239. Van Halen / Diver Down. 1982. 1.5/5.

Van Halen’s popularity had been booming for a number of years prior to 1981, when they released their album “Fair Warning”, one which you can find an episode of this podcast on in Series 1. The tour following that had been extensive, and following it, the band had been looking to gain some down time, before they began again and looked to record a new album. As I mentioned in the intro, in the days where albums still sold enough to be a main form of income, record companies were looking for more releases rather than an extended time between albums being recorded. So what the band did instead, in order to buy themselves more time was to record a cover song as a single to release as new music. Though David Lee Roth had suggested doing a cover of the song “Dancing in the Streets”, it was eventually decided to do a version of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, the Roy Orbison song. The problem was, it began to move up the charts, and with that success, there were even more demands from their record company to get a new album out. Pushed into a corner, the band relented, and moved into the studio.
Was there a deliberate ploy to involve cover songs on the album? Was it a way of filling an album and getting it out as quickly as possible? Or did the band truly think this was where they were at in their career and that this was a ‘bold’ move? To be honest, I don’t know the answers to those questions, but given the album that “Diver Down” is, they are questions that are worth asking and mulling over.

I guess, for me, I need to split this album into the two halves that it comes in – the original tracks that appear on the album, and the cover songs that take up the remainder of the album. So let’s look at those cover songs first. And in all there are five of them. And all five are mostly well known tracks from their original forms, or from further more popular cover versions that were created form them. The opening track is “Where Have All the Good Times Gone” which was originally recorded by The Kinks. And it opens the album fine. Would I have expected a harder edge on the song? Perhaps. Was the band trying to do a fairly close cover of the song, and just adding a bit of Van Halen to it to create a point of difference? My guess is yes.
The second cover is of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, which was also the single released before the album. The band wrote an instrumental intro piece that led into the song, on the album called “Intruder” which actually acts as a nice lead in. Once again though, perhaps I expected more guitar influence to come into the track, expecting Eddie to flail. Don’t get me wrong, his guitaring here is terrific, but I guess I expected, and expect, more from it. Side 2 opens with “Dancing in the Street” which really sticks to the same tempo of the original. It’s interesting that the Mick Jagger/David Bowie version that came out a couple of years later was far more upbeat and rocking that this version. I’ve never really understood that. If you are going to do cover songs, why just recreate them without a bit of artistic licence? Again, Dave sings it well, the band plays it well, but would my life be different if I hadn't heard it?
THEN we have a song called “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now), from all accounts a song Dave found on an obscure radio station, recorded it and played it to the band, who laughed and said ‘let’s do it!’ If nothing else, at least you get to hear Alex and Eddie’s father Jan play clarinet on the track – Jan was apparently a very accomplished player in his day. But apart from the novelty of that, it’s just not what I want to hear. And yes, Dave especially is always very eclectic in his music, his solo career has shown that, but isn’t this just a step too far? Fan-wise, this isn’t for me. And nor is the album closer, “Happy Trails”.

Beyond that, the original Van Halen material for the album fluctuates. “Hang ‘em High” had apparently been floating around for awhile, and was reworked to fit into the album, and it does fit in snugly after the opening track. “Cathedral” is an instrumental piece Eddie had apparently written more than a year before, and had played it on stage a bit, and he wanted it to have its place on vinyl. “Secrets” is a slower lounge club song of the style Dave seems to enjoy. “Little Guitars” has a great feel to it, mixing Eddie’s styles of guitar riff over Michael Anthony’s great bass sound. It’s almost like early Police in sections, it’s a good one. And “The Full Bug” sees the real Van Halen return, with DLR squeal and Eddie’s guitar on fire, the chorus back up of Michael and Eddie backing Dave’s vocals, and Alex’s solid hard core drum beat.
In summation of the original songs here, more than anything, these songs sound like Van Halen. They are played at a clip, the vocals don’t sound forced, and Eddie plays his guitar like he wants to, putting it his pieces like they fit rather than integrated within a framework.

My discovery of Van Halen came from the “1984” album and beyond, and it was several years before I really began to research and discover the albums that were released prior to it. And despite some reservations about certain parts of certain albums I enjoy all of them.
But I can assure you that when I first heard this album, I was... appalled? I guess? It completely took me by surprise. And you know, it’s not that Van Halen hadn’t performed cover songs before. “You Really Got Me” came right off that first album, so cover songs are not a surprise. But the ones they chose to do here, and in the style they did? That really harmed the way I saw this album for a very long time. And certainly once I started asking around about what other people thought of the album, it surprised me as well. I can’t believe this album spent something like 65 weeks in the US charts, I really can’t. And there have been polls and articles written ranking this as one of the great guitar albums, and I can’t wrap my head around that either.
So yes, my first impressions of this album was that it was dogshit. I didn’t like it, It pretty much either bored me or just plain didn’t interest me. And although that was a few years ago, I still feel that at the time it was accurate. Have things changed over the years? A little bit I guess. I have enjoyed the album (for the most part) over the last couple of weeks. I still enjoy the opening tracks, I love “Intruder” and the way it acts as the segue into “(Oh) Pretty Woman”. And I still love “The Full Bug”. Overall, I have enjoyed “Diver Down” a hell of a lot more over this period of recollection and reminiscing than I have ever done so previous to this. So I guess I don’t HATE this album anymore. I certainly seriously dislike some of the tracks, but I guess I can stand to live with that. Perhaps I’m just getting old.