“Test everything”: How David Lee Roth fixed Van Halen
Many consider Jeff Beck to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time. His showmanship, technical ability, and emotional playing style make some of his solos among the greatest. However, the issue he faced when he wrote music is what he found to be the most exciting music the public would struggle to connect with.
He was such a fantastic guitar player that merely playing well wasn’t enough to excite him. He had to push himself to feel excited about his music, and when he did that, he ended up making something that sounded incredibly experimental. It wasn’t something that people would listen to, so producers such as George Martin had to help him find a good middle ground.
This is another problem that Van Halen had. Nobody denies that Eddie Van Halen is one of the greatest guitarists on the planet. His fast-tapping technique was unlike anything listeners had witnessed, and it was incredibly exciting to listen to. That being said, people couldn’t just listen to that guitar technique constantly; they had to have some kind of melody in the songs that people could enjoy.
The band’s lead singer, David Lee Roth, who was a big fan of funk and soul music, was able to give them this much-needed injection of fun so that the balance was struck between that heavy guitar-playing style and music that people wanted to listen to and enjoy. There was a compromise made in the band which led to them making some of the most accessible music.
“They played heavy, heavy metal, you know, Black Sabbath kind of note for note spectacular. There were no girls in their audience,” said Lee Roth, “I came from, you known, Earth Wind and Fire, Superfly, James Brown, Al Green, you know, social music. So I approached Van Halen said, I think I know why you’re not getting club gigs, Personally, I just dance, test everything.”
Lee Roth had strict rules when it came to putting a song together. It had to be exciting and sound good, sure, but there was a lot more to it than that. He also was strict about the beats per minute and the song’s tone. It was important that people were going to be able to dance to Van Halen’s music and enjoy it in a club setting.
“Yeah, it’s a perennial, but let it de la la la la la,” said Lee Roth “Well, it’s about Al Green beat probably 110 beats a minute. That means you can dance without spilling your drink. If it’s an open drink any faster than ten bpm, you’re going to start spilling your drink.”
While this was helpful for Van Halen, Lee Roths’s ideas began to stray too far from what the band had previously been used to. He ended up leaving the band because of creative differences, and things were taken a step too far when he told Eddie Van Halen to stop playing guitar solos.
“It’s just that Dave said, ‘No more fucking guitar solos’,” said Eddie when discussing why he left the band, “You know, he’s on an ego trip. He has always been. Whatever.”
