Diver
Down (1982)
1. Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
2. Hang 'Em High
3. Cathedral
4. Secrets
5. Intruder
6. (Oh) Pretty Woman
7. Dancing in the Street
8. Little Guitars (Intro)
9. Little Guitars
10.Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)
11.The Full Bug
12.Happy Trails
The fifth Van Halen album in as many years finds the band making an almost complete 180 from the gritty, hard-edged tone of Fair Warning. Where that record carried a darker, more serious weight, this one is pure lightheartedness. It isn’t exactly a “party album” — the content is cleaner, more PG-rated than almost anything else they’d ever recorded — but it is relentlessly playful. They sound like a band simply having fun, and while some diehards might sneer at its carefree approach, the result works surprisingly well.
Roughly half the set is made up of covers, many so far removed from the group’s usual territory that the very choice of material seems part of the joke. Dancing in the Street and (Oh) Pretty Woman are instantly recognizable to just about anyone, yet Van Halen stamp them with enough of their personality to avoid slipping into parody or sleaze. Then there’s the sheer absurdity of Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) — a full-on nod to Roth’s soon-to-come solo flamboyance — and the a cappella closer Happy Trails, which could only have been conceived in the haze of several post-session drinks. Against all odds, it all works. Van Halen have always been at their best when they refused to take themselves too seriously, and here the immaculate production makes even the silliest detours forgivable.
The original compositions deserve more recognition than they usually receive. Little Guitars has all the makings of a strong single, with a melodic hook that lingers, while Hang ’Em High delivers enough heaviness to appease those who find the rest of the album too lightweight. Not every indulgence lands, however. Eddie’s Cathedral — a brief instrumental built around a church-organ effect — is an intriguing experiment, but not especially memorable. On the other hand, Intruder stands out as one of the few darker pieces here, and its ominous atmosphere makes for an unexpectedly perfect lead-in to (Oh) Pretty Woman.
As ever, the record was followed by a massive tour — the aptly named “Hide Your Sheep” trek — and in concert, Van Halen delivered the goods. Like its predecessor, you didn’t have to love the album to love the band. They kept showing up, and they kept delivering exactly what their fans wanted.
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