Michael Christopher - Van Halen: The Eruption and the Aftershock

Van Halen onstage at Madison Square Garden, New York City, March 30, 1984. Ebet Roberts.

Published by Backbeat Books

An imprint of Globe Pequot, the trade division of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Blvd., Ste. 200

Lanham, MD 20706

www.rowman.com

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2021 by Michael Christopher

Book design by Tom Seabrook

Cover design by Neil D. Cotterill

Cover photographs, clockwise from top left: Ebet Roberts (2), Eddie Malluk, authors collection, Ebet Roberts (2), authors collection

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021944610

ISBN 978-1-4930-6209-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-6210-2 (e-book)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

To say it was a life-altering experience when my uncle dropped the needle on Women and Children First and first played the record for me wouldnt do justice to happenings that tend to transform ones being. It truly was my caveman-discovering-fire moment. The sounds coming out of the speakers were so foreign, so sensational, and so explosive that it left meprobably for the only timeabsolutely speechless. From that moment on, I was fully invested in Van Halen, determined to stick with them no matter what.

It was a pact that would soon become more than just saving up to purchase their music, because these guys were going to work their way into the very fabric of any diehard fan in ways that few other artists could. Van Halen didnt put out records, they released time capsules of attitude and bold steps into uncharted sonic territory a young and overly impressionable listener couldnt help but become mesmerized by at each and every turn.

Then, if that werent enough, along came the music-video revolution, and while acts from all genres were trying to outdo each other with who could spend the most to dazzle the eyes and ears of viewers, Van Halen raised the bar by filming a clip for the song Jump at a pittance, showing up everyone else for the cost of a long weekend at some dilapidated hotel in an off-the-beaten-path beach town. They didnt need all the ancillary pomp and circumstance to prove themselves; their own personalities beamed bright enough.

Guitarist Eddie Van Halens impassioned and effortless playing was topped only by his toothy grinone of those smiles that made you do the same whenever it flashed. Swaggering frontman David Lee Roth, jumping off drummer Alex Van Halens riser to do a spread eagle Air Dave some fifteen feet in the air and landing on his feet, was unlike anything else on MTV at the time. Lets just say I wasnt as impressed anymore by the furry, spinning guitars of ZZ Top unless they were going to mix in a backflip or two. The singers physical aerobatics were complemented by verbal gymnastics, and the rock-solid bassist, Michael Anthony, rounded out a foursome who felt like familiar faces rather than untouchables a million miles away with each new video or interview.

My music tastes evolved over the years, but Van Halen were never far off the radar. I made some of my best friends over a shared love for the group. To be a supporter of Van Halen had the potential to get really messy when Dave left and Sammy Hagar came in and it was made to feel like sides had to be chosen. Or you could embrace both factions, which is what we did, although there was always a wonder about what if Dave came back ... ?

As teens evolved into twenties, a conversation opener at a bar with someone would always be some version of, So ... Dave or Sammy? Everyone knew what it was referencing. We tortured tortured people by incessantly going on and on about the inner workings of group dynamics and making endless references to band members and things the respective frontmen said in the bootleg live recordings we coveted.

A girl I lived with did not at all appreciate a particular late-night, one-sided conversation while she was dead asleep when I decided it would be a good time to bring up potential names for the cat we were getting, each option some variation on a Van Halen song. So This Is Cat? Poundcat? Atomic Cat? Why Cant This Be Cat? Ultimately, a play on Me Wise Magic was decided upon, and the feline was named Magick ... but only after Me Wise Cat was shot down. It was funnydepending on your perspectivebut it was also serious; or, as my mother would say to me, Somethings seriously wrong with you. I wasnt just being annoying: I really did want to know what your favorite Van Halen record was and why, and, if you had to name a pet after one of their songs, which would it be?

During college, when I first started writing about music and talking to artists, I ended every single interview by asking the subject the Dave or Sammy question. It didnt matter if it was the drummer for the Black Crowes, the singer for Jimmy Eat World, the guitarist for Buckcherry, or an up-and-coming singer/songwriter destined to become a one-hit wonderthey all had an opinion. More than that, they enjoyed talking about Van Halen and weighing in on the drama. I kept on with that tactic until things became so unwieldy in the VH camp that too many caveats were involved to expect a succinct response.

A core group of my circle never gave up on the ghost of the band, thoughnot after the botched MTV Video Music Awards reunion with Roth in 1996, nor following the inexplicable move made to bring in Gary Cherone that same year as singer number three. The soap opera was fun to dissect, but if the catalogue of music hadnt been great, it wouldnt have held our attention. And even when the shows werent the best, like the 2004 tour with Hagar back in the fold, the times we had with Van Halen as the soundtrack were the memories that made it worth it.

When Eddie Van Halen passed away in October 2020, I was preparing for the release of my first book, on synth-pop legends Depeche Mode. It was a devastating time, knowing that Id never get to see his smile shine from the stage again, and I dealt with the grief of that as a fan and a writer in the only way I knew how, which was expressing my feelings through the written and spoken word. You can only do so many tribute pieces, though, and ultimately the news cycle moved on and the interest wasnt there to keep talking about Van Halen. I didnt want to stop talking about it, though, which is where Van Halen: The Eruption and the Aftershock stems from. Theres still much to say, by myself, the fans, musicians, and so, so many more, as this book illustrates.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Mighty Van Halen.

Michael Christopher

Boston, Massachusetts

May 2021

PROLOGUE

THE ERUPTION

A cold wave was moving across the United States as 1978 dawned, and, from the few-degrees-below-normal chill in Los Angeles to the crippling blizzard bringing the Quad Cities to a standstill in late Januaryand another that entombed the Northeast a week laterit was shaping up to be a long, frigid winter. A respite from the bleakness came when teens around the country dropped the needle on the newly released eponymous debut LP from a foursome out of Pasadena, California: Van Halen.