<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Van Halen brothers were really into George Orwell when they were working on the album listed in the title above.\u00a0 Don\u2019t recognize it?\u00a0 They originally wanted to call it <\/span>Animal Farm<\/span><\/i> but settled for <\/span>1984 <\/span><\/i>instead.\u00a0 It was a product of Ed\u2019s new home studio he dubbed 5150.\u00a0 According to Ed\u2019s brother (and Van Halen drummer) Alex, \u201cWe were actually microdosing acid while we worked on the album that became MCMLXXXIV – that\u2019s 1984!\u00a0 You know how everyone is saying how psychedelics are so great for creativity?\u00a0 Based on our extensive experiments, I can tell you there\u2019s some truth to the rumor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike their previous albums, this one took a year to record.\u00a0 Their longtime engineer, Donn Landee, remembered when they started the project, \u201cEd and I had a pact.\u00a0 \u2018We\u2019re not going to puke this one out\u2019. That was it, word for word.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine <\/span><\/i>featured VH on the cover in December 2024 (Issue #334) to help celebrate the 40th Anniversary of <\/span>1984<\/span><\/i>, the album most fans and critics say was the zenith of the original lineup\u2019s records.\u00a0 To accompany writer Chris Gill\u2019s expansive cover story, <\/span>CMR <\/span><\/i>also included an excerpt from VH drummer Alex Van Halen\u2019s 2024 book <\/span>Brothers <\/span><\/i>(Harper Nonfiction).\u00a0 The book is Alex\u2019s tribute to Eddie and the excerpt used focused on\u00a0 <\/span>1984 <\/span><\/i>(naturally).\u00a0 The album clocked in under 35 minutes, but there was no fluff – it has been described as \u2018all killer and no filler\u2019 – something even Michael Jackson\u2019s mega selling <\/span>Thriller <\/span><\/i>album<\/span> can\u2019t boast (as Gill reminds us by pointing to MJ\u2019s <\/span>Baby Be Mine <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>The Lady in My Life)<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Eddie decided to build his own studio, Van Halen was already a major draw world wide.\u00a0 The sold out all 83 shows of their 1982-83 <\/span>Hide Your Sheep <\/span><\/i>tour of the United States and Canada.\u00a0 They embarked on their first ever South American swing, performing to a whole new batch of fans on the month long jaunt.\u00a0 How big were they?\u00a0 Headlining Heavy Metal Day at the US Festival on May 29, 1983, they performed in front of an estimated 375,000 people, their largest gig ever.\u00a0 Oh yes, we should also mention they set a new world record with their $1.5 million fee.\u00a0 It also didn\u2019t hurt that the album released before <\/span>1984 <\/span><\/i>(<\/span>Diver Down<\/span><\/i> (1982)) was also a huge success.\u00a0 Sales of <\/span>Diver Down <\/span><\/i>were propelled by the <\/span>(Oh) Pretty Woman<\/span><\/i> single which peaked at No. 12 on the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100 <\/span><\/i>singles chart.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Eddie seemed to have the golden touch.\u00a0 His marriage to actress Valerie Bertinelli thrust him into the \u2018celebrity\u2019 category.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t thrilled with his new found fame.\u00a0 Eddie didn\u2019t even like to be thought of as a \u2018rock star\u2019, yet there he was, appearing on shows like <\/span>Entertainment Tonight<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 When Michael Jackson came calling to ask Van Halen to make a guest appearance on his <\/span>Thriller<\/span><\/i> album, his new found status was confirmed.\u00a0 The <\/span>Thriller<\/span><\/i> performance introduced VH to a whole new audience even though Ed did not want an album credit.\u00a0 The other boys in VH all agreed they would not farm themselves out to other projects so Eddie tried to keep his participation on the low down.\u00a0 He told <\/span>GuitarWorld<\/span><\/i> back in 1990, \u201cBelieve it or not, I did the Michael Jackson thing \u2018cos I figured nobody\u2019d know.\u201d\u00a0 The secret was not well kept and everybody knew who did the <\/span>Beat It <\/span><\/i>\u00a0solo, including Roth, bassist Michael Anthony, and brother Alex.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Alex Van Halen has taken some flak in recent months for not wanting to participate in any form of \u2018Eddie\u2019 tribute concert or tour.\u00a0 He was always considered to be \u2018the quiet one\u2019 in the band, but when your front man is David Lee Roth, this isn\u2019t much of a surprise.\u00a0 If <\/span>Brothers <\/span><\/i>proves anything, it is simply this – being the quiet one in the band certainly does not mean that Alex didn\u2019t have his own ideas and opinions.\u00a0 See his above comments about \u2018microdosing acid\u2019 as one example.\u00a0 His book credits the building of Eddie\u2019s 5150 Studio as being a huge factor in <\/span>1984\u2019s<\/span><\/i> success.\u00a0 The brothers VH would spend hours, sometimes days, woodshedding ideas that would later appear on the album.\u00a0 \u201cWork was our fun,\u201d Alex.\u00a0 \u201cBeing totally exhausted and yet coming up with something terrific\u2026it\u2019s a good time.\u00a0 What was the incentive to stop?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Engineer Landee confirms the workaholic atmosphere at 5150:\u00a0 \u201cWe could always collapse on the floor.\u00a0 We did that a few times.\u00a0 Wake up and go, \u2018where were we last night?\u00a0 Oh, right here.\u2019\u00a0 We wanted every song to be as good as it possibly could be.\u201d\u00a0 Not everyone liked the home studio atmosphere, however.\u00a0 Ed\u2019s wife Valerie was concerned and would call up producer Ted Templeman and say, \u201cTed, they\u2019ve been in there for two days.\u00a0 Can you come and get them out?\u201d\u00a0 Lead singer Roth also wasn\u2019t a fan of this new working environment.\u00a0 He was not about to stay up for days at a time.\u00a0 Many times DLR would be there ready to work but everyone else would be sleeping off a multi-day jam.\u00a0 Dave always acted like it was his band, but working in Ed\u2019s home studio put Ed in charge.\u00a0 Templeman had his own issues with how <\/span>1984 <\/span><\/i>was coming together, too.\u00a0 He thought the drums were too loud and up front in the mix, but Alex, Ed, and Donn wanted it that way.\u00a0 They always wanted VH to have that heavy, Led Zeppelin sound and now they were finally achieving what they wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The track <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i> gives a good indication how the Alex-Ed-Donn team were conducting business. \u00a0 Given time to explore different musical avenues, Eddie reconnected with his keyboard playing past and began experimenting with synthesizers.\u00a0 When he played the riff that would become <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i> on the Oberheim OB-Xa, he says, \u201cNobody wanted to have anything to do with it.\u00a0 Dave said I was a guitar hero and shouldn\u2019t be playing keyboards.\u00a0 But when Ted heard it, he thought it was a stone-cold hit and everyone started to like it more.\u00a0 Templemen only really cared about <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 He really didn\u2019t care much for the rest of the record, he just wanted that one hit.\u201d\u00a0 There had been keyboards on previous Van Halen tracks but they were mostly distorted and in the background, almost like additional guitar tracks.\u00a0 Hearing <\/span>1984, <\/span><\/i>there is no doubt Eddie had added a new color to his palette of sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Alex found the reluctance of both Roth and Templeman to embrace this new direction ironic.\u00a0 DLR showed his dislike by calling the synths \u2018sympathizers\u2019.\u00a0 Ted later said, \u201cI told the band, \u2018Hey, I signed a Heavy Metal band\u2019.\u00a0 I thought these guys should stay in their pocket, and not go into pop.\u201d\u00a0 Alex countered with, \u201cAnd this from the guy who made us do <\/span>Dance the Night Away<\/span><\/i>?\u201d\u00a0 Roth dragged his feet about writing lyrics hoping it was just a phase that would go away.\u00a0 He was wrong on both accounts and when he finally got off square one, he <\/span>\u2018Jump\u2019<\/span><\/i>ed on board (yes, pun intended).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In <\/span>\u00a0Brothers, <\/span><\/i>Alex takes issue with the \u2018Heavy Metal\u2019 tag:\u00a0 \u201cHow many times do I have to say it?\u00a0 Van Halen is NOT a heavy metal band.\u00a0 We\u2019re MUSICIANS!!!!!\u00a0 It was really irritating for Ed – for both of us – to be told not to evolve as artists, not to try new instruments and ideas.\u201d Some rabid fans were mortified when they learned Alex was playing electronic drums at 5150 and not the massive acoustic sets he used on tour.\u00a0 He rationalized it as a smart decision:\u00a0 in concert, the drum kit had to be mic’d up and fed into the PA board;\u00a0 in the studio, the electronic drums can be run right into the recording console and the sound dialed in.\u00a0 The end result was an easy way to get the drum tracks down in less space with less studio baffling and such.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Landee reports that the first actual recording done at 5150 was on January 2, 1983.\u00a0 With Alex on drums and Eddie on synth, the brothers VH laid down a track Donn thinks was a \u2018convincer\u2019 – something to show Roth and Templeman the studio was up to the task of recording albums.\u00a0 Eddie originally wanted to build a small home studio so he could organize his music to show the other guys.\u00a0 It was Donn who said, \u201cNo man!\u00a0 We are going to make records up here!\u201d\u00a0 Ed began to see 5150 the same way and thought, \u201cEverybody was afraid that Donn and I were taking control. \u00a0 Well – yes! \u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what we did, and the results proved we weren\u2019t idiots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Roth was still reluctant to perform the song, but once he hit on the right lyrics, things fell together.\u00a0 The label suits were worried the song might be misconstrued as one encouraging suicide (\u2018You want to kill yourself, sucker?\u00a0 Go ahead and jump\u2019).\u00a0 Ironically, it was Roth who finally defended the end result.\u00a0 DLR explained, \u201cNo!\u00a0 That\u2019s not what I mean.\u00a0 I mean you\u2019ve got to find your nerve.\u00a0 Take a chance!\u00a0 Ask that girl across the room to dance, even though she might say no.\u00a0 You\u2019re worried \u2018cuz she might turn you down, but life is all about rolling the dice and going for it.\u00a0 Take the leap of faith and jump!\u201d\u00a0 With the overall vibe set, the next battle would be about the video – hits still needed the visuals to get them on MTV after all.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0David was not about keeping things simple.\u00a0 He wanted to put all of his fantasies on video.\u00a0 Director Robert Lombard counted down all of \u2018Diamond Dave\u2019s\u2019 ideas for the <\/span>Jump <\/span><\/i>video:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe shot all this ridiculous and overblown footage that had everything to do with the carnival Dave had going on in his head.\u00a0 He wanted a performance video intercut with him doing crazy stuff, like driving his chopped Merc hot rod and hanging out with midgets and girls in maid\u2019s outfits.\u201d\u00a0 Alex put it in band perspective:\u00a0 \u201cWe ended up with the <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i> video you know and love:\u00a0 a straightforward representation of us doing what we do best.\u00a0 But it was not an experience of camaraderie producing it.\u201d\u00a0 Lombard continues, \u201cI didn\u2019t shoot them together until the end of the day.\u00a0 I was trying to keep peace because I felt tension amongst them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dave\u2019s issues with the \u2018carnival in his head\u2019 would be one of the defining factors why he left the band not long after <\/span>1984<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 First, the band had set the bar extremely high and one must wonder how they would have managed to top themselves.\u00a0 Secondly, if one watches videos Diamond Dave did for his first solo outings (<\/span>California Girls, Just A Gigolo \/ I Ain\u2019t Got Nobody, Yankee Rose<\/span><\/i>) one can see exactly what Alex and Lombard were attesting to about Dave\u2019s over the top visions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When recording began at 5150, the studio wasn\u2019t even finished.\u00a0 According to Templeman, it was kind of a nightmare:\u00a0 \u201cIt looked like a half-finished construction project on the inside.\u00a0 There were exposed two-by-fours and wires running everywhere.\u00a0 The patch bays weren\u2019t color-coded yet, so only Donn could decipher the inputs and outputs.\u00a0 Whenever I was in there, it felt like I was working in the bathtub – everything was so confined.\u201d\u00a0 Alex said he and Ed loved it:\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t mind.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t need the big space we used to use because we didn\u2019t have to worry about isolating my drum kit so the sound wouldn\u2019t bleed onto other tracks during recording.\u00a0 I was working on a Simmons electronic kit now – the sound went directly into the console.\u00a0 Consequently, Ed and I could be jamming right up next to each other and Donn could record Ed\u2019s guitar track and my drums without worrying there would be any interference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So Eddie and Alex Van Halen set out to make a record that their producer and lead singer hated.\u00a0 That does not sound like a promising start.\u00a0 In the end, the numbers tell the tale.\u00a0 <\/span>1984<\/span><\/i> sold over ten million copies.\u00a0 <\/span>Rolling Stone <\/span><\/i>called it, \u201cThe album that brings all of Van Halen\u2019s talent into focus.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i> was nominated for three Grammy awards.\u00a0 The album made it to No. 2 on the <\/span>Billboard <\/span><\/i>charts and stayed there for five weeks.\u00a0 It never climbed to No. 1 due to a little album called <\/span>Thriller<\/span><\/i> (with a little help from Eddie) stood in the way.\u00a0 Templeman eventually conceded to Donn Landee that, \u201c<\/span>1984<\/span><\/i> was to Van Halen what <\/span>Sgt. Pepper <\/span><\/i>was to The Beatles:\u00a0 a full flowering of the band\u2019s creativity.\u00a0 The work of musicians who had a mature understanding of what they wanted and simply weren\u2019t going to stop until they achieved it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the wake of the success of <\/span>1984, <\/span><\/i>there was the inevitable major tour so the band didn\u2019t fracture on short notice.\u00a0 Over time, the friction between \u2018I want to be the center of attention\u2019 Dave and the \u2018I want to pursue other musical themes\u2019 Eddie took its toll.\u00a0 When Roth split and formed the David Lee Roth band with Steve Vai (guitar), Billie Sheehan (bass) and Greg Bissonette (drums), he was able to take charge of the image.\u00a0 His first solo album (<\/span>Eat \u2018em and Smile<\/span><\/i>) wasn\u2019t as commercially successful as his work with Van Halen, he was free to be DLR – superstar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Van Halen\u2019s next album with new lead singer Sammy Hagar (<\/span>5150<\/span><\/i>) didn\u2019t reach the sales of <\/span>1984, <\/span><\/i>but that was hardly a surprise.\u00a0 It did, however, become their third largest selling album while racking up six-times Platinum sales.\u00a0 Hagar had his own career that started off with him\u00a0 fronting Montrose (with another iconic guitarist Ronnie Montrose).\u00a0 When Montrose moved on without him, he began building a new fan base in his \u2018Red Rocker\u2019 phase.\u00a0 Paired with the brothers VH and Anthony, the combined fan base and excellent albums they produced were just what they needed in the post-DLR years.\u00a0 Both sides tell slightly different stories of what happened to the Hagar fronted Van Halen, but suffice to say, everything was great until it wasn\u2019t and Sammy was gone.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The ensuing years were a bit confusing for hardcore VH fans.\u00a0 There was one album and a bit of touring done with the VHIII lineup featuring former Extreme singer Gary Cherrone.\u00a0 This experiment ended rather suddenly before DLR himself returned to the fold, at least for a while.<\/span><\/p>\n Michael Anthony was jettisoned in favor of Eddie\u2019s son Wolfgang but he found a happy home working with Sammy Hagar on a variety of projects.\u00a0 The \u2018Roth returns to VH\u2019 was short-lived when the same old ego problems inserted themselves as Eddie was undergoing some health problems.\u00a0 He seemed to be in full recovery and plotting the next step when he passed away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Several attempts have been made to put together an \u2018Eddie Tribute Show and\/or Tour\u2019 but too many players with their own ideas kept scuttling the idea.\u00a0 Alex put up a lot of his drum kits and memorabilia on auction signaling he was not interested.\u00a0 Roth took some swipes in social media about Wolfgang (who was by now forging his own successful post-VH career).\u00a0 Hagar finally got tired of waiting for someone to put together the show so he organized his own.\u00a0 Along with drummer Jason Bonham (who was replaced by Kenny Aronoff mid-tour when Jason\u2019s mother became ill back in England), Anthony, and super guitarist Joe Satriani, Sammy spent the better part of 2024 touring the <\/span>Best of Both Worlds<\/span><\/i> lineup featuring much of his work with VH and even some from the DLR era (like <\/span>Jump<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some complain that it is more like a VH cover band, but Satriani has the chops to cover Eddie\u2019s parts.\u00a0 With Anthony and Hagar\u2019s history, nobody has walked away from their shows feeling like they had been duped by a \u2018faux Van Halen\u2019.\u00a0 They will top off this monumental tour with a Las Vegas residency in May of 2025.\u00a0 Van Halen is gone but the music remains.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video – Well, we talked enough about\u00a0Jump,\u00a0<\/em>so how could we not include it here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Van Halen brothers were really into George Orwell when they were working on the album listed in the title above.\u00a0 Don\u2019t recognize it?\u00a0 They originally wanted to call it Animal Farm but settled for 1984 instead.\u00a0 It was a product of Ed\u2019s new home studio he dubbed 5150.\u00a0 According to Ed\u2019s brother (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3401,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions\/3401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}