Van Halen - Gene Simmons Demo (Zero)


Track Listing:
1. On Fire
2. Woman In Love
3. House Of Pain
4. Runnin' With The Devil
5. She's The Woman
6. Let's Get Rockin'
7. Big Trouble
8. Somebody Get Me A Doctor
9. Babe, Don't Leave Me Alone
10. Put Out The Lights

In 1976, KISS founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley went to one of the numerous LA rock clubs to preview a performance of one of the hot local bands, Boyz. However, after hearing the opening act, Van Halen, Gene had decided that is was this band that deserved a shot at stardom.

Gene decided to fly Van Halen to New York to record a demo for his record label, Casablanca. The Van Halen boys demoed 12 to 15 tracks, 10 of which made it onto the demo that was circulated on bootleg.

The demo had raw, heavy production. It was plain to see that the band had drawn influences from many early 70's metal bands. Influences from KISS, Aerosmith, Sabbath, Mountain, and Rainbow are present on the album. It was the beginning of one of the greatest early heavy metal bands of all time.

"On Fire"


This track is similar to the version that would make it to the self-titled debut.

"Woman In Love"


This version features slight changes in the lyrics and does not include the opening found on Van Halen II.

"House Of Pain"


One of the heaviest songs Van Halen has written, complete with David Lee Roth "death growls?"

"Runnin' With The Devil"


Never put on a studio album, this song does feature parts from "Mean Street."

"Let's Get Rockin'"


Wait, isn't this song on a KISS album?

"Big Trouble"


Eddie Van Halen: Channeling his inner Joe Perry, in my opinion.

"Somebody Get Me A Doctor"


This original intro was later reworked (reversed) and used on the final version. The lyrics seem to do less with sex and more with drugs, slightly.

"Babe, Don't Leave Me Alone"


No, this is the song from a KISS album, right?

"Put Out The Lights"


Son of a gun, how many KISS songs did they use?

Overall, a promising demo. Unfortunately, Gene needed to get back to KISS, and the record label didn't sign the band. However, after returning to L.A., Doobie Brother producer Ted Templeman heard the demo and liked what he heard. He promptly sign the band and had them make...

Not a bad demo at all, raw but yet not the VH we all come to know a couple of years later.

"Big Trouble" had me curious to see if it was the David Lee Roth solo tune of the same name.

Never heard most of those, that was kind of fun. Very different sound in some of those songs.

I love these demos... good stuff

These demos are amazing. I wish Van Halen would go with this kinda sound on their debut. This stuff is great.

Awesome! Never heard the demos before but they are good stuff!!!

Never heard the demos before, quite interesting.

I had a bootleg vinyl of this in high school for about a week. It grew legs and walked away from my house. The store in Montclair I got it at was really anal about how you purchased "bootleg" vinyl product. You HAD to say "import" or they would tell you to leave the store. One day they had a copy of a Zeppelin show titled "Going To California" which was a soundboard recording. Most live stuff was from some chicks purse out in the audience or something. I was short on frogskins(cash) and blurted out to my friend, "hey they have that same Zep bootleg that Virgil played for us at that party, give a five spot so I can get it" Needless to say we were tossed out and when I went back later in the week. It was gone.

Thanks for sharing the clips. really kewl stuff!

I never heard "Zero" until about a year ago and I love it! This album rules. Funny how Eddie uses alot of overdubs on this, quite a few times he uses two rythym tracks in the songs and on their debut he never used overdubs on the rythyms and only a couple leads he dubs in. I'm guessing their producer (Ted Templeton) must have told them to record the first album like they wouldve played it live.

There's also another demo that came after this, and about 5 bootlegs from around SoCal that are circulated even before their first album came out, dating back to 1975. Theyre mostly cover songs and some songs they recorded for their first two albums.

Awesome stuff, love each one of the those demos.

Sorry for the lack of activity. I've been busy lately with more work hours and helping my parents with some remodeling. Hopefully, I'll get the first album out of the way over the weekend.

Look forward to it.

First I've heard them too. Pretty cool to hear.

Van Halen - Van Halen


Track Listing:

1. Runnin' With The Devil
2. Eruption
3. You Really Got Me
4. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
5. I'm The One
6. Jamie's Cryin'
7. Atomic Punk
8. Feel Your Love Tonight
9. Little Dreamer
10. Ice Cream Man
11. On Fire

In 1978, Van Halen released one of the most influential rock/metal albums in the past 30 years. Their self-titled debut helped usher in a new era of heavy metal that didn't rely on the doom and gloom of Sabbath or the epic mysticism of Zeppelin. Largely drawing from the vein of Aerosmith and Kiss, Van Halen showed that balls-to-the-wall heavy metal could have a lighthearted to it. Tracks like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," "Ice Cream Man," Runnin' With The Devil," and the Kinks cover of "You Really Got Me" combined molten hot guitar riffs with a laid-back party sensibility that opened up metal to a more mainstream crowd. With Roth's playful sense of bravado and Michael Anthony's solid backup vox, Van Halen helped show that heavy metal didn't need to be a gloomy or daunting as some of the first wave of metal bands showed.

Obviously, the highlight of the album is the introduction of Eddie Van Halen's unique playing style. While many guitarist "shredded" in the 70's, nobody was as fast or as awe-inspiring as Eddie. His signature guitar solo, "Eruption" helped introduce the tapping technique to the world like it had never seen before (unless you knew of Steve Hackett). His lightning-quick fretting fingers and his otherworldly alternate picking abilities opened a whole new door for metal guitarist to explore. Just about every metal band has drawn influence from Eddie (and I do mean every). However, unlike most current shredders, Eddie still possessed a melodic sense in his songwriting, playing, and soloing. While many people today play as fast as they can, Eddie kept his soloing in check (for the most part) throughout the album. He helped enforce the neo-classical element of metal into the soloing, something that guitarists like Malmsteen and Rhoads would later expand on. Other than perhaps Hendrix or Clapton, Eddie Van Halen is the most influential guitarist of our time.

Overall, a groundbreaking album that helped put heavy metal back into the conscience of the world.

10/10

I remember the first time I heard the album, I was 9 years old and received it as a birthday gift for my 9th birthday. By this time, I had already started my KISS collection and loved hard rock/metal. I was blown away on first listen! Still one of the best debut albums ever!!!!!!! As mentioned, one of the most influencal albums ever released.

This is one of the most influential metal albums and debuts of all time, right up their with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and dare I say even Jimi Hendrix.

Eddie Van Halen's brown sound influenced every guitar that followed him, and his impact as far as guitar playing goes was as influential as Hendrix's was 11 years earlier.

Also IMO this album, along with Judas Priest's British Steel released two years later ushered in the modern era of modern metal, making pop melodies acceptable in metal, and David Lee Roth the ultimate frontman was the MC to the ultimate party band. Thirty plus years later the album still sounds fresh and it is perfect summer metal album.

One of the greatest debuts of all time,I think. Not a weak song on it. Runnin' With the Devil,Jamie's Cryin',Atomic Punk all stand out.The cover tune blows the original out of the water as well. Great great stuff !

Still one of the greatest albums of all time. I love Deep Purple, Rainbow, the NWOBHM etc. but this added a lightness, some fun to rock that was starting to molder a little bit.

Definitely a milestone in hard rock history... and an album that I desperately need to upgrade to CD one of these damn days.

Love every song on it, this album was a soundtrack to my youth, the '78 to about '83 era. Atomic Punk and On Fire are two of my altime fave VH songs. Although I was already a rock-n-roll kid when this came out, this album made me really love the guitar and forever made me sit up and take notice of each and every guitar player on every album to come out after this.

Love this album. Everything about it is just iconic, and pretty much all of the songs still get regular airplay (don't hear "Little Dreamer" very much). David Lee Roth is a very sexy god among men.