UNCHAINED: A VAN HALEN USER'S MANUAL: ...And The Bookshelf Will Rock

You could be excused for thinking that the rock bookworld already has enough tomes on the topic of Van Halen.  In the last few decades, we've seenautobiographies by David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, an encyclopedia, anautobiography from an ex-manager and several potted histories of the band'slife and times. Surely there is nothing left but scorched earth, right?

Enter Martin Popoff with Unchained: A Van Halen User's Manual. His approach is to weave elements of these disparate styles into a single user-friendly tome, built on the usual Popoff framework of exploring a band's career album by album, song by song.  Surprisingly, this combo platter approach works nicely, creating a fun read that encourages you to focus on the music as it layers the reading experience with trivia, opinions and soundbites galore.

In the author's trademark style, you get a detailedchapter on each studio album plus the two sets of demos they recorded beforethey were signed and a selection of Roth's solo albums (the first two hitalbums and the later cult favorite, DLRBand).  These chapters are awell-assembled mixture of quotes from vintage interviews, interviews done byPopoff himself and critical commentary to stitch it all together. 

These chapters expand upon a lot of concepts familiar tothe fans - Fair Warning as a darkhorse favorite of the catalogue, DiverDown as a rush-job forced by the label, etc. - but you also get interestinginsights into topics like why Van HalenII sounds so different from the debut album in terms of material andapproach from the debut.  Popoff'sextensive knowledge of hard rock and metal allows him to contextualize eachalbum, which comes in handing during the ever-shifting sands of hard rockfashion that occurred during the "Van Hagar" era.

The album explorations also give extensive info aboutthe techniques and equipment that Eddie Van Halen used to get his distinctiveguitar sounds: this is not Guitar Center-style tech fetishism, it's actuallykey to understanding the guitarist's "mad scientist" approach to hiswork.  Even better, you learn when theband's prodigious archive of demos was raided for particular albums: thisreally comes in handy on the chapter about ADifferent Kind Of Tension, where the majority of the songs were constructedfrom vintage, unreleased music.

The Hagar era really comes to life in these pages thanksto extensive interviews with Sammy, who is happy to discuss the songwriting processon every key track from this era as well as his frank assessments of bandpolitics and Eddie's temperament. His ego flares up amusingly when he discussesRoth, with putdowns often preceded by "I'm not putting him downbut..."  Similarly fascinating issome fond yet honest commentary from one-off singer Gary Cherone about Van Halen III, often considered theband's nadir by fans.

And there's more to Unchainedthan just a deep-dive into albums. This is not a conventional biography soPopoff treads lightly on some topics (example: the souring of the band'srelationship with original producer Ted Templeman) but he assembles some extranon-album chapters, digressions within chapters and an array of worthwhilesidebars to deepen the reader's appreciation of the band's work.

For example, an opening chapter features an interviewwith Mike Kelley, a scenester in L.A.'s budding hard rock scene of themid-'70s. He rubbed shoulders with the band during their club days and is ableto provide a lot of fascinating info on the band's genesis. There's also asection in the Diver Down chapterthat explores the band's famous US Festival appearance and the unique culturalsignificance of the event.  

The sidebars offer the biggest fun.  You get stuff you might expect like timelinesof events around each album, rankings of the album covers, a breakdown of coverversions (live and studio) done by Van Halen, etc. However, Popoff goes evendeeper with commentary-driven lists on the band's keyboard-driven songs, thesales rankings of different albums, the little "ear candy" elementsstashed on various tracks, a rundown of rare tracks from demos that never madeit to albums, essays on Eddie's use of tapping and his famous"Frankenstrat" guitar and more.

A particularly cool sidebar involves Luke Cairo, anexpert on Alex Van Halen's work: he provides commentary on the drummer's finestmoments in the band's catalog, with plentiful detail on the types of percussionused and the techniques employed on each track. Alex is often overshadowed byhis brother's guitar innovations so this recurring feature allows you toappreciate what a unique and accomplished drummer he is.

In short, Unchained: A Van Halen User's Manual lives up to its title by offering a smorgasbord of material that the reader can utilize to enhance their understanding and appreciation of this band's catalog. You can read it cover to cover or just browse wherever your interests take you, ensuring it will become a dog-eared favorite you can return to again and again... even if you've got a whole bookshelf of Van Halen material.

Click here for ordering info on this book at Popoff's website.