Alex on "Unreleased" VH Songs

[FH]

VAN HALEN Drummer Says Every Song They Have Ever Completed Has Been Released
Source: Blabbermouth
VAN HALEN drummer Alex Van Halen recently told Australia's Undercover News that almost every song the band have ever finished recording since their first album in 1978 has been released.

"There are no real tracks that are unreleased," he said. "There may be two or three songs that were partially completed. If those songs were really worthwhile we would have released them back when they were written.

"One of the biggest mistakes artists can make is to go back on the stuff they passed on in the first place and throw it out as new, which it isn't," he added. "[Guitarist] Ed [Van Halen] is very particular in which direction he wants to go in musically and that is forward. I don't know if there is such a thing as going forward in music. It is either up, down, sideways or backwards. It goes in a circle. The intent that goes in to behind making a piece of music is as important as the perception of that piece of music. The intent is to go forward. If you go backwards, then forget it. It doesn't work. We don't go back and go through old tapes."

VAN HALEN reportedly worked on four songs for possible inclusion on their recently released "greatest hits" collection, "Best of Both Worlds". However, only three cuts made it to the final product: "It's About Time", "Up For Breakfast" and "Learning To See".

Commented vocalist Sammy Hagar: "You wouldn't want to hear [the song that didn't make the cut]. It is not done. The lyrics aren't done, the melody is not done and the structure is not there. It was left half cooked. The idea is probably still good but I doubt if we would ever go back and use it because when we get back together and go in the studio it is about where you are at at that moment, not about something you did back there and trying to rekindling that. It is much better to go fresh every time. It is more inspiring. It is like going back to your old girlfriend."

"There is enough music for 100 years in that studio to write songs for laying around on the floor," he added. "We had four songs and the fourth one never got completed. These three got done in time to go out on tour and I mean barely. We were still in the studio mixing and rehearsing at night and mastering and being on tour. It was pretty intense. These three were the ones that came naturally to us."

[SuckaInA3Piece]

I agree with them to a certain degree. I hate it when Puffy and Suge Knight release shit by Biggie and Tupac that wasn't done and throw a new beat on it and call it an unreleased song. I say if it wasn't good enough to make it on the album the artist should be respected and the material should never come out. Eventhough I loved the demo's that Alice In Chains released and I dig it when some groups throw that stuff out, I kinda hear where Alex and Sam are coming from. If they do release it someday ppl will just call them greedy anyways, so either way they can't win. I dont want old shit right now. I want the band in the studio when they're done this tour and hopefully they come out with a hot album. That old shit they can save for when they're done as a band. You want unreleased shit? Go to the Bootlegs forum at Guitars101! [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb1.gif[/img]

[kudochop]

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SuckaIn3Piece said:
I agree with them to a certain degree. I hate it when Puffy and Suge Knight release shit by Biggie and Tupac that wasn't done and throw a new beat on it and call it an unreleased song. I say if it wasn't good enough to make it on the album the artist should be respected and the material should never come out. Eventhough I loved the demo's that Alice In Chains released and I dig it when some groups throw that stuff out, I kinda hear where Alex and Sam are coming from. If they do release it someday ppl will just call them greedy anyways, so either way they can't win. I dont want old shit right now. I want the band in the studio when they're done this tour and hopefully they come out with a hot album. That old shit they can save for when they're done as a band. You want unreleased shit? Go to the Bootlegs forum at Guitars101! [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb1.gif[/img]

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True, true!

[axeshredder]

Ed supposedly 10 albums worth of stuff on tape......since theyll never go back , it would be a nice gift to Wolfie for the future....just imagine

[EddieMan2003]

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SuckaIn3Piece said:
I agree with them to a certain degree. I hate it when Puffy and Suge Knight release shit by Biggie and Tupac that wasn't done and throw a new beat on it and call it an unreleased song. I say if it wasn't good enough to make it on the album the artist should be respected and the material should never come out. Eventhough I loved the demo's that Alice In Chains released and I dig it when some groups throw that stuff out, I kinda hear where Alex and Sam are coming from. If they do release it someday ppl will just call them greedy anyways, so either way they can't win. I dont want old shit right now. I want the band in the studio when they're done this tour and hopefully they come out with a hot album. That old shit they can save for when they're done as a band. You want unreleased shit? Go to the Bootlegs forum at Guitars101! [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb1.gif[/img]

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You said shit 4 times [img]images/smilies/icon_lol.gif[/img]

[SuckaInA3Piece]

LOL [img]images/smilies/woot.gif[/img]

[BigE]

These guys have been saying this since the beginning. I have a tape of dave saying the same exact thing then the DJ plays a unreleased song right after the words come out of Daves mouth. After all the rumors all the crap that has gone down. After denying there wer working with Dave twice. Man I dig the music but nothing the brothers say is even romotely beleivable.

[BigE]

Heres another example, Van Halen news desk in the second item regarding Sammys new greatest hits cd. I think this is his 5th or 6th re-package of his greatest hits. He states he is including two songs from the vault in his Montrose days. I thought from his statements above that he didn't think that songs that didn't make the original cut should'nt be released. Again love the music but how can anybody believe anything these guys say.

[dre]

I find some of what Alex says to be a little hypocritical.

"One of the biggest mistakes artists can make is to go back on the stuff they passed on in the first place and throw it out as new."

Now I'm a big Van Halen fan (early VH 1st 5 records), and in listening to these bootlegs on this site, which are incredible!, especially the Warner Bros. demos, I'm hearing riffs and songs which they had before they were signed that they used on all those records: Mean Streets, House of Pain, Hang 'em High, Somebody get me a doctor. There are other riffs and licks in various songs that were unreleased that they rehashed and made into songs. It's really quite interesting to hear the evolution of those songs, but c'mon, they definately went back and worked on stuff that had been written years before.

[VHF]

You are right.....many of the tracks on 1984 were actually composed in some form before the first VH1 record.

[Stiglar]

the most annoying one for me was the use of the stompin 8H/ i want some action riff in dirty water dog ! .. i like dirty water dog as a whole but what a waste of that awesome riff !..

[johnny1234]

thats what happens when geniuses become alcoholics

[nightofthecrime]

Originally Posted by VHF

You are right.....many of the tracks on 1984 were actually composed in some form before the first VH1 record.

Only House of Pain I think.... Jump and Girl Gone Bad were supposedly written (started on) in 1981 and parts of them showed up in solos on the 1982-83 tours but not before.

[Flet]

Eddie played a version of 316 (from 1991) as far back as 1986 on tour (I have a couple boots to that effect).

Dirty Water Dog (from 1998) is a stolen riff from the completed and yet unreleased song I Want Some Action (from 1986).

And if all songs that were unreleased were unfinished, please explain the inclusion of "That's Why I Love You" on the VH3 promo album which eventually got switched with "Josephina"? It's totally finished and great.

What about the studio version of the cover "Won't Get Fooled Again" from 1991? It's completely finished and unreleased.

What about Blood From A Stone which was finished as stated by Gary Cherone for the never released second Cherone era VH album?

As stated, there are about 35+ songs that were all in Demo (circa 1975-76) from before VH1 and almost all got reworked for future albums during the Roth Era (between 1978 and 1984).

Point is, what Alex and anyone else says about there are no unreleased songs that are complete and that going back and redoing or even reworking songs will never happen is complete horse s#$t. I have the proof in my collection as do many others.

Usually, a short while after an artist dies, the family typically releases a tonne of unreleased stuff (sometimes for the fans, sometimes because they want to cash in, sometimes a bit of both). I'd hate to say it but there is no doubt in my mind that once Eddie and Alex die, there will be more stuff to come out. No Doubt. It will be in decades, but it WILL happen.