It was the year 1984, the year Van Halen gave us this:
Albums like 1984 hghlight a problem with our streaming-and-downloads music market these days. Back then, when men with hair like David Lee Roth strutted on the earth, bands made albums whose songs some sometimes interconnected. You can play “Jump” without first playing “1984” as a lead-in, just as you can play “You Really Got Me” without preceding it with “Eruption”. But you lose something when you do. I know I’m a dinosaur and the idea is archaic, but if you don’t know what I’m talking about, find a full-album upload of 1984 or the eponymous Van Halen album and see what you’ve been missing. The rest of you, you know what I mean.
Of course, no one ever covers the lead-in song. More’s the pity, but it is what it is. I have two covers of “Jump” for today. First, a very acoustic cover by Aztec Camera:
Ok, acoustic except for the hot guitar solo at the end. For something a little different, you can always rely on Big Daddy:
Can’t you see what I mean? And may I just say, as Michael Binkley once did, that the world has indeed gone to hell in a handbasket since David Lee Roth left Van Halen.
(I can’t seem to find the relevant comic via Google, but because you’ve been such good boys and girls this week I will show you this and this. You’re welcome.)