Van Halen’s Comeback Song
There are two types of people in this world: those who believe that the DLR version of Van Halen was right and proper and those who prefer the Sammy Hagar edition. (There is no known record of any human liking the Gary Cherone version–not even Gary Cherone. Poor guy)
With a new album album called A Different Type of Truth due on February 7 (the first album with DLR since 1984 in…well, you know), a single and video was sprung today. Thoughts? It ain’t no “Runnin’ With the Devil,” that’s for sure.
OK … lots of questions….
1) Why is it so low budget?
2) At 1:24 DLR's lip sync completely comes apart. Were there no do-overs on this shoot?
3) Is that Alex VH on drums or Hugh Hefner?
4) Was the song watered down to accommodate the Kool and the Gang fans for the tour?
This sounds like it should have been on DLR eat'em and smile cd.
I had higher expectations. They seem awkward; the whole thing seems disingenuous. Maybe the tour will fix it, I dunno…
I can't believe this is the best they can do after 28 years apart from Dave. I hope the rest of the album is better than the single.
Any song from the eat'em and smile album is better than tattoo… that includes the spanish edition.
is it just me, or is that song about 4:43 seconds too long?
The shot looks awkward whenever Wolfgang enters it. If it looks weird to fans, I could only imagine the kind of tension it's creating within the band.
I found this very hard to watch. I made it to about 2:35. I think they could do a little for production value on their next video by contacting Rebecca Black. This is like a fraking Zit Remedy reunion.
Its almost as if they are not trying.
Apparently this was written 30 years ago by Dave. It was supposed to be included on Van Halen II, but was left off for Dance The Night Away.
I've never missed Sammy Hagar and Mike Anthony more than after wasting those last 4:43 of my life.
The riff itself isn't that horrible. It's the fact the lyrics and production are so half-assed, topped off with a video a high school band with some friends in the A/V department could blow out of the water… yeesh.
I used to be a massive VH fan in the 80s and early 90s, but now? It's hard to respect a band that has so little respect for their music anymore.
On the one hand nearly a million views after 1 day, on the other…
The other new song that has surfaced (She's The Woman from the Cafe Wha? show last week) is also a reworked demo from the late 70's. So far it appears that rather than writing new material all they can do is rehash old stuff that never made it past the demo stage. I'm sure Tattoo sounded A LOT BETTER during the VH II era. Mike's background vocals are as much the signature Van Halen sound as Eddie's guitar (IMO) and they are more noticeable when they're missing.
Sammy was the better singer and better songwriter in my opinion.
Before you judge too harshly, listen to the entire album I picked it up today and can tell you Tatoo is by far the weakest song on the record. The rest flat out rocks harder than anything Halen has done sine Fair Warning. Completely pleasantly surprised. Awesome.