Description You will be bidding on the classic David Lee Roth poster that was included with the Women and Children First LP shot by photographer Helmut Newton (size 24" x 36"). LP Jacket and poster only. Actual Vinyl LP not included. Grab it while you can....this 7 day auction will be over before you know it! Bid now! SPECIAL OPENING BID PRICE OF 1 PENNY!! BACKSTORY: When Women and Children First hit record stores in late March 1980, a surprise awaited Van Halen fans under the LP’s shrink wrap. Along with the record, a folded two-foot-by-three-foot poster of Roth in chains, perfect for hanging on a bedroom wall—or ceiling above a bed—was tucked inside the jacket. Despite all of the friction, Roth’s desire to have a Newton portrait of him in the album’s packaging had won the day. That said, Roth and the brothers had struck a compromise of sorts. Diamond Dave, after much back and forth with Eddie and Alex, agreed that the poster would be enclosed only in the first million vinyl pressings. Angelus, who so tight with Roth that he would later manage his career as a solo artist, says, “I do recall a discussion of the poster being a limited edition run because it didn’t represent the band.” To be sure, Roth’s decision to fight for the poster’s inclusion wasn’t all about ego gratification. Controversy, he knew, moved units. As Roth told Creem at the time, “we put the poster in because it upsets people. It’s disturbing. It’s one of those beautiful things where there’s actually nothing going on in the picture, and you’re forced to use your filthy little imagination.” Plus, he added later with a smirk, “it’s always been one of my sexual fantasies to be tied up.” With the bondage poster enclosed, Women and Children First flew off the shelves. It entered the Billboard Top Ten within three weeks of its release and went platinum by June. But even as the Jack Daniel’s flowed in celebration, the brothers remained resentful about Roth’s seemingly insatiable appetite for the spotlight. “They saw themselves as the sound of the band,” Seireeni observes, “and the band has their name. From their perspective, they’d hired DLR just to be the voice of Van Halen.” Roth, Eddie, and Alex seemingly put this chapter behind them as the group’s popularity exploded during the early 80s. But the tension regarding Roth’s role in the band loomed like a tumor inside of Van Halen, lying in wait until it would eventually metastasize and kill the original lineup. As Eddie conceded to Rolling Stone in early 1984, “I’m a musician, Dave’s a rock star.”