Humans Being by Van Halen

Album: Best Of Van Halen, Vol. 1 (1996)

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This song (a rocker) was contracted for the soundtrack for the movie Twister by Van Halen. The band was supposed to have the first half of 1996 off. In that time, Eddie Van Halen was going to have hip surgery, his brother Alex was going to get his neck fixed, and Sammy Hagar's wife was preparing to have their first child. They were convinced by their manager, Ray Danniels, that this movie was huge and the money would carry them for he remainder of 1996. Danniels was right: Twister made $494 million in worldwide box office.
Hagar had written a song called "The Silent Extreme," which Alex later renamed "Humans Being." There was a lot of friction between Sammy and the band because Sammy was in Maui with his pregnant wife and the others wanted him to fly to the studio and finish the song. Eddie pleaded with Sammy and said they needed only a minute and a half of lyrics added and he suggested "Bah, bah, bah. I hate this, I hate that, you dirty rat." Sammy said "that sucked." Sammy finally said okay, and came up with this line: "There is just enough Christ in me/To make me feel almost guilty/Is that why God made us breed/To make us see we're humans being." Sammy sang the song in three parts in about an hour and a half and split. This played a key roll in the end of the relationship between Hagar and Van Halen.
The phrase "shine on, shine on" in the lyrics is similar to "we all shine on" from John Lennon's "Instant Karma." This phrase, according to Stephen King, inspired the title for his book (and later, movie) The Shining, where "the shining" is a kind of telepathy. In the film Twister, The Shining plays at the drive-in when a twister hits. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for all above

Comments: 13

Through A Glass Darkly from Nc@monkeyboy
Irreverence would be a believer not acknowledging the struggle between the light in them (Christ in me) And their own human nature leading them astray.

@Thereisno
Considering 90 percent of people believe in some intellectual higher power (God) then you are claiming that truth lies in only 10 of people. How self righteous do you have to be to think 90 percent of people are clueless?
There Is No God from Truthville@Monkeyboy: Considering that there is no God, who cares?
Monkeyboy from NycStill not sure what Sammy means by just enough Christ in me. Sounds very irreverent.
Ill Will from PhoenixSammy for President 2020!!!!!
Carol A Shockley from Lodi CaWho is the drummer in van halen's Twister video "Humans Beings" ?
William from Lynchburg, VaBeing a movie song and shortly before the turn of the century this song helped usher in Van Halen's 21st Centry status as true icons of rock. Wolfgang may not have had any slot to fill had it not been for this transitional piece from the mid-ninties. Therefore, the guys may have split all together and we'd have nothing but vinyl, tapes and cds remaining...
Jon from Enumclaw , WaThis song is just epic!
Dylan from Dodge City, Ksdown with hagar up with david lee roth
Nathan from Sherwood, Orthe guitarist eddie van halen was inspired o play this song after how good he thought it sounded while he was taking a dump
Edward from Deptford, NjI have to agree "Crossing Over" has to be the most obsure VH song. Only place avaialble is on the 2 song CD single and juke boxes.
Jules from London, United Statesi think most obscure van halen song must be either 'apolitical blues' flip side to 'when its love' or 'crossing over' flip of 'dont tell me' and actually a pretty cool song where eddie experimented with back-dubbing and was written for a friend of eddie's who'd committed suicide... then again there is always the infamous 'star fleet' single as well
Mike from Mountlake Terrace, Washington - UsaVan Halen wrote another song for the movie Twister call "Respect the wind" which is an instumental that features mostly Eddie and his guitar.
Mike from Mountlake Terrace, Washington - UsaThis is widely considered the most obscure Van Halen song.

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