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Van Halen I
‘Van Halen’ is generally regarded as one of the all time classic rock albums, which pays great testament to how great Van Halen really were, as this is one of my least favourites. Most the people I know prefer VH II and 1984. The scorned Diver Down was probably their best party album, Fair Warning their darkest and Women And Children First their most inventive.
‘Van Halen’ was released on the 10th Feb 1978. It spent 169 weeks on the chart and has sold over 12 million copies. 25 songs were recorded, 9 were chosen and 2 new ones were then added. As far as content is concerned, albums were only about half an hour long in those days, so there was little time for fillers. These days albums are over an hour long, which gives plenty of time for a lot of old bollocks.
When this album was quite literally unleashed, the US top ten featured Saturday Night Fever, Billy Joel, George Benson, Barry Manilow and Earth Wind And Fire. Well there’s some good stuff in there but a wake up call was gratefully delivered by Van Halen. The natural competition at the time included Aerosmith, Journey, Ted Nugent and Kiss – excellent target practice indeed!
Sonically, Van Halen is a four piece Rock band recorded in 1978 sympathetically by Ted Templeman. It took 3 weeks to record and cost £22,000 to make. The album was crude stereo panning at it’s best or worst depending on your state of mind. You either got Van Halen with or without Eddie depending on which speaker you were frequenting. People would wonder what all the fuss was about, but they were by the left speaker which only sounded out Dave’s pioneering white man’s rap against some sort of R n’B backdrop! Meanwhile in the kitchen, the right channel was swamped with Eddie’s unrivalled finesse and there was cold beer in the fridge!
I’m definitely not too stuck in my ways to imagine what this or any other Van Halen album would sound like if it were recorded with today’s technology and production techniques – I think it would be brutal and potentially destroy the planet or at least, level all woodland (and Mods).
The album’s opener Runnin’ With The Devil starts with the sound of the band’s car horns coming at you like a freight train – one of which was Eddie’s Volvo, another Alex’s Opel. Totally inspired when you think that they followed it with Eruption. What more can anyone say about Eruption apart from it was nailed in 2 takes apparently!
You Really Got Me features a possible laughing guitar move in the first verse. This is 8 years before Steve Vai does his talking guitar on Yankee Rose. Was he laughing or just screamin’ Steve?
The vocals are quite outrageous. Dave delivered a mix of jazz, blues and crooning with demonic Rock overtones – the howling scream at 1:45 in On Fire is surely the most outrageous vocal moment laid to celluloid. His love of West Coast Harmony and Motown, coupled with his own unique flamboyance and talent were for all to see. The a cappella refrain from I’m The One neatly sums up the lesser demonic workings of Dave’s mind. Imagine a present day ‘entertainer’ carrying on like Roth did. Imagine Robbie Williams daring to be as vocally and physically brash, whilst being as unique as Roth – Williams is apparently a fantastic ‘entertainer’ – well I disagree, he’s average and has no style.
The lyrics are strangely mature in their nature but still essentially about wanting girls and girls wanting Dave… and about getting laid, loaded and allsorts of other incomprehensible but fantastic waffle! But there was definitely a method to this lyrical mayhem, that Dave delivered so personably in a bluesy jazz style aged 24, privileged and Jewish.
Mike and Alex are probably the most underrated rhythm section in Rock History. I’m The One is a perfect example of their ‘joie de vivre’ and explosive rhythm, that is only overlooked because of the enormous shadow cast over them by Eddie and Dave. These two show-offs had no peers in Rock music. But as a four piece, they were designed to make you smile and escape the monotony of everyday life and expand on the fun but repetitive nature of disco, the excitement but limited range of punk and the general tedium of Prog Rock. Mike’s wonderful falsetto harmonies and Alex’s glistening symbols just add the icing to this excellent rhythm section - a Poundcake indeed! (Sorry).
They were the all time great covers band and You Really Got Me showcased this. In their early 20’s they basically said to the world – well that’s how we’d have done it! They took an early rock masterpiece by the Kinks and stuck a firecracker up it’s arse and in my book - that’s fuckin’ Rock n’ Roll!
Eddie is in my opinion, possibly the only guitar player who displays absolute soul within every phrase, note or pause – even in a dive bomb. Every screech, harmonic and tap has soul. A feast of tiny little, fully controlled nuances within his vibrato alone.
One thing that drives me insane, is the emphasis placed on Eddies tapping – yes his tapping has no peers but his guitar playing outside of his tapping is potentially far more worthy of merit. His general approach has so much control and style, as well as almost comic timing. When you think that he’s done with a 3 second fill, there’s always something extra – the guitar is truly an extension of his soul. He’s simply the dogs bollocks! People never talk about Malmsteen’s frequent tapping but always about his sweeps – I suppose you can’t win. People don’t talk about George Lynch enough!
Eddie was the man to take Rock guitar to a distant peak, from the foundations so thoughtfully and passionately laid by Hendrix and then Blackmore. Throw in Malmsteen and there’s the four main components in the evolution of Rock Guitar… discuss.
It’s funny but Ed always goes on about his main influences being Clapton and Holdsworth etc, but can I hear it in his playing? Not a note. The only thing that you hear in Eddie’s playing is Eddie! I was personally influenced by Eddie and George Lynch and if you here me play it’s fairly obvious. I know a senior figure at AllOutGuitar.com who is influenced by MacAlpine and Satriani among others – arpeggio sweeps and legato galore!
I think Eddie is just being polite and making conversation for editorial purposes – as Ed’s true protégée Jason Becker commented that ‘he’s really is a top guy but heavily misunderstood’. Jason in fact, came the nearest to nailing that zone Ed gets into – it’s a shame he didn’t even really get going. I think he would have become the ultimate exponent of the guitar – staggering technical ability coupled with the X factor, which is quite simply soul. (Nice smile as well).
One thing is for certain – Ed influenced millions of fingers, but you never hear anyone really sound like Ed because they can’t (sadly, so many think they do). He raised the bar to a level where no slackers were able to reach.
In my opinion, if you want to be a Rock Guitar Player, you should approach it like Ed did – it’s not a violin or a flute, it’s a fuckin’ Rock Guitar and it should fuckin’ Scream!
All these half arsed ‘strumming’ indie rockers who slate highly competent guitar rock, are just intimidated and do not understand or appreciate what is going on or how it actually feels! The melody, harmony, rhythm and soul (passion) make the song – the attitude can be subdued and mysterious (see Radiohead) or spectacular and explosive (see Guns n' Roses Mk1) but they share and understand an essence that is inherently difficult to explain – so I won’t.
There’s a few mid tempo feel good pop/rock songs on ‘Van Halen’ which are nice enough and very popular. Obviously they ended up being covered by hip-hop artists in later years, but I always knew they would never cover On Fire!
A year later ‘Van Halen II’ was the obvious and perfect follow up. Not so searching and more complete. The rhythm section is far more established and the songs are consistently strong throughout. This was how a classic band followed up a classic album. ‘Van Halen II’ was recorded in a remarkable 6 days.
Van Halen had absolutely no peers – this form of ‘Rocket Fuelled Party Rock with a Metallic Twist’ has always been frowned upon, but have you ever had a look at the people who frown. They’re the people that vote for Coldplay as the Best Band In The World – yeah right…
Dave once said “There’s a little bit of Van Halen in everybody” and Ice Cream Man pays great testament to this profound remark. This is another perfectly chosen cover version. The 12 bar acoustic intro, smothered in Roth’s charm. The keen and pounding rhythm section. The explosive and uncompromising guitars. You can dance, you can swing and you can Rock – it’s magical, it’s sweet but unfortunately very rare indeed.
‘Van Halen’ was released on the 10th Feb 1978. It spent 169 weeks on the chart and has sold over 12 million copies. 25 songs were recorded, 9 were chosen and 2 new ones were then added. As far as content is concerned, albums were only about half an hour long in those days, so there was little time for fillers. These days albums are over an hour long, which gives plenty of time for a lot of old bollocks.
When this album was quite literally unleashed, the US top ten featured Saturday Night Fever, Billy Joel, George Benson, Barry Manilow and Earth Wind And Fire. Well there’s some good stuff in there but a wake up call was gratefully delivered by Van Halen. The natural competition at the time included Aerosmith, Journey, Ted Nugent and Kiss – excellent target practice indeed!
Sonically, Van Halen is a four piece Rock band recorded in 1978 sympathetically by Ted Templeman. It took 3 weeks to record and cost £22,000 to make. The album was crude stereo panning at it’s best or worst depending on your state of mind. You either got Van Halen with or without Eddie depending on which speaker you were frequenting. People would wonder what all the fuss was about, but they were by the left speaker which only sounded out Dave’s pioneering white man’s rap against some sort of R n’B backdrop! Meanwhile in the kitchen, the right channel was swamped with Eddie’s unrivalled finesse and there was cold beer in the fridge!
I’m definitely not too stuck in my ways to imagine what this or any other Van Halen album would sound like if it were recorded with today’s technology and production techniques – I think it would be brutal and potentially destroy the planet or at least, level all woodland (and Mods).
The album’s opener Runnin’ With The Devil starts with the sound of the band’s car horns coming at you like a freight train – one of which was Eddie’s Volvo, another Alex’s Opel. Totally inspired when you think that they followed it with Eruption. What more can anyone say about Eruption apart from it was nailed in 2 takes apparently!
You Really Got Me features a possible laughing guitar move in the first verse. This is 8 years before Steve Vai does his talking guitar on Yankee Rose. Was he laughing or just screamin’ Steve?
The vocals are quite outrageous. Dave delivered a mix of jazz, blues and crooning with demonic Rock overtones – the howling scream at 1:45 in On Fire is surely the most outrageous vocal moment laid to celluloid. His love of West Coast Harmony and Motown, coupled with his own unique flamboyance and talent were for all to see. The a cappella refrain from I’m The One neatly sums up the lesser demonic workings of Dave’s mind. Imagine a present day ‘entertainer’ carrying on like Roth did. Imagine Robbie Williams daring to be as vocally and physically brash, whilst being as unique as Roth – Williams is apparently a fantastic ‘entertainer’ – well I disagree, he’s average and has no style.
The lyrics are strangely mature in their nature but still essentially about wanting girls and girls wanting Dave… and about getting laid, loaded and allsorts of other incomprehensible but fantastic waffle! But there was definitely a method to this lyrical mayhem, that Dave delivered so personably in a bluesy jazz style aged 24, privileged and Jewish.
Mike and Alex are probably the most underrated rhythm section in Rock History. I’m The One is a perfect example of their ‘joie de vivre’ and explosive rhythm, that is only overlooked because of the enormous shadow cast over them by Eddie and Dave. These two show-offs had no peers in Rock music. But as a four piece, they were designed to make you smile and escape the monotony of everyday life and expand on the fun but repetitive nature of disco, the excitement but limited range of punk and the general tedium of Prog Rock. Mike’s wonderful falsetto harmonies and Alex’s glistening symbols just add the icing to this excellent rhythm section - a Poundcake indeed! (Sorry).
They were the all time great covers band and You Really Got Me showcased this. In their early 20’s they basically said to the world – well that’s how we’d have done it! They took an early rock masterpiece by the Kinks and stuck a firecracker up it’s arse and in my book - that’s fuckin’ Rock n’ Roll!
Eddie is in my opinion, possibly the only guitar player who displays absolute soul within every phrase, note or pause – even in a dive bomb. Every screech, harmonic and tap has soul. A feast of tiny little, fully controlled nuances within his vibrato alone.
One thing that drives me insane, is the emphasis placed on Eddies tapping – yes his tapping has no peers but his guitar playing outside of his tapping is potentially far more worthy of merit. His general approach has so much control and style, as well as almost comic timing. When you think that he’s done with a 3 second fill, there’s always something extra – the guitar is truly an extension of his soul. He’s simply the dogs bollocks! People never talk about Malmsteen’s frequent tapping but always about his sweeps – I suppose you can’t win. People don’t talk about George Lynch enough!
Eddie was the man to take Rock guitar to a distant peak, from the foundations so thoughtfully and passionately laid by Hendrix and then Blackmore. Throw in Malmsteen and there’s the four main components in the evolution of Rock Guitar… discuss.
It’s funny but Ed always goes on about his main influences being Clapton and Holdsworth etc, but can I hear it in his playing? Not a note. The only thing that you hear in Eddie’s playing is Eddie! I was personally influenced by Eddie and George Lynch and if you here me play it’s fairly obvious. I know a senior figure at AllOutGuitar.com who is influenced by MacAlpine and Satriani among others – arpeggio sweeps and legato galore!
I think Eddie is just being polite and making conversation for editorial purposes – as Ed’s true protégée Jason Becker commented that ‘he’s really is a top guy but heavily misunderstood’. Jason in fact, came the nearest to nailing that zone Ed gets into – it’s a shame he didn’t even really get going. I think he would have become the ultimate exponent of the guitar – staggering technical ability coupled with the X factor, which is quite simply soul. (Nice smile as well).
One thing is for certain – Ed influenced millions of fingers, but you never hear anyone really sound like Ed because they can’t (sadly, so many think they do). He raised the bar to a level where no slackers were able to reach.
In my opinion, if you want to be a Rock Guitar Player, you should approach it like Ed did – it’s not a violin or a flute, it’s a fuckin’ Rock Guitar and it should fuckin’ Scream!
All these half arsed ‘strumming’ indie rockers who slate highly competent guitar rock, are just intimidated and do not understand or appreciate what is going on or how it actually feels! The melody, harmony, rhythm and soul (passion) make the song – the attitude can be subdued and mysterious (see Radiohead) or spectacular and explosive (see Guns n' Roses Mk1) but they share and understand an essence that is inherently difficult to explain – so I won’t.
There’s a few mid tempo feel good pop/rock songs on ‘Van Halen’ which are nice enough and very popular. Obviously they ended up being covered by hip-hop artists in later years, but I always knew they would never cover On Fire!
A year later ‘Van Halen II’ was the obvious and perfect follow up. Not so searching and more complete. The rhythm section is far more established and the songs are consistently strong throughout. This was how a classic band followed up a classic album. ‘Van Halen II’ was recorded in a remarkable 6 days.
Van Halen had absolutely no peers – this form of ‘Rocket Fuelled Party Rock with a Metallic Twist’ has always been frowned upon, but have you ever had a look at the people who frown. They’re the people that vote for Coldplay as the Best Band In The World – yeah right…
Dave once said “There’s a little bit of Van Halen in everybody” and Ice Cream Man pays great testament to this profound remark. This is another perfectly chosen cover version. The 12 bar acoustic intro, smothered in Roth’s charm. The keen and pounding rhythm section. The explosive and uncompromising guitars. You can dance, you can swing and you can Rock – it’s magical, it’s sweet but unfortunately very rare indeed.