The 1973 classic Sammy Hagar doesn’t want to hear again: “It makes me cringe”
Sammy Hagar was always a fan of rock and roll first and foremost.
There were plenty of people who would have gladly wrung him up for being the person who “ruined” Van Halen, but when you look at the work that he put into everything, there wasn’t a single person who was more determined to turn the band into a powerhouse all over again than he was. He wanted the chance to show his stuff at every single opportunity, but there were bound to be some bumps along the way whenever he worked on his songs.
Because when someone starts out playing music from the time they are in their teens, not everything is going to hit the same way. ‘The Red Rocker’ had to spend some real time before he worked himself up to be a legend, and some of the best songs in his repertoire tend to come from the moments when he had less to worry about. By the time Van Halen called, he was already a star, but it started out a bit choppy for a while.
First of all, Hagar already had to deal with climbing out of the shadow of Montrose, and even if he did have his own supergroup with HSAS, they weren’t going to have the biggest draw until everyone knew him for joining Van Halen. But in those early days, Montrose was a decent enough band to rival what the Van Halen brothers were doing out in California in just a few years.
Ronnie Montrose was one of the greatest guitarists that the world had seen up until that point, and even if he didn’t have the same kind of star power as Eddie did, he was going to do everything he could to become a legend. And with a kid like Hagar, who was barely out of his teens, they made the kind of album that every single artist would have been proud to have made on that debut record.
The record isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but when looking at the potential of the group, everything for a classic rock band is already there. Hagar is in fine form and is ready to shatter everyone’s windows with that voice of his, but even if he was proud of the songs, Hagar felt that listening back to that record is normally the last thing on his mind whenever he works on backtracking.
He was a kid when he made that, and he felt like he was far from the same person that he was back then when listening to the record, saying, “I love that record. But I’m embarrassed. It makes me cringe because I was struggling. I was so in love that when I’m screaming get on your bad motor scooter and ride, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. It’s kind of embarrassing to be young and silly like that, but I love that little guy. The record makes me cringe. But then at the same time, I’m going, ‘Wow! That record is fucking full of fire!”
And it’s not like he should be ashamed of the work he put in here. This was a foundational rock record for anyone in the know, and when you look at what it went on to influence, there’s a good chance that the first incarnation of Van Halen wouldn’t have happened had they not cut their teeth playing songs from this record during their first few live shows.
There was a lot of adolescent angst in between a lot of the screaming, but there’s also a whole lot more charm than anyone would have expected. And for someone who was still figuring out what their voice was going to sound like after going through puberty, it’s not like ‘The Red Rocker’ made a bad first impression right out of the gate.
