Was Van Halen Abducted by Aliens?
Song: “Love Walks In”
Artist: Van Halen
Album: 5150
I’ve been on a bit of a Van Halen kick this week. I’m a David Lee Roth fan, but I think that the actual songs from the Sammy Hagar era are better. Case in point, this week’s Tuesday Tune: “Love Walks In”.
Now you may ask: “What does this song have to do with Science Fiction?”
Up until a few days ago, I would have asked the same thing.
I recently dug out 5150, which arguably contains some of VH’s best songs, including: “Best of Both Worlds”, “Why Can’t This Be Love”, and “Summer Nights”. As “Love Walks In” digitally spun on my iPod, I was compelled to press pause and rewind when I heard this lyric:
“Some Kind of AlienWaits for the Opening
Simply Pulls a String”
“Wait, What? Did he just say alien?” For a moment I thought that Sammy Hagar must have been using the word alien as a metaphor. A scan of some of the other lyrics contradicted that initial assessment:
“Oh, sleep and dream; that’s all I craveI travel far across the milky way
To my master I become a slave
‘Til we meet again some other day
Where silence speaks as loud as war
Earth returns to what it was before”
Sci-Fi or not, these lyrics are of much greater substance than what I’ve always considered to be a “fun”, “summer” album.
A quick google search on “Love Walks In” also led to a quote from an old issue of Guitar World Magazine:
“I’m a firm believer — have seen, have felt, have been contacted three or four different times. I have received information that has been valuable in my life from those people, and they have used me. I’m gonna sound like a complete nut here, but they have used me in an experimental fashion” -Sammy Hagar
Yep, It seems that the tequila loving front man believes that he was abducted. It sheds a whole new light on some of my favorite music from the 80′s.
To read more of the article, click here.
So I ask you:
David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar?
Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani (Hagar’s current band mate in Chickenfoot)?
Tagged with: Tuesday Tunes • Van Halen
Filed under: Music
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Yes…he does sound like a nut, but I do love that song and album. I prefer the Sammy years myself.
It is funny how you realize that you hear lyrics but don’t necessarily listen to them. I knew all those words, and yet never once in all these years have I sat and thought, “what the hell is he singing about?!?!” Once you point it out it is a pretty wacked out song!
That is odd.
Thanks John!
Who was the guy who sang “You Really Got Me”? I like that guy. To be honest, though, I don’t really listen to Van Halen for the singing…I listen to it for the guitar solos.
A sign you’re getting old: you encounter people who don’t remember the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen. back in the day, my contemporaries rebelled against “Van Hagar”. And so it goes…
Carl: I had the same experience with this song. I’m also partial to the Sammy-era. I think the songs hold up better.
SMD: I think you are not alone in that assessment. A great percentage of Van Halen fans are there for Eddie’s guitar solos. I actually find his rhythm guitar playing to be equally as impressive and perhaps more musical.
John: We all know that the Gary Cherone fronted Van Halen was by far the best.
In all seriousness, I loved David Lee Roth’s solo stuff. Eat Em’ and Smile is an awesome album with great giutar playing from Steve Vai and amazing bass playing from Billy Sheehan.
Oh my – you guys have me back in my High School youth loving and listening to Van Halen. David, Sammy, I loved them both. I was a Hagar fan before he joined Eddie, so I had no problems when the two got together although I certainly knew many who hated ’Van Hagar’.
And David’s solo stuff was great – he managed to get Steve Vai to keep the strong guitar licks coming, but as you said added Billy Sheehan who was a much stronger bassist than Micheal Anthony (at least in my opinion.)
What I always found odd was that supposedly David and Eddie split because David wanted more pop-style songs and Eddie wanted more complex, musically intricate pieces. After the split, David certainly did more pop-focused songs, but with Vai and Sheehan his band was more complex than VH ever was. And with the addition of Sammy, Van Halen went into far more melodic and less complicated songs. Odd, but then Eddie was addicted to coke and alcohol so who knows.
Sammy mentioned on the Howard Stern that he had been abducted by aliens and that those experiences were indeed the inspiration for “Love Walks In.”
Sammy all the way. David Lee who?