Fair Warning Merrill WI

Fair Warning

Van Halen

Warner Brothers, 1981

REVIEW BY: Bruce Rusk

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/16/2004

Fair Warning, the fourth release from Van Halen, comes as abit of a relief to my ears as it shows a greater degree of theaggressive, muscular sound I felt was lacking in Van Halen II and Women And Children First. After the hard rocking masterpiecethat is their debut album, the two follow-ups left me wanting more.Following disappointing slop like "Dance The Night Away"and"Beautiful Girls," this album is a refreshing relief. Why?Because they put first things first, as they should be. Eddie'sguitar is in the forefront almost every second of this album, rightwhere it belongs. The core of what made VH the success it was ispurely and simply the virtuoso playing of Eddie Van Halen, and thisalbum is a tribute to that talent.

On the subject of the Brothers Van Halen, I want to give propshere to Eddie's big brother Alex, whom I consider an unsung heroamong drummers. He may not be the most technical player, but he isrock-solid, consistent, and powerful. I like to compare him to JohnBonham (Led Zeppelin). Bonzo was never an artiste per se, but hehad incredible power and was a critical part of the sound of theZep. Like Bonzo, Alex is top-drawer and will always rank among myfavorites, and he kicks ass on this album. We now we return to thealbum review already in progress…

The band seems to have lost a bit of the light-heartedness thatwas present on the first three albums, which may have been theresult of tension that was growing between frontman David Lee Rothand Eddie Van Halen. Eddie wanted to branch out musically, and DLRwas trying to keep the band on the poster-children-for-partyingtrack. In the long run, it seems Eddie won this round, asdemonstrated the complete lack of cover songs. DLR was a big fan ofthe covers, and was responsible in large part for their inclusionon many VH albums (or so the legend tells). Eddie, on the otherhand, reportedly hated the covers, and agreed to record them partlyto keep the peace, and probably for the commercial potential aswell. Not a bad idea really; after all, it was their cover of TheKinks' "You Really Got Me" that launched their career in the firstplace. Still, I have always felt that the cover songs were theleast effective of any of their work. With a few exceptions, thecover songs tend to leave me flat. So, I was happy to find themmissing here.

Fair Warning spawned two absolutely stellar hard rockers,"Mean Streets" and "Unchained." First, the album opener "MeanStreets" showcases what VH always was, and always should be about,the badass guitar playing that put them on the map. The song beginswith a blistering guitar intro, and Eddie lays down a nasty, funkygroove that sets the standard for the rest of the album. This songis classic VH and ranks among my favorites. DLR is in his elementas well, as this is the perfect vehicle for his particular style.Roth never had a great voice, but more than made up for it withgreat timing, attitude and knowing how to stay within his limitedrange. This song in particular shows Diamond Dave at his best.