CATALOG CRAWL: VAN HALEN, Part 1 (1978-1980)
We lost the definitive guitar god of the post-Hendrixera when Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6th, 2020. It's not anoverstatement to say that he reinvented the sound of hard rock as well as whatwe would expect from a guitar hero with his self-named band. In their heyday asa recording outfit, roughly 1978 to 1984, Van Halen recorded a string of albumsthat worked both as party music and high-tech sonic architecture in rock music form.The tension between Eddie and the group's self-styled hype man David Lee Rothwould ultimately deep-six this classic lineup but oh, what a racket they madetogether. This installment of Catalog Crawl looks at the first half of thatera, a time when Van Halen broke all the rules and then rewrote the rulebook totheir own specifications.
Members: Eddie Van Halen (guitar), David Lee Roth (vocals),Michael Anthony (bass & backing vocals), Alex Van Halen (drums)
VANHALEN (1978): not only a perfect debut but the albumthat invented the sound of 1980's commercial hard rock: a party-band approachto the genre ("I'm The One"), a little outlaw mythology("Running With The Devil," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"), alittle pop-savvy balladry ("Jamie's Cryin'"), a fret-scorching madscientist on guitar and a Vegas-ready master of ceremonies behind the mic. Ted Templeman's production is pristine inrecording quality but also free of artifice, simply letting this road-testedband ransack the bag of tricks they developed playing backyard parties andclubs. If that's not enough, Eddie inspires a half-billion Guitar Centerstudents in under two minutes with "Eruption," they use the blues asa springboard for lusty arena rock with "Ice Cream Man," mutate metalinto proto-hardcore with "Atomic Punk" and create the template forevery glam metal band who'd cover a rock standard with their romp through theKinks chestnut "You Really Got Me." The icing on top is provided bythe Roth/Anthony vocal harmonies, the industry standard for post-Queen/Sweethard rock... just listen to the delightful surprise doo-wop break in "I'mThe One."
VANHALEN II (1979): this wasn't packed with instant standards likethe debut but shows a band confidently pursuing their own innovative yet oddlycasual style of hard rock. Despite a shoot-from-the-hip approach to songwritinghere, they deliver their most charming, radio-friendly song in "Dance TheNight Away," an evocation of party courting rituals with heavenly harmoniesat chorus time. The other radio fave is "Beautiful Girls," a partytune with a jazzy sense of swing: it's the song that chart-minded hard rockbands of the '80s would spend their entire careers trying to write. The rest can be divided into gonzo rockersthat manage to be tightly structured as they go over the top ("SomebodyGet Me A Doctor," "Outta Love Again") and songs that evoke adarker mood, like the brooding downtempo cover of "You're No Good"and especially the bleak runaway kid character sketch "D.O.A.," whosestreetwise darkness predicts the noirish quality of Fair Warning. Roth is authoritative in both party leader andcynical raconteur modes and Eddie stuffs guitar innovations into every nook andcranny of these tunes without ever making his flourishes to feel like filler(Schlockmania's favorite: the elegant, effects-filtered intro to "Women InLove").
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST (1980): there were no hit singles this time out, a reflection of how the band had settled into delivering state-of-the-art hard rock recorded at the speed of inspiration: "Everybody Wants Some!" emerges from a tribal-beat swamp to deliver a riff-crunching stomper with a shout-along chorus and "Loss Of Control" is essentially hardcore music as played by a Sunset Strip band, also including a fake-out intro that sounds like Black Sabbath. Elsewhere, you get some surprising mutant boogie with "Fools," a teenage lament that starts with Roth wordlessly wailing the blues and closes with his Louis Armstrong impression, and "Take Your Whiskey Home," which swaggers as drunkenly as the title suggests. It's a relief when the album delivers a little light material at the end via the acoustic sea shanty of the title track and "In A Simple Rhyme," the closest thing to a pop tune here with its surprise acoustic riffs and plush harmonies. It sold well enough to justify the band's experimentation and thus paved the way for the even more daring Fair Warning.