Van Halen – The Complete Video Collection: The David Lee Roth Years (Apocalypse Sound AS 154)

The Complete Video Collection:  The David Lee Roth Years (Apocalypse Sound AS 154)  

Total Running Time 3 hours 30 minutes

This new release by Apocalypse Sound gathers together footage spanning almost 20 years of David Lee Roth’s work both solo and with Van Halen. It is a broad overview of a man who is not just one of rocks greatest front men but is also a filmmaker of talent and great humor. While the quality of some of the footage is merely average, AS have given done an excellent job of gathering rare material that must be considered essential to all fans of Van Halen and David Lee Roth but also the casual fan who needs a little VH in their collection. Packaging is the simple yet effective tri fold with live shots of Van Halen, DVD menu is simple and easily navigated. Since Van Halen has not given us anything but a primarily Van Hagar best of video collection this is one hell of way to get a look at one of the greatest bands of our time.   

1974-1984 Van Halen Promo Clips  

You Really Got Me, Runnin’ With The Devil, Jamie’s Cryin’. Full color promo videos done for the first Van Halen record, they start with a brief introduction of still shots of the individual band members while Eruption plays. There is no premise of the videos, just lip syncing on a concert stage, no audience, and hamming it up for the cameras. First thing that hits you is the visual presence of the band, while just releasing their first record the band already has the chops needed to play large arenas. Video and sound quality are excellent.  

Dance The Night Away, You’re No Good, Bottoms Up.  A quick flash of the classic VH logo gives way to scenes of the band arriving via limousine at the venue, some backstage action with band giving us a big hello barber shot quartet style. Full color live in concert, this time with an audience with live sound, multi camera angles, the works for 1979. Great footage of the band, almost dramatic at the beginning of Your No Good, dry ice fog covering stage. Only real issue with the footage, and I am being picky here, is sometimes the video and audio is slightly off. Colorful stage gear, a lot of bright suspenders and high energy, great clips, complete with after show footage while the credits appear on the screen. Video and sound quality are excellent.  

Here About It Later, So This Is Love, Unchained:  Skip 1980 and we begin with Eddie playing the intro beneath the pulsating VH logo starts the next batch of videos done to promote the 1981 Fair Warning record. These are the first Van Halen videos I remember seeing on MTV all done live in concert, first thing that you think is damn, big stage, big crowds no suspenders and a party atmosphere. After a quick Jack Daniels break Dave references an Oakland scarf as the opening strains of So This Is Love plays, obviously a California crowd. Video and sound quality are excellent.  

(Oh) Pretty Woman The first of the Van Halen videos done with a premise, at least I think there’s one and if memory serves me I think it was banned for content. The band kind of portrays a hard rock Village people in this, Michael  as a samurai, Alex  as Tarzan, Eddie as a cowboy and Dave as Napoleon. Midget henchmen have kidnapped the “Pretty Woman” who is later to be revealed as a man. Classic video with Excellent picture and sound quality.  

Jump, Jump (Promo version 2), Panama, Hot For Teacher, L.A. Is My Lady:  The promos everybody know and love, set the tone for the 1984 album and raised the bar in video making. The first Jump promo is intertwined with Dave talking about the Synthesizers in Jump and the world tour to follow. L.A. Is My Lady is Dave and Eddie walking out some doors, getting mobbed by fans getting into a limo and putting on a video of Frank Sinatra. Spin kicks in the air, Jack Daniel’s Bass, chicks in bikinis, and Waldo, who could ask for more. Video and sound quality are excellent.  

1985 – 1994 David Lee Roth Promo Clips  

California Girls, Just A Gigolo, Yankee Rose, Goin Crazy, Loco Del Calor!, That’s Life, Just Like Paradise, Stand Up, A Lil’ Ain’t Enough, Tell The Truth, Sensible Shoes, She’s My Machine, Night Life, Shoo Bop:  So begins Dave TV, all Dave, all the time. California Girls picks up right where Hot For Teacher left off, except minus the school. Gigolo is a hilarious spoof on popular videos of the time. The Eat Em Smile promos continue in the same vein, Loco Del Calor is the Spanish version of Goin Crazy. By A Lil’ Aint Enough Dave’s hair is thinning and his popularity is slipping. The videos are less inventive but Dave still hgas the eyes for great looking women. Having not seen the majority of the clips after the Skyscraper era it is an interesting insight into the diversity of Dave’s career after Van Halen, Shoo Bop is most interesting, almost pop culture with Dave’s platinum blonde hair. Video and sound quality are excellent.  

Van Halen Extra Footage  

You Really Got Me/ Interview (Japanese TV 1978) Lip sync footage with a hilarious interview. Video quality is slightly blurry sound quality is excellent.

Pretty Woman (San Remo Festival, Italy, RAI TV 1982) Lip sync footage inter cut with live crowd shots, Video quality is slightly blurry sound quality is excellent.

Mean Street (Discoring, Italy, RAI TV 1981) Lip sync footage for a small TV crowd. Video quality is slightly blurry sound quality is excellent.

Jump (Schuler Experess Report On Monsters Of Rock, Zeppelin Field, Nurnburg, Germany 1984) Crowd footage intermixed with audience interviews while a Motley Crue song plays followed by live footage of Van Halen playing a fragment of Jump. Video and sound quality are Very good/ Excellent.

Aint Talkin Bout Love (MTV Lost Weekend Outakes, Detroit, Pontiac Silverdome, April 5, 1984) Onstage and backstage footage of the lucky winner getting a cake slammed in his face and VH playing before a huge indoor crowd. Video and sound quality are very good.

Countdown Special (Countdown Veronica, The Netherlands 1981) Dave on the streets of Amsterdam asking to people on the street if they know Van Halen, eventually finding the band and interviewing them on a double Decker bus. Video and sound quality are very good.  

You Really Got Me/ And The Cradle Will Rock (ZDF Rock Pop Germany, June 21, 1980) Finally some 1980 footage, its lip sync TV show footage taped in front of a small audience, Dave in a crazy spandex that goes up to his ribs with suspenders, ATCWR is from the same show but the video quality is not as good as TRGM, this time Dave has added white fuzzy boots to his outfit. Good to very good video and excellent audio.

Loss Of Control (WAFC Promo Video, Australia 1980) Excellent promo, Dave in the same outfit as the previous footage but add a doctors coat and the rest of the band in medical scrubs, oh yeah there’s a nurse intertwined also. Video quality is very good, slightly dark and sound quality is excellent.

Unchained (Music Box, ZDF, Germany, 1981) Lip sync performance on what looks to be Germany’s version of American Bandstand. Video and sound quality are very good.

I’ll Wait (Ear Say TV BBC, UK. 1984) A video that does not even have VH in it, just a photographer and a pretty decent looking chick, video and sound quality are very good.

Hot For Teacher ( BBC Old Grey Whistle Test, Donnington Monsters of Rock Report, August 18, 1984) Live footage from the press pit in front of the stage, video quality and sound are very good.

Runnin With The Devil, Pretty Woman, You Really Got Me, Happy Trails (US Festival May 29, 1983. Italian RAI 3 Broadcast Version) Video and sound quality are very good.  

David Lee Roth Extra Footage  

David Lee Roth Interview (Late night with David Letterman January 1985) Dave being interviewed before the VH breakup to support his first solo record. Video and sound quality are very good.  

Baker Street, Your Ass Is Mine  A.K.A. Flex (Again), Mean Street (Acoustic jazz version), We Got A Good Thing Going (Club Dave Version), We Got A Good Thing Going (Final version) Unreleased videos from a unreleased album, Your Ass Is Mine is crazy, midgets, hot chicks, pregnant women, and cops, and Dave, song has a almost techno feel. We Got A Good Thing Going is like Your Ass Is Mine, something about Dave with the platinum blonde hair just isn’t right, more midgets and chicks. Video quality is very good, sound is excellent.