This week on The Collection, we are talking Van Halen. More specifically, Van Halen on vinyl. We will go through all my Van Halen Vinyl including studio albums, live albums, box sets, 7″ Singles and even Bootlegs. From the debut up to Balance as I don’t have Van Halen III or A Different Kind of Truth (and some live). But I have enough to talk about, so let’s do that. Find out who I prefer…David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. Find out what my favorite album is and which ones are not. A lot to get through, I hope you enjoy it.
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For My Sunday Song #393, we are on the third Japanese Bonus Track picked by Mike Ladano. This time around it is the Van Halen song “Crossing Over” off the band’s 1995 album ‘Balance’. The song was written by Van Halen (credited to all the members) and was not just a Japanese Bonus Track, but was also used as the B-Side to “Can’t Stop Loving You”. And if you recently bought the new Van Halen Collection II box set, you got the track on the 4th Bonus LP so that is really cool.
I read somewhere that the song was not actually written during the Balance recording sessions, but originated way back in 1983 when it was titled “David’s Song”. Eddie played all the instruments on the demo. The song wasn’t about Roth, it was about a friend of Eddie’s name David who had committed suicide. If you read the lyrics you can get that from them. Eddie is trying to reach out and see his friend one more time. To touch him one more time before he crosses over. It is a dark song and powerful too.
The song starts off with Eddie and the tone is really eerie and then the bass comes in with a little duh dum, and then the Alex is in on the drums and those drums are unmistakable Alex as he has such a unique sound. There are some electronic drum elements too. It all is very dark. Sammy finally comes in and sings and it isn’t all powerful. It is slow and the lyrics are very deliberate and meant to convey the dark tone to the song. There is an importance to the lyrics, to the sound, to it all. I read somewhere that Eddie’s demo was used for this track and they layered in Alex and Sammy and if that is true, that is cool. The song isn’t explosive and the chorus isn’t very catchy, but this is the mid 90’s and things were not always done the way we were used to hearing things. Overall, a really cool track.
For My Sunday Song #146, we are going with the Sammy Hagar fronted tune “The Seventh Seal” off the band’s 1995 album ‘Balance’ which happens to be their tenth studio album. The song was the first track on the album and the first single which only went to #36 on the Mainstream Rock Chart songs. The song was strong enough that it was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.
“The Seventh Seal” song opens with some chanting monks from The Monks of Gyuto Tantric University and then turns into a straight-up rock song. It is full of religious themes and has an almost mystical feel to it. Eddie’s guitar sound is in full force and Alex’s drum sound is unmistakeable. It is Van Halen coming out of the gate swinging. I won’t say its his best solo, but it is still a great lead off track for the album.
The song was inspired by Eddie’s new found sobriety. Through the help of his therapist, he was encouraged to look at where he was and who he was now that he was sober. Maybe he was finding religion as there are a lot of religious overtones in the song. Maybe he was still struggling with sobriety and the song is a cry for help in getting through the battle’s he was facing. The fact that he could feel again probably was hard to deal with and I am sure a tremendous challenge.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 