80. Mean Street by Van Halen

"Mean Street" by Van Halen

Written by Van Halen (Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen)
Produced by Ted Templeman
Released on Fair Warning (April 29, 1981)
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Van Halen is one of my favorite bands. More specifically, Van Halen featuring David Lee Roth is one of my favorite bands. I own every album Van Halen released with David Lee Roth but none from their Sammy Hagar era. I have nothing against Sammy Hagar; Van Halen made some excellent music with Sammy Hagar. Sammy Hagar made some excellent music both as a solo artist and as a member of Montrose. Van Halen, however, at their best, were a fun band, and they were at their most fun when David Lee Roth was leading the way. They made fun music, put on fun shows, and made fun music videos.

That being said, I also love Van Halen at their best (fun or not), and despite Fair Warning being their least fun album ("Unchained" being the notable exception), and "Mean Street" being possibly their heaviest David Lee Roth song, it still manages to be my favorite Van Halen song. Ultimately "Mean Street" is Van Halen's best song, and that is enough.

As good as Van Halen was with David Lee Roth, I feel the need to say a few words about Sammy Hagar. There are a seemingly infinite number of comparisons that can be made between Sammy and DLR because of their respective times singing and writing lyrics for Van Halen. While some of those comparisons and arguments can be fun, ultimately both of their legacies have already been established.

DLR helped Van Halen rise to stardom and ultimately influenced everything that the hair metal era became in the 1980s. Every hair band's lead singer claimed they wanted to be Robert Plant, but they really wanted to be David Lee Roth. Every hair band's lead guitarist of that era claimed they wanted to be Jimmy Page, when really they just wanted to be Eddie Van Halen.

Sammy Hagar helped make one of the all time great rock records as the lead singer of the band Montrose. Montrose's self-titled debut album is spectacular. It has no bad tracks, and is highlighted by two exceptional Hagar compositions: "Bad Motor Scooter" and "Make it Last." His solo career was much more successful than DLR's. He is also another artist who sees a disproportionate amount of love in St. Louis. I'm not entirely sure why. It's possible that some St. Louisans thought his song "Red" was actually about the St. Louis Cardinals. Once again, I'm not trying to downgrade anything about Sammy Hagar, I'm just saying that I don't really know why St. Louis and KSHE 95 love Sammy Hagar as much as they do.

Regardless, both DLR and Sammy made significant contributions to the hard rock/heavy metal canon. I just happen to prefer Van Halen with David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar without Van Halen.

Van Halen will always remind me of growing up watching MTV. Van Halen and David Lee Roth were on all the time. There are quite a few videos that stuck with me through the years that I saw during the late 1980's. I don't really remember any band in that era having more than one iconic video except Van Halen, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Sure, the Beastie Boys wanted us to "Fight For Your Right," Paula Abdul and a cartoon cat were reminding us that "Opposite's Attract," ZZ Top was obsessed with "Legs," George Michael had "Faith" (featuring some legs), Prince crawled around naked on the floor singing about "When Doves Cry," and Aerosmith were going down singing about "Love in an Elevator," but Van Halen and David Lee Roth were crushing all of them (with the possible exception of the aforementioned Michael and Madonna). Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," "Panama," and "Jump," and DLR's "California Girls," "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody," and "Just Like Paradise" were all iconic and memorable, and defined what MTV was all about. They also were super fun.

At that time, I'm pretty sure I didn't actually understand the difference between Van Halen and David Lee Roth. If you had asked me when I was 8 or 9 years old what my favorite Van Halen song was, I probably would have told you "Just Like Paradise." In fact, for years I thought the sequence featuring David Lee Roth riding a floating surfboard over the audience at a show was from the video for "Panama." When I went searching for it recently, I was shocked to learn that I had those videos mixed up.

The other confusing thing about that era was that people claimed that David Lee Roth wasn't in Van Halen anymore, and I had no idea who Sammy Hagar was because I hadn't seen any of his videos or  any videos of Van Halen featuring Sammy Hagar. It really was a confusing time. Van Halen finally broke through with Sammy Hagar on MTV when they released their video for "Right Now." That video was on all the time in 1991 and 1992, but up until that point it was all about David Lee Roth even though he hadn't been in the band since 1985.

On the last post, I mentioned how simple guitar riffs can be great. There is nothing simple about the opening guitar riff for "Mean Street." It is great because of its complexity. Eddie Van Halen is a master, and his mastery of the electric guitar is on full display throughout "Mean Street." The intro features classic Eddie Van Halen finger-tapping, but he takes them to another level with his deft use of harmonics and feedback. He also plays a blazing solo, and the main driving riff carries the song. This song is really owned by Eddie. DLR's lyrics are good and fit the tone of the music, but his lyrics really shine when he gets to have fun. All of this together, though, leads to one thing, this song is great, and I love it.

Right now, "Mean Street" by Van Halen is (probably) my 80th favorite song of all time.