Fair Warning - Wish somebody told me!!! - Guitars101

**Ipecac** · 05-20-2004, 11:21 AM

I like VH just nothing really stuck but the their first album and ed is fkn crazy. I am guitar player - I know talent when I hear it. I heard songs over the years and albums and even know how to play some songs just b/c they are like guitar standards/plateau's you have to reach before you can move on... I know more of daves stuff then sammys - Sammys shit is just a little too sappy and nothing really sticks - I like finish what ya started and a few more but thats it.... I like Daves shit better and owned eat'em and smile, etc.. he had a great band plus steve vai and he rocked those albums hard...What I'm gettin at is FAIR WARNING FUCKIN ROCKS.....why the hell didnt anybody tell me, I picked it up this morning for some reason - probably b/c of this board and unchained. This album rocks all the way thru - I asked my friends and they all love VH and they say this is the worst...WTF - do VH fans not like this album? I heard them all I thought diver down was crap, Daves VH anyway. Before this I thought the first one and women children first were good albums - but like I said nothing really caught on. Fair warning in my opinion is VH at their peak.... Ed is rockin every song and daves vocals are the best I think I heard - he actually sings and not anthony.... Im blown away with this album and all my VH friends dont like this album as much... I don't get it Im not an in depth VH fan - I just got this album now and actually paid attetion to it - is like the album that fell b/w the cracks or something - just wondering to me this album is their best?

wahwah · 05-20-2004, 11:33 AM

It's a superb album with prolly one of the strongest songs ever done, 'Meanstreets'...awesome.

SuckaInA3Piece · 05-20-2004, 12:28 PM

I dont think it's their best, but it's top 5 for sure. Fair Warning was actually the last cd I bought of the bands and I really didnt know what to think of it at first. It was just a different vibe on that disc and it just puzzled me, but in a good way. I guess I shouldnt say puzzled. I should say it intrigued me. It made me look at Eddie Van Halen's songwriting a bit differently, and made me gain a ton more respect for the guy. To this day I think that his solo on So This Is Love is one of his best ever. I love it when it's just Mikey, Ed and Al jamming with no overdubs. Thats the fuckin shit right there.

Top to bottom the album is jam packed with goodies. If VH albums were jelly beans, then this album would be the black jelly bean.

I also believe that the biggest problem with the album for most ppl is that it's not commercial enough. For guitar heads like us, we love the shit. We can fully appreciate it, but the casual fan cant see the art that we do.

classalpha · 05-20-2004, 01:37 PM

"Fair Warning" is by far my favorite Roth-era VH album... with "Women and Children First" running a close second. I think fans' distaste for FW is because it's a much darker-themed and hard-hitting album than any other of VH's.

Of the Roth fronted albums, FW is not at all like the happier, party-esque, hot chix and booze flavored VH #1 and 2, the radio friendly Diver Down, or big-hair themed "1984".

The lyric writing on FW reflects an angrier, "working class" man's life on nearly every cut- it's a musical essay of experiences embroiled in a bitter, resentful and often misogynistic home/neighbourhood environment. Personally, it's the only album that I've ever heard which I can totally identify with from a lyrics standpoint... since unfortunately I was raised in that type of environment. [img]images/smilies/icon_redface.gif[/img]

*IMO* on Fair Warning, Ed's tone, guitar and synth playing are also at their sincerest- bold, sometimes brutal, but overall absolutely brilliant. [img]images/smilies/icon_jam.gif[/img]

classalpha · 05-20-2004, 01:52 PM

[ QUOTE ]
SuckaIn3Piece said:

... If VH albums were jelly beans, then this album would be the black jelly bean.

[/ QUOTE ] F*cking excellent description, Chris. [img]images/smilies/afro.gif[/img]

POD GOD · 05-20-2004, 05:40 PM

Fair Warning is my favorite VH album ever!!

SuckaInA3Piece · 05-20-2004, 06:13 PM

[ QUOTE ]
classalpha said:
[ QUOTE ]
SuckaIn3Piece said:

... If VH albums were jelly beans, then this album would be the black jelly bean.

[/ QUOTE ] F*cking excellent description, Chris. [img]images/smilies/afro.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey man, you know I get all my knowledge from you bro [img]images/smilies/icon_wink.gif[/img]

classalpha · 05-20-2004, 08:33 PM

[ QUOTE ]
SuckaIn3Piece said:
[ QUOTE ]
classalpha said:
[ QUOTE ]
SuckaIn3Piece said:

... If VH albums were jelly beans, then this album would be the black jelly bean.

[/ QUOTE ] F*cking excellent description, Chris. [img]images/smilies/afro.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey man, you know I get all my knowledge from you bro [img]images/smilies/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, it's because You Totally ROCK already, Chris!!!!!!! [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_bowdown.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_cool.gif[/img] <- Chris izz DA MAN!

Stiglar · 05-20-2004, 10:03 PM

FW is definately my favourite vh album by far . .. i'd heard individual tracks off it and loved it mean streets , unchained , so this is love but when i got the whole album and heard hear about it later , dirty movies and especially push comes to shove i knew it was gonna be my favourite album ever !

**Mondy** · 05-20-2004, 11:59 PM

It's my favourite album too. Interesting story behind it. They weren't getting anywhere with it, no ideas were coming together. So Ed sat all through the night and recorded loads of song ideas. the other guys came back in the next morning to find Ed still sitting there. Then they listened to what he had come up with.

Strange in that he pulled a lot of the riffs from early demos. Listen to Voodoo Queen, She's The WOman, etc., and you'll see what I mean. However, he played them far better and more interesting on this album.

I just think it is them at their greatest. You have the best run of 3 tracks on that album : Unchained, Push Comes To Shove, So This Is Love ? and the opener in Mean Street is just killer. Pure, raw energy at it's best.

If I start this album off at volume level 10, you can guarantee it's up to 15 by the end of the listen. It's just great. Can't get enough of the guitar, rhythm, lyrics, etc.

[img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img]

javi5150 · 05-21-2004, 03:38 AM

FW is my favorite guitar album ever!!! I love Ed's playing on that record, also the tone.

SGWOLFLP1 · 05-21-2004, 05:35 AM

EVH's finest hour!!!!! IMO

TopJimmy78 · 05-22-2004, 01:53 PM

To put it simply Fair Warning is Roth Era VH at their very best! [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/icon_jam.gif[/img]

**Rid** · 05-23-2004, 06:58 AM

Love FW...raw tone and great songs.

**Mondy** · 05-23-2004, 01:54 PM

I have this album on vinyl. There is nothing like cranking this up and listening to the analogue original sounds of it. Makes you feel like you are there in a way.

Sure, the remaster is perfect, but it's not as raw as the vinyl. Every now and then I whip out the vinyl of this and give it a spin. Takes me back to when I used to listen to my brother's copy and he used to beat the living shit outta me for it. He'd always know.

Oh, but it was worth it !!!

[img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img]