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Diver Down
Studio album by Van Halen
Released	April 14, 1982
Recorded	1982, Sunset Sound, LA; Warner Bros. Recording Studios (formerly Amiga Studios), LA
Genre	Hard Rock
Length	31:04
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Producer	Ted Templeman
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link
Van Halen chronology
Fair Warning (1981) Diver Down (1982) 1984 (1984)

Diver Down is the fifth album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1982. According to www.van-halen.com it spent 65 weeks on the US album charts and had, by 1998, sold 4 million copies in the United States. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Cover for album Diver Down by Van Halen. ... A studio album is a collection of studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist. ... This article is about the band Van Halen. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 261 days remaining. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Hard Rock redirects here. ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Warner Bros. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Ted Templeman (born October 24, 1944) is an influential American record producer. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 3. ... This article is about the magazine. ... Image File history File links 2_stars. ... This article is about the band Van Halen. ... Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1981. ... 1984 (written as MCMLXXXIV on the front cover) is the sixth album by American hard rock band Van Halen. ... An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. ... Hard Rock redirects here. ... This article is about the band Van Halen. ... See also: 1982 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1982 Record labels established in 1982 list of years in music // January 15 - K.C. and the Sunshine Bands Harry Wayne Casey is seriously injured in an automobile accident in Miami, Florida. ...

The album cover displays the "diver down" flag used in many US jurisdictions^[1] to indicate a diver is currently submerged in the area, and caution is advised to nearby boats. Asked about the cover in a 1982 interview with Sylvie Simmons (Sounds, June 23, 1982), David Lee Roth said it was meant to imply that "there was something going on that's not apparent to your eyes. You put up the red flag with the white slash. Well, a lot of people approach Van Halen as sort of the abyss. It means, its not immediately apparent to your eyes what is going on underneath the surface."

The music video for "(Oh) Pretty Woman" was one of the first banned by MTV although VH1 Classic has consistently aired it in recent years. In 1982, Dave explained the ban as the result of complaints that it made fun of "an almost theological figure" the Samurai warrior (Mike Anthony in the video) and also because two midgets appeared to molest a woman (actually a man in drag). The video, directed by Roth, was, he said: "rather like a surrealistic art project ... where they paint the picture and come back three days later and try to figure out what they meant." The track "Intruder" on the album, which precedes "(Oh) Pretty Woman", was written specifically in order that there would be enough music to cover the length of the film that was edited down for the "(Oh) Pretty Woman" video. In his 1982 interview with Sylvie Simmons, Dave takes credit for "Intruder", stating: "I wrote that ... When we finished the movie (i.e., the video) it was about three minutes too long. So, I said, we won't cut any of it; we'll write soundtrack music for the beginning. So we went into the studio and I played the synthesizer and I wrote it. It took about an hour to put that together." (Sounds, June 23, 1982) Oh, Pretty Woman is a song which was a worldwide hit for Roy Orbison. ... This article is about the original U.S. music television channel. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ...

Eddie and Alex Van Halen's father, Jan Van Halen, plays clarinet on "Big Bad Bill." A native of Sweden, Jan Van Halen is an accomplished bandleader who is also a skilled saxophonist and clarinetist. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left, with capped mouthpiece) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ...

Five of the twelve songs on the album are covers, the most popular being the cover of "Oh, Pretty Woman". 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.

The Songs - Covers and Originals

Two interviews from the period give the best account of how the band - certainly Dave and Eddie - saw the album at the time. The comments here are taken from Dave's interview with Sylvie Simmons (Sounds, June 23, 1982) and Eddie's interview with Jas Obrecht (Guitar Player, Dec. 1982).

Where Have all the Good Times Gone Image File history File linksMetadata Diver-down-ad-sm. ...

Dave: "we're capable of playing six different [Kinks songs]. Because at one time, back in our bar days, I bought a double album from K-Tel or something that had 30 Kinks tunes on it. We learned all of one side and played them into the dirt during the club gigs, twice a night each one, because they sounded so good and they were great to dance to, etc., etc." He added that the band had never met Ray Davies but that "we had a seance once and tried to dredge up his spirit. And Chrissie Hynde materialized for a brief moment." Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE (born June 21, 1944 at Fortis Green, London) is an influential English rock musician, best known as lead singer-songwriter for The Kinks - one of the most influential, prolific and long-lived British Invasion bands - which he led with his younger brother, Dave. ... Chrissie Hynde (born Christine Ellen Hynde, 7 September 1951, Akron, Ohio) is an American rock musician, best known as the leader of the band The Pretenders. ...

Eddie: "The solo was more sounds than lines. I ran the edge of my pick up and down the strings for some of those effects. I think I used my Echoplex in that song."

Hang 'Em High

Dave: "It's like all those Westerns where there's some kind of disonant sound in the background. Like they'll have one harmonica that hits only one note - eeeeeeeeee - and that's when you know the hero is coming to town or something terrible is going to happen. And what happens is Edward will come up with a song or a riff and then immediately I'll hear it and I'll know right away what the scenario is."

Eddie: "The solo was just loose, fun, craziness. I play it better every night than I did on the record, but who cares? It has feeling. Actually that was a really old song."

Cathedral

Eddie: "I've been doing 'Cathedral' for over a year and I wanted to put it on record ... it sounds like a Catholic church organ, which is how it got its name. On that cut I use the volume knob a lot. If you turn it up and down too fast, it heats up and freezes. I did two takes of that song, and right at the end of the second take, the volume knob just froze, just stopped."

Secrets

Dave: "The nucleus of the lyrics come from greeting cards and get-well cards that I bought in Albequerque, New Mexico on the last tour, and they were written in the style of American Indian poetry. 'May your mocassins leave happy tracks in the summer snows'.

Eddie: "I used a Gibson doubleneck 12-string, the model Jimmy Page uses, and played with a flatpick. The solo in 'Secrets' was a first take. I kind of laid back, and it fit the song."

Dancing in the Streets

Dave: "It sounds like more than four people are playing, when in actuality there are almost zero overdubs - that's why it takes us such a short amount of time [to record]."

Eddie: "It takes almost as much time to make a cover song sound original as it does writing a song. I spent a lot of time arranging and playing synthesizer on 'Dancing in the Streets,' and they [critics] just wrote it off as , 'Oh, it's just like the original.' So forget the critics! These are good songs. Why shouldn't we redo them for the new generation of people?'

Little Guitars

Dave: "Edward was saying he'd just seen this TV show with a flamenco guy doing all these wonderful things with his fingers, and he says 'I've figured out how to do it with one pick, watch this.' And he faked it. And it sounded better than the original ... It sounded Mexican to me, so I wrote a song for senoritas."

Eddie: "I think that the best thing I do is cheat. I came up with the intro after I bought a couple of Carlos Montoya records. I was hearing his fingerpicking, going, 'My God, this guy is great. I can't do that.' So, I just listened to that style of music for a couple of days and I cheated! [Using a pick] I am doing trills on the high E and pull-offs with my left hand, and slapping my middle finger on the low E. If there's something I want to do and can't, I won't give up until I can figure out some way to make it sound similar to what I really can't do." Carlos Montoya was a prominent Flamenco guitarist. ...

Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)

Dave: "I think it's a great song. And there has been this thread winding its way through all of Van Halen's music and all of our albums since beginning with 'Ice Cream Man'. I played acoustic guitar and songs like this for quite a while before I ever joined Van Halen. It's music. Why do I have to bang my head to every single song on every single album? I don't think the audience has that much lack of creativity or imagination."

Eddie: "It was Dave's idea to do 'Big Bad Bill'. He bought himself one of those Sanyo Walkman-type things with the FM-AM radio, and you can record off the radio if you like something you hear. He was up in his bedroom at his father's house and he found that if he stood in a certain spot and pointed his antenna a certain way, he picked up this weird radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. He recorded 'Big Bad Bill' and played it to us, and we started laughing ourselves silly and going, 'That is bad! Let's do it!' Dave suggested, 'Hey, we can get your old man to play the clarinet.' We said, 'sure.'

"It's so funny, because I couldn't play the song for you right now. I had to read because there were so many chords, I just couldn't remember it. So here's my father to the left of me, sitting on a chair with a music stand in front of him, and I'm sitting next to him with sheet music in a stand. Mike was there, too, playing like an acoustic guitar bass - the kind they have in Mexican restaurants where they come up, play in front of your face, and aggravate you. We had a great time. It looked like an old '30s or '40s session. I used some thick Gibson hollowbody with f-holes. My father hadn't played in a long time because he had lost his left-hand middle finger about ten years ago. He was nervous, and we told him, 'Jan, just have a good time. We make mistakes! That's what makes it real.' I love what he did, but he was thinking back ten years ago when he was smokin', playing jazz and stuff. He played exactly what we wanted." A violoncello player reading from a foldable music stand A music stand is a device that holds sheet music in a position that allows the performer to read it while performing. ...

Dave: "I think when you hear Mr. Van Halen playing, you'll have an idea it's a shadow of where Eddie and Alex are now. There's a sense of humour in there, a lot of technique and a whole lot of beer!"

The Full Bug

Dave: "You know when you have a cockroach and they run round the house and get into a corner? We used to have these shoes called PRFCs - Puerto Rican Fence Climbers, okay? And this was aptly titled because if you were running from the police or what have you, and you were wearing your PRFCs, you could hit the fence at a dead run and your foot would stay in and you could commence climbing immediately, which was the essence of the whole sport anyway. And these were also great shoes for when the cockroach moves into the corner and you get at it with your foot or the broom anymore. You just jam your toe into the corner and hit as hard as you can. And if you did it right you got the full bug. So this slang means - bammm! - you have to give it everything you've got. Make the maximum effort, do everything possible, get the full bug."

Eddie: "Dave plays the acoustic guitar and harmonica on the intro of 'The Full Bug.' My lines in the middle of that are different. I've been doing a lot of stuff with Allan Holdsworth, and he inspires me." Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire) is a British jazz guitarist and composer. ...

Happy Trails

Dave: "Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck, Sylvie! You wouldn't believe the number of TV commercials and radio jingles this band can sing in four-part harmony. I was nannied and weaned by TV- that's the babysitter around here when you're growing up, to sit in front of the tube. You turn into a vidiot. I remember all the commercials. We've been singing 'Happy Trails' for general airport use for years. And we wanted to do something wonderful and different for you."

Track listing

all songs by Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Edward Van Halen and Alex Van Halen, except where noted

1. "Where Have All the Good Times Gone!" (Ray Davies) – 3:04
2. "Hang 'Em High" – 3:28
3. "Cathedral" – 1:22
4. "Secrets" – 3:25†
5. "Intruder" – 1:39
6. "(Oh) Pretty Woman" (William Dees, Roy Orbison) – 2:55†
7. "Dancing in the Street" (Marvin Gaye, Ivy Hunter, William Stevenson) – 3:45†
8. "Little Guitars (Intro)" – 0:42
9. "Little Guitars" – 3:48
10. "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) – 2:45
11. "The Full Bug" – 3:21
12. "Happy Trails" (Dale Evans) – 1:05

† denotes a single Where Have All The Good Times Gone is a song written by Ray Davies of The Kinks. ... Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE (born June 21, 1944 at Fortis Green, London) is an influential English rock musician, best known as lead singer-songwriter for The Kinks - one of the most influential, prolific and long-lived British Invasion bands - which he led with his younger brother, Dave. ... Oh, Pretty Woman is a song which was a worldwide hit for Roy Orbison. ... Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988), nicknamed The Big O, was an influential Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, guitarist and a pioneer of rock and roll whose recording career spanned more than four decades. ... Dancing in the Street is a 1964 song by Martha and the Vandellas. ... Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. ... Little Guitars is a song by Van Halen from their 1982 album Diver Down. ... Milton Ager (October 6, 1893 - May 6, 1979) was an American pianist and composer. ... Jack Yellen (Jacek JeleÅ„) (July 6, 1892 - April 17, 1991) was a Polish-Jewish born American lyricist. ... --162. ...

Personnel

Van Halen

• David Lee Roth - vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, synthesizer
• Eddie Van Halen- guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Michael Anthony - bass, vocals
• Alex Van Halen - drums

Additional personnel David Lee Roth (sometimes referred to as Diamond Dave) (born 10 October 1954, Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality, best known for his work with the band Van Halen. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Acoustic guitar can refer to the following musical instruments: Nylon and gut stringed guitars: Renaissance guitar Baroque guitar Romantic guitar Classical guitar, the modern version of the original guitar, with nylon strings Flamenco guitar Steel stringed guitars: Steel-string acoustic guitar, also known as western, folk or country guitar Twelve... A harmonica is a free reed wind instrument. ... For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). ... Edward Van Halen (born Edward Lodewijk van Halen on January 26, 1955[1] in Nijmegen, Netherlands), is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer most famous for being the lead guitarist and a co-founder of the hard rock band, Van Halen. ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... For the article on the Trinidadian author of The Year in San Fernando, see Michael Anthony (author). ... A sunburst-colored Precision Bass The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a bass stringed instrument played with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ...

• Jan Van Halen - clarinet and saxophones

A native of Sweden, Jan Van Halen is an accomplished bandleader who is also a skilled saxophonist and clarinetist. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left, with capped mouthpiece) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family. ...

Production

• Producer: Ted Templeman
• Engineers: Ken Deane, Donn Landee
• Project coordinator: Jo Motta
• Art direction: Pete Angelus, Richard Seireeni
• Photography: Richard Aaron, Neil Zlozower

Charts

Album

Billboard (North America) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ...

Singles

Billboard (North America)

Oh, Pretty Woman is a song which was a worldwide hit for Roy Orbison. ... Oh, Pretty Woman is a song which was a worldwide hit for Roy Orbison. ... Dancing in the Street is a 1964 song by Martha and the Vandellas. ... Dancing in the Street is a 1964 song by Martha and the Vandellas. ... Little Guitars is a song by Van Halen from their 1982 album Diver Down. ...

See also

• International maritime signal flags
• Van Halen - Oh Pretty Woman Original Music Video

The system of international maritime signal flags is a way of representing individual letters of the alphabet in signals to or from ships. ... This article is about the band Van Halen. ... David Lee Roth (sometimes referred to as Diamond Dave) (born 10 October 1954, Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality, best known for his work with the band Van Halen. ... Edward Van Halen (born Edward Lodewijk van Halen on January 26, 1955[1] in Nijmegen, Netherlands), is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer most famous for being the lead guitarist and a co-founder of the hard rock band, Van Halen. ... Wolfgang Wolf William Van Halen (born March 16, 1991) is an American guitarist and bassist. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... For the article on the Trinidadian author of The Year in San Fernando, see Michael Anthony (author). ... Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947 in Monterey, California, USA), better known as Sammy Hagar (aka The Red Rocker), is an American rock guitarist, singer, and composer. ... Gary Cherone (b. ... Mark Stone was a bass guitar player in a band called Mammoth from 1972 - 1974. ... Mitch Malloy was briefly a lead vocalist for hard rock band Van Halen. ... Van Halen is the self-titled debut album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1978. ... Van Halen II is the second album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1979. ... Women and Children First is the third album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1980. ... Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1981. ... 1984 (written as MCMLXXXIV on the front cover) is the sixth album by American hard rock band Van Halen. ... 5150 is the seventh album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1986. ... OU812 is the eighth album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1988. ... For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (also known as F.U.C.K.) is the ninth album by the American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991. ... Balance is the tenth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1995. ... Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1998. ... Best of Volume I is the first compilation of studio tracks by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1996. ... The Best of Both Worlds is a greatest hits album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 2004. ... Live: Right Here, Right Now is the first live album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1993 (see 1993 in music). ... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard. ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... Live concert video of Van Halen recorded in New Haven, CT in 1986, and released the following year. ... A list of concert tours by hard rock band Van Halen. ... The World Invasion Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen to support their third album Women and Children First. ... The Fair Warning Tour was a North American concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen in support of their Fair Warning album. ... The 1984 tour was a North American concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen in support of their album 1984. ... The Monsters of Rock Tour 1984 was a festival tour of Europe in 1984. ... The 1986 Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... The Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 was a festival tour of the USA in 1988, headlined by hard rock band Van Halen as part of their promotion for their OU812 album. ... The OU812 Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... The For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour (also known as the F.U.C.K. Tour) was a 1991–1992 concert tour by the hard rock band Van Halen in support of their album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. ... The Right Here Right Now Tour was a 1993 concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... The III Tour was a 1998 concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... Van Halen Summer Tour 2004 was a North American tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... Van Halen North American Tour 2007 is a concert tour occurring in the Fall of 2007 for hard rock band Van Halen. ... The Van Halen World Tour 2008 is a proposed concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. ... Members of Van Halen have collaborated with ex-members numerous times, or even in each others side projects. ... This is a discography for popular and successful (in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s) American hard rock band Van Halen. ... Here is a list of singles released by hard rock band Van Halen during their active periods. ...

References