The mighty Van Halen will play a show at the Café Wha? tonight in New York kicking off what is looking to be not just a cash/reunion tour but a full blown comeback with a new studio album due out on 2/7(according to the latest reports). We could be hearing new stuff here at WAAF soon and tickets for their TD Garden show on March 11 go sale 1/14 at AM.
I should correct myself for saying "reunion" in the previous paragraph. Unfortunately original bassist Michael Anthony will not be joining them because HE was obviously causing all the problems in the band.(Sarcasm) I think this new album and tour totally hinges on the health of Eddie Van Halen. Hopefully he's straightened himself out and has gone back to regular crazy instead of that babbling homeless guy crazy Sammy Hagar talk about in his book.
According to Swiss Shopping site CeDe the album could be called "A Different Kind Of Truth". You can see the details here. This will be the first full studio album with David Lee Roth since "1984". I remember waiting with friends, New Years Eve 1983 for the MTV premier of the "Jump" video. We were gathered with bottle of schnapps and bags of weed getting primed for what would, in our minds, definitely be an event to be compared to the Tunguska Event. When the video finally came on at Midnight we all froze, speechless and amazed at the incredibly sparse and stupid production. It looks like they were given a $500,000 budget to make it but only used 9 and spent the rest on cocaine. We were underwhelmed to say the least. They later made up for it with one of the greatest music videos ever made for "Hot For Teacher" and and amazing album of which "Jump" was the weakest song in my opinion.("Drop Dead Legs" is still the best).
Just to give you an idea of how long ago that was here are some other notable events of the year 1984:
US "Ma" Bell was declared a monopoly and broken up clearing the way for everybody and his skeevy Uncle to start a phone company.
The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California but were boycotted by the Soviets because we boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of...Afgahnistan.
Johnny Carson(the guy who hosted the Tonight show before Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jay Leno) hosted the 56th Annual Academy Awards where "Terms Of Endearment" was the big winner including Best Picture with Oscars also going to Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine for their performances.
The single "Do They Know It's Christmas" was released to raise money to help the Ethiopian people fight a deadly drought and famine.
A new drug was introduced into the Greater Los Angeles area called "Crack". It was a real big hit with the kids.
And some guy named Mark Zuckerberg was born who grew up to attend Harvard University and start a Social Network called Facebook the most people now think is real life.
So a lot has changed since the last studio album from Van Halen with David Lee Roth. Except in Afgahnastan...and Ethiopia...and Crack is still around too and the kids still think it's pretty fly.
Here are some notable broadcasts from 1984:
President Ronald Reagan joked about bombing Russia with a "Hot Mic". That Gipper, always joshin' the Reds.
Welsh Comedian Tommy Cooper died of a heart attack live on Television. At least in his final moments he kept em' laughing.
Ok, that's a little creepy. But so is David Lee Roth.
