‘Light up the Sky’: how the Van Halen hidden gem was written
Van Halen is a band with a complicated history, to say the least. There are two distinct chapters in their story. There is the David Lee Roth era, which most consider their best, and the “Van Hagar” era after Sammy Hagar took the microphone.
Though often at creative odds, Roth’s flamboyant, larger-than-life persona was the perfect match for guitarist and band namesake Eddie Van Halen’s fretboard pyrotechnics. Add in the thundering drums of Eddie’s brother Alex and the bass guitar might and angelic harmony vocals of Jack Daniels bass-wielding Michael Anthony, and you have one of the most legendary lineups of all time.
The band blasted onto the global scene with their stellar debut. Often considered their best, Van Halen released in 1978, and its follow-up, Van Halen II, came out the following year. Songs like ‘Dance the Night Away’ and ‘Somebody Get Me a Doctor’ became rock radio staples. But it’s the first track on the B-side that epitomises their sonic style.
‘Light Up the Sky’ is the perfect showcase of how the rhythm section could lock in with each other. Eddie’s lead work is all over it, and it highlights his underappreciated rhythm guitar chops. His inimitable guitar style is everywhere. There are lightning-fast palm mutes, syncopation, timing changeups, searing lead guitar work, and creative use of modulation effects.
By this point, he had perfected the “brown sound”. It’s a midrange-focused guitar tone courtesy of his homemade Frankenstein guitars cooking through Marshall amplifiers and judicious effects pedals setup.
The song arrangement is unique, to say the least. Dynamics shift, there are multiple tempo changes, and a middle-8 breakdown that explodes into the coda’s blazing guitar solo. It seamlessly blends progressive elements with the energy of a new style that was emerging at the time – punk rock.
The somewhat sardonic adage “you have your entire life to write your first album, but only a month to write your second” certainly rang true for Van Halen. Recorded in late 1978 at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, where the band cut their first few albums, the sessions for Van Halen II lasted only a few weeks.
Ted Templeman, often considered the fifth member of the group, and engineer Donn Landee helmed the production. The band had just wrapped up their first world tour. After a brief break in the action, they were right back at it.
Eddie spent his downtime like most guitar gods, using it to create. Some of the songs that made the final album cut were leftovers from their club days on the Sunset Strip or from early demos. Like their first album, Van Halen recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs. They worked fast, often only needing a few takes.
Of ‘Light up the Sky’, Eddie said in an interview: “I wrote the music for that song right after our first record was recorded. I used to play it for the guys, and they’d go, ‘Oh, Eddie’s got a new riff.’ When we came back off the tour, we played all our new riffs and songs for Ted, and he really liked that one. I was totally surprised. It’s a little more progressive; the changes are a little more bent than the commercial stuff. So I was happy he liked that. It worked out to be a good one.”
