1986 - VanHagar 5150

Van Halen was larger than life. 

They smiled, kicked, jumped and shredded their way into our souls from speakers through our ears. Eddie VanHalen changed the way guitar was played. He changed the musical instrument industry by inspiring guitar players to desire crazy guitar designs with whammy bars. Eddie also has a guitar called FrankenStein. It's a guitar they he has heavily modified. Most of him being seen in the early 80's is with this guitar, which sparked a mass exodus from Fender and Gibson vintage style guitars. This lowered the value of older guitars because nobody wanted them anymore. Eddie's playing was so big it changed everything in rock n roll.

His brother Alex was crazy on the drums. Combined with David Lee Roth's flamboyant acrobatics and entertaining demeanor, and you had one of the biggest rock bands of the 80's. Well, sadly, the first half of the '80's....

A complete SHOCK...

"Diamond" David Lee Roth left the band in 1985. This was HUGE news. People heard whispers of DLR wanting a solo career... but we never thought it would come. It was a shock to all of us fans. It seemed that life as we knew it was changing. I couldn't imagine a VanHalen without Diamond Dave! Their story was so cool. Alex and Eddie came to America poor. Their dad was a musician, and Alex & Eddie learned at early ages. The first version of VanHalen as we know it used to play weddings. Can you believe it? I thought that was hilarious when I heard that. How would you like to have VH play your wedding? I always admired bands that had brothers in them, because at this time, my brothers still had their band... Defiance.

They were a family being torn apart.

I have heard other stories about VanHalen, like how tight they were with roadies. It's popular to hear about the "crazy contracts and riders" rock bands force venues to sign with all of these ridiculous demands. David Lee Roth mentioned there was a perfectly good reason for all of it. Rock shows demand a lot of electricity, and a LOT of safety precautions. When a band travels to a new venue, a stage must be setup, and safety is always an issue. In the band contract, all of the safety precautions, energy requirements, etc. were clearly defined... along with crazy things in it (like a bowl of no brown M&M's in the dressing room for example). According to David Lee Roth, if there were (going on the analogy) a bowl of no brown M&M's in the dressing room, they were confident the venue read the entire contract, and the band could be confident all of the safety and energy needs for a good show were being met. I thought it was pretty clever...

A new band?

Sadly, with Diamond Dave gone, the future of VH was uncertain. Enter Sammy Hagar. I always loved his albums. His energy seemed to match DLR's, but Sammy could also shred on guitar almost as good Eddie! Word is, Sammy was tired of being a solo act, and auditioned with VH to be an additional guitar player. Their first song they auditioned, "Summer Nights" was played, and Sammy decided to sing it. At that moment, Sammy became the lead singer and part-time rhythm guitarist for VanHalen 2.0 or some would call ethem VanHagar.

News of this traveled. Not only could one not imagine VH without Dave, but now one could never imagine how much cooler VH will be with Sammy! This rollercoaster of emotions was settled with the bands first album with Sammy Hagar, entitled 5150. Eddie's secret recording studio was called 5150, which I believe is the California police code for "intoxicated." (Similarly, gangster rappers would commonly say 187, the police code for "murder," for example).

The Music

The album features some of the best tracks that I've heard VH do. Eddie, also plays keyboard like he normally does... and tracks on this album are amazing. Why Can't this Be Love, Dreams, Best of Both Worlds, Love Walks In, and 5150 were all huge hits.

You can view the entire "Live Without a Net" Van Halen concert below in its entirety. It's one of the first concerts Sammy Hagar played with Van Halen. Warning: this it TOTAL arena rock. The energy is SUPER high... they are running all over the place and having a blast. The opening song is Sammy Hagar's I Can't Drive 55... and the place is going crazy. Michael Anthony's bass solo is complete with slamming a bottle of Jack Daniels while playing his Jack Daniels bass guitar. Rocks.

The Rivalry began.

David Lee Roth sparked a solo career. He found guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and a backing band to embark on a mission to "out-VanHalen" VanHalen. It was great for rock n roll because we effectively we seemingly had two VanHalens. It got ugly. VanHalen was doing most of the talking and bad-mouthing, leaving Diamond Dave to "scribbity-bop" prove them wrong. While Eddie and Alex didn't pull any punches, Sammy talked about how good it was to be in a band and how good VH was doing.

It's reputed that Eddie has an ego. I've heard rumors that he likes to be the only guitar player in a room, and he wasn't always comfortable with Sammy on guitar because it took some spotlight off Eddie. Yet, I heard from Jerry Cantrell (of Alice in Chains) that when his large tour ever (with Van Halen) was finished, Cantrell came home to a garage full of musical equipment as a gift from Eddie. So I've heard both sides. I can imagine that Eddie has a button that could be pushed like everyone else.

Not "better," just different. We never forgot the old Van Halen.

Little did we know Diamond Dave would eventually come back, and bad blood would be in the future between Sammy and the guys... but for now, we can enjoy the newness of all the great music that is Van Hagar. David Lee Roth says it best in this MTV News Interview...

Album Sales

5150 was so big, it was Billboard's #1 album of 1986. It had eight top 40 hits, and sold over 6 million albums in the United States... x6 platinum. In contrast, David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile album ended at #4 on Billboard's top 200 charts, with two top 40 hits. The previous year, David Le Roth released an EP featuring lounge style songs like California Girls with an album titled Crazy from the Heat... but Eat 'Em and Smile was his big return to Hard Rock...

1986 - I Gotta Wear Shades and Lisa Lisa

In the second grade, I had this dual cassette player boom box. It was short and slim and black.. unlike the huge gray/chrome ones you'd expect from the 1980's. This thing took a TON of batteries. I feel sorry for the thing, because it took a lot of abuse. Between my sister and I, we busted buttons off of it, ruined the telescoping antenna, busted the long handle off of it, etc.

It was great to have a boom box, because I could always be ready with a blank tape. Listening to the radio, if I ever heard a song that I wanted to hear, I'd run over to the boom box and hit the play and red record button at the same time. It took some extra "oomph" to get those buttons down compared to the others. And, of course, you'd likely miss the first 4-6 seconds of a song if it was the first song on side A or side B.

I became pretty proud of my radio-recorded mixed tapes. Parts that made me cringe was when the DJ sang the last 5 seconds of the song, or started to chime in before the song was over. For the most part, it was one of my earliest moments of creation and expression.

In second grade, we had a single speaker tape recorder. For holidays, or those old crappy sideshows with film (and the tape would beep so you could go to the next slide), we had the tape recorder in our class room. For Halloween, our teacher Ms. Stone (a catholic nun who's name ironically was Sharon Stone), would play tapes for our little class parties. I had the idea we could play one of my tapes during art class.

I didn't really want to play the entire tape. I just really wanted to play "My Future's so bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk3. The words were easy to understand, and as a kid I really liked the song because it had to do with school. I gave Ms. Stone the tape. I remember to this day, the track was the second song on Side A. So I got it all ready so when you put the tape in, it would just play the song I wanted. That's something you cannot do with a CD that sort of makes you appreciate tapes vs. vinyl records, compact discs, or even mp3s. Ms. Stone said we could play it during art class.

Second grade art class was pretty easy. For Thanksgiving you traced your hand for the body of the turkey and colored popsicle sticks for feathers. For Columbus day you learned how to fold construction paper into boats in three sizes to signify the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria.

The time came to put the tape in. It played without a hitch. Ms. Stone wanted to play it again. She rewound the tape all the way. Embarrassingly, the first track on the side was "Head to Toe" by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. The lyrics "I love you from head to toe" was pretty mushy and I remember trying to hold face so my friends wouldn't call me a girl. Luckily the rest of the songs on the tape were all top 40 hits and my perceived reputation as "one of the cool kids" was preserved. Little did I know other kids in my class recorded tapes too. This even inspired others in my class to bring in their tapes to play during art class.


Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Head to Toe

There was a song on the tape by Boston called Amanda. There was a girl in my class named Amanda, and since she was the only Amanda I knew... it was like Boston wrote her the song. I asked her if she'd ever heard it before it came on... she asked "the country version or the rock version?" I was thinking "country?" Haha I still have that reaction to this day. So, lookout... there's probably a country version floating around. I was never a big fan of country music.

Boston - Amanda

Here are some other songs I remember having on the tape:

John Cougar Mellancamp Rain on The Scarecrow

Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love

Crowded House - Dont Dream it’s Over

Crowded House - Something so strong

Corey Hart - I wear my sunglasses at night

1986 - Remembering Commercials

Why Commercials?I gotta give some love to commercials. I watched a LOT of TV when I was a kid, and probably had a bunch of them memorized. You know those commercials that just get stuck in your head. I'd watch TV in the family room, especially in the morning with a cereal bowl on the fireplace. I liked eating breakfast right in front of the TV.


Here is a list of commercials that I believe were relevant on or around 1986.

Max Headroom - Coke vs. Pepsi:
Max Headroom had his own TV show around this time, and it's a classic totally 80's commercial. The "Cola Wars" of the 1980's were HUGE. The polarization of people for Coke or Pepsi tore families apart. That might be an overstatement, but I distinctly remember my brother Tommy liking Coke and Mike liking Pepsi. Me? would suck down any pop or soda... even if it was warm. This led my sister to "stash" cans in her room, so when we had pizza or something, she would be guaranteed something good to drink. Smart move if you ask me, but I'd drink them even faster if I kept them in my bedroom.

Juicy Fruit Gum:The lyrics, listening to this commercial are hilarious. "Take a sniff, pull it out... the taste is going to move you when you pop it in your mouth." I remember watching this commercial thinking it was the coolest. Pack of Juicy Fruit was twenty five cents.

The California RasinsThe California Raisins were cool too. I think it might have been Hardee's that had little figurines you could collect. I remember having a couple of these and playing with them.

Close Up ToothpasteClose UP toothpaste, looking at the commercial for the first time since I was a kid, appear to be targeting the promiscuous people in society, or the sexually active. I never realized how much public display of affection was in this commercial. It's pretty provocative for it's time without being offensive.

Pepsi and Michael JacksonEveryone knows Santa Claus is red... and that means Coke. But what about Pepsi? Michael Jackson was the biggest thing in the 1980's. I mean bigger than Santa. Since Coke has the monopoly on Santa (see the Coke Santa 1986 commercial here), Pepsi went out and bought the Michael Jackson endorsement. It might be shocking to see all these children around Michael Jackson looking back, does it look fishy?

Tootsie Roll PopsNow this is a much older commercial, but it was still on TV growing up. Everyone has had to see this, and I remember thinking this owl was a smartass. No jingle here, but still a big commercial.

Kawasaki CommercialsKawasaki's commercials had a jingle that said "Let the good times roll." The song, in our family morphed into "Kawasakis make the junkyards grow..." I thought this was hilarious and loved singing our alternative lyrics growing up! These commercials came up in conversation any time we were around a motorcycle, dirtbike, snowmobile, boat, or three-wheeler. Little did I know my first motorcycle would end up being a Kawasaki.

Six Flags - Great America
This commercial was pretty popular... and the jingle sticks in your head. When my family went here, they dropped me off with family in Kentucky. Oh well, I was only 6, I couldn't have enjoyed it!

1986: Visiting relatives in Lexington Kentucky

Pack up the station wagon!

It's time to go to Kentucky. I have relatives in Lexington, Kentucky. We normally visited them around 4th of July. This was a big deal for my dad because he owned a business and rarely got time off. When he did get time off, it was spent up north in WI. Coming from a small city in WI, driving south was an adventure. People had a southern accent. I didn't really see the Kentucky blue grass though... it was green.

Jack and Charlene Parker had two houses. Charlene's family farm (miles outside of Lexington) had tobacco and Limousin cattle... a competitor breed to Angus beef. The stairs up to the bedrooms in this old house were so steep, it was difficult to climb, and easy to fall down if you went downstairs too fast. When I was at the farm, I got to drive this gigantic tractor, and made a sword out of a tobacco stick. Apparently, tobacco sticks were used in barns to hang tobacco.

My dad would spend half the week at the farm and help Jack, while my mom, brothers, sister and I spent the week shopping with Charlene and stayed at the house in Lexington. Lexington had great shopping mall... and other relatives owned a cool antique store.

Jack also owned and ran a barbershop down the street from the University of Kentucky.CHEVY Barber shop I used to go there to receive a "flat top"... complete with a bottle of Vavoom! hair gel. My dad used to admire the thought of owning a barbershop... "you can work in cash, and everyone's hair that you cut you would do business with... your stockbroker, your mechanic, your doctor, you'd cut all their hair." It made sense that the people that gave you business you'd give business back to. After Jack passed away in early 2008, his daughter Leigh-Ann took over the family barbershop.

Brian Parker and Compact Discs

Brian Parker was very close in age to Tommy and Mike. His bedroom was in the basement. There was a living room down there, and billiard area that had a pool table different than any I've ever seen. I believe it was a bumper pool table. It was in Brian's bedroom where I saw the first compact discs. Smaller than records, and went into a home stereo component cd player. He had an entire wall of cds... seemingly enough be be a DJ.

When I recently asked about his cd collection, he said:
"My first CD player I bought was in 1984, it was a Magnavox (stylish and cost just over $400). My first CD's were Shiela E', Prince, Thompson Twins, Duran Duran, Psychedelic Furs (MTV had a huge impact on my musical taste, especially anything on 120 minutes because you weren't hearing that music on the radio in Kentucky- it was all top 40 crap.)"

Brian and I would play basketball on his hot blacktop driveway and he would do play by play as if we were each on the UK basketball team and the timer was counting down to zero. My first ever ride in a convertible was in his 1968 VW Karmann Ghia convertible... WAY cooler than the station wagon!

I remember watching Mtv in the basement. We didn't have cable TV in Appleton, so it was a real technological experience with cable TV, CD's etc. SO MANY CHANNELS! Plus it was awesome to see all the creative music videos. I took a special liking to Genesis and Phil Collins for some reason. Listening to "Invisible Touch" takes me back to KY.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

It was from Leigh-Ann the I learned the clever art of talk-back and mockery. I didn't realize that's what it was at the time, but it was hilarious. She sat us down and put in the VHS tape of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Little did I know there is an "audience participation" aspect of this movie... there's only so much you can understand as a six yearold. But I do remember the part when they got married at the beginning. There's a line when someone at the wedding says "I always cry at weddings." Charlene promptly responded "and laugh at funerals." At the time I thought this little wise crack was 100% original. I think I fell asleep after that. Now that the internet exists, I found a comprehensive list of all the talk-back moments in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Dr. Ruth

When we weren't watching Mtv, or movies I do recall watching Dr. Ruth. This was a TV show about sex, and 100% of it went over my head (of course)... but I do remember it being on, and also "COOL" to watch. This old lady preaches about sex... watching it now is rather comical and I cannot believe this was so accepted in the conservative Reagan years of the 80's! Alas, if you were "in the know" in the 80's you watched Mtv, Saturday Night Live and Dr. Ruth! Here is an awesome video of Dr. Ruth with Ozzy Osbourne.

1986: Lionel Ritchie - Dancing on the Ceiling

Saturday morning was usually cleaning time. I'd get up extra early to eat four bowls of cereal at the fireplace and watch cartoons in the family room. I always poured a ton of milk in the bowl, enough to cover all the cereal. Often, I'd leave the bowl on the fireplace, and after some time it would be stuck to the fireplace. For some reason, the "family room" was our main hang out spot in the house. The living room, in contrast, was only a "formal" room that we only used at Christmas time.
Cartoons were usually done with around 11 or 11:30am, and WWF Superstars was on after that. Usually by that time, my mom was planting the seed that cleaning would start taking place. I have vivid memories of cleaning the house and watching Spider Man.



"Dancing on the Ceiling" was one of the first songs I ever recorded on my "dual-cassette" boom box. It was all over the radio, so I just taped it off the radio. The song made my 6 year old self hyperactive. I remember having to clean my room, and after I was finished I would jump on the bed. I wonder where the parental control of not allowing kids to jump on the bed came about because my mom didn't seem to mind.

My sister had the room right next to mine, but around the corner. We had a clothes chute right in front of my door. The thing to yell was "bombs away" while dropping clothes down the shoot. The saying eventually evolved to "bombs your clothes."

Cleaning my room most always coincided with my sister cleaning hers as well. Her big collection at the time was Cabbage Patch Kids. They were all the rage in the 80's, and moms literally fought for them during Christmas shopping rushes. I don't remember how many she had, but it was enough to span at least one row of them across her full-sized bed. Amy would clean her room, and put all of her Cabbage Patch Kids in a row on her bed, and stop by my room. We would pretend she owned an orphanage, and I was a customer. So she would escort me into her room and introduce me to all the babies. I would get their names and how long they were in the orphanage. Based on all that criteria, I would pick one to keep. Looking back I'm not sure what I did with it after I chose one. If it went to my room, I can't image too much time passed before she took it back. Not "back to the orphanage," but back to her room (play concluded).

When we started to get older, it would be a little bit more devious. For example, Amy would design a menu for lunch. Lots of layout and design went into this sheet (she will grow up to become a graphic designer/photographer). I got to pick from four or five different sandwiches to eat for lunch. Keep in mind this was something like 1. jelly, 2. peanut butter, 3. peanut butter and jelly, etc. The very last time we played that game she spiked my sandwich with Mrs. Dash seasoning. I was pretty mad. Even when she made it over again, I had to check the sandwich by peeling apart the halves of bread.