Published on Feb 16, 2000
In some ways, I hate greatest hits albums. I don’t hate them
because some labels add the obligatory one rare song that makes
people like me (who have all the other albums already) want to go
out and buy the same tracks for the fifth time. No, I hate them
because no matter how good the intentions are, the package always
seems to be lacking something. It’s like getting into a water fight
when the other competitors have fire hoses; in the end, you
lose.
In the case of
Best Of Volume 1, the package that was supposed to tie up
the loose ends of Van Halen’s first two chapters, it’s not that the
producers did a bad job on the set. If anything, this is a
compilation that seems to beg for a second volume – and in the end,
it seems far too short and narrow-sighted.
By focusing on only the tracks that get overplayed on rock
radio, this set leaves out many of the gems of Van Halen’s career
that the true fans get off listening to. Also lost in the shuffle
are the cover versions of songs – which acts as a relief in one
sense (more on that in just a second) but also guarantees that
1982’s
Diver Down album will be missing in action in this set.
How can not hearing a cover song be a relief? Simple: it places
Eddie Van Halen’s groundbreaking solo “Eruption” in its own unique
light without tieing it down to the same old material. If anything,
this breathes new life into a 22-year-old piece – and it actually
sounds natural to hear the solo fade out and lead into “Ain’t
Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”. Unfortunately, natural is not the word to
describe the hatchet job done to “Runnin’ With The Devil” and its
reconfiguration. I’m hoping this is just a glitch on my copy of the
tape – but if this re-edited version (which criminally breaks up
the song and ends up having Alex Van Halen’s drum work start and
stop erratically) was done on purpose, then I have one question:
what the fuck were you THINKING
?!?
I don’t have much argument with the songs that were included in
this package, to be honest. As overplayed as some of these tracks
have gotten over the years, there is still a moment when my heart
skips a beat when I hear the opening guitar and mellotron lead for
“And The Cradle Will Rock…”, or I hear the keyboard work that
leads off both “Jump” and “Right Now”.
The two new tracks recorded with David Lee Roth before he got
sacked –
again – from the band, “Can’t Get This Stuff No More” and
“Me Wise Magic”, sound like they could have easily been leftovers
from the days of
Fair Warning or
1984, and suggested that had the band not been explosive
like nitroglycerine, they easily could have gone back out and
kicked the rock world’s ass. (Rumors are now flying that Roth is
back for his third stint with the band. I swear, he’s becoming the
Billy Martin of hard rock.)
My complaints – besides the piss-poor judgment shown on “Runnin’
With The Devil”? I have two. First, Sammy Hagar really seems to get
the short end of the stick on
Best Of Volume 1. Roth is featured on 10 of the album’s
tracks; Hagar only gets seven. The band enjoyed its greatest
commercial success under Hagar’s watch, even though they only
recorded four albums with him as lead throat. Somehow, I think he
deserved a little more credit than he was shown here.
That kind of leads into complaint number two. I can think of
numerous tracks that were just as worthy of inclusion on this
compilation. What about “Ice Cream Man” off of
Van Halen? “Beautiful Girls” from
Van Halen II? “In A Simple Rhyme” from
Women And Children First? “So This Is Love?” from
Fair Warning?
Anythingoff of
Diver Down? “Black And Blue” or “Finish What You Started”
from
OU812? “Runaround” from
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge? For every Van Halen fan,
there will be a list like this; only the song lists will differ.
Had this been a two-disc set, I would have completely understood
and graciously accepted it.
Make no mistake, there’s plenty on
Best Of Volume 1 to enjoy, and it does capture the popular
appeal of Van Halen. But as it stands, it’s still an incomplete
picture – a picture that can only be finished by thorough listening
of their entire catalog, warts and all.