I'll start by saying something I should have known but for some reason, forgot - Michael Anthony is a really good bass player.
Now, here's the longer story. Since the pandemic, my wife and I have been taking walks in the evening. I've been listening to a wide variety of music on these walks, and last evening, I was kind of bored with picking music myself, so I connected to a older set of songs that I downloaded at least 20 years ago (remember the original Napster?) and had the music player randomly pick. After a few hits and misses, I was greeted with Han Halen's "in a simple rhyme" from women and children first. I probably hadn't listened to that song in years (decades?). What a revelation - it's like Michael Anthony was channeling John Entwistle on that one. The sad part is, that album originally came out back when I was in middle school and I played it a lot back then, yet somehow, I had forgotten all about it.
Michael Anthony is usually the forgotten member of the band - not a Van Halen brother and not a front man. At best, he's usually thought of as a solid bassist who could sing high harmonies while holding down the low end. At worst, people remember him only because he was treated so badly by Eddie at the end of his time in Van Halen. Anyway, just wanted to say that he could really play bass too.
Now, here's the longer story. Since the pandemic, my wife and I have been taking walks in the evening. I've been listening to a wide variety of music on these walks, and last evening, I was kind of bored with picking music myself, so I connected to a older set of songs that I downloaded at least 20 years ago (remember the original Napster?) and had the music player randomly pick. After a few hits and misses, I was greeted with Han Halen's "in a simple rhyme" from women and children first. I probably hadn't listened to that song in years (decades?). What a revelation - it's like Michael Anthony was channeling John Entwistle on that one. The sad part is, that album originally came out back when I was in middle school and I played it a lot back then, yet somehow, I had forgotten all about it.
Michael Anthony is usually the forgotten member of the band - not a Van Halen brother and not a front man. At best, he's usually thought of as a solid bassist who could sing high harmonies while holding down the low end. At worst, people remember him only because he was treated so badly by Eddie at the end of his time in Van Halen. Anyway, just wanted to say that he could really play bass too.
