One of the biggest fan splitting issues in any band ever. Who’s a better frontman for the legendary Van Halen? The bombastic, in your face style of David Lee Roth? Or the lush, full melodic style of Sammy Hagar? It is a question that will forever be engrained in the bands history. It’s two different styles within one entity that is Van Halen. The David Lee Roth years are filled with pulse pounding, tough hard rock fueled by partying and being a ‘rock star’. The shameless frontman was part of what made the band such an attraction. I mean shameless in a good way, it’s his schtick, what makes him an individual and one of the greatest showmen is history. While other frontmen were trying to be serious and menacing, David Lee Roth played the old school, ‘big wave, big smile’ game. Van Halen were actually one of the first bands in hard rock and metal to openly smile during photo shoots. It paid off, as the partying attitudes of Roth drove the rest of the band into a perfect frenzy of funhouse hard rock, which would help to sell millions and millions of albums. Not that the music wasn’t important. Eddie Van Halen did after all revolutionize guitar from the very first moments of the debut album. However, as their career kept on, their live showes became more and more about David Lee Roth’s schtick and banter than the songs.
The increasingly long and reckless speeches from Roth, “Hey!! I’m gonna fuck your girlfriend PAL!!” or the famous “This isn’t a microphone in my pants I’m just happy to see ya!!”, coupled with his opposition to adding synthesizers to the bands sound ultimately resulted in his departure in 1985. Enter the more mature Sammy Hagar. The sound evolved and ended up in their first number one in 1986. With Hagar, Van Halen would do something they never did with Roth. Have four consecutive number one albums in a row and 12 number one hits. Granted the Roth era helped build this level of success. But I very seriously doubt they could have held on to the level of success that they did had they kept Roth as a their frontman. From 1986’s ‘5150’ to 1995’s ‘Balance’, Van Halen stretched their musical limits all while still remaining true to their sound. The band traded in their almost punk influenced three minute rockers for more lush, melodic five minute rockers. The most important element however, is that as much as they matured, they never lost their fun edge. Is Sammy Hagar much more balanced than David Lee Roth? Hell yeah he is!! Does that mean that the music is any less fun? FUCK NO!! The title to 1991’s ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’ alone is proof. Known as the ‘F.U.C.K.’ album, ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’ would see the band in it’s finest hour. It also spawned Van Halen’s biggest tour in their career. The tour was such a smash that Van Halen would achieve what almost none of their peers did within its wake. In 1995, Van Halen released a number one album with ‘Balance’. No other group of this genre or the like had come close to this with the exception of maybe one or two groups. Certainly none of their immediate peers accomplished this.
While these two videos show the two extremes of the Van Halen Camp, one being partying and banter, the other being focused on music. That doesn’t mean that the David Lee Roth era of the band doesn’t have great music that shows growth. 1981’s ‘Fair Warning’ shows significant growth since the groups 1978 debut.
At the end of the day though, it’s Sammy Hagar that takes the cake. He showed a complete package of partying, discipline and natural rock star ability. He also brought in a sense of being into the band. They felt natural and dignified. Their songs were actually about something, Roth on the other hand always felt forced in my opinion, to the point of parody. Sammy naturally fits on the stage and his voice still carries to this day. Roth on the other hand seems to be struggling to hold on to his youthful essence. Although Van Halen has had very successful recent tours with David Lee Roth, everyone knows that they still aren’t reaching their full potential. I can only hope that Sammy will return with Michael Anthony on bass for one last go round.
Wow, I do not even no where to go with this. Before I rant I stumbled across your website and it is very solid . To start , I am a fan of both eras of Van Halen. So my following comments will seem like Van Hagar bashing however it is time for me to right a wrong in respect to your post.
It seems inconceivable to me that anyone could seriously rank the Van Hagar material ahead of the Roth era edition of Van Halen. First, the sound of the band changed. The original Van Halen was filled with mostly aggressive ballsy hard rock that turned the music world on it’s ear from ’78 – ’84 . Of course Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing was revolutionary when he was introduced to the masses and you would be hard pressed to find a song on the original 6 albums that aren’t filled with an infectious guitar riff along with a fiery attention getting guitar solo in the middle. Even with their more radio friendly material like ” Dance the night away ” has a certain swing and finesse that make that song and others like ” Jamie’s Cryin’ ” too infectious to ignore.
Here is my defense of David Lee Roth who in my mind doesn’t need one as he is obviously the single biggest difference when comparing and contrasting both eras of the band. Yes, he went over the top at times in the latter period of the band especially the 1984 tour with his in concert rants. I will concede that . That said his baritone voice matched up well with Michael Anthony’s background vocals and he was the perfect front man for the band as he matched the bands bombastic musical assault with the perfect amount of swagger and attitude , can you imagine Hagar singing ” Atomic Punk ” ? The band itself had an infectious energy with Roth fronting the band that the Hagar edition could never match.
One area where Roth excels in over Hagar is song writing. Neither vocalist is going to be thought of as a their generation’s Bob Dylan in terms of writing songs that are social land marks or provide rare insight into humanity. That being said Van Halen at their best is about fun and attitude. I will give Hagar a lot of credit as he has risen to the occasion when he wrote ” Dreams ” , ” Right Now ” , ” Mine all Mine ” along with a few others. However just about every song that Van Halen did during the first 6 albums along with the criminally under rated ” A different kind of truth” range from being good rock songs to essential classics in the hard rock canon.
Let’s take what I called the super charged boogie songs that Van Halen was know for as prime examples of the difference that Roth makes. Where Hagar waste some of Eddie’s best riffs and solos by writing the lyrically weak ” Source of Infection ” Roth by contrast turns these into kick ass classics like ” I’m the one ” and ” Hot for Teacher ” . The swagger and cool factor so apparent in the Roth years became for the most part meat and potatoes rock when Hagar fronted the band . Then there were Hagar’s sappy ass ballads like ” Love walks in ” which pales to songs like ” Dance the Night away” when Van Halen went into a pop direction .
The band and especially Eddie were different with Dave leading the band . Eddie seemed to mail it in at times with Hagar leading the band whereas he was continually pushing the envelope from ” Eruption ” to the cool intro on ” Mean streets ” up to ” Hot for Teacher ” which solidified his status as the premier hard rock guitarist of that time period. That’s not to say there weren’t cool Eddie riffs and solos when Hagar fronted the band,that said for the most part we were served up Van Halen lite . Hagar led Van Halen at times came across like a sugar free cookie , when you chew on it you realize it’s not the real thing.
Though I enjoy some of the music with Hagar on vocals there simply is no comparison to the real Van Halen that we were fortunate enough to listen to from ’78 to ’84 . By the way in you list of best hard rock bands from the 80’s how in the hell do you put Motley Crue ahead of Van Halen. Though I’m a fan of the Crue that is pure rock n’ roll heresy.
That said I’ve enjoyed looking through your website even if you are way off in terms of how you rate Van Hagar ahead of the real Van Halen.