#192
July
Sammy Hagar
VOA
4 out of 5
Highlights:
Rock is in My Blood
VOA
I remember the very first time I heard the name “Sammy Hagar”. I was in the new record shop (same guy, new location) in Bar Harbor. Flipping through the LPs with my buddy, Peter, he pulled out something and said, “This guy, Sammy Hagar”, I’ve heard a lot about him.
And that was it. We moved on. Now, Peter loved Van Halen so it’s very possible that’s why he’d been hearing about Sam. Not that Van Hagar was a thing yet, we were knee deep in 1984 and Pete was having a pair of red pants painted to look like Eddie’s guitar.
Needless to say, I wasn’t into that shit back then (I had no idea that this was to become a preferred sub-genre for decades).
So, here it is. The record that took the world by storm. The lead single has as much contemporary resonance as a song about rotary phones.
(I need to stop for a second and remind everyone that Sammy wrote the best cover of the 80s, Rick Springfield’s version of “I’ve Done Everything For You” was a revelation when I discovered, years too late, that it was done by Sam’s first band, Montrose.)
So, this is the in-between Montrose and VH. There’s been a few of these. Three Lock Box. Danger Zone. Street Machine. HSAS. (I missed Standing Hampton somehow.)
This is the one where I feel like Hagar got it the most right. It has the energy I have been expecting, in retrospect. It’s a big album. Made for a stadium.
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