The Yin & Yang of Rock & Roll. Ed’s angry guitar work, a case could certainly be made that Mr. Van Halen was, is, and will always be the best rock and roll guitarist in metal, in rock, and across any genre you want to categorize VH as. And the lyrics are Sammy Hager’s, the red rocker who was just doing perfectly solo before joining the VH train after the firing of David Lee Roth.
Broken now I can’t help but feel,
Someone cracked the seventh seal!
Nothing sacred, nothing left
Unturned.
When nothing’s simple,
Then nothing’s learned.
So take me down to the virgin spring,
Wash away my suffering.
Splash that holy water on me,
Wash my eyes so I can see.
Come on take me down, down, down…
I’m in a cold sweat.
Yeah, don’t let me drown, drown,
Drown, drown,
In mother earth’s soul, not yet.
You can change your friends
Your place in life,
You can change your mind,
We can change the things we say
And do anytime.
Oh no, but I think you’ll find,
That when you look inside your heart,
Oh baby, I’ll be there.
Hold on!!
I’m holding on!
Baby, just come on, come on, come on.
I just wanna hear you say,
I can’t stop lovin’ you.
Van Hagar, the greatest Christian Rock band of all times? Well with Sammy musing about love and religion, a case could certainly be made.
I can drive
I can shoot a gun in the streets
Score me some heroin
I can jump
Be the sacrifice
Bear the cross just like Jesus Christ.
And I don’t want to hear
What love can do
No, I ain’t gonna tell ya
What’s right for you
Is it right to take the easy way
Close your eyes
Get on your knees an’ pray
Now you’re saved by a higher voice
Givin’ up, givin’ up, givin’ up your
Choice
If I’m wrong, then I’ll pay for it
If I’m right, yeah you’re gonna hear
About it
But I’ve tried, yeah, I’ve tried for it
I tried, I tried, ’til I’m satisfied
And I…
I’m tired of hearing what love can do.
Christian Rock? Who we kidding? When VH plays Amsterdam and Sammy wants to tell you… not we ain’t soft, we rock your face off, he’ll tell you about it. Sex, drugs, & rock and roll, the holy trinity of bands like AC/DC, Motley Crue, Rolling Stones, Beatles, & most certainly VH!!
Looking good through the window
Shinin’ red and blue light
A little thick in the bottom
But still lookin’ alright, yeah
Got a pocket fulla money
Got me a long night ahead
A quick stop by the bulldog
Score me some panama red, yeah
Wham, bam, oh Amsterdam
Yea, yea, yea
Stone you like nothin’ else can!!
Too much temptation
Enough to kill a generation
Space station, starvation, premature
Ejaculation
This ain’t groovin’, this ain’t funky
It’s on my back
But it ain’t my monkey, no
Give be some of that big big Money!!
“Strung Out” was based on a 10-year-old tape of Eddie torturing Marvin Hamlish’s grand piano with knives, spoons and forks. (Ed had rented Marvin’s beach house and ended up spending a lot of money to have Marvin’s prized piano refinished.)
“Not Enough” was one of Van Halen’s finest love songs ever. Sammy wrote the lyrics and melody for the verses. Later, he called Eddie and described what he had written. Eddie sat down and spontaneously played the piano part. As the band worked up the song, the piano was recorded inside Eddie and Valerie Bertinelli’s home. For a unique tone, Eddie played his guitar through a rotating Leslie organ speaker – a technique first pioneered by the Beatles 28 years earlier. This song also featured Michael Anthony’s first recorded workout on a fretless bass and some of Sammy’s finest vocals.
To love somebody secretly
And never touch
To love somebody honestly
And always trust
To love somebody tenderly
The tender touch
It’s not enough
But right now, baby
I don’t really want to see your face
Yeah and that’s a fact
Right now, honey
All I know is what I’m feeling inside
Right now, honey
I’m alone and I’m swallowing a lot
Of pride
And it ain’t gonna change
Overnight, no
And it ain’t goin’ away without
A fight
Living with the aftershock
Why, why, why, I never thought
She’d walk
But now I’m living with the
Aftershock
And it ain’t gonna change
It ain’t goin’ away, no
Yeah, she opened up my eyes
Seeing what I want to see
She kinda took me by surprise
Showed me what I hadn’t seen
I though I saw you from a distance
I swore I’d found you once again
Touched on that feeling for an
Instance
Could not recall just where or when
Oh no
Some desert island off morocco
We had a love so hard to find
Oh so full of life, so free and easy
Another place, another time, oh
Take me back
I want to be there with you
It happened just like that yeah
Slip in a dream or two
Come on, take me back
Oh, deja vu
Alex VH, the greatest rock drummer of all times? Mr. Peart might have something to say about that.
I need a change, I need it quick
Before it makes me sick
That’s what’s on my mind
Pay attention, watch your back
Pay your dues, stay on track
Got no room to second guess
Puts me under stress, oh
If I were you, you were me
I wonder who I’d wanna be
With just one wish you can’t refuse
I wouldn’t know what to choose
Feelin’….no, don’t like what I’ve been told I’m feelin’
Feelin’ what no one else will ever know I’m feelin’, oh
Now black is white and white is black
Got politicians smokin’ crack
And John Paul’s all bullet-proofed
Good people, good balance, Good Things!!
ZandMe's 999 Good Things 