Love this Album cover

Before I even heard the opening guitar licks, I was in love with the cover. Four posed rock heroes. Eddie above brother Alex. David and Michael Anthony by their sides. Their images are liquid fire. Smoking tributes to their hard rock band.

The VH emblazoned in the middle is like the S on Superman's chest. It's a silver stamp that found its way to many notebooks, jean jackets, bedroom walls. A superhero rock band, lead guitar, drums, bass, and vocals. The way rock should be played. Loud and hard.

No mistaking Eddie's chops on those early albums, before he took his fingers to the keyboard. I was in jr. high when I saw this album in a local Safeway store on North Loop Road. While my mom shopped for groceries, I wandered to the small table where they had LPs. There was no order. No categories. Probably somewhere between the shampoo and rice&bean aisles.

When I came upon the LP, I must've thought it was a painting more than music. I held the shrinkwrapped square and imagined what sounds it must make. I didn't buy it. (First LP I remember buying is REO Speedwagon's "Hi-Infidelity". And before I scored VH's first record (on 8 track no less since that's what we had in our living room stereo), my connection to Eddie and the boys was Scott Rostro. My gringo bud from jr. high. He had a notebook made to look like Eddie's guitar. He'd used black tape to make the race stripes. He also played guitar although I never heard him play.

While I never saw the first lineup of VH, I do remember my first "Van Hagar" concert at the Pan Am in Cruces. We had floor tickets, and early on, I made my way to the front, close to the stage. Whether by luck or a fluke, I ended up on the side where Eddie was posed on some large speakers. While they went through most of "5150," I was amazed that I was only a few feet from Eddie Fucking Van Halen. His crazy hair was all sweaty, cigarette on his bottom lip, fingers wailing.

The guitar pick I have from that concert is a reminder of that night. Of one of my first loves to rock. And it all seemed to have started with this album cover of four dudes posed in action. Action stars. A movie of their own creation. A sound that would stay in my ears for decades.

Even now, probably 30 years from that day in the grocery store, I listen to VH and feel their music in my crotch, giving birth to an impulse to jump, scream, rock out.