A few weeks back, it was announced that Van Halen would, indeed, be inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. I won't debate the merit of a hall of fame for musicians who, especially when they were relevant, believe and espouse living fast and dying young. Being rebellious is pretty much a young man's game, even if a few are able to take the philosophy into middle age. So let's leave that to Rolling Stone and VH1, the magazine and cable station which pretty much prop up the RNRHOF (it just looks funny like that).

My slightly fuzzy recollection of the early 80s (when I got into pop music), makes me believe the first Van Halen album my brothers and I bought was Diver Down. It was before 1984 came out, and right around the time Michael Jackson's "Beat It" was big. Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on this song, which served to introduce us to Van Halen, the band proper.

I remember a snowy day in late 1983 working at our parent's bookstore when they played "Jump" on the radio. Because it was a slow day (large snowstorm the night before) at the store, we were blasting music rather loudly as we straightened the store, vacuumed and other things like that. For about a year after that, Van Halen was the best, and biggest, band in the world.

And then they broke up. David Lee Roth left (kicked out, whatever) to be a solo star. Van Halen hired Sammy Hagar and sold more records than they ever did with Roth. But Van "Hagar" didn't have the charisma the original lineup exuded. They seemed to want to be serious, even as Hagar also tried to be the party boy. He wasn't David Lee Roth.

It took me a while to come to this conclusion, however. Having a solo Roth album and a Van Halen album at the same time seemed like getting the best of both worlds, so to speak. When I was in 9th grade, the first Van Hagar album, 5150, was the rage. It is, forever in my head, connected to this girl I had a crush on. Beth was, during the first semester of 9th grade, in almost all of my classes (not gym, and we had a different lunch because of that). We were intellectual buddies and, as a duo, took on entire classes at academic games. I didn't quite realize (until it was too late) that I really liked her. I'd known her for years, but she changed her hair that year (from frizzy red curls to straight, with a bit of blonde) and that seemed to make the difference.

Of course, she got a boyfriend a few months into the school year (a "troublemaker" named Greg, whose parents would eventually buy the bookstore from my parents), and they stayed together through the rest of the year. After our 9th grade year, Beth and her family moved away. I stopped listening to 5150 after that, and never replaced it on CD in my music connection. I have a semi-romantic notion that the tape broke around the same time Beth moved away, but it might just be one of those rock n' roll fantasies.

As time went on, I got all of the Roth Van Halen albums on CD. I now consider Diver Down to be the weakest of the six. Fair Warning is the best of them, which means it's also one of my favorite albums of all time. But I would listen to any of them over any of the Hagar CDs, of which I own a few.

David Lee Roth was a freaky, sexy, over the top showman. His job wasn't to be the best singer, but, rather, the best entertainer. And his lyrics and general demeanor were hilarious. He was Frank Sinatra in ass-less chaps. He told stories of debauchery and drinking. He can be heard on the outro of "Everybody Wants Some" mumbling "I'll pay for it, what the fuck" after trying for about thirty seconds to get a hooker for free. And he tells the funniest stories about rock n' roll excess I've ever heard.

But Van Halen wasn't just David Lee Roth vs. Sammy Hagar. Eddie is one of the best hard rock guitarists ever. Alex had the biggest drum set in the world (at one time, he had four bass drums--even though he was not a mutant with four legs), and all the drummers I knew wanted to emulate him. And Michael Anthony was the solid, but party-crazy bassist (he had a Jack Daniel's shaped bass). Sammy Hagar once acknowledged Anthony's high backing vocal harmonies as the actual "sound" of Van Halen, but I think it was more to piss off Roth than anything else. Not to say that he wasn't right to an extent, as my own vocal harmonies in my band are partly based on Anthony's.

Of course we now must discuss what has become of this band since they were relevant in any kind of meaningful way (the late 80s). Roth is now an unemployable caricature of his old self. Sammy Hagar is ensconced in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, hocking his own brand of tequila. Michael Anthony got fired last year in favor of Eddie's son, Wolfgang. The two brothers Van Halen have both had restorative surgery on many parts of their bodies. And there was some other singer for a while. To top it all off, none of them have been relevant for a good fifteen years--together or separately.

I have a hard time explaining to people a few years younger than me how extraordinary Van Halen was in their time of power. Most remember Sammy Hagar, but Roth is just a clown who had two ladies in bikinis as bodyguards. I shake my head at the ignorance of the Roth canon. But I can't really blame them. If I hadn't been around, even at the end of it all, I wouldn't believe it either.

So, no matter who shows up, who gets to play, who is allowed at the dais, how many shouting and shoving matches there are, or any other shenanigans that happen at this year's RNRHOF ceremonies, I have to just say this to the legions of unbelievers: listen to those six Roth albums. Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women & Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down and 1984. These are why they are getting in (although a slight nod should be given to Van Hagar's record sales), and what they should be remembered for.

Not whatever spectacle shows up on VH1 in a couple of months.

Matt Worley wonders which of his previous "favorite band of all time" will get inducted next into the RNRHOF: Duran Duran or Bon Jovi.