van halen diver down tour setlist

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Van Halen’s ‘Diver Down': A Track-By-Track Guide

Van Halen 's  Diver Down was a masterclass in making a lot out of a little.

The band had only itself to blame for the rushed circumstances of its fifth album. When Van Halen wrapped the  Fair Warning   tour in late 1981, they had planned to take a well-earned break from the nonstop album/tour schedule they had been following for four years. But first, at the behest of David Lee Roth , they decided to bang out a quick cover tune and music video to buy some time, settling on a rendition of Roy Orbison 's "(Oh) Pretty Woman."

The gambit backfired gloriously when "(Oh) Pretty Woman" shot to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Warner Bros. promptly demanded a new album within weeks to capitalize on the band's momentum. Van Halen had dashed their R&R plans because they couldn't stop making hit records if they tried.

Consequently,  Diver Down  - which was released on April 14, 1982 - contains only four full-length original songs, along with five covers and three instrumentals. Some critics lampooned the album upon release and took it as a sign the band was running on empty. But even though  Diver Down was an admitted rush job, it was far from a hack job. Van Halen play the covers with well-oiled bar-band panache, and their originals crackle with spontaneous verve and virtuosity, particularly  Eddie Van Halen 's solo compositions.

Fans were apparently grateful for the palate cleanser after the knotty, progressive pop-metal of  Fair Warning , and  Diver Down peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and eventually went quadruple platinum. Read on for a track-by-track guide to the most misunderstood and divisive Van Halen album of the DLR era.

"Where Have All the Good Times Gone!"

Four years after issuing " You Really Got Me " as their first single, Van Halen pilfered the Kinks ' catalog once again for the opening track on Diver Down . Van Halen had roughly half a dozen Kinks songs in rotation during their club days, having learned a whole side of a compilation album that Roth owned. "Where have all the good times gone? I'm serious," the singer lamented to Creem in 1982. "It happened to punk rock a lot, it happened to new wave, it happened to reggae and heavy metal and on and on — a lot of business people just want to make a buck, and they're becoming craftsmen more than songwriters."

"Hang 'Em High"

The fastest, heaviest rocker on Diver Down , "Hang 'Em High" was originally recorded with different lyrics under the title " Last Night " for consideration on Van Halen's debut album . It shares its title with a 1968 Western starring Clint Eastwood , and its lyrics appear to be inspired by the actor. Roth's comments about the song at the time of its release support that conjecture. "It's all those Westerns where there's some kind of dissonant sound in the background, like they'll have one harmonica that only hits one note – eeeee – and that's when you know that the hero is coming into town or something terrible or wonderful is going to happen," he told Creem . "And what happens is Edward will come up with a song or a riff or part of a song, and then immediately I'll hear it and I'll know right away what the scenario is. I'll just know."

"Cathedral"

The traditional instrumental number on  Diver Down was far removed from the breakneck shredding of "Eruption" and "Spanish Fly," but no less compelling. Using a boatload of echo and chorus, Eddie Van Halen emulated the sound of a church organ on his 1961 Fender Stratocaster, hammering notes with his left hand while twisting the volume knob with his right. "If you turn it too much, too fast, the thing heats up and freezes up," Van Halen told  Guitar Player in 1982. "I did two takes of it, and right at the end of the second take, the volume knob just froze, just stopped."

"Secrets"

Van Halen didn't agonize over the swinging, languid "Secrets." The lyrics were inspired by a series of greeting cards Roth bought in Albuquerque, N.M., written in the style of Indigenous poetry. "You've got to fill up your bucket," the singer explained to Creem . "You've heard music by people with empty buckets? Music all about groupies, about airplanes, about going on the road, hotels. Not too many people can relate to that. They like to hear about it once or twice, but most of us feel left out." Eddie Van Halen, meanwhile, swapped his signature Frankenstrat in favor of a double-neck Gibson EDS-1275, popularized by Jimmy Page , and cut the laid-back solo in one take. "What people don't realize is a song like 'Secrets,' it doesn't call for a fucking crazy solo," Van Halen told Guitar Player . "You have to do a solo that fits the song."

"Intruder / (Oh) Pretty Woman"

Following the grueling Fair Warning tour, Van Halen decided to bang out a quick cover song to keep themselves in the public eye and buy time with their record label. They settled on Roy Orbison's "(Oh) Pretty Woman," which was accompanied by an elaborate music video featuring the costumed band members — Roth as Napoleon, Eddie as a cowboy, Alex Van Halen as Tarzan and Michael Anthony as a samurai — rescuing a drag queen from the clutches of two perverted dwarves. The video ran longer than the three-minute song, so Van Halen wrote the droning instrumental "Intruder" (featuring Roth on the Minimoog analog synthesizer) to flesh it out. "(Oh) Pretty Woman" was a hit, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Unfortunately, Van Halen's plan to buy themselves time backfired, as Warner Bros. demanded an immediate follow-up album upon learning of the single's success. "When you put out a hit single, you better have an album to go behind it, because nobody — the company, the act — makes any real money on a single," producer Ted Templeman wrote in his 2020 autobiography,  Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music . "I'm sure those guys thought that by releasing a single and video, they could temporarily pause the annual album/tour cycle that they'd been on since 1977. But instead, the word came down to me from Mo [Ostin] and Lenny [Waronker] that Warner Bros. wanted a new Van Halen album within weeks . Van Halen's management agreed. So the message to the band and me was 'OK, guys, you've got a hit. Let's get moving. Go into the studio.'"

Read More: How Van Halen's '(Oh) Pretty Woman' Led to Rushed 'Diver Down'

"Dancing in the Street"

You'd be forgiven for assuming that cover songs are an easier, lower-stakes exercise for a band than writing originals, but that was hardly the case with Van Halen's rendition of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street." Eddie Van Halen ornamented the Motown classic with a pulsating Minimoog synthesizer riff, which he had originally planned to use for a composition. "It was going to be a completely different song," Van Halen told  Guitar World  in 2014. "I envisioned it being more like a  Peter Gabriel  song instead of what it turned out to be, but when Ted Templeman heard it, he decided it would be great for 'Dancing in the Street.'" The disagreement over "Dancing in the Street" widened the schism between Eddie Van Halen, who wanted more control to push the band in new directions, and Roth and Templeman, who preferred the hard-rocking, live-in-the-room approach of their early records. It didn't help that Van Halen perceived the critical reaction as ill-informed. "I spent a lot of time arranging and playing synthesizer and shit on 'Dancing in the Street,' and they're just gonna write it off as, 'Oh, it's just like the original.' But that's bullshit," he told  Guitar Player.

Read More: Did One Song Force the Collapse of Van Halen's Original Lineup?

"Little Guitars (Intro) / Little Guitars"

Eddie Van Halen wrote and recorded the poppy, rhythmically dexterous "Little Guitars" on a miniature Gibson Les Paul copy built by Nashville luthier David Petschulat. "I think the best thing that I do is cheat," Van Halen said of the song's 40-second flamenco guitar intro. "I bought a couple of [Carlos] Montoya records. I'm hearing this guy fingerpicking, and I'm going, 'My God, this motherfucker's great. I can't do that.' So what I did was I just kind of listened to that style of playing for a couple days, and I cheated. ... What I'm doing is trilling on the high E and just slapping my middle finger on the low E. ... If there's something that I want to do, I won't give up until I can figure out some way to make it sound similar to what I really can't do." The intro to "Little Guitars" also inspired Roth's lyrics. "I got the idea for the song from the acoustic part – it sounded Mexican to me so I wrote a song for a senorita," he told  Creem .

"Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)"

According to Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth got the idea to cover this 1924 Milton Anger and Jack Yellen tune after hearing it on his Walkman while he was at his father’s house in Louisville, Ky. "He just picked it up and recorded it and played it to us, and we just started laughing ourselves silly and going, 'That is bad! Let's do it!'" Van Halen told Guitar Player . The song became an even bigger family affair when Roth suggested getting Van Halen’s father, Jan, to play the clarinet. "He hasn't played his clarinet in 10 years because he lost his left-hand middle finger about 10 years ago," Van Halen said. "He was nervous as shit, and we're just telling him, 'Jan, just fuckin' have a good time. We make mistakes! That's what makes it real.' I love what he did, but it's just that he's thinking back 10 years ago when he was smokin', playing jazz and stuff. … But fuck, it's exactly what we wanted."

"The Full Bug"

David Lee Roth flexes his harmonica and rudimentary acoustic guitar skills for the last time with Van Halen on this boozy blues-rock jam about the virtue of finishing what ya started . "You know when you have a cockroach and they run around the house and get into the corner?" Roth asked  Creem . "We used to have these shoes called PRFCs – Puerto Rican Fence Climbers, OK? And this was aptly titled because if you were running from somebody or the police or what have you, and you were wearing your PRFCs, you could hit the fence at a dead run and your foot would stay anyway. And these were also great for when the cockroach moves into the corner and you can't get at it with your foot or the broom anymore. You just jam your toe into the corner and hit as hard as you can, and if you did it right, you get the full bug. So this slang means, to get the full bug, bammm ! You have to give it everything you've got, make the maximum effort, do everything possible, get the full bug."

"Happy Trails"

David Lee Roth has always worn his love for old-school Hollywood showbiz on his sleeve, so the decision to cover The Roy Rogers Show theme song should have come as no surprise. "You wouldn't believe the number of TV commercials and radio jingles this band can sing in four-part harmony," Roth boasted to Creem . "I was nannied and weaned by TV — that's the babysitter around here when you're growing up, to sit in front of the tube. You turn into a vidiot. I remember all the commercials. ...   We've been singing 'Happy Trails' together for general airport use for years. And we wanted to do something wonderful and different for you."

Van Halen Albums Ranked

More from ultimate classic rock.

Diver Down by Van Halen

Album Reviews 1982 Albums , 2012 Reviews , Album Reviews by Ric Albano , American Artists , California Artists , David Lee Roth , Eddie Van Halen , Van Halen 1

By all traditional metrics, this should be an awful album. It is a 31-minute (extremely short to be considered an “LP”) hodge-podge of cover songs, short instrumental pieces, and demos from the band’s earliest days, wrapped around just a few new original numbers. But there is an undeniable charm which makes this somehow all gel into one of the more interesting Van Halen albums. Although guitarist Eddie Van Halen admits that making the album was a lot of fun, he also states that it is his least favorite album because of all the cover songs stating, “I’d rather have a bomb with one of my own songs than a hit with someone else’s.” However, some critics have noted that cover songs, starting with “You Really Got Me” from the band’s 1978 debut album, are the perfect mechanism for the band to showcase their unique sound.

Lead vocalist David Lee Roth said the album’s title was meant to imply that “there was something going on (with the band) underneath the surface that’s not apparent to your eyes.” The simple album cover uses the marine flag to advise boats that a diver is currently submerged in the area.

  The album begins with a driving cover of the Kinks 1965 song “Where Have All the Good Times Gone.” Roth pointed out that the band learned to play in their barroom days by covering a whole bunch of Kinks songs from a compilation album he owned. “Hang ‘Em High Dave” is a reworked version of a 1977 song called “Last Night”, and is the song which most reflects back to the traditional Van Halen song with fast pace driven by drummer Alex Van Halen . Eddie Van Halen has lamented that the recorded version of his solo is sub-par to his typical live performance.

Eddie’s first solo instrumental on the album is “Cathedral”, which got its name because he thought the volume-knob effects he used created something similar to the sound of “a Catholic church organ.” This acts as an intro to the fantastic original “Secrets”, the best song on the album. Here the true talent of Van Halen is best showcased in this calm and subtle setting which highlights Roth’s melodic vocals and Eddie Van Halen’s crisp and biting guitar solo. The song, which has been described as the “lightest” the band has ever recorded, has the quality of being at once a melancholy and hopeful.

“(Oh) Pretty Woman” was the first song for which Van Halen made a video to be played on the new MTV network, and in turn the video became the first to be banned by that network because of its portrayal of the as the “almost theological figure” of a Samurai warrior and because a woman (later revealed to be a drag queen) appears to be molested throughout the video. Roth directed the video but found that the single version of the song was much too short to be compatible, so he composed an intro to the song on synthesizer called “Intruder” and the band recorded it as part of the album.

Unfortunately, the weakest material on the album is reserved for its conclusion. “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” was done as a laugh when Roth recorded a radio broadcast with the original 1924 version of he song. The Van Halen’s enlisted their father Jan Van Halen to play clarinet on the song. “The Full Bug” sounds unfocused and incomplete with the only true highlight being the short acoustic intro by Roth. The album concludes with the joke “Happy Trails”, a fully vocal performance of the Dale Evans stand, that actually breaks down to laughter near the end.

The band’s previous album, 1981’s Fair Warning was a dark and intense record and Diver Down acted as an almost polar opposite counterpart to lighten the mood. This album also brought the band to a wider commercial audience, setting the stage for their blockbuster  album, 1984 .

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1982 albums.

NOTE : Modern Rock Review reviewed Van Halen’s new album today, A Different Kind of Truth .

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The Latest News & Info about The Mighty Van Halen

Diver Down – An Appreciation

April 17, 2012 —by VHND Leave a Comment

So Diver Down turns 30 today. I love this album. I admit that I’m biased. It was my first time hearing Van Halen, so it’s what got me hooked. When talking about David Lee Roth era Van Halen, most people are quick to put this at the bottom of the original 6 pack of albums. Not me. It’s one of my go-to albums. Why? It’s just fun. Fun!

First of all, before we talk about the music, let’s all admit the album’s marketing genius. To this day, if you like the album, all you have to do is go to a dive shop and get yourself a Diver Down flag, bumper sticker or shirt. No need to buy some rare tour shirt!

Now admittedly, most times you hear about Diver Down, you hear the complaints lobbed at it.

“It’s too short, barely over half an hour.” Got news for ya – so are the other 5 Roth albums. No one complains about Fair Warning being too short.

“There are too many covers.” Oh please. Did anyone really hear the original version of “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” first? Even “Where Have All The Good Times Gone!” isn’t that well known as a Kinks song. Besides, everybody & their brother were releasing cover albums in the 90’s. Van Halen was just ahead of their time. Plus, when Van Halen did a cover, they had the rare gift of making it their own without abandoning the spirit of the original. A good song is a good song! No one ever gave Frank Sinatra crap because he didn’t write his own material. That may be because everyone was scared of Frank & his “associates,” but I digress.

“There are a lot if instrumentals used as filler for songs.” Yes, and Eddie is playing them. Ain’t it great?!

“The album is a total cash grab since the band only did it because they had a hit single to follow up with.” You know what? I really don’t care why they made the album. Good music is good music. EVERY album is a cash grab. I don’t work for free, why should Van Halen?

“Ed doesn’t like the album.” Hey, that’s his problem, not mine. And these days, I really don’t think he hates it that much. When the band whips out songs from Diver Down on its latest tour, die hard fans go nuts. See the band on the right night and you’ll hear up to 4 songs from the album (maybe 5 if you think Ed is playing “Little Guitars (Intro)” in his solo).

Some years ago, a magazine did an article on the most underrated albums of all time. Diver Down was on the list. Why? Because if you don’t get Diver Down, then you don’t get David Lee Roth. And I agree. His stamp is all over the place. Things like wacky covers and him actually playing no less than guitar, harmonica & synth. The album is just fun to listen to. It’s what David Lee Roth is all about.

So the album starts off with “Secrets.” Yes you read that right. What’s that you say, I’m wrong? Listen again, that’s the end of “Secrets” played backwards that starts off the album, off before Ed goes full tilt into “Where Have All The Good Times Gone!” Yeah, I didn’t know that either until about a year ago. “Hang “em High” is just classic Van Halen with some nice vocals from Dave. Instrumentally it’s the same as its original demo “Last Night,” but you can hear how far the band had come since then. “Cathedral” – who else can make a guitar sound like a keyboard?! And then there’s “Secrets,” my favorite song off the album. It’s one of the best group efforts by the band. Dave actually sings. Heavenly background vocals abound (actually a lot of the album is a testament to the band’s vocal prowess). Mikey’s bass is actually audible & contributing something to the song. It’s the best hit single they never had. Find yourself the rare single mix with some keyboards mixed gently in the background for an added treat. Then off to “Intruder.” You know who the real star of this song is? It’s Alex. Yeah Ed gets some crazy gonzo sounds out of his guitar, but Al is the one who keeps the song flowing. Then right into “(Oh) Pretty Woman.” Van Halen rocked it like Roy Orbison never did. Even if they did forget part of the song.

Side 2 (remember when albums had those?) starts with “Dancing In The Street.” It’s pretty well known to fans that Ed had put one of his own synth riffs to the song in order to get everyone to agree to record it. But it works! To me it’s like one of the first mash-ups….except no one knew it. Then we get “Little Guitars (Intro)” and when you realize that Ed’s doing it without any overdubs – holy cow, that’s just cool. “Little Guitars” – that song is just another Van Halen classic. It just kills! Next up is “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” and really…can any other metal (yeah I said it, please don’t start a metal vs. hard rock fight) band pull this off besides Van Halen? Not like they can! A clarinet solo?? Sounds like I just left the Mos Eisley Cantina (and yes, Han shot first). And then The Full Bug. Originally I wasn’t too crazy about this song. A schoolmate of mine called it the “Hey we need one more song for the album” song. He might be right. But I’ve grown to appreciate it over the years. Not often you hear harmonica from Van Halen. And then a nice little conclusion of “Happy Trails.”

And hey…here’s a bonus: we got a great tour from this album, especially the South American leg. The band was on fire (pun intended)!

Is this album the best ever? No. Is it the best Van Halen album ever? No. But it doesn’t suck. Far from it. It just makes people happy. I know that’s what it does for me. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Happy birthday Diver Down!

Posts by month

• 1974-1977 – Club Days
• 1978 – Van Halen I
• 1979 – Van Halen II
• 1980 – Women and Children First
• 1981 – Fair Warning
• 1982 – Diver Down
• 1984 – 1984
• Best Bootlegs (Grade A)
• Decent Bootlegs (Grade B)
• All Bootlegs
• Tour Date Archive

1982 – Dallas, TX @ Reunion Arena

Pro soundboard from the Diver Down / Hide Your Sheep Tour in 1982.

Audio Bootleg Quality: Soundboard A+

• Romeo Delight
• The Full Bug
• Runnin’ With The Devil
• Jamie’s Cryin’
• Little Guitars
• Where Have All The Good Times Gone
• Hang ‘Em High
• Everybody Wants Some!!
• Dance The Night Away
• Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad
• Intruder / (Oh) Pretty Woman
• Guitar Solo
• Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
• Bottoms Up!
• You Really Got Me

Bootleg info: VHboots.com

Photos and Media

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1984 – david lee roth interview – discussing crazy from the heat, 8/25/1984 – monsters of rock sweden @ rasunda stadium, 8/18/1984 – monsters of rock england @ castle donington.

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Posts From 1982

1982 – inglewood, ca @ the forum, 1982 – interview: rockline david lee roth, alex van halen, michael anthony, 1982 – phone interview eddie van halen with jas obrecht, 1982 interview dave with martha quinn, 1/30/1982 – “pretty woman” @ san remo festival italy.

Best Bootlegs

1980 – Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Arena

1978 – manchester, england @ manchester apollo, 1979 – vancouver, canada @ pacific coliseum, 10/6/1979 – san diego, ca @ san diego sports arena, 8/6/1978 – oklahoma jam, 9/22/1978 – fresno, ca @ selland arena, 9/15/1982 – san francisco, ca @ the cow palace.

Tour Archive

1978 – Tour Dates

1979 tour dates – world vacation tour, 1980 tour dates – world invasion tour, 1981 tour dates – fair warning tour, 1982 tour dates – hide your sheep tour, 1984 tour dates.

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The Mighty Van Halen