Topics › All Forums › The Great Bootleg Forest › Unofficial Live Audio Recordings › Van Halen Early 1983 Soundcheck Jam South America
| December 25, 2025 at 4:06 am Quote #69942 | |
 jorge (584) | Here is something very unusual, perfect for a surprise Christmas release! This is an uncirculated soundboard recording of Van Halen during a soundcheck, which took place prior to a concert in South America during early 1983. This is another tape from sound engineer Roy’s collection, which had sadly been left unlabeled. The tape is paused at multiple points throughout, but the overall mix indicates it’s from the same venue, at least per tape side. While hard to be certain, this could be from two dates. Regardless, various clues throughout both sides indicate that this tape was recorded all in South America. There are so many details packed in this recording, that it really requires listening to it in full several times to really absorb everything being played and being spoken. Even then, it’s easy to often still hear something minor that wasn’t noticed before. Due to this, it’s impossible to be fully comprehensive with these notes, so I’ve focused on mentioning all of what’s most notable. Dave is largely absent throughout and only shows up on random occasion to talk, only actually singing at the very end of the tape. Most what you’ll hear is Eddie, Alex, and Mike playing. Among the many sections of the tape, there are a few pieces of music that are identifiable. The first is the song Wild Thing from The Troggs, though it is still jam-like and wouldn’t call it a fully fleshed out instrumental cover. A bit later there’s an extremely brief segment that starts off really funky but turns into Eddie doing a bit of Another One Bites The Dust from Queen, which out of a difficulty figuring how to label it, I’ve just called it “Funky Queen”. During the second blues jam section, Dave pops in and says a line of Heartbreak Hotel from Elvis, then Eddie follows with the next part of the melody on guitar. A bit later Mike starts playing the bassline to In A Gadda Da Vida from Iron Butterfly, but before anyone else could’ve potentially joined in with the him, you hear who I guess is one of the gear techs saying “hey guys, one second, Eddie needs a tune-up”. Though later, we do get a fleshed out, mostly-instrumental cover of Crossroads from Cream, featuring a small bit of vocals from Mike. Some of the most notable parts of this recording is hearing complete instrumental performances of Sinner’s Swing and Hear About It Later, the only missing element is Dave. Same could almost be said about Take Your Whiskey Home, though after playing for a while, Eddie stops and says “I don’t remember it”. We also get an embryonic version of Panama, showing us just how developed the song was as of early 1983. Later on in the recording is about 10 minutes where Ed is completely alone, essentially just noodling and making whatever sounds he possibly can with his guitar. At one point we hear him playing a bit of the theme song from The Munsters, then several minutes later he plays a bit of the main riff of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, which is fairly interesting because rather it’s specifically the Beat It guitar solo that Eddie is known for having written and recorded. Closer to the end of the tape, there’s an interlude where Dave shows up again, just talking. He makes a comment about what is assumedly referring to Eddie’s wife showing up: “The woman who needs no introduction… direct from Hollywood after three months of no work… and if you believe that then I have a bridge for you.” He soon follows with “We need a tubular insert up here immediately”, then under his breath says, to my best guess, what sounds like “time for a high colonic anal pork flow”, in other words maybe he needed to head to a bathroom? Well it’s pretty funny, whatever he meant there. The only songs to actually feature Dave singing is a full cover of You Can’t Do That from The Beatles, followed by a partial attempt at Little Dreamer before Dave stops and says “I’ve been making up the words for the last five minutes anyway”. Prior to singing these two, there’s a segment of Dave making bunch if high and low noises/words, which I assume was his way of warming up. Roy seemed to play along with this and use some effects on Dave’s voice. The tape ends soon after Dave says “Roy, we’re done”, followed by an “OK” from Roy. Track Listing: 01 Jam I [0:00] Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 / Nakamichi DR-1 / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / FLAC https://ko-fi.com/musicmediaarchives jorgeQuote |
| December 26, 2025 at 12:26 am Quote #69945 | |
| jorge (584) | http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=806427 [Since the notes have been updated and the uploader has added some bonus tracks on the Dime and TTD releases I also include the new description in this post.] Van Halen Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6 Track Listing: 01 Jam I Notes: There are so many details packed in this recording, that it really requires listening in its entirety several times to really absorb everything being played and spoken. Due to this, it’s impossible to be fully comprehensive with these notes, so I’ve focused on mentioning what’s most notable. Dave is largely absent throughout and only shows up on occasion to talk, only actually singing near the end of the tape. Most of what you’ll hear is Eddie, Alex, and Mike playing. Among the sections of the tape, there are a few pieces of music that are identifiable. First is the song Wild Thing from The Troggs during “Jam II”, though it is still jam-like so I wouldn’t call it a fleshed out cover. Next is the bluesy Since I’ve Been Loving You from Led Zeppelin, which is followed with a very brief segment that starts with what seems like a funky song, then turns into Eddie doing the riff of Another One Bites The Dust from Queen. During the next blues jam section (which could be a take on 3 O’Clock Blues) Dave pops in on harmonica and says a line of Heartbreak Hotel from Elvis, then Ed follows with the next part of the melody on guitar. During “Jam IV”, Mike starts playing the bassline to In A Gadda Da Vida from Iron Butterfly, but before anyone else could’ve potentially joined in, you hear someone from the crew say “hey guys, one second, Eddie needs a tune-up”. Later on, we do get a fully fleshed out, mostly-instrumental cover of Crossroads from Cream, featuring a bit of vocals from Mike. “Jam VI” seems to be Ed’s take on Allan Holdsworth’s Material Real, something he also played during the Somebody Get Me A Doctor jams while in South America. There are other bits during the tape that sound like they could also be elements of other songs, but they’re hard to all identify. Some of the most notable parts of this recording is hearing complete instrumental performances of Sinner’s Swing and Hear About It Later. Same could almost be said about Take Your Whiskey Home, though after playing for a while, Eddie stops and says “I don’t remember it”. We also get an embryonic version of Panama, showing us just how developed the song was as of early 1983. “Jam V” features bits of what may be formative ideas for the guitar intro of Hot For Teacher. Later on in the recording is about 10 minutes where Ed is completely alone, essentially just noodling and making whatever sounds he possibly can with his guitar. At one point we hear him playing a bit of the theme song from The Munsters, then several minutes later he plays a bit of the main riff of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, which is fairly interesting because rather it’s specifically the Beat It guitar solo that Eddie is known for having written and recorded. Closer to the end of the tape, there’s an interlude where Dave shows up again, just talking. He makes a comment about what is assumedly referring to Eddie’s wife showing up: “The woman who needs no introduction… direct from Hollywood after three months of no work… and if you believe that then I have a bridge for you.” He soon follows with “We need a tubular insert up here immediately”, then under his breath says, to my best guess, what sounds like “time for a high colonic anal pork flow”. In other words, it sounds like referring to needing a bathroom. Well it’s pretty funny, whatever he meant there. The only songs to actually feature Dave singing is a full cover of You Can’t Do That from The Beatles, followed by a partial attempt at Little Dreamer before Dave stops and says “I’ve been making up the words for the last five minutes anyway”. Prior to singing these two, there’s a segment of Dave making lot of high and low noises/words, which I assume was his way of warming up. Roy seemed to play along with this and use some effects on Dave’s voice. The tape ends soon after Dave says “Roy, we’re done”, followed by an “OK” from Roy. Huge thanks to those who significantly helped with the absurd pricetag that was required to liberate this VH collection, most of which would’ve been impossible to save otherwise. Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time. Bonus Tracks (Short Remnants): 1982-07-00 Unknown Intruder SBD (from Biloxi tape) Completely unrelated to this recording, I’ve included several short bonus tracks, all of which were miniscule remnants of shows that Roy recorded over. Just as it was with the eight minute Oklahoma City soundboard that was shared separately a few months ago, these remnants are further evidence that Roy simply didn’t save every show he recorded. These other remnants however were so short that they weren’t worth uploading on their own. These only survive because Roy sometimes didn’t quite rewind all the way. Since they exist I wanted to share them somehow, even if only for archival purposes. Fingerprints: 01 Jam I.flac:3c4375acb5333f4d8952f25a1d4d0bd5 1982-07-00 Unknown Intruder SBD (from Biloxi tape).flac:6f29ba279ee47b033038318a390137be NOTE: This show is in 24-bit format and may be burned to a DVD. It cannot be burned to a CD as is. jorgeQuote |
| December 27, 2025 at 11:00 pm Quote #69947 | |
 mrmojohalen (6558) | I’ve downloaded this twice & both times, i got an unspecified error when I extract track 09 Sinner’s Swing! . Anyone else have this problem ? If not, can someone upload this track for me ? Thanks. When you turn on your stereo, does it return the favor? mrmojohalenQuote |
| December 28, 2025 at 1:11 am Quote #69948 | |
| jorge (584) | |
| December 28, 2025 at 1:13 am Quote #69949 | |
| jorge (584) | If anybody else downloaded this show from my link: I’ve reuploaded track no9, it should be working now. jorgeQuote |
| December 28, 2025 at 3:03 pm Quote #69950 | |
| mrmojohalen (6558) | |
| January 21, 2026 at 9:11 am Quote #70009 | |
 ron (12247) | VAN HALEN – REHEARSALS 1983 SOUNDBOARD 2CD [ZODIAC 838] Unknown Place, South America January or February 1983 STEREO SBD Disc:1 (42:42) Disc:2 (50:07) STEREO SOUNDBOARD RECORDING Bonus Tracks (Unreleased Short Remnants) 8. Intruder (Unknown Place July 1982) (from Biloxi tape) ronQuote |
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