Van Halen - As Is

In 1996, Van Halen released an album known as “Best Of, Volume 1“. The album mostly showcased their hits, but three tracks were on the album that were not previously on any albums prior. These tracks were “Humans Being“ with Sammy Hagar, and “Can’t Get This Stuff No More“ and “Me Wise Magic“ with David Lee Roth. At the time, it seemed as though the original Van Halen lineup would reform. “Can’t Get This Stuff No More“ and “Me Wise Magic“ got airplay, David Lee Roth had an incredible vocal performance on both songs, and they even went up on stage together at the MTV Video Music Awards that very same year. However, out of nowhere, Van Halen would not be reforming with David Lee Roth. Instead, opting to go with Gary Cherone of Extreme to record the subsequent disappointment that was Van Halen III. However, it does not take a genius to put two and two together, especially in this day in age of immediate informational entertainment brought to you by Google. During the 1996 sessions with Roth, it has been stated by many credible sources including Michael Anthony that Van Halen recorded more than two tracks with Roth. Unfortunately, these others were only demos and never saw the light of day, for a while at least. These other songs were a range of partially recorded ideas to fully recorded instrumentals, theorized that some tracks were completely finished as well without vocals or a scratch track of a melody vocal. From what I had read up on, Roth made it seem like him and the Van Halen brothers were in agreement to move forward together, and he had intended to stay. However, the 1996 MTV incident changed that with the backstage argument between him and Ed Van Halen. It has been revealed that in the summer of 2000, David Lee Roth and Van Halen had a failed reunion that was never announced. It is only public due to a quote from DLR and some information about it from Michael Anthony and Frank Meyer, a frequent interviewer of Roth. Roth called it “some of the most amazing, phenomenal music“, Meyer claimed they were “Awesome“, as he heard the demos of the lost songs sometime around 2004 from Roth’s manager. He also claimed every demo he heard abruptly stopped somewhere in the middle of the song, this was confirmed later that Roth only agreed to do live demos if they weren’t fully recorded until him and the VH brothers cut a deal in writing that these songs would be released under the Van Halen name with Roth’s vocals and lyrics, which of course went down the drain for a couple of years. Michael Anthony in an interview with Burn! magazine in 2006 when discussing the summer 2000 sessions claimed “I don’t know if we had a complete album’s worth of stuff, but we were pretty darn close“. Most of these songs were recorded originally in the summer 2000 session as simple demos, but it is often speculated, and rightly so, that these tracks were actually the other songs from the 1996 recording sessions for Volume 1 that never saw the light of day and possible even a tape recorder. It was confirmed by Frank Meyer that most of the songs from the 2000 recording session demos he heard around 2004 were actually later released on the “A Different Kind Of Truth“ album. He confirmed some of the tracks to be “As Is, Blood & Fire, The Trouble With Never, Honeybabysweetiedoll“, and all of the other songs that were NOT remake songs (like Big River and Tattoo). In my personal opinion, The Lost Album makes me nostalgic and cumbersome for a time that never came. To imagine what would’ve been had Van Halen not fallen apart backstage at the 1996 MTV awards, had they actually moved forward with Roth; Where these tracks could’ve gone and what the lost album would’ve been. That period in 1996 when these tracks were recorded, including Humans Being with Hagar, to me stands out as the darkest and heaviest period Van Halen ever went through when it came to songwriting. There is something so heavy, and so dark about these particular songs. As Is and Me Wise Magic are great examples of what I mean, Eddie’s songwriting and riffs sounded far different and deeper than any of his previous works, even the outro to Can’t Get This Stuff No More. It makes me clamor for an album of that really dark and heavy era from 1996 and 2000 that Van Halen attempted to put together with David Lee Roth, and that’s why I have decided to upload my own version of what I believe “The Lost Album“ would’ve been, track listings and all.