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Just wondering which "era" of the band people seemed to appreciate.  Honestly, I was gonna leave out Gary Cherone, but he was there for 3 years, an album and a tour.  In reality, though, there's two distinct eras of Van Halen: The David Lee Roth years, and the Hagar years.

There's a portion of the audience who adores era 1, and another who prefer the second one with Hagar.  Personally, I enjoy albums and singles from both...but, if pressed, I would prefer the Roth years.

Roth era. with Hagar they were a lot more commercial and 'normal', some of Hagar's lyrics are cringeworthy, Roth's are a lot more original. Hagar sounds the same on every track, Roth could do a few different styles and just had more of an original attitude. They would never have done cornball tracks like Love Walks In with Roth...

However I do like the Hagar era, and in fact For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is probably my favourite Van Halen album for some reason. Probably due to EVH being on a different planet guitar-wise, even by his own standards, on that album. and the songs (except for Right Now - puke) are amazing imo

the weird thing is I always read that Roth left VH because he didn't like the increasingly pop/keyboard direction eddie was taking the band in, yet Roth's first solo album is very poppy with loads of keyboards?!

I really like the new album Different Kind Of Truth. Roth sounds better than I expected

Van Halen almost hired Patty Smyth from Scandal as their new singer after Roth left the band. Too bad it never happened, she had an amazing voice.

Voted for Roth.

call me sexist but there are so many reasons van halen wouldn't work with a female singer. I mean imagine going to their a concert and hearing a chick going "I like the way the line runs up the back of the stockings...".

* on second thoughts  :teddyr:

Never knew that.

It'd be a vastly different approach.

Hmm.

i voted for the roth era. i think their albums with him were more original and had more of a harder edge to them, but i did enjoy the 'balance' album with hagar quite a bit.

Gary Cherone? Thats like asking if If Zachery Taylor was a president.

Definitely Roth.  So much more energy.  Could be that like most bands, their best and most creative work was early in their career.  I don't have any of the Hagar albums, but the stuff I heard on the radio always sounded very pop to me.  I'll have to check out For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (Hmmm...acronym?) one of these days if Ed's guitar work is amazing.

It was a last minute addition.  I indeed know a few people who like him as the singer.

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is worth checking out.

"5150" was one of my favorite albums as a younger man, but these days I'm much more likely to listen to "1984" or "Van Halen" if I am in the mood for Van Halen.

David Lee Roth for sure....although I loved "Humans Being" with Sammy.

I overall prefer Roth....

although, Hagar's had some damned good releases with them...and I believe all hits too.

I voted for Hagar. 
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is an awesome album that still holds up today.

In all honesty, I simply cannot stand David Lee Roth's voice.  He had a few decent songs but most of the time when old Van Halen songs (including the new awful stuff) comes on the radio, I tune the channel to another station.