VAN HALEN

I listened to VH as much as any other band in my pre-new wave 1980s - I remember how fucking bummed I was listening to OU812 at a track meet (the only track meet I ever attended - should have called it quits on Van Hagar too, but I digress...). This tape was passed around for years as pre-Van Halen I demos, and while I don't actually know the source here (I suspect these recordings are later, but someone else knows and they're going to leave a comment and the burning mystery will be solved) I know that I love cranking these rough-ass bass heavy versions of early classics that I have spent a lifetime with. Roth's growl in the chorus of "House Of Pain," Anthony's swinging bass in "Woman In Love," the beginnings of the backing vocals that put a stamp on the band even more than Eddie's guitar, a gloriously raw version of "On Fire" and thirteen examples of what an American Hard Rock band is supposed to sound like. Genre defining is one thing....generation defining is something else. 

DEMO