Van Halen- Fair Warning- Eddie & Alex Van Halen

The upside/ downside comparison of Van Halen‘s April 1981 album Fair Warning   can probably explain why it is easily the band’s most overlooked effort in the original David Lee Roth era. Pro: Fair Warning   is the most Eddie Van Halen-dominated album until the mega-hit 1984.  Con: as AllMusic.com‘s Stephen Thomas Erlewine nails it,”Fair Warning  was the first Van Halen album that doesn’t feel like a party.” Pro: two of the best rockers the band ever did are on Fair Warning, “Unchained“and the woulda-coulda-shoulda been big “So This is Love?“. Con: those are the only two songs most people can recall from the album. Pro: Fair Warning  sold over two million copies, a feat any band today would kill for. Con: at only a little more than two million sold, Fair Warning  by comparison was Van Halen’s slowest seller from the original foursome.

Even my guest with Eddie, drummer Alex Van Halen, says regretfully,” I watched while Eddie suffered relentlessy through making that album”, as apparently the pace and Guinness Book-level hedonism of those first four albums and tours were leaving the song tank on empty. Eddie and Alex both weigh in on Fair Warning‘s thirty-fifth anniversary. –Redbeard