• AllMyVinyl #81
• Band: Van Halen
• Album Title: Fair Warning
• Release Date: 29 Apr 1981
• Date purchased: N/A
• Location purchased: N/A
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

“One break…. COMING UP!”

When people talk about Mk I Van Halen, most people tend to point to the first album or 1984 as the “best” album.  I’ve always felt Fair Warning was a dark horse for that category.  It probably really isn’t their “best” because that requires a solid album from front to back of smoking hot songs.  But there’s a LOT to like on this album.

It’s one I remember well from the past, and I know I had on cassette tape (as I had with most albums of this era), but for two days in a row on this thing, I don’t recall buying the vinyl copy back in the day.  I obviously did since it’s here, but I don’t recall buying it.  When I unpacked all the records from my brother I was quite pleasantly surprised to see Fair Warning in the pile.  There’s yet to be one in here that I can’t also listen to on Apple Music, but there’s something that seem more genuine when one spins the vinyl vs clicks a button on the ol Mac.  :)

This was one I discovered backwards – when I got into Van Halen originally, Diver Down was the current record – I then went to the first album, and found the others.  This one was one that I always felt deserved more attention as people tended to gravitate to VH1 or 1984 from the Roth era (as I mentioned above).

Oddly, I find myself struggling to write a ton of intro, I think that has something to do with not remembering owning this on  vinyl in the past – although I’m quite familiar with the music that was on it.  To that, Van Halen IV contains probably the heaviest overall sound that Van Halen ever put out.  While I liked the Hagar & Cherone albums, none of them were particularly “heavy”.  This one was.  It also has that mid/late 70’s album vibe.  What I mean by that is a full album (nine listed songs), yet the entire album is just 31 minutes – definitely produced before CD’s were a mass market item.  :)

Mean Street – The album leads off with the longest song on the album at 4:58.  Mean Street (that I always called “Mean Streets” – plural for years) starts off with some guitar dexterity from Eddie.  Does some funky ass stuff with the fretboard before we get to the main riff of the song, which itself is stellar, but the intro on its own is a great piece of work.  It’s a tone setter, as it contains everything that made Van Halen great to this point.  Eddie’s guitar, Dave & Michael’s vocals that complement each other and of course the beat underneath provided by Michael & Alex.  It’s another one of those songs that made me wish I could play guitar, as I always wanted to know how to do that – but my “not able to play guitar teenage ass” never could.  I loved the slower part before the end of the song where the lyrics are spoken and not sung.  “… and someone said Fair Warning” – I think part of it had to do with the fact those lyrics were shown on the interior sleeve that held the vinyl – I’ve included a picture of that below.  I always loved that visual.  Thing is as stellar as this song is for me with Eddie’s fingers all over it, it’s not my favorite on the album.

“Dirty Movies” – This starts off with a different sound – not like a ballad or anything, but definitely a slower vibe.  With the song title alone, you’d expect some kind of song that would fit in an old porn movie.  That would be so Roth to do, most likely.  Speaking of Roth, I always loved the sound of “Go see baby, now” from the lyrics – had a phonetic quality I enjoyed.  The “story”  behind the lyrics is one I always felt could go a few ways.  I mean it’s Roth era VH, it’s likely gonna be about sex – and this is.  But the story under it I thought could mean a few things.  The applause was an odd sound effect.   Overall not the most in your face guitar riffs – this one’s more about the lyrics and their story, IMO.

Sinner’s Swing! – Has a faster boogie riff that I really lived.  The VH Roth/Anthony vocal matchup worked well with this song.  I mean it’s always good, but I thought it was particularly well suited to the sound/riffs of this song.  Also the “Get, get, get, get, get out and push” from the chorus works well for me.  This is another where Eddie doesn’t dominate the song, but just operates in the background and his guitar work services the song – not the other way around (which has been known to happen).   Oh gee, another song about sex. haha.

Hear About it Later – Side 1 ends with this track that starts off slower – without any of the signature EVH guitar sound.  Sets a tone, but given the album it’s on you get the feeling you’re going to get blasted in the face with a guitar riff after a time.  While that doesn’t happen, it’s actually a good transition into the main part of the song, as the initial sound and the full band sound are blended quite well.  This is the song I remember the least from the album.  It ends up with the usual Van Halen power, but it didn’t start that way – nice slow burn track.  Although now that it’s over, I still don’t recall it a ton.

Unchained – Side 2 starts off with this absolute banger of a track – my favorite on the album.  The opening guitar riff absolutely smokes – one of Eddie’s best in the entire VH catalog.  I also ADORE that little extra bit he adds in the background behind the main riff – one of may favorite guitar accents by anyone ever.  A nearly perfect marriage of all of what the four VH members brought to the table.  I always from back then till now sing along with the parts that are both sung by Michael Anthony (and not Roth on his own).  The guitar solo part of the song is a bit short, but the main riff that runs through the entire song is so stellar, I didn’t give a crap.  Man  this song kicks ass, I’m out of things to say.  Just go listen to the bastard.  Easily the best thing on the album.

It’s why I was overjoyed when I saw Van Halen in 1998 and Gary Cherone was the vocalist they brought Unchained back.  I had seen them with Sammy, but didn’t do a ton of Roth era tracks, so when Cherone was frontman, they mined the past a bit more.  Loved that I got to see Eddie do this live.  One of my favorite concert performances.

Push Comes to Shove – A song mostly driven by Michael Anthony – almost like they let the bass guitar take the lead, and Eddie was in the background – almost totally invisible in his traditional sound.  A different sound for Van Halen for sure.  It still sounds nice to my ears, but they were going for something different here for sure.

So This is Love? – This one also features Michael Anthony a bit, especially in the opening, but overall, this is a more traditional Van Halen sound than Push was.  It’s quite nice and

Sunday Afternoon in the Park – This is an instrumental, and at 1:59 really feels like an extended intro into the next song.  I always wondered of this was label trickery to make the album seem like it has more songs than it really did…  The synth sound that was on 1984 a ton seems to start here.  This is a sound that sounds like it would have fit in on 1984 (or beyond) in the VH catalog.  It kind of feels like a bass solo played on a keyboard – if that makes sense.

One Foot Out the Door – This feels like the second half of Sunday, and at one second shorter, it definitely feels like it should havre been one song IMO.  It retains the fat bottom end sound of Sunday – but it’s more of faster song like So This is Love or Sinner’s Swing.  It’s actually a little underwhelming for an end of album track.  There’s nothing BAD about it, but I get the feeling something more “proper” should have been here for end of album.  It leaves me with an odd feeling for the end of the album.  Would I feel differently if Sunday and One Foot were a single song?  Hard to tell.

Listening to this album today reinforces that the guitar work on here by Eddie is some of his best ever.  People will point to Van Halen 1 or 1984 as some of the best work in the Roth era, but don’t overlook Fair Warning.  There’s some great work on here, and I really enjoyed this listen today, as it’s been awhile.

“… and someone said fair warning
Lord will strike that poor boy down”.