The one Van Halen song Eddie Van Halen didn’t want you to hear: “I got outvoted”
The truth is, rock musicians aren’t ever really built to last. The very nature of rebellion is to be a spark of inspiration, an explosion of creativity and then an untouchable legacy left burned into the history books. Sure, there are many rock bands that have lasted decades, but most fall away in a matter of a few years. Towards the end of the 1980s, Van Halen had no business going as strong as they were.
The life cycle of a heavy rock band like Van Halen were, complete with all the excess that was often afforded to such a band was a very short one. But the group railed against it. The band had found fame at the start of the decade, but seemed to rally against any idea that they would fall down a dark hole, even if they did lose their lead singer.
Since David Lee Roth’s dismissal, their career resurgence with Sammy Hagar brought in a new level of fans that the band members probably weren’t sure they would ever see, crafting songs with more depth than what ‘Diamond Dave’ could have mustered. Though Hagar fit like a glove with Van Halen, it was only a matter of time before cracks started forming.
After working on OU812, the band thought they needed a proper producer to bring in for their net album. As Hagar recalls of the sessions, “The band pretty much produced the album ourselves. And we weren’t producers, in the sense that we went in with an idea and told everybody what to do and took control. There just wasn’t a producer.”
Needing guidance for their next record, longtime producer Ted Templeman returned for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Having been behind the boards for the strongest Roth-era albums, hope was high that the band could recapture that same good-time spirit again. It’s a tale as old as time for rock acts. When they hit the ice and need to get themselves back on the high road, they dive back itno the legends who put them there in the first place.
Going into the studio, Van Halen found themselves back on the charts with songs like ‘Right Now’, ushering them into the ’90s right before the alternative movement came in. The album had more than a few hits on it for Van Halen fans, but it wasn’t all plain sailing. Although Eddie Van Halen looked back on the record fondly, he wasn’t as much of a fan of their choice in singles.
When talking to Forbes about songs he dislikes, Eddie made it clear he doesn’t return to the closing song, ‘Top of the World’, recalling: “Sometimes I’ll write something, for instance, a song called ‘Top Of The World’. Everyone else liked it; I didn’t. I got outvoted, and I wrote the damn song. It ended up on the record. I didn’t like the song, everyone else did. I got outvoted. It’s personal preference, that’s all music is.”
It might feel strange for a songwriter to be outmuscled when it comes to releasing tracks, but the pull of the tune was too strong for the rest of the group to ignore, even if its original creator thought it was a sub-standard affair. Eddie was known to be able to control a lot of what made the group tick. For the most part, what he wanted was what happened, but it would seem, on this occasion at least, he was kicked to the curb as the group’s eyes lit up at the possibilities of the single.
That’s not to take away from the pedigree behind the song, though. As one of the final singles, Hagar’s brilliant sing-along chorus is bulletproof when playing off Michael Anthony’s trademark high harmonies. Aside from the main lineup, the chorus also featured backing vocals from Steve Lukather from Toto, who had previously worked with Van Halen on the backing track for Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’.
When recalling working with Eddie, Lukather had nothing but positive memories from that time, recalling during an interview with Tone Talk, “I mean, come on – of course, he doesn’t need me to play anything like that. I was there at the house. So I used to hang all the time. I love those guys. They’re like family to me.”
While Eddie would hold For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge as one of the strongest records in the group’s catalogue, the animosity between him and Hagar was starting to reach a boiling point. Coming off the next album, Balance, the pair began to butt heads when writing nearly every song, leading to Hagar being kicked out of the band shortly afterwards when being called back in to work on songs for a greatest hits album.
Even though Eddie didn’t think that much of the finished product, ‘Top of the World’ is still a decent snapshot of Van Halen cutting the bullshit and delivering a career renaissance. A few hard times lay ahead, but for as long as this song is playing, it feels like a non-stop party. With tunes like these, and their desire to keep making them, Van Halen would, despite the line-up changes, become one of those bands that outlasted the initial spark of fire that set them on course to become one of the most important rock outfits of their generation.
