22 Comments
Jun 7, 2023Liked by Mitch Blum, Ken Warshaw

the sound of van halen dying is sammy hagar's voice

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Jun 7, 2023Liked by Mitch Blum, Ken Warshaw

I don't care for the Halen and this album was as welcome to me and as rampant as covid in my final year of high school. However, I love the commentary, particularly Mitch's. It is impossible to dislike David Lee Roth but I don't want to ever hear Jump again! 1984? As far as top 20 albums go, Learning To Crawl by The Pretenders was one I remember buying that year. I was into punk and rockabilly in those days. The Pretenders were one of the few mainstream bands with a bit of both going on.

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Jun 7, 2023Liked by CJ Kaplan, Ken Warshaw

You eloquently describe the dilemma of how to feel about 1984 when it arrived, and I concur. It's a solid VH, though sorta not VH, album. Meanwhile, I'll Wait for a fraternity party... eek! I can almost see Panama working - almost.

Finally - props to Aztec Camera for Roddy's blistering 'acoustic' version of Jump.

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Jun 7, 2023Liked by CJ Kaplan, Ken Warshaw

The C.J. remarks about his teacher and his mom's phone conversation made me laugh out loud. 1984....hmm. Panama, yep, great song. Jump, was never a big fan of it back in college. If it comes on the local classic rock station in Phoenix these days, I have the dial turned in 4 seconds or less. I was more a fan of Diver Down album, the 1984. If anyone cares. I like the cover songs on Diver Down as well as the instrumentals.

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Van Halen II is peak DLR-era Van Halen. But I didn't know that yet when this came out. All I knew was that I liked "Jump," and a kid that had just moved to my school liked it too. So we became friends, and all these years later, still are.

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I thought Diamond Dave's schtick came straight from Jim Dandy and Black Oak Arkansas....

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