Van Halen's third incarnation! Featuring new singer Gary Cherone, the guy from Extreme! And it was Extremely bad. (Support Todd on Patreon! / toddintheshadows )
Eddie Van Halen: "Gary has none of the ego that the other singers have" Translation: "Gary doesn't object to my terrible ideas and I am allowed to do whatever the hell I want"
It's somewhat telling that David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar were on better terms with each other than with Eddie at the end, even after their joint tour turned into a sh*tshow of ego clashes.
Eddie always pushed for what he wanted, was rejected a few times, and finally said 'fuck it' and stopped listening. And that was when DLR was still in the band.
I mean that "I totally believe all my ideas are good and I need to get what I want no matter what" attitude is also what made Eddie such an innovator in many different aspects of guitar.
It depicted a fan's reaction to spending $15 on it. If they did some production and cut it to 35-40 minutes (45 minutes maximum), you would have a solid album here.
@@EpicB Remove Neworld and squish it into Without You and doing the same for Primary (Into Ballot Or The Bullet). Switching out A Year To The Day fot That's Why I Love You? No, Josephina is worse! Well not really worse but I just find it boring. So Many Say I is as dorky as Just A Friend so yeah I admire it sort of. I find Ballot Or The Bullet is stupid, lame but kinda fun and rhythmically good
@@EpicB On my MP3 copy, I put Neworld, One I Want, Primary, Ballot Or The Bullet and How Many Say I (yes, this is Eddie's piano ballad) in the garbage, replacing them all with That's Why I Love You. Of the remaining tracks, I also trimmed Without You, From Afar, Once, Josephina and Year To The Day, taking the album down from 65½ minutes to 41 minutes.
"In a word to the wisdom tooth" sounds like a case of "I want this line to be exactly this many syllables and I don't care what word choice I need to use to make it fit."
@@Maniac536 *what!?* 😭 Mike, no! I suppose I get it. If you’re rapidly cranking out disposable music for disposable television, why would you treat the tapes like rare cultural artifacts? So much of the first 40 years of television is lost because the BBC taped over the shows, or Paramount just tossed the film reels into the river.
My local rock station did an impromptu tribute to Van Halen yesterday evening (the news broke around 9 pm Central European Time). I don't think anything from this album was played. For good reason.
And that's a darn shame, because this video seems to imply, to me that Eddie was one of the main reasons why Van Halen III sucked as much as it did. While I don't doubt all that, I still love the guy and will, as you said, remember him for the loads of other, much better, music he was also responsible for.
My favorite Klosterman article was his breakdown of the 1979 performance of “In The Evening” by Led Zeppelin at Knebworth. He goes through all the different stage costumes Jimmy Page wore over the years and says his 1979 business casual look “nicely highlights his distain for eating certain things (such as food).” And goes on about the inexplicable rotary phone John Paul Jones kept on his organ.
Mike Post and Eddie were friends. My guess is that Warner Bros wouldn't let Eddie produce the album himself, so he brought in Post to do it and Post's method of producing was to just let Eddie do whatever he wanted.
@@brendanb2982 OTHER SAND MAN! He drinks beer and fights! MEGA MAN! Fights robots and shoots! VINCE MC MAN! That's some good shit! WO-MAN! She don't need no man!
Got that exact same vibe. If you've listened to Waters's solo album Amused to Death, there's A LOT of songs on that album that remind me of the album closer on this album.
Gary Cherone gets a bad rap at times, but his live performances of Van Halen classics, from both the Roth and Hagar era) are top notch. The powers that be (Eddie, RIP) did him a disservice.
It's a shame Van Halen's planned "kitchen sink" tour (which would have featured all three singers and the return of Michael Anthony) was unable to happen.
I do agree that the tour was a different beast altogether, and if nothing else the set lists from those shows were a much better representation of VH's overall catalog. I think Gary even said at one point that in hindsight he wished the band had toured first to both debut themselves via live performance and to also explore their musical partnership a little before trying to write.
Coming back here after Eddie Van Halen passed away from throat cancer. He was a talented man who made mistakes but will always be remembered for his unique guitar skills. R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen 1955 - 2020
They tried so hard to make Gary Cherone sound like Sammy Hagar. Gary tried so hard to reach notes that he didn't bother with in Extreme. Gary Cherone is very talented when he plays to his strengths and that is either with Extreme or on his own.
Similar to Blaze Bayley's stint with Maiden, but moreso on the live tours...like you have a new singer with a vastly different register than the former vocalist....not fair at all to the new guy
@@TheBfutgreg I don't know what was worse, Maiden making Blaze try to hit Bruce's high notes (and not tuning down to Eb or D to make things easier for him) or Judas Priest making Tim Owens act like Rob Halford on stage. I actually love the Blaze era of Maiden (X Factor is a dark masterpiece), and Ripper did a lot of the old Priest tracks justice (but Glenn and KK weren't great at writing without Rob), but Jesus Christ, seeing Ripper in full leather gear and trying to ride the motorcycle on stage when he has the charisma of a sack of potatoes was just laughable. Pro tip for bands: don't have the new guy try to act like the old guy. I've seen Priest post-Glenn Tipton (Ritchie Faulkner and Andy Sneap on guitars), and while Andy is kinda awkward trying to pull off the leather look, he's not trying to front the damn band! Ritchie is a fucking ham on stage and I love him to death, though
I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until watching this just now. Van Hagar was bad enough, but no one even compares this lineup when talking about which they prefer. Which is extremely telling
EVH's reconciliation with everyone else made wonder about Van Halen's future. If everyone's copacetic, they might be viable as a touring entity by combining surviving members: Wolfgang in the EVH role, Michael coming back, and the other two in the roles they last held. Given how Eddie made Wolfgang his protege, one might call it closer to the original album's lineup than anything since 1996. Sounds like heresy now, but it might seem all right by the time touring becomes possible again. Just omit "Eruption," though; that one's Eddie's.
It hurts to lose these " monsters of Rock" , but at least they shared their gift with us.... * Fun fact: I ditched a comfy summer job to go see the mosters of rock tour, Seattle,1988, Kingdom Come, Metallica , Dokken, Scorpions, VH. Awesome show, horrible stadium( Kingdome), I talked a cute girl into riding on my shoulders for 5 min.,
@@calmbbaer Maybe. Before Eddie died Sammy Hagar apparently expressed interest in going on the road alongside David Lee Roth. And they haven't said anything concrete since Eddie died.
@@faceofkongos516 That's... the fact that that's true is such a damning thing to say about Van Halen's "Without You", because Mötley Crüe's "Without You" is not good.
@@chadnovell5366 I would argue that there is one ballad too many on Pornograffiti. Either "Song For Love" or "When I First Kissed You" could have stood to be cut. Otherwise, I agree it's pretty close to perfect. Even has guest appearances by Pat Travers and Dweezil Zappa!
Ah, yes, Mike Post... I remember, back when I was a barely 10 year old kid in the early 90ies, I already knew this man's name, because he appeared in the credits of literally every fucking TV show that my mom and I used to watch back then...
I remember being out shopping somewhere with my mom in 1998 or 99. She saw some guy wearing a Van Halen III t-shirt that had some slogan on the back, I forget what exactly, but it implied that VH3 was the best iteration of the band. My mom spotted it and she whispered to me that the guy, his t-shirt, and his taste in music were fucking lame.
lurch321 Yeah, my mom is awesome. If it wasn't for her incredible music collection and always tuning the radio to good rock stations when I was growing up, who the hell knows what kind of shit I'd be listening to now. I was raised right!
"Word to the Wisdom Tooth", combined with the image of Danny Glover in his boxers -- chicken taunting a madman with a flamethrower, made me laugh and cringe so hard. It was like laughing at the powerful funk of a bubbly fart.
A big issue with _Van Halen III_ is that, much like fellow Trainwreckord _Be Here Now_ by Oasis, practically every song is interminable. Aside from the two instrumentals on this album, there isn't a single track shorter than five minutes. Its 12 songs run an hour and six minutes total, but it's such a slog to get through that it feels more like three hours.
@@ryanfraley7113 Yeah, this is one reason bands tend to suck when they start producing their own albums. You need someone to tell you that a bad idea is bad.
That Eddie Van Halen piano ballad sounds like someone trying to do a bad Roger Waters impression, specifically on those quieter bits of The Wall, with the lyrical equivalent of Nickelback writing.
LOL I thought the exact same thing. It sounded like second-rate Roger Waters. It's cool tho, cause Waters' 87 album Radio K.A.O.S. featured a guitar player that was more or less a second-rate EVH.
I like to imagine that Eddie asked Gary to sing on that song, but Gary said that he didn't want to sing it, and he didn't want it to be on the album at all. In fact, I think that Eddie recorded it in secret in his home studio and put it on the album without any of his band members consent.
This vid was nicely done; I would subscribe to shit like this. I remember when the lead single came out; it got about 2 minutes of airplay in my market. Never knew there were 3 others. Also didn't know that Gary did the "Get the Funk Out" song--that's a good song. What VHIII needed to be and got crushed by: Jane's Addiction.
I think the reason why Gary sounded like he did on the album is because the Van Halen brothers wanted him to sound like Sammy Hagar. His normal singing voice isn't like that, so he kinda had to force himself to sing like Hagar.
This was actually the last album that Michael Anthony played on. He was fired in 2006 in favor of *Eddie's own son*. I get the feeling that those tensions must have already been present eight years earlier when this was being made.
When you kick everybody out of the band because they are hard-to-work-with assholes, chances are you are the hard-to-work-with asshole yourself.... I love Eddie's playing, but man, he's a massive dick. And he had the guts to say that Mike's vocals weren't that important, that he contributed to those just as much. Well, we've got How Many Say I as proof of Eddie's vocal talents. Meanwhile Mike continues to bring it in Chickenfoot and The Circle....
This was the album where I realized David was the one paying attention to song structure and Eddie and Alex were just spending hours upon hours jamming. Too bad they couldn't keep it together longer
Lady Marmalade I doubt he didn't try. It sounds like he was doing things that weren't really in his wheelhouse, like really screamy and really high. Listen to "More Than Words" and then listen to the songs on this album and ask yourself who thought that was a good change (hint: his initials are EVH).
5 років тому+4
Lady Marmalade I thought he sang well...……………...the only problem was that his voice and VH's music mixed together as successfully as oil and water.
"Without You" is a fitting title, since it sounds like every member of the band is playing a different song. They might also be referring to the sound mixer, since Gary's monotone voice is somehow both drowning out the instruments and completely unintelligible.
It's what happens when the producer (presumably Eddie,) just fucks around on the rig twirling random knobs and bars with no knowledge of volume normalization or composition.
I remember the first time I heard "Without You". I'm hardly an expert about anything having to do with music right now, but back then as a teenager I knew even less. Even 1998 me could tell that the mixing on that track is horrendous. What is going on in that song? How did a major band on a major label put out something that just sounds so awful? Even if the song itself would have been decent (which it isn't) the production still would have prevented it from being any good.
I love Eddie, he was a reasonably good background vocalist for the DLR and Hagar albums. But by the late 90's chainsmoking had killed his voice. Listening to Ed try to sing is like rubbing sandpaper on your ears.
It shows in his speaking voice too. In the 80s, he had a bright and youthful voice typical of 80s rockstars. But it got so much deeper and raspier that I wondered what happened with him while watching interview compilations. Turns out chainsmoking ruined his voice. I'm fascinated by voices, so I wonder if there are any other notable changes in any other rockstar's speaking voice over time...
@@imagiguard yeah I remember watching that one interview they did in london back in 1978, and thought "he use to sound like that?" his voice was pretty youthful and nice back then, but by the 1990s it became raspy and deep.
That’s why I like Band-Maid so much. The lead guitarist clearly has some Eddie influences, but she writes most of the music and does all the arranging. But she knows exactly how to play to each members strengths. Not only that, she is able to push her bandmates’ limits. The drummer said she was asked how fast she could play the tempo to a new song. She gave an honest answer and the guitarist made the tempo of the song even faster than that, forcing the drummer to speed up beyond what she thought she was capable of and she did it. I’m not comparing Kanami Tono to Eddie Van Halen. She clearly is inspired by him and you can hear the influence, but she’s brilliant at crafting and arranging songs in a way Eddie couldn’t do. They kind of sound like what a modern Van Halen would sound like if Van Halen were girls.
the phrase "Have you ever looked down when 'a homeless' walked by" is so cringe. I just feel like he had it as bum, vagrant or hobo when someone said "hey man they're called homeless now" so he changed that one word.
It doesn't sound any better though, since the tone of voice is about the same. The tone of "Oh no, a poor F*er! let me guess he wants some change to? argh!" and that's the problem. No one wants to care about them and it comes across no matter what words you put there. The next lyrics just proves the point. "Or just change the channel/ When you saw a hungry child" The words aren't the problem, its the attitude they convey, the words are just the low paid workers at the local grease bucket taking everyone's crap- They just work here man. Not much point in getting mad about the words when they just do what we tell them to do.
@EasyCoast Johnny Ryall uses the word bum and has 1,000x the empathy of that piano ballad. Looking at the full lyrics, the intended idea is "how many of you, out there, do _ inhuman thing", but that's just so abstract an approach that it can only be thin.
Yep. I always figured that the true masterminds were always Dave and later Sammy. They were both the main lyricists and arrangers while Eddie just simply tacked on his solos.
No, I've seen all 3 singers and the tour with Gary was my favorite because he sang like Sammy and did songs from the entire catalog. Plus the songs from this record were great live! VH should actually bring him back because he's the most mellow to work with!
I mean usually you do look down at the homeless as your eye level is higher than them, usually seated, while you are walking by.... so I'm gonna go refund my Target CD of this album 30 years later.
@@EmoBearRights Mind it or not, it stands out as the last ever Genesis album, which sounds very little like any Genesis album that came before it. And it tanked on the charts as well as sales. It's kind-of a perfect candidate for a Trainwreckords episode.
@@seffor It's not _just_ that. Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks were two-thirds of the Genesis trio that blasted through the '80s with hit after hit, and they're both on CAS. I think they were just too tired to make anything good anymore. Also, losing the iconic vocalist who helped make their songs accessible to wide audiences didn't help. That said, the title track and the album version of "Congo" both slap.
Just listen to "1984." That will give you an idea of what they're all about. Catchy cock rock with lots of attitude and really elaborate guitar work. They had earlier stuff that was arguably better, but that was the album that really made them explode in popularity.
I know them but do not like them. Something about the singing style just screams 'please tell me I'm cool please please please I'm trying so hard to be cool!'
Champiness Me: "HAHA! Of course I know Van Halen! They're the guys that Marty McFly used to scare his dad and trick him into thinking that he's Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan. Yup, I know all about Van Halen!"
After watching Todd's most recent Trainwreckords video on Mötley Crüe's Generation Swine, I noticed that one of the commenters wrote this: *The two massive ‘80’s hair metal bands who released career-ender albums around this time, both Van Halen and Mötley Crüe had similar problems, got similar results, yet the exact opposite problem in terms of the lead singer. Van Halen had a new lead singer who’d never performed with the band before (Gary Cherone), and Mötley Crüe got their original singer back after a long absence. And yet… *Both were hair metal bands trying to change their sound to fit with the modern times. Instead, they sounded like neither their original selves nor any other band of the time. And there are some times (like Without You and Find Myself) where the songs sound like two or three songs duct-taped together. *The vocal parts in the songs were clearly written for the previous singer (Sammy Hagar for Halen and John Corabi for Crüe), yet the new singer couldn’t adjust to that singing style and makes the project sound worse by comparison. *Any attempts at trend-chasing or changing certain things comes off as transparent or ridiculously corny. You have Crüe doing a Marilyn Manson knockoff song and video Tommy Lee singing a dedication song to his son that makes With Arms Wide Open sound dignified by comparison, and Halen making dentist puns and [INSERT]-Man lines in one song. *They had producers who clearly weren’t up to making this kind of album (one of the touring musicians for Crüe and a TV theme composer for Halen) *And both albums end on a cheesy piano ballad. ua-cam.com/video/IeoPMjdFJjQ/v-deo.html&lc=UgxfTC0ByW3VmmFk_rZ4AaABAg
It’s telling that Van Halen’s first post-Hagar album was terrible and Sammy Hagar’s first post-Van Halen album, Marching to Mars, is one of the best things he’s ever done.
The thing that's so endlessly fascinating about VH3 is that it basically destroyed EVH's confidence. Think about it -- this was his last original music project. "A Different Kind of Truth" was largely old demos that we re-worked. (and the original stuff was no great shakes) The criticism of this album just may have crippled him for the rest of his life.
Plus you get the neat dynamic of having a rhythm guitarist or even a twin-guitar attack back in the '80s. Definitely made for a very different sound for Van Halen. Different isn't always bad!
... So, full disclosure, I mix sound. Live, not recording, mind. I'm essentially a live audio engineer. I had never heard of this album. The other Trainwreckords albums have been very interesting, and this was.... also interesting. .... Every time music from this album ended up running through my headphones, I physically cringed. The mix on this album is really making me angry. Like, really angry...
Fun fact: Mike Post's first credit, around age 19, was the demo tape for the two sisters who would later go on to form The Murmaids (no, that's not a typo, and yes, they would make an excellent installment of OHW). Also, he won a Grammy at age 23 for "Classical Gas", a 1968 instrumental which is much better than that title makes it sound.
@@SarahElisabethJoyal yeah. He was briefly head writer on SNL in 1980. Before that, he wrote for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and helped Steve Martin's career get started (this is according to Wikipedia)
The fact that “gay man- looking for another man” is an actual lyric and not in fact a cumtown style bit making fun of the song is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard
That's because if Todd played anything from Van Halen, it would sound like he was just bashing keys and you would be writing to ask why Todd was just bashing keys at the end of the video.
Todd talks pure nonsense. Without You is a very good song. Also Cherone at the time already had better vocal ability than ageing Roth or Hagar. However the rest of the band was way past their prime at that point and couldn't deliver a string of hit singles (as I would agree Without You is not on the same level as their greatest hits). It was not enough to make a comeback in the late 90s. Both too old school and not enough pop-rock-commercial-radio friendly like Aerosmith/Kravitz at the time
Not quite. I personally think that this album is highly underrated, and better than people give it credit for. Hard rock bands don't release singles, so I don't know where you were going with that.
xelena He is the guy who did TV theme songs like “The Greatest American Hero” which was a big hit in 1981, “Hill Street Blues” also an instrumental hit, “Rockford Files” also, a hit record, and a few others. I remember “Hawaii Five-O” first was a hit by the Ventures, and then became a TV theme. “Welcome Back Kotter”, also a hit record by John Sebastian of the Lovin Spoonful, and “Love and Marriage” by Frank Sinatra, also became a TV theme from “Married With Children”. That’s considered as a TV theme. Take an old Sinatra song from the 50’s, and used it as a TV theme from the 80’s.
Ed was not a songwriter. He wrote cool stuff on guitar. The lead singer’s job was to take the bits, arrange them into songs, and add lyrics. Roth and Hagar both confirm the method.
@@tylerhackner9731 would that be The Happy Spaceman? He reviewed this album a few years before Todd and mentioned the failing to emulate Roger Waters voice thing
Just listened to this album for the first time this week. Remembering Eddie, I listened to the whole VH catalog in order. After the crap pile that was 'Balance' this isn't really awful, it just isn't what consider to be Van Halen. Full Disclosure: I remember my older brother coming home with the debut album by this new band called Van Halen. He said "listen to this" and put on 'Eruption'. HOLY SH!T. Then we sat and listened to the whole album. I can't believe that was 42 years ago. I was 13 or 14... VH 1 is still one of the most incredible displays of guitar virtuosity I've ever heard. RIP Eddie.
Mike Post was the producer for the band Halyx, a sci-fi rock band that played at Disneyland with a bass playing wookie and a synth playing robot. They played a season at Disneyland,but their album never was made and they broke up before they really recorded anything. Defunctland has a documentary about them i recommend if you want to learn more.
You know how Guitar Hero World Tour introduced the music creation studio feature? And if you had no musical talent you would just aimlessly play notes and strum, with time signatures and keys changing at random in the hope that it would sound good? That’s what Without You sounds like. One of the greatest rock bands of all time dropped a lead single that sounds like it was made by me in Guitar Hero in 2008
13:00 "which raises the question, why didn't they just lower the songs?" A question asked by every Iron Maiden fan when they found out that the band refused to lower the songs for Blaze Bayley, despite his vocal range being way deeper than Bruce Dickinson, him having to near blow his voice out just to sing the old Maiden songs for every show, and the fact that the band had lowered some songs for Dickenson on live shows before.
I feel like Eddie was like Axl Rose in a way, they were both super egotistical but were kept in check by their equaly as firery bandmates, but once those bandmates were out and they got full control over the band It all went to shit
Did anybody see Van Halen on that late night show a couple of years ago when David Lee Roth smashed his nose with his mic? Was supposed to be their big comeback and they had to interrupt their set because David was bleeding everywhere.
Wait, glam AND over produced? Are you sure you didn't realize which one was which. Roth, as a person, was glam and over produced even before he sang a note. White suits with Hawaiian shirts, and white fedoras. A karate kicking, screaming like a school girl, egomaniac?
You doing Trainwrecords has made me so thankful for streaming. Because at least now if an artist releases an album I can listen to it and not be pissed off that I’m out $20 of the album turns out to be garbage and if there’s one or 2 good songs I can just add it to my playlist.
As a fan of both Metallica and Megadeth I would say that Megadeth's The World Needs A Hero was worse than St Anger by leaps and bounds. St Anger was the sound of a band that really needed to take a few years off in crisis, if they'd taken some time away and then not rushed through its production to meet a label deadline and had the time to mix the album properly it would have been leagues better as has been proven by the many fan remixes you can find on youtube. TWNAH was the sound of a band leader just not trying or caring anymore, dave and megadeth had lost their direction after Risk's commercial failure which also coincided with their classic lineup self destructing, the only bright spot in that era of the band was their live album Rude Awakening.
I'm not sure who would ignore Bad Brains - most people would have them as the originators of at least DC hardcore, if not hardcore in toto. But yea, living color doesn't get mentioned enough. The same goes for Helmet, which probably did as much to bring a new sense of groove to heavy music as Pantera, still Pantera get most of the credit there.
lol yes. i was thinking about the song "Bonin' in the Boneyard" by Fishbone (because I hardly ever see them mentioned) and they kinda took over my brain.
Loved first incarnation of VH. Thought Van Hagar was okay. Loved Extreme too...I must confess, I felt more sorry for Gary Cherone than the Van Halen bothers that VH3 didn't work.
Yeah, he was a proven hit-maker who was offered the opportunity to work with rock and roll royalty. What he got was turned into a pawn of the greater ego struggle that colored the band’s entire history, shoved to the sidelines when it came to making the music, but shoved to the forefront when it came to singing it. And after it all the rest of the band get to live on as rock and roll legends, and he gets to be known as the guy who killed Van Halen. Poor guy.
I listened to this album for about three months straight when it was first released. It was the first new music (not including Best of) from my favourite band in three years and it cost me fifteen quid. So I was determined to like it. I guess From Afar was ok. Grim times. Wish I'd accepted defeat sooner.
8:23 This song is just Gary Cherone listing off rejected Mega Man bosses.
Yes LOL..... congratulations you just won the internet please use responsible 😁
Ah yes, my favorite boss, gay man.
Does rich man throw money at people?
@@alanmooreisrasputinreincar8106 hah a reverse Ted DiBiase.
Super man's power is getting Capcom sued for copyright infringement
Eddie Van Halen: "Gary has none of the ego that the other singers have"
Translation: "Gary doesn't object to my terrible ideas and I am allowed to do whatever the hell I want"
Don't forget the sound at the end of every Eddie comment-- the sound of snorting up an empire. N
It's somewhat telling that David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar were on better terms with each other than with Eddie at the end, even after their joint tour turned into a sh*tshow of ego clashes.
Eddie always pushed for what he wanted, was rejected a few times, and finally said 'fuck it' and stopped listening. And that was when DLR was still in the band.
I mean that "I totally believe all my ideas are good and I need to get what I want no matter what" attitude is also what made Eddie such an innovator in many different aspects of guitar.
@@Jaggedknife11
The attitude works in some areas, but not in others. See VH3 as such an example of the latter.
I love how Todd sounds genuinely offended by “a word to the wisdom tooth”
He should be though
*yah!*
So am I, TBH.
YOU GOT A MIND FULL
OF DECAVITIES
"all he does is TV themes"
OK but can we agree that the law & order theme song slaps
And The Rockford Files. The guitar solo on it is killer.
Come on… The Hill Street Blues is a great theme… not powerfull but an everyday theme
Booooooooo be more funny
And The A-Team
Nah. The Hardcastle & McCormick theme was one of his best besides The Greatest American Hero and The A-Team!
As the Pizza Man I can confirm that I actually do want a slice.
Do you know the Muffin Man?
Just so you know the boogie man he’s given me creeps
And the sand man will kick mud in your eye
What about the ice cream man?
All his flavors are guaranteed to satisfy
The album cover looks like a twitter meme.
It depicted a fan's reaction to spending $15 on it.
If they did some production and cut it to 35-40 minutes (45 minutes maximum), you would have a solid album here.
@@MRB16th Since I've never heard the album, any songs you think should go? The first song to go should probably be Eddie's piano ballad.
@@EpicB Remove Neworld and squish it into Without You and doing the same for Primary (Into Ballot Or The Bullet). Switching out A Year To The Day fot That's Why I Love You? No, Josephina is worse! Well not really worse but I just find it boring. So Many Say I is as dorky as Just A Friend so yeah I admire it sort of. I find Ballot Or The Bullet is stupid, lame but kinda fun and rhythmically good
@@EpicB On my MP3 copy, I put Neworld, One I Want, Primary, Ballot Or The Bullet and How Many Say I (yes, this is Eddie's piano ballad) in the garbage, replacing them all with That's Why I Love You.
Of the remaining tracks, I also trimmed Without You, From Afar, Once, Josephina and Year To The Day, taking the album down from 65½ minutes to 41 minutes.
It's literally a guy getting shot in the gut with a cannon
"Pizza man, just want a slice"
What exactly does Gary think a pizza man is? Just a man who eats a lot of pizza?
Why do you think a large percentage of pizzamen are teenagers?
I think he's saying that the man who works in pizza, i.e. the delivery guy or cook wants a paycheck
@@foxx64 exactly...to be part of the action, convenience, tier of treatment, etc.
In that case, I’m a pizza man.
right? and why would a pizza man be longing for a slice of pizza when he literally has access to as many slices as he wants
"Van Halen FUCKING rules" literally the first thing in my head when I wake up every day
You, I like you.
That sounds like a cursed existence lol
@@xp8969I dunno; if I woke and not thought that Van Halen ruled, I wouldn't be alive right now. It should be common sense. Lol
"In a word to the wisdom tooth" sounds like a case of "I want this line to be exactly this many syllables and I don't care what word choice I need to use to make it fit."
Berith Akuma lol! Maybe the wisdom tooth is actually a demigod who overseas good dental hygiene!
It sounds like a lyric from Train, haha!
When 90’s Beck just pukes word salad, it was at least entertaining.
This is litterally what Bad Lip Reading does, for comedy!
It's also an attempt to be... "Clever."
Hey don't blame Mike Post, you can hear the bass in all his t.v. songs.
Weren't the Rockford Files theme and TGAH theme big hits?
Seen the latest defunctlandTV documentary?? He wasn't bad at his job, he just did it.
MillicentChuyin he tossed master tapes...I don’t think that’s forgivable
@@Maniac536 *what!?* 😭 Mike, no!
I suppose I get it. If you’re rapidly cranking out disposable music for disposable television, why would you treat the tapes like rare cultural artifacts? So much of the first 40 years of television is lost because the BBC taped over the shows, or Paramount just tossed the film reels into the river.
Underrated comment
RIP Eddie Van Halen, 1955-2020
May he be remembered for much better music than this.
My local rock station did an impromptu tribute to Van Halen yesterday evening (the news broke around 9 pm Central European Time). I don't think anything from this album was played. For good reason.
@@ospero7681 Same
@@ospero7681 I went out on the night the news broke. I ended up blasting Panama in the car.
@@ospero7681 Eddie Van Halen died a day before my birthday
And that's a darn shame, because this video seems to imply, to me that Eddie was one of the main reasons why Van Halen III sucked as much as it did. While I don't doubt all that, I still love the guy and will, as you said, remember him for the loads of other, much better, music he was also responsible for.
The best review I saw of How Many Say I (Eddie’s piano ballad) was “as a vocalist, he’s an amazing guitarist.”
That Chuck Klosterman article is brilliant. One of the greatest intellectual analyses of hard rock ever written.
My favorite Klosterman article was his breakdown of the 1979 performance of “In The Evening” by Led Zeppelin at Knebworth. He goes through all the different stage costumes Jimmy Page wore over the years and says his 1979 business casual look “nicely highlights his distain for eating certain things (such as food).” And goes on about the inexplicable rotary phone John Paul Jones kept on his organ.
“Stand for nothing” uh they clearly stand for good dental hygiene
Ethan Davis
With dentures that never rot
I laughed out loud
@@toobmaniac if there's one thing we all should learn from Eddie's legacy: don't do meth
Mike Post gets payed everytime that *Dun dun* Law & Order sound plays. He's basically the Spielberg of TV composing.
The John Williams of TV?
*paid
The Hill Street Blues theme won him a Grammy and topped out at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981. He is incredibly talented.
Didn’t he do the them to Magnum PI too (the original show)?
"Without you" sounds like what the cast of friends thinks is heavy metal
😅😅😅😅
metal for people who think miracle whip is too spicy
Mike Post and Eddie were friends. My guess is that Warner Bros wouldn't let Eddie produce the album himself, so he brought in Post to do it and Post's method of producing was to just let Eddie do whatever he wanted.
"Giant Man -- that's actually Ant-Man again" I laughed so hard
led zep did long songs.
american pie long song
nothing wrong with length
@@commentfreely5443 ...I feel like you might have replied to the wrong thread?
RAY MAN! HES GOT NO LIMBS
SAND MAN! HES A MAN MADE OF SAND!
THE MAN! OH NO THATS A WOMEN!
OOPS I MEAN GIRL, GIRL GIRL GIRL
@@brandievan2678 SAND MAN! Bring me a treat!
@@brendanb2982 OTHER SAND MAN! He drinks beer and fights!
MEGA MAN! Fights robots and shoots!
VINCE MC MAN! That's some good shit!
WO-MAN! She don't need no man!
I have some lyrics!
"Dayman (AaaahhhAAAHHHHhhh) fighter of the Nightman!"
Champion of the Sun (ah-ah-ah)
You're a Master of Karate
@@krawithan And Friendship
@@beyonddisturbed For Everyone
@@bartonez123 What is it with you guys reciting lyrics? We've all seen the show.
@@Vichedges I bet you're a blast at parties...
OK, "He sounds like something you'd play if you wanted to scare raccoons out of your yard" is the funniest thing I've heard all week.
I read this before the part in the vid, and I still fucking died
"pizza man - just want a slice" is the best line ever written. i love it.
🤨
"they fight, triangle man wins"
Gee, spoiler alert.
Albeit_Jordan THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!!!!
Kyle Hegedus They might be giants... But do you know that Istanbul was once Constanipole?
But yet, Triangle Man is is made up of particles, as are we all, including Universe Man. Therefore, Particle Man is ultimately triumphant.
@@QuadMochaMatti And all of us have a little birdhouse in our souls
@@QuadMochaMatti Damn it, I was rooting for Person Man.
It's amazing how Eddie's singing sounds like a Kmart-brand Roger Waters.
Got that exact same vibe. If you've listened to Waters's solo album Amused to Death, there's A LOT of songs on that album that remind me of the album closer on this album.
Honestly yeah, kinda like one of the softer tracks on The Wall or Final Cut but worse.
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY! more like the final cut having a stroke, as if the record wasn't having a stroke itself🤣🤣
Was thinking the exact same thing. This is one of the worst off-brand Roger Waters impressions (besides the Nostalgia Critic).
@@tylerhackner9731 Even as a current watcher of his stuff... yeah, that review was pretty insufferable. Mostly for wasting their Corey Taylor collab!!
Gary Cherone gets a bad rap at times, but his live performances of Van Halen classics, from both the Roth and Hagar era) are top notch. The powers that be (Eddie, RIP) did him a disservice.
I attended this tour, Cherone did tunes from both eras justice
It's a shame Van Halen's planned "kitchen sink" tour (which would have featured all three singers and the return of Michael Anthony) was unable to happen.
Well yeah, it’s pretty easy when you just imitate the other singers and don’t put your own spin on it.
@@Big_Sierra no it’s not. You try singing like Hagar and Lee Roth! It’s not middle of the road stuff
I do agree that the tour was a different beast altogether, and if nothing else the set lists from those shows were a much better representation of VH's overall catalog. I think Gary even said at one point that in hindsight he wished the band had toured first to both debut themselves via live performance and to also explore their musical partnership a little before trying to write.
Coming back here after Eddie Van Halen passed away from throat cancer. He was a talented man who made mistakes but will always be remembered for his unique guitar skills.
R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen
1955 - 2020
I wanted Eddie to have solo career like Steve vie just composing
I wanted Eddie to have solo career like Steve vie just composing
@@akshunnadevansh5531 you can delete one of these comments, ya know.
It was actually brain cancer that killed EVH.
You can too
Todd covering Van Halen? This is a dream come true. Thank you Todd. Thank you.
You should tell people about your music more
Top 10 Anime Crossovers
Love your videos btw.
EmperorTigerstar
Hey Tigerstar, you like Van Halen? You... you like Todd?
The Cartoon Adict I find this man in the comments section everywhere I go.
They tried so hard to make Gary Cherone sound like Sammy Hagar. Gary tried so hard to reach notes that he didn't bother with in Extreme. Gary Cherone is very talented when he plays to his strengths and that is either with Extreme or on his own.
Perfectly stated. I've also been saying this since 1998.
Similar to Blaze Bayley's stint with Maiden, but moreso on the live tours...like you have a new singer with a vastly different register than the former vocalist....not fair at all to the new guy
@@TheBfutgreg I don't know what was worse, Maiden making Blaze try to hit Bruce's high notes (and not tuning down to Eb or D to make things easier for him) or Judas Priest making Tim Owens act like Rob Halford on stage. I actually love the Blaze era of Maiden (X Factor is a dark masterpiece), and Ripper did a lot of the old Priest tracks justice (but Glenn and KK weren't great at writing without Rob), but Jesus Christ, seeing Ripper in full leather gear and trying to ride the motorcycle on stage when he has the charisma of a sack of potatoes was just laughable. Pro tip for bands: don't have the new guy try to act like the old guy.
I've seen Priest post-Glenn Tipton (Ritchie Faulkner and Andy Sneap on guitars), and while Andy is kinda awkward trying to pull off the leather look, he's not trying to front the damn band! Ritchie is a fucking ham on stage and I love him to death, though
Nahhe sucks
Gary Cherone, as the lead singer of Van Halen, sounds like Chris Cornell if he had hay fever and was always on the verge of a sneeze.
I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until watching this just now. Van Hagar was bad enough, but no one even compares this lineup when talking about which they prefer. Which is extremely telling
They should have offered Cornell the job!!! I was not crazy about Audioslave, I tried!!!😊
Well, here we are in 2020, and as of yesterday, Eddie Van Halen is no longer with us, ending the Van Halen story on a very tragic note.
At least Van Halen III didn't end up being their final album.
@@kenterminateddq5311 So, I guess Van Halen didn't quite go out with a whimper after all, and that's good.
EVH's reconciliation with everyone else made wonder about Van Halen's future. If everyone's copacetic, they might be viable as a touring entity by combining surviving members: Wolfgang in the EVH role, Michael coming back, and the other two in the roles they last held. Given how Eddie made Wolfgang his protege, one might call it closer to the original album's lineup than anything since 1996. Sounds like heresy now, but it might seem all right by the time touring becomes possible again. Just omit "Eruption," though; that one's Eddie's.
It hurts to lose these " monsters of Rock" , but at least they shared their gift with us....
* Fun fact: I ditched a comfy summer job to go see the mosters of rock tour, Seattle,1988, Kingdom Come, Metallica , Dokken, Scorpions, VH. Awesome show, horrible stadium( Kingdome), I talked a cute girl into riding on my shoulders for 5 min.,
@@calmbbaer Maybe. Before Eddie died Sammy Hagar apparently expressed interest in going on the road alongside David Lee Roth. And they haven't said anything concrete since Eddie died.
"X's Kurt Cobain to Y''s Chad Kroeger" can apply flawlessly to any industry. Thank for this gem, Todd!
As well as "X's Eddie Vedder to Y's Scott Stapp".
X’s Layne Staley to Y’s Aaron Lewis
@Brendan Crosby Alex Band sounds more like Eddie Vedder than Chris Cornell.
Coming off another Trainwreckord, "X's John Fogerty to Y's Doug Clifford."
@@NoOne-yp8ot That’s gotta hurt, given that both these guys are - or were-CCR members 😂 At least Doug’s voice was tolerable, but Stu Cook’s... Oh, boy
The third wave of VH better known as Van Hasbeen.
I listened to this CD ONCE. ONLY ONCE. And THAT was ONE TIME TOO MANY.
@@denniscassley2569 I'm glad that you recovered your mental faculties. Something tells me that this album is a mind breaker.
@@dvt1393 Awful. Waste of money, like U2's "Pop." They should've offered refunds. "Pizza Man...wants a slice." Goodness gracious...
Dennis Cassley I have it on cassette.
“Van Failin”
Dave - cool man
Sammy - red scream man
Gary - fucked up man
Todd - shadow man
The chorus of "Without You" could've been saved if everything else in the song was different
It feels like it's simultaneously trying to be Hagar-era Van Halen and Extreme at the same time while lacking either Hagar or Bettencourt.
@@wolfgangervin2582 savage burn!
Motley Crue did this title better tbh
@@faceofkongos516 That's... the fact that that's true is such a damning thing to say about Van Halen's "Without You", because Mötley Crüe's "Without You" is not good.
The best song from this era isn't even on the album
Young man! There's no need to feel down!
Spoonman! Come together with your plan!
Mega Man! Super fighting robot!
True dat. Chris Cornell's lyrics blow-away anything on this album.
Muffin Man! He lives in Drury Lane!
Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Does whatever a spider can!
@@kylehegedus5498 ok
Todd, as usual, I wanna thank you for inadvertently introducing me to one of my new favorite songs, "Get The Funk Out."
That whole album is untouchable!
@@chadnovell5366 I would argue that there is one ballad too many on Pornograffiti. Either "Song For Love" or "When I First Kissed You" could have stood to be cut. Otherwise, I agree it's pretty close to perfect. Even has guest appearances by Pat Travers and Dweezil Zappa!
He has that effect on people. He's gotten me into a lot of music, inadvertently or not, including some of my favourite artists and songs today!
@@suprchickn7745 Yeah, *Extreme II: Pornograffiti* is a great album. Loved it.
He-Man Woman Hater is better than Get The Funk
*CHANGE MY MIND*
Love these Trainwreckords videos. The way we can't see Todd's face yet can make out his expressions nigh-on perfectly is something I'll never tire of.
Ah, yes, Mike Post... I remember, back when I was a barely 10 year old kid in the early 90ies, I already knew this man's name, because he appeared in the credits of literally every fucking TV show that my mom and I used to watch back then...
"without you" sounds like what eddie's wearing in the video
Apemopo Drop that zero and get with the hero.
A jester hat and a black seethrough jacket with a blue shirt underneath (fingerless gloves) and giraffe shorts while still wearing black trousers?
@@BusinessZeus In other words, everything but the kitchen sink, just like the song structure.
I remember being out shopping somewhere with my mom in 1998 or 99. She saw some guy wearing a Van Halen III t-shirt that had some slogan on the back, I forget what exactly, but it implied that VH3 was the best iteration of the band. My mom spotted it and she whispered to me that the guy, his t-shirt, and his taste in music were fucking lame.
Your mom's alright.
Kaylee F BEST. MOM. EVER.
lurch321 Yeah, my mom is awesome. If it wasn't for her incredible music collection and always tuning the radio to good rock stations when I was growing up, who the hell knows what kind of shit I'd be listening to now. I was raised right!
Well at least your mom has good taste.
Slogan......Check out the big brain on brad🤪
"Word to the Wisdom Tooth", combined with the image of Danny Glover in his boxers -- chicken taunting a madman with a flamethrower, made me laugh and cringe so hard. It was like laughing at the powerful funk of a bubbly fart.
A big issue with _Van Halen III_ is that, much like fellow Trainwreckord _Be Here Now_ by Oasis, practically every song is interminable. Aside from the two instrumentals on this album, there isn't a single track shorter than five minutes. Its 12 songs run an hour and six minutes total, but it's such a slog to get through that it feels more like three hours.
At least BHN had a few songs under that ("Don't Go Away", "I Hope, I Think, I Know").
A good producer would have heard this and made them go back and start over from square zero.
@@ryanfraley7113 Yeah, this is one reason bands tend to suck when they start producing their own albums. You need someone to tell you that a bad idea is bad.
hi emily
You aren’t Emily, btw
That Eddie Van Halen piano ballad sounds like someone trying to do a bad Roger Waters impression, specifically on those quieter bits of The Wall, with the lyrical equivalent of Nickelback writing.
I kinda thought the same thing like “One of My Turns” or something lol it’s the St. Anger of VH XD
Ouch
LOL I thought the exact same thing. It sounded like second-rate Roger Waters. It's cool tho, cause Waters' 87 album Radio K.A.O.S. featured a guitar player that was more or less a second-rate EVH.
Eeeeyyuupp
I like to imagine that Eddie asked Gary to sing on that song, but Gary said that he didn't want to sing it, and he didn't want it to be on the album at all. In fact, I think that Eddie recorded it in secret in his home studio and put it on the album without any of his band members consent.
Trainwreckords is such a great series. Every one has been a blast.
This vid was nicely done; I would subscribe to shit like this. I remember when the lead single came out; it got about 2 minutes of airplay in my market. Never knew there were 3 others. Also didn't know that Gary did the "Get the Funk Out" song--that's a good song. What VHIII needed to be and got crushed by: Jane's Addiction.
It’s funny you mention Bill and Ted, Extreme had a song in the first movie.
not to mention Keanu Reeves wore a VH shirt through the entire movie
@@romangarcia608and regular references to van halen in the lines
I think the reason why Gary sounded like he did on the album is because the Van Halen brothers wanted him to sound like Sammy Hagar. His normal singing voice isn't like that, so he kinda had to force himself to sing like Hagar.
I dunno Todd, that haircut and goatee makes him look like a discount Guy Fieri to me...
ShameldaTheMomFriend™ yessssss! 😂
I thought it looked like he was joining the Blue Collar Comedy Tour
He's gonna put racing stripes on his guitar.
I was thinking a mix between Guy Fieri and James Hetfield.
Guy Fieri is discount Guy Fieri.
"This is Spinal Crap"
Everyone knows you don't do Heavy Metal in Dobly....
😆😅😂
@John M. Pretty good!
@@alexflenner1986 xrr 'lll
This was actually the last album that Michael Anthony played on. He was fired in 2006 in favor of *Eddie's own son*.
I get the feeling that those tensions must have already been present eight years earlier when this was being made.
Yeah,the way VH treated Mike was shameful at best.Eddie talking about 'big egos' is also pretty funny considering he's a giant douche nozzle.
When you kick everybody out of the band because they are hard-to-work-with assholes, chances are you are the hard-to-work-with asshole yourself.... I love Eddie's playing, but man, he's a massive dick. And he had the guts to say that Mike's vocals weren't that important, that he contributed to those just as much. Well, we've got How Many Say I as proof of Eddie's vocal talents. Meanwhile Mike continues to bring it in Chickenfoot and The Circle....
15 years old Eddie's son.
EVH played the bass on this album
@@realcrunchy6572 zero percent surprised to hear that. A tiny bit surprised that he didn't try and take credit for it.
This was the album where I realized David was the one paying attention to song structure and Eddie and Alex were just spending hours upon hours jamming. Too bad they couldn't keep it together longer
pretty sure Ted Templeman was giving them a hand in the early years too
Well, at least Gary Cherone is a good singer.
And when the Greatest American Hero theme came on, I thought the Snob would cameo.
Me too. Brought back some great memories.
who put these ridiculous subtitles here?
Too bad he doesn't try to sing well here.
Lady Marmalade I doubt he didn't try. It sounds like he was doing things that weren't really in his wheelhouse, like really screamy and really high. Listen to "More Than Words" and then listen to the songs on this album and ask yourself who thought that was a good change (hint: his initials are EVH).
Lady Marmalade I thought he sang well...……………...the only problem was that his voice and VH's music mixed together as successfully as oil and water.
"Without You" is a fitting title, since it sounds like every member of the band is playing a different song. They might also be referring to the sound mixer, since Gary's monotone voice is somehow both drowning out the instruments and completely unintelligible.
I agree; it wouldn't at all surprise me if the rumors Todd discussed about the producer leaving part of the way through were true.
I legit think that song was generated by a deep-learning AI.
It's what happens when the producer (presumably Eddie,) just fucks around on the rig twirling random knobs and bars with no knowledge of volume normalization or composition.
I remember the first time I heard "Without You". I'm hardly an expert about anything having to do with music right now, but back then as a teenager I knew even less. Even 1998 me could tell that the mixing on that track is horrendous. What is going on in that song? How did a major band on a major label put out something that just sounds so awful? Even if the song itself would have been decent (which it isn't) the production still would have prevented it from being any good.
Mike Post did an amazing job on this record. The production is perfect.
I love Eddie, he was a reasonably good background vocalist for the DLR and Hagar albums. But by the late 90's chainsmoking had killed his voice. Listening to Ed try to sing is like rubbing sandpaper on your ears.
It shows in his speaking voice too. In the 80s, he had a bright and youthful voice typical of 80s rockstars. But it got so much deeper and raspier that I wondered what happened with him while watching interview compilations. Turns out chainsmoking ruined his voice.
I'm fascinated by voices, so I wonder if there are any other notable changes in any other rockstar's speaking voice over time...
@@imagiguard yeah I remember watching that one interview they did in london back in 1978, and thought "he use to sound like that?" his voice was pretty youthful and nice back then, but by the 1990s it became raspy and deep.
I though Mike was the primary backup vocalist..
@@DecemberGuy77 he was
@@AaronKaiMCDNLD Nah it wasn't till he was diagnosed with cancer
That’s why I like Band-Maid so much. The lead guitarist clearly has some Eddie influences, but she writes most of the music and does all the arranging. But she knows exactly how to play to each members strengths. Not only that, she is able to push her bandmates’ limits. The drummer said she was asked how fast she could play the tempo to a new song. She gave an honest answer and the guitarist made the tempo of the song even faster than that, forcing the drummer to speed up beyond what she thought she was capable of and she did it. I’m not comparing Kanami Tono to Eddie Van Halen. She clearly is inspired by him and you can hear the influence, but she’s brilliant at crafting and arranging songs in a way Eddie couldn’t do. They kind of sound like what a modern Van Halen would sound like if Van Halen were girls.
As much as I love Van Halen, Band Maid are better.
Which song was that? The one with the tempo faster than the drummer’s perceived cap?
Hey, band maid fan here too!
Agreed. I first checked out Band-Maid because of their strange cute cosplay aesthetic, but they can also write and perform world-class rock.
A lot of people like to compare Jimi Hendrix to Eddie Van Halen.
Well, at least he know how to write a song.
the phrase "Have you ever looked down when 'a homeless' walked by" is so cringe. I just feel like he had it as bum, vagrant or hobo when someone said "hey man they're called homeless now" so he changed that one word.
It doesn't sound any better though, since the tone of voice is about the same. The tone of "Oh no, a poor F*er! let me guess he wants some change to? argh!" and that's the problem. No one wants to care about them and it comes across no matter what words you put there. The next lyrics just proves the point. "Or just change the channel/ When you saw a hungry child" The words aren't the problem, its the attitude they convey, the words are just the low paid workers at the local grease bucket taking everyone's crap- They just work here man. Not much point in getting mad about the words when they just do what we tell them to do.
"A homeless"
@EasyCoast Johnny Ryall uses the word bum and has 1,000x the empathy of that piano ballad. Looking at the full lyrics, the intended idea is "how many of you, out there, do _ inhuman thing", but that's just so abstract an approach that it can only be thin.
The Clash's Cut the Crap would make a gr8 Trainwreckords
I WAS THINKING EXACTLY THAT!!!!!!!!!
Is that a fitting title for how bad that album is?
You're in luck
I'm back from the future to say your wish has been granted.
He did it!
'Without You' sounds like if a Loverboy cover band was trying to do an impression of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Damn. The layers to that burn. Jesus man, what did Van Halen do to you?
13:25 Mike Post: The man that scored your childhood.
Well, at least mine.
The vibe I am getting is that Eddie thought with Gary that he found himself a perfect loyal little yes man who would just do what he was told.
And the punch line was that Gary DID do what he was told...and the band failed miserably because of it.
Yep. I always figured that the true masterminds were always Dave and later Sammy. They were both the main lyricists and arrangers while Eddie just simply tacked on his solos.
Plus Sammy was the one who helped the band survive the grunge invasion and stay relevant in the 90s.
Yes alexandra galici! They are both very similar to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS.
No, I've seen all 3 singers and the tour with Gary was my favorite because he sang like Sammy and did songs from the entire catalog. Plus the songs from this record were great live! VH should actually bring him back because he's the most mellow to work with!
"Have you ever looked down at a homeless/Or changed the channel when you saw a hungry child on TV"
Wow. Deep, man. Just deep.
Scott Baldwin A homeless.
W E L I V E I N A S O C I E T Y
OMFG 😂 you guys are killing me here 😂🤣
Jewel wants her lyrics back.
I mean usually you do look down at the homeless as your eye level is higher than them, usually seated, while you are walking by.... so I'm gonna go refund my Target CD of this album 30 years later.
This makes me sincerely want you to do a Trainwreckords for Genesis - "Calling All Stations"
I don't mind Calling All Stations.
@@EmoBearRights Mind it or not, it stands out as the last ever Genesis album, which sounds very little like any Genesis album that came before it. And it tanked on the charts as well as sales. It's kind-of a perfect candidate for a Trainwreckords episode.
@@AndrewWright1973 Perhaps they got tired of doing the same stuff?
@@Cheepchipsable it sounds so different because it was made without phil collins
@@seffor It's not _just_ that. Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks were two-thirds of the Genesis trio that blasted through the '80s with hit after hit, and they're both on CAS. I think they were just too tired to make anything good anymore. Also, losing the iconic vocalist who helped make their songs accessible to wide audiences didn't help.
That said, the title track and the album version of "Congo" both slap.
R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen
Great video, still
Todd. There's this thing called sleep. You've interrupted me from it.
For this, I thank you.
I misread that as "sheep"... and had a completely different notion of what was happening until I reread it.
Awsamazing Eden 4am where I live lol
Awsamazing Eden you apparently don't have to work a 10 he shift -_-
Gotta post early so you don't wake up the copyright bots.
Time for me to learn literally anything about Van Halen
Just listen to "1984." That will give you an idea of what they're all about. Catchy cock rock with lots of attitude and really elaborate guitar work. They had earlier stuff that was arguably better, but that was the album that really made them explode in popularity.
Same, i only know them by name.
Oh good it's not just me.
I know them but do not like them. Something about the singing style just screams 'please tell me I'm cool please please please I'm trying so hard to be cool!'
Champiness Me: "HAHA! Of course I know Van Halen! They're the guys that Marty McFly used to scare his dad and trick him into thinking that he's Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan. Yup, I know all about Van Halen!"
After watching Todd's most recent Trainwreckords video on Mötley Crüe's Generation Swine, I noticed that one of the commenters wrote this:
*The two massive ‘80’s hair metal bands who released career-ender albums around this time, both Van Halen and Mötley Crüe had similar problems, got similar results, yet the exact opposite problem in terms of the lead singer. Van Halen had a new lead singer who’d never performed with the band before (Gary Cherone), and Mötley Crüe got their original singer back after a long absence. And yet…
*Both were hair metal bands trying to change their sound to fit with the modern times. Instead, they sounded like neither their original selves nor any other band of the time. And there are some times (like Without You and Find Myself) where the songs sound like two or three songs duct-taped together.
*The vocal parts in the songs were clearly written for the previous singer (Sammy Hagar for Halen and John Corabi for Crüe), yet the new singer couldn’t adjust to that singing style and makes the project sound worse by comparison.
*Any attempts at trend-chasing or changing certain things comes off as transparent or ridiculously corny. You have Crüe doing a Marilyn Manson knockoff song and video Tommy Lee singing a dedication song to his son that makes With Arms Wide Open sound dignified by comparison, and Halen making dentist puns and [INSERT]-Man lines in one song.
*They had producers who clearly weren’t up to making this kind of album (one of the touring musicians for Crüe and a TV theme composer for Halen)
*And both albums end on a cheesy piano ballad.
ua-cam.com/video/IeoPMjdFJjQ/v-deo.html&lc=UgxfTC0ByW3VmmFk_rZ4AaABAg
Like Adam Tod Brown once said: "Sammy Hagar didn't make Van Halen awful, Eddie Van Halen made Van Halen awful"
Hagar is a squeeling pig.
It’s telling that Van Halen’s first post-Hagar album was terrible and Sammy Hagar’s first post-Van Halen album, Marching to Mars, is one of the best things he’s ever done.
Balance was a pretty horrible album, and I don't blame Gary or Sammy for any of it. VH was on a death spriral.
The title track to Marching To Mars may be Sammy’s best solo song. Once you hear that riff, it’s in your head forever.
"Triangle Man Hates Particle Man./They have a fight, Triangle Wins"- Jesus Christ Todd, I love you! This made my night.
Degraded man, Van Halen man.
Flood by They Might Be Giants is a great album. And never forget, it's Istanbul NOT Constantinople.
The thing that's so endlessly fascinating about VH3 is that it basically destroyed EVH's confidence. Think about it -- this was his last original music project. "A Different Kind of Truth" was largely old demos that we re-worked. (and the original stuff was no great shakes) The criticism of this album just may have crippled him for the rest of his life.
Sammy is a guitar player and songwriter, he couldn't play like Eddie but could definitely help put a song together.
Plus you get the neat dynamic of having a rhythm guitarist or even a twin-guitar attack back in the '80s. Definitely made for a very different sound for Van Halen. Different isn't always bad!
... So, full disclosure, I mix sound. Live, not recording, mind. I'm essentially a live audio engineer.
I had never heard of this album. The other Trainwreckords albums have been very interesting, and this was.... also interesting.
....
Every time music from this album ended up running through my headphones, I physically cringed. The mix on this album is really making me angry. Like, really angry...
Holy fuck though right? Amazing... ly bad.
It’s one of the most shit mixes I’ve ever heard.
+Veian Demontrond What do you think of the mixing on The Clash’s Cut The Crap?
Quick question, how can you tell if someone is playing bass? Cause I can’t tell if Michael was playing at all on the other albums before this
Dill Pickled
He’s barely on OU812
Fun fact: Mike Post's first credit, around age 19, was the demo tape for the two sisters who would later go on to form The Murmaids (no, that's not a typo, and yes, they would make an excellent installment of OHW).
Also, he won a Grammy at age 23 for "Classical Gas", a 1968 instrumental which is much better than that title makes it sound.
Wasn't "Classical Gas" performed by comedian Mason Williams?
@@edplaysbass7003 indeed it was! Mike was the producer.
Never knew Mason was a comedian, that's interesting!
@@SarahElisabethJoyal yeah. He was briefly head writer on SNL in 1980. Before that, he wrote for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and helped Steve Martin's career get started (this is according to Wikipedia)
@@edplaysbass7003 thanks for the info!
Now do Classical Gas!
7:17 oh yeah it’s called yandere simulator
EDIT: oh wait game implies “finished product” lmao
I don't think Yandere Simulator has an upgrade system for guns
@@twistedwizard9100 yet
@@patrickracer43 When it does, it will be implemented in the most sub-optimal way you can think of.
The fact that “gay man- looking for another man” is an actual lyric and not in fact a cumtown style bit making fun of the song is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard
Van Halen III is so terrible, Todd can't bring himself to play anything from that album, and opts for Ain't Talking Bout Love over the credits.
That's because if Todd played anything from Van Halen, it would sound like he was just bashing keys and you would be writing to ask why Todd was just bashing keys at the end of the video.
Todd talks pure nonsense. Without You is a very good song. Also Cherone at the time already had better vocal ability than ageing Roth or Hagar. However the rest of the band was way past their prime at that point and couldn't deliver a string of hit singles (as I would agree Without You is not on the same level as their greatest hits). It was not enough to make a comeback in the late 90s. Both too old school and not enough pop-rock-commercial-radio friendly like Aerosmith/Kravitz at the time
@@SlavomirG you obviously have NO clue whatsoever
@@rc.8324 so many arguments that you presented :D
Not quite.
I personally think that this album is highly underrated, and better than people give it credit for.
Hard rock bands don't release singles, so I don't know where you were going with that.
I did a double take when you mentioned Mike Post. THAT Mike Post?? 80s TV music Mike Post?? Yes, yes it was.
xelena He is the guy who did TV theme songs like “The Greatest American Hero” which was a big hit in 1981, “Hill Street Blues” also an instrumental hit, “Rockford Files” also, a hit record, and a few others. I remember “Hawaii Five-O” first was a hit by the Ventures, and then became a TV theme. “Welcome Back Kotter”, also a hit record by John Sebastian of the Lovin Spoonful, and “Love and Marriage” by Frank Sinatra, also became a TV theme from “Married With Children”. That’s considered as a TV theme. Take an old Sinatra song from the 50’s, and used it as a TV theme from the 80’s.
Yes... which is why I did a double take. I was well aware of who he was xD I have his "Television Theme Songs" record.
Same here. I thought, "Wait, MIKE POST produced this?!" Post was much better at hooks and melodies than anything on this album.
Mike Post..Richard Nixon's good buddy.
Rest in Peace Eddie.
Ed was not a songwriter. He wrote cool stuff on guitar. The lead singer’s job was to take the bits, arrange them into songs, and add lyrics. Roth and Hagar both confirm the method.
...is it just me or does that acoustic piano ballad sound like Eddie Van Halen trying to sound like Pink Floyd? ...and failing miserably.
This is EXACTLY what it sounds like.
Yeah another commenter said this but it sounds like and is failing to be Roger Waters. Eddie, this ain’t The Wall.
@@tylerhackner9731 would that be The Happy Spaceman? He reviewed this album a few years before Todd and mentioned the failing to emulate Roger Waters voice thing
It sounds just like "nobody home".
But awful.
Eddie himself at the time said he sounded like Roger Waters.
“Filmed on ravioli”... oh my face hurts
The random Particle Man crossover cracked me up so much
Just listened to this album for the first time this week.
Remembering Eddie, I listened to the whole VH catalog in order.
After the crap pile that was 'Balance' this isn't really awful, it just isn't what consider to be Van Halen.
Full Disclosure: I remember my older brother coming home with the debut album by this new band called Van Halen.
He said "listen to this" and put on 'Eruption'. HOLY SH!T. Then we sat and listened to the whole album. I can't believe that was 42 years ago. I was 13 or 14...
VH 1 is still one of the most incredible displays of guitar virtuosity I've ever heard.
RIP Eddie.
Law and Order, A-Team, Quantum Leap, and Hill Street Blues theme songs. Those might be four of the greatest TV theme songs ever.
The Disco Stu are they awesome t.v. themes? Absolutely. No question.
Do they rock? Uhmmm, no.
And don't forget "Soul Train", it has its theme song, using MFSB's "TSOP" as a good example and it qualified as a theme song.
Renegade.
the fact that Todd referenced Sonic Unleashed for a second made me way happier than it should've
...where? I'm not seeing it o.o
I know, right???
I just watched this last night so the sad news is just surreal.
Mike Post was the producer for the band Halyx, a sci-fi rock band that played at Disneyland with a bass playing wookie and a synth playing robot. They played a season at Disneyland,but their album never was made and they broke up before they really recorded anything. Defunctland has a documentary about them i recommend if you want to learn more.
You know how Guitar Hero World Tour introduced the music creation studio feature? And if you had no musical talent you would just aimlessly play notes and strum, with time signatures and keys changing at random in the hope that it would sound good?
That’s what Without You sounds like. One of the greatest rock bands of all time dropped a lead single that sounds like it was made by me in Guitar Hero in 2008
13:00 "which raises the question, why didn't they just lower the songs?" A question asked by every Iron Maiden fan when they found out that the band refused to lower the songs for Blaze Bayley, despite his vocal range being way deeper than Bruce Dickinson, him having to near blow his voice out just to sing the old Maiden songs for every show, and the fact that the band had lowered some songs for Dickenson on live shows before.
I feel like Eddie was like Axl Rose in a way, they were both super egotistical but were kept in check by their equaly as firery bandmates, but once those bandmates were out and they got full control over the band It all went to shit
“How Many Say I” sounds like the world’s worst Roger Waters song.
Did anybody see Van Halen on that late night show a couple of years ago when David Lee Roth smashed his nose with his mic? Was supposed to be their big comeback and they had to interrupt their set because David was bleeding everywhere.
How did that not make it their big comeback? They re-did the song straight after.
That's bullshit all 4 Hagar albums went number 1 on the billboard 200 so they must have been doing something right.
For Van Halen that practically is a comeback.
Hunter Davis I lost my shit laughing
Wait, glam AND over produced? Are you sure you didn't realize which one was which. Roth, as a person, was glam and over produced even before he sang a note. White suits with Hawaiian shirts, and white fedoras. A karate kicking, screaming like a school girl, egomaniac?
For some reason that last song sounds a little like "Nobody Home" by Pink Floyd, but without the good lyrics.
You doing Trainwrecords has made me so thankful for streaming. Because at least now if an artist releases an album I can listen to it and not be pissed off that I’m out $20 of the album turns out to be garbage and if there’s one or 2 good songs I can just add it to my playlist.
The "Once" video looks like it recorded off a computer monitor with a PXL-2000.
st. anger when
St. Anger didn’t really end Metallica’s career.
phlog_dog neither did Van Halen III
phlog_dog it sucked though
Risk? I didn't hate it but a lot of other people did.
As a fan of both Metallica and Megadeth I would say that Megadeth's The World Needs A Hero was worse than St Anger by leaps and bounds.
St Anger was the sound of a band that really needed to take a few years off in crisis, if they'd taken some time away and then not rushed through its production to meet a label deadline and had the time to mix the album properly it would have been leagues better as has been proven by the many fan remixes you can find on youtube.
TWNAH was the sound of a band leader just not trying or caring anymore, dave and megadeth had lost their direction after Risk's commercial failure which also coincided with their classic lineup self destructing, the only bright spot in that era of the band was their live album Rude Awakening.
After listening to this album back in the day, I actually felt like the guy on the cover of VHIII.
Best comment on here
12:08 They stood for what every rock band truly stands for: making lots of money.
Cool to see a reference to Nimrod-era Green Day (and Marcy Playground!) in a music retrospective. This is your best series.
Glad you mentioned Living Color. Most music historians ignore them and Bad Bones for some reason.....
VHIII= mad libs, the album.
Do you mean Bad Brains? But yeah Living Colour rule.
I'm not sure who would ignore Bad Brains - most people would have them as the originators of at least DC hardcore, if not hardcore in toto. But yea, living color doesn't get mentioned enough. The same goes for Helmet, which probably did as much to bring a new sense of groove to heavy music as Pantera, still Pantera get most of the credit there.
Simone Gunkel Helmet > Pantera.
i loved that too.
lol yes. i was thinking about the song "Bonin' in the Boneyard" by Fishbone (because I hardly ever see them mentioned) and they kinda took over my brain.
Loved first incarnation of VH. Thought Van Hagar was okay. Loved Extreme too...I must confess, I felt more sorry for Gary Cherone than the Van Halen bothers that VH3 didn't work.
Yeah, he was a proven hit-maker who was offered the opportunity to work with rock and roll royalty.
What he got was turned into a pawn of the greater ego struggle that colored the band’s entire history, shoved to the sidelines when it came to making the music, but shoved to the forefront when it came to singing it.
And after it all the rest of the band get to live on as rock and roll legends, and he gets to be known as the guy who killed Van Halen.
Poor guy.
RIP EDDIE VAN HALEN
1/26/1955 - 10/6/2020
Legends are never forgotten...
I listened to this album for about three months straight when it was first released. It was the first new music (not including Best of) from my favourite band in three years and it cost me fifteen quid. So I was determined to like it. I guess From Afar was ok. Grim times. Wish I'd accepted defeat sooner.