I was cooking up the salmon, stuffed clam and asparagus for dinner while listening to the new Van Halen CD. It was a great dinner. And the CD wasn't bad, either. It certainly sounded like Van Halen did back in the days of Roth. It won't ever be classic Van Halen, but it's not For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Balance or Van Halen III either.

And then I got a text from Malcolm.

"Somebody said that Whitney Houston died. Is this true?"

I turned on the TV and flipped to CNN (it's channel 33, which is really easy to select when you're in the middle of cooking). Yes. Breaking news.

"CNN says yes. Stay off the coke!" was my reply.

I paused the CD and turned up the volume on the TV. Whitney Houston, dead at 48. Found dead in her hotel room. Only speculation as to why. The talking head called her "so young."

Kurt Cobain died at 27. I'm sure someone said "so young" about him, too. Except they would have been a little bit closer to the truth. Having said that, it obviously wasn't "her time", as many say when people die before they're really old (like 70s).

The first CDs I bought were Van Halen's 1984 and Phil Collins's No Jacket Required. I got them at Wal-Mart in Clovis because they were cheaper there (by at least a couple of bucks) than at Hastings. One of the first releases that went out big on CD was Whitney. It had a picture of her smiling in a white tank top. Because she was one of the hottest singers by this time, the record company took this opportunity to push this new technology on the listeners. And they were right to do this.

I have no Whitney Houston music anywhere at my place. No CD. No tape. No record. No mp3s. And this is a little surprising because I have a Sade record, and I can't say I'm a big Sade fan. Plus, Whitney's records sold millions of copies. But she also got big at the beginning of CDs, so much less vinyl was produced of her albums than would have been a few years before. Still, I was slightly surprised I hadn't picked up a Whitney accidentally.

Van Halen replaced Duran Duran as my favorite band back in 1984. My older brother had picked up Diver Down the year before, which is an eclectic VH album, to say the least. To say more, it's probably the worst of the original Roth VH albums. Not to say it's horrible, but it rambles. It seems to have an identity crisis. Where as 1984 is one of the best albums of all time.

Van Halen is not coming through Albuquerque on their current comeback tour (I wasn't going to go, but still). The new album, A Different Kind of Truth, is selling well. It won't debut at #1, because Adele will win that one (it's Grammy weekend, and it's a comeback for her because she had freakin' throat surgery last year). But it'll do better than a lot of "comeback" albums from bands of a similar age. Next week, Whitney Houston will outsell everyone.

Last night, CNN made it all Whitney all the time (the other networks did not do this, which surprised me a bit). But they seemed to only have about three videos on a loop. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "I Will Always Love You", and footage from a live concert a few years ago. This morning they had added a few others.

I had a huge crush on Whitney around the time of "How Will I Know?" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". If you watch these videos, you might notice how self-conscious she is around the dancers. When it's just her singing to the camera, she's right there. But the dancers are a little out of control, and she's not sure about them. This was quite endearing back in the day. Whitney was a singer, not an auto-tuned dance-bot.

The guys in Van Halen, famously, can't dance either (YouTube that "Hot For Teacher" video...brilliant). Diamond Dave is the spectacle, and the band sets the music on fire. As kids, my brothers and I weren't old enough to see Van Halen live. We wouldn't see our first true, on our own, rock concert (Bon Jovi opening for Ratt) until late 1985. By that time, Van Halen, as we truly loved them, was over.

I think the breakup of David Lee Roth and Van Halen set me up for a lifetime of heartache. Nothing lasts forever. Whitney's chart dominance didn't either. No one's does. Every band, singer, performer who makes it to the top of the mountain eventually has to fall down and find out how many fans they still have after the dust settles. Fame can be a wicked bitch of a lover.

All snides aside, it is heartbreaking that Whitney died yesterday. And it's heartwarming that Van Halen has somehow been able to figure out a way to come back like this. Even if they didn't bring Michael Anthony along with them.

Matt Worley likes a little cream with his coffee.