As I stated on Def Leppard's High 'N' Dry: "One year later, during the summer of 1981, out came High 'N' Dry which I purchased on the spot. Had you asked me on Day 1 what I thought of the album, I would have told you it was great. But I knew it wasn't. Over the next year, my interest in the album had started to wane. As did my interest in the group in general. I was looking for heavier material, and more bands were cropping up to offer just that." Replace summer of 1981 with spring of 1979, and High 'N' Dry with Van Halen II and you have the exact same scenario. I was 14 and the testosterone was really starting to cook.
One of these days I'm going to write about Van Halen's debut, which I consider one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time. Unfortunately for us who enjoyed the band's heavier material, they more or less abandoned that for more radio friendly fare (the exception being parts of their 4th album Fair Warning). For whatever reason Van Halen didn't embrace 'Atomic Punk', 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love', 'I'm the One' and 'On Fire' - but rather they followed the path of 'Jamie's Cryin'' and 'Ice Cream Man'.
Really, Van Halen II's drop is more precipitous than Def Leppard's, at least from a heaviness perspective. 'Dance the Night Away' and 'Beautiful Girls' was the sound of the new Van Halen. There are a couple of notable exceptions: 'Outta Love Again', and in particular, 'Light Up The Sky' bring the hard rock goods. Even the one/two punch of 'Spanish Fly' and 'DOA' are emasculated. Hardly 'Eruption' and 'You Really Got Me'.
Nostalgia plays a big role in me keeping this (for now). As noted above, I bought it new in 1979 having fallen hard for their debut. In playing it last night, I knew every note of the album though I don't think I've heard it in over 40 years.
Ownership: LP: 1979 Warner Bros. Single sleeve with picture inner. Club edition. Used trade credit from a local store to reacquire.
9/5/22 (new entry)
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