LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-APR 14, 2020- YOU WANNA FEEL OLD !? IT WAS 38 YEARS AGO VAN HALEN RELEASED THEIR 5TH STUDIO ALBUM ‘DIVER DOWN.’ I FREAKIN’ LOVE THIS ALBUM, HOWEVER THE CRITIC’S CRAPPED ALL OVER THE BAND BECAUSE IT CONTAINED FIVE COVER SONGS. I SAY THE CRITICS CAN SUCK IT !! ‘DIVER DOWN’ SPENT OVER A YEAR ON THE CHARTS AND TO DATE HAS SOLD OVER 5 MILLION COPIES. HERE’S SOME DIVER DOWN TRIVIA-
1-The instrumental track “Intruder” was written as a kind of filler. The band put together the video for “(Oh) Pretty Woman” but the clip was too long so the band added “Intruder” to put before “(Oh) Pretty Woman” and run at the beginning of the video so the film they made would fit. 2-The video for the band’s cover of “(Oh) Pretty Woman” is one of the first to get banned by MTV. The network shunning it because in it, two little people appear to molest a woman, who is actually a drag queen. 3-The album opens with a cover of The Kinks’ “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” Van Halen’s second time doing a Kinks cover – their first was “You Really Got Me” on their 1978 debut. David Lee Roth said the group could have done any number of Kinks songs since they knew tons of them and played them nightly when they had club gigs.
4-Eddie thought “Cathedral” sounded like a Catholic church organ, so that’s how the song got its name.
5-The lyrics to the song “Secrets” came from greeting cards and get-well cards that David bought in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were written in the style of American Indian poetry.
6-“The Full Bug” got its title from a saying that originates from killing a cockroach by stepping on it. The goal is to step on the whole thing, to get the “full bug,” and according to Roth, it means to make the maximum effort.
7-Roth said that “Happy Trails” was included in the album because they wanted to do “something wonderful and different. 8-The cover art for the album features a “diver down” flag, which is used when a scuba diver is underwater in the area. 9-The photo of the band on the back cover of the album was taken while they were on stage at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando on October 24, 1981. During that time they were the opening act for The Rolling Stones. 10-The album is one of Eddie Van Halen’s least favorites because it features five covers. He once said, “I’d rather have a bomb with one of my songs than a hit with someone else’s.”
OKAY, EVERYBODY BUT EDDIE CAN SUCK IT !! I STILL LOVE THIS ALBUM. HERE’S ‘INTRUDER/DIVER DOWN’ FROM VAN HALEN (AND NO THAT IS NOT EDDIE MONEY AS QUASIMODO)