Van Halen - Diver Down [96/24 Vinyl Rip] (1982)

Diver Down is the fifth album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1982. According to Van Halen's official website, it spent 65 weeks on the US album charts and had, by 1998, sold 4 million copies in the United States.

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Fair Warning was such a dark, intense record that Van Halen almost had no choice but to lighten up on their next album, and 1982's Diver Down is indeed much lighter than its predecessor. In many ways, it's a return to the early albums, heavy on covers and party anthems, but where those records were rough and exuberant — they felt like the work of the world's best bar band just made good, which is, of course, kind of what they were — this is undoubtedly the work of a finely honed band who has only grown tighter and heavier since their debut. As a band, they might be tight, but Diver Down is anything but tight. It's a downright mess, barely clocking in at 31 minutes, cobbled together out of five covers, two minute-long instrumentals, and five new songs. By most measures, this should be the kind of slop that's difficult to muddle through, but it's not: it's one of Van Halen's best records, one that's just pure joy to hear. Like the debut, it's a great showcase for all the group's strengths, from Eddie Van Halen's always thrilling guitar to the bedrock foundation of Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony's throbbing pulse to, of course, David Lee Roth's strut. Each member gets places to shine and, in a way, covers showcase their skills in a way none of the originals does, since they get to twist "Oh, Pretty Woman," "Dancing in the Street," and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" inside out, all the better to make them their own. But this isn't complacent; Van Halen is stretching out in different ways, funneling the menace of Fair Warning into the ominous instrumental "Intruder," playing with the whiplash fury of a punk band on "Hang 'Em High," and honing their pop skills on the bright, new wavey rock of "Little Guitars" and the sweet "Secrets," which displays the lightest touch they've ever had on record. Combine that with the full-throttle attack on the covers, along with Dave's vaudevillian song and dance on "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" — a shtick that's electrified on the equally fun "The Full Bug" — and the result is a record that's nothing but fun, the polar opposite of its predecessor. - by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Five of the twelve songs on the album are covers, the most popular being the cover of "Oh, Pretty Woman," a cover of a Roy Orbison song of the same name. At the time, the record company thought they had a greater chance of a hit record if it comprised songs that were already successful. In retrospect, it turned out to be one of the Van Halen's brothers' least favorite albums with Eddie stating "I'd rather have a bomb with one of my own songs than a hit with someone else's". However, at the time whilst he admitted to the pressure the band was put under to record it, he was able to tell Guitar Player (Dec. 1982) that it "was fun": "When we came off the Fair Warning tour last year [1981], we were going to take a break and spend a lot of time writing this and that. Dave came up with the idea of, 'Hey, why don't we start off the new year with just putting out a single?' He wanted to do 'Dancing in the Streets.' He gave me the original Martha Reeves & the Vandellas tape, and I listened to it and said, 'I can't get a handle on anything out of this song.' I couldn't figure out a riff, and you know the way I like to play: I always like to do a riff, as opposed to just hitting barre chords and strumming. So I said, 'Look, if you want to do a cover tune, why don't we do 'Pretty Woman'? It took one day. We went to Sunset Sound in L.A., recorded it, and it came out right after the first of the year. It started climbing the charts, so all of a sudden Warner Bros. is going, 'You got a hit single on your hands. We gotta have that record.' We said, 'Wait a minute, we just did that to keep us out there, so that people know we're still alive.' But they just kept pressuring, so we jumped right back in without any rest or time to recuperate from the tour, and started recording. We spent 12 days making the album ... it was a lot of fun." In addition to this, two of the original songs were around long before the album was made. "Hang 'Em High" can trace its roots back to the band's 1977 demos as "Last Night", which had the same music but different lyrics. "Cathedral" was also nothing new, being played in its current form throughout 1981 with earlier versions going back to 1980. Additionally, "Happy Trails" had been recorded for their 1977 demos as a joke. - wikipedia

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Tracklist:

1. "Where Have All the Good Times Gone!" (Ray Davies) – 3:02
2. "Hang 'Em High" – 3:28
3. "Cathedral" – 1:20
4. "Secrets" – 3:25
5. "Intruder" – 1:39
6. "(Oh) Pretty Woman" (William Dees, Roy Orbison) – 2:53
7. "Dancing in the Street" (Marvin Gaye, Ivy Hunter, William Stevenson) – 3:43
8. "Little Guitars (Intro)" – 0:42
9. "Little Guitars" – 3:47
10. "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) – 2:44
11. "The Full Bug" – 3:18
12. "Happy Trails" (Dale Evans) – 1:03

* David Lee Roth - vocals, harmonica, synthesizer, acoustic guitar
* Eddie Van Halen- guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals
* Michael Anthony - bass, vocals
* Alex Van Halen - drums
* Jan Van Halen - clarinet and saxophones

Equipment:
Eumig PL-500 DD DC Direct Drive Turntable
Pioneer VSX-4700S Receiver
iMac with Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.5
Sound Studio 3


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