A few days ago a listener to our Stuck in the '80s podcast hit us with a seismic question: If you could travel back in time, what band would you want to see perform in its prime with its original lineup? Now, instead of saying the Beatles or Sly Stone or something critic-snobby like Big Star, I blurted, “Van Halen circa the 1984 album!” Reasons for this curious blurtation are myriad, but the main one is that I was a randy teen in 1984 and Dave, Eddie, Alex and Michael were the fun, bawdy embodiment of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll — aka the antithesis of my safe, corduroyed life.

ANYWAY, a few days after this reader question, I received a large box from Rhino Records. Call it serendipity, call it the rock gods doing me a solid, but I was supernaturally gifted with a parcel of remastered vinyl, beautiful recreations of classic LPs. The Stooges’ Fun House was in there, so was Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack. But the best of the bunch were three Van Halen records, all of which Rhino released this week: VH II, Women and Children First (which comes with an original poster of a shirtless, shackled Diamond Dave) and, you guessed it, 1984. The latter doesn’t have any bonus goodies, although the 180 gram vinyl and the iconic cover of that smoking cherub are treat enough. And of course there’s the fun, below-the-belt, burnin'-loins rock. I’ll stir it up and say the best track on 1984 isn’t Hot for Teacher, Jump or Panama; it’s Drop Dead Legs.