Tag: House of Pain

Van Halen – ‘Zero Demos’ (Bootleg – 1976/2022) – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

Whenever I got to Repo Records, especially on Record Store Day, I tend to find Bootlegs while waiting in line. I think he does it on purpose knowing I’m a sucker for those things (not true as he doesn’t know me from Adam). The last few trips have been very successful and this last trip was no exception. This time I found another Van Halen Bootleg and this one was called ‘Zero Demos’ and it is a collection of the demos produced by Gene Simmons way back in 1976. I have always wanted to hear and have those demos and now I do.

You probably have already heard the story of Gene Simmons involvement in Van Halen so I won’t go in to too much detail. Gene saw them play and fell in love with them. He took them under his demonic wing and took the band in to the studio and they recorded a 10 song demo tape that Gene shopped around to try and get them a deal. He was unable to and his demands with Kiss were huge, so he ripped up the contract and let them find their own way which they did and the rest is history. During this time, Gene had Eddie and Alex help with some demos for Kiss including “Got Love for Sale”, “Christine Sixteen” and “Tunnel of Love” which were long in demand and I have copies thanks to Gene Simmons’ The Vault!!

This bootleg is fairly new as it came out in 2022 from Yellow Dog Records. I like how the front cover is a reproduction of the debut album cover with the ‘Zero Demos’ at the top. The back has a bunch of live shots of the band. And with a lot of bootlegs, there are mistakes and the only one I really see is the “House of Pain” demo is listed as “House In Pain”…close enough I guess. The vinyl is a red/yellow splatter and looks beautiful. The label is easy with the word Zero and Side A or B. Can’t much simpler than that without just putting a blank label on it. What do I have to say about the music? Well, we will see in a minute, but the sound is fantastic for demos from 1976 that have probably been transferred from tape to tape to tape over the years. 

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Van Halen – “Jump” (1983) – 45 Single

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic40 Comments

When I was on vacation during this past Summer, I found a ton of 45 Singles with the Picture Sleeves at a place called House of Vinyl and I ended buying 7 Van Halen 45’s. And we’ve been through a couple so far as seen below…

And now we are on to our third of the 7 and this is another Roth Era track and one of their biggest singles ever…”Jump”. The song was released on December 21, 1983 and was the first single for the album ‘1984’ from the same year. The single went all the way to #1 and sold well over 1,000,000 copies.

The copy I have is the actual single that was released and not a promotional copy this time around. It has an A-Side with “Jump” and a B-Side with “House of Pain”. And if you notice on the label again, the engineer Donn Landee is credited again as Ted is a man of his word and wants Donn to get as much credit has him. Hell, Ted even gave up a point on each album and gave 1 point to Donn. That is appreciation folks.

According to Dave, the song was inspired by a new report he heard on the TV about a person threatening to jump from building. Dave pictured the people below says “Go ahead and jump”. Kind of sick sense of humor, but that’s Dave. Now the song isn’t really about suicide though. It is about going after what you want. Take that leap of faith and go after it.

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