

The way Alex and Michael take the listener down the path into David’s vocals and Eddie’s Pure Shred is 100% true Van Halen. 

It’s funny…

That album was actually a taste of what Eddie  would give us later in For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance.

The dude was a game changer. 

That song was AMAZING live 

"Everybody up !"

Stepping ovr your thin red invisible line , I don’t ask for permission, this is my chance to fly, fast drums , unchained chorus, nothing stays the same, unchained, you,ll here the DBP a coming.  Check out the 4 live songs from the tour. Gotta Love Dave up on the drum riser, saying everybody up. Then starting unchained.   I like the whole album but I don’t want to hear about it later is Awesome.  I saw VH in 9th grade summer on the Diver Down tour- hide your sheep. I still hv the Tshirt. 

Me & my pal Mikey where riding our 20in bikes around the arena & going inside watching the roadys . Then riding our bikes, I see Alex sun tanning on a big speaker box in his red shorts he drummed in. We rode past him stopped & said what do we do ? We rolled up to him & starred for a while. Then I poked him in the shoulder & hyper asked r you Alex Van Halen . The 3rd time he started moving his hands to move his Sony Walkman head phones to her me. We were going nuts he’s moving,etc. he slides his headphones forward I ask him again. He slid his shades down & says yeah like a sheep. Haha he had little whiskers & his eyes were reddish. We went hyper ah man your the best , we love diver down, can’t wait to see you tonight. He smiled & went back to sun tanning.  We taped night line with Jim Ladd whenever VH was on. Interviews r on yt . Dave & Alex r really funny.  

My wife bought us (my birthday present) tix for their show in Anaheim after they made peace with DLR. She wouldn't tell me how much she paid but it was worth whatever she paid because we still talk about what a great evening that was!

TM

Anyone who was there said it was a life changing concert & I agree. Dave repeatedly jumping off the drum riser. Eddie sprinting across the stage & sliding on his knees. Rocking a stack of marshal amps. He was an animal. Cathedral blew my mind It sounded so cool I was screaming in shock. Eddie Really loved to blow people away. He mouthed thank you.eddie threw a lot of picks into the crowd, people went nuts. It was hot & muggy by far the loudest concert I ever heard.  The crowd too. Yrs later I found out why Randy Rhode a gb guy was the drug dealer & the drugs where the best knows maybe mushrooms, haha where involved. 12 yrs ago in a sauna someone said what was your best concert. I said that easy vh diver down. A carpenter said that was my 1st roady gig. Do you remember the concert starting almost 2 hrs late. I said yeah it didn’t start on time. He said they couldn’t get Dave off the bus because he was partying with a few women. And Eddie backstage after the show. They couldn’t keep the women off of him. Soaked in sweat screaming & laughing at the same time Dave was in peak form. That was the tour 1 of his outfits was the leather chap pants. He’s running around shaking his bare butt sounds weird but it was funny & entertaining. 

I probably listened to Unchained 5000 times in high school. 

Great topic!!

My FAV band of all time

Hard to pinpoint one song off any album of course.

But from Fair Warning? has to be Mean street. Unchained was good, I'll crank it when its on the radio

Underrated hit from that album? ~ Push Comes to Shove.

Shall we get into the best album?...LOL, that's a tuffy

Like the way the line runs up the back of the stocking...kinda like those high heels too.

Not Fair Warning but who cares....

My favorite band too. 1978 1st album in 78 I turn 12 in Nov. and music was Huge back then. I thought there were a million times better than Zep, stones,queen, etc.  I think there best album is diver down its the most fun , Dave,s voice sounds the best, everyone in the band was at there peak in studio & Live.  Cathedral Eddies favorite song, Live it blows your face off. Little guitars master piece , lyrics & music a forgotten song. Intruder Eddie used a beer can to get the feed back. The story on pretty women video- banned from mtv. Hand em high Eddie says he just went nuts on it. The whole album is great even there Dad played on big bad bill he,s playing the clarinet. 2nd best album is there 1st.  I heard eruption countless times but really listening to it closely. Was under a viaduct for hwy 41 longest n rd in America on a big boombox 9th grade summer b4 the concert. All there Dave albums r Great tho. The most played song is Dance the night away.  Listen to the lyrics all the songs that Dave wrote about women r soo good.  I tweek the lyrics for women & score. Haha

I don’t feel tardy?! 

"Unchained", my favorite hard rock song of all time. "Mean Street" is a close second on that album. 

My pick is Unchained. 

Possibly unpopular opinion but Eddie seemed like such a nice guy on the outside, but my sneaky suspicion is he was a raging A-hole. First kicking Dave out of the group and it seemed believable that Dave's ego was getting uncontrollable but then he kicks Sammy out of the band saying the same stuff. I remember hearing EVH saying Sammy like Dave had LSD (Lead Singers Disease) and finally he replaces Michael Anthony with his kid. I just saw an interview with MA and he was basically saying that he was given the choice to basically be an employee of the band. 

It’s rock& roll it’s a machine that eats people. They say VH was a hard band to manage because they where really wild & made there own rules. There label screwed them from day 1. Warner bros never supported the band. Could you imagine being in the band , out of control VH was at there peak.  I had bass lessons at a music store in gb   The owner helped Eddie with equipment mods. Jimmy was short there’s pics of Eddie riding him piggy back. Haha.  

Still angry about FW’s track sequence. Album should have launched with “Unchained”, with the first side ending on “One Foot” fade-out, followed by Side 2’s fade-in of “Mean Streets”. Close out the album with the crescendo and crunching riff of “Hear About it Later”. To this day my mind plays the album in that order. 

https://youtu.be/VQgHvOvujNE?si=1OPPkch2ZJSyEz71

fuck i love Van Halen.  I love Roth Halen and i love Van Hagar.

saw Van Hagar twice in about 6 months when i was in 8th grade, changed my life. came back to school with a mullet just like Eddie's. i must have listened to Fair Warning cd a million times from 8th grade through high-school.

i think a lot of my love for them was because my dad listened to them religiously, it wasn't until i saved up my money for the cd that i really got into them though. also the Van Halen track MADE the Twister movie and you can't change my mind.

Was introduced to VH during the summer of ‘79. I was 15 and working out in my buddy’s garage gym when the local wrestling hero  stopped by with VH I. He dropped the needle (yeah, Jay’s garage gym was pimpin!), and I was hooked. 
 

Also remember inspecting the album cover thinking “this Mexican guitar player is bad ass!”  

I've told this story before but the short version is me going home on leave from England to Tulsa in '78.  My younger brother had Halen's first album.  Blew my mind.  He tells me they are playing at the Cains Ballroom (maybe one of the best small venues in the country...I ain't arguing about it...just trust me)...that night.  Ronnie Montrose was headlining.

Top three shows I've ever seen.  (The red Lebanese I brought from overseas may have something to do with my opinion).  Eddie and David seemed to think it was ok.

Anyhow...guess who the lead singer was for Montrose?  Yep...Sammy.  It's a small world.

There’s a really good story about Sammy & Ronnie and shit gettin thrown around the studio…it was the era of Montrose’s Paper Money album. Go listen to Connection: one of, if not THE, greatest Sammy & Ronnie song of all time. Shout out to those of you that were lucky enough…privileged enough…to have seen Mr. Montrose. 

We’ll have a beer and laugh about it someday.

Hope you are well and enjoying life. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours. 

Remember 8 tracks…? They were singularly responsible for Terrible Track Counts! 

Happy holidays to you too brother.  You be careful on those damn motorcicles.

I've had Paper Money since it came out.  It's a regular go to.  I'll be honest though...I mostly paid attention to Ronnie's guitar...(which was my #1 thing for any music).  

If you're like me and dig on cool guitars...I highly recommend Chris Spedding and of course Pat Travers.  Thank me later or just say...duh.

Hell...I remember 4 tracks...they actually had better sound quality but only held half the run time as an 8.  I still have my 8 track recorder/player and a case of blank cartridges.  Yes...I am that old.

I had totally forgotten that I saw Van Halen with Black Sabbath at the Hammersmith Odeon in London back in '78 or '79...I was on the dope so can't be sure exactly.

I do remember that VH blew Sabbath away.  The Hammeo is an old opera house.  It had the typical cushy seats lower level (prime) and cheaper balcony seats.  When Halen fired up...everyone on both levels rushed the stage and they DESTROYED all the lower level seats.  I mean kindling wood.  We had to stand up for Sabbath cause the seats were gone.

Hooked up with a G.I. that was stationed at the embassy in the parking lot after the show...never met him before.  He loaded a bowl and I was whacked...bad.  He says, "BTW, this stuff has angel dust in it".  Last time I did the dope.  Fuck that.

Sorry...us old guys got stories...and our wives are tired of hearing them.

78 was a big music yr The Cars 1st album also. VH would blow them off the stage like any other band but there still great. I get to my 2nd stop in Seattle & there where just closing. They can’t pay ot so I sat there until morning. I actually hv to sit til Tuesday in a non trk st - no ts . But 2 on the same exit on the length of i5. To not get depressed. I listened to the 1st album the non hit songs r Awesome. I remember listening to it when I was 12 in 78.  I really listened & took it in like oh that’s what it’s like . Like he’s singing about being a man & how to talk to girls. And 1983 live in Brazil great sound. Concert is great but not at the level of the GB. Show. Michael is from Chicago & Dave from Indiana. It wasn’t repressive heat & humidity but it was hot. I think there best shows r that weather like Brazil show was hot . The band is sweating big time.