“Making that fit together”: the song that tortured Eddie Van Halen in the studio
Music should always be something that comes from the heart before anything else. The whole point of rock and roll was to go against the grain and make music that no one would have expected, and the thought of someone playing something safe because it sells records is usually the kiss of death when working on any new material. And for a band that was as synonymous with guitar as Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen had to be put through the wringer at times to get the true essence of what he wanted.
Then again, anyone expecting the band to make something as great as their debut directly afterwards was always going to be tempting fate. The kind of magic that comes with this record is something that you can only get once, and while Van Halen II was an admirable effort in many respects, rushing the band back into the studio was one of the biggest ways to get an unnecessary sequel.
Once the band had a handle on what they wanted to sound like, Women and Children First was the first time Eddie fully got control of what they could do in the studio. They had been an act centred on having a good time whenever they went onstage, but they proved that they could also be a band that could melt faces if they wanted to, with even singles like ‘Everybody Wants Some’ being among the heaviest things they ever made.
After a few years of doing what the label wanted, Eddie finally had freedom. Some of his solos and licks on ‘Loss of Control’ and ‘Could This Be Magic’ are as close to a modern-day Led Zeppelin sound that the band would ever get, but looking at where they went on Fair Warning, maybe the rest of the guys were giving Eddie a little too much freedom when working on his studio techniques.
“Ted didn’t like what Ed was playing and Ed did not want to play what Ted was suggesting.”
Donn Landee
That’s not to degrade Fair Warning in any way. Anyone remotely interested in hearing what makes Eddie tick as a guitarist needs to pick up this record, but in terms of everyone else in the group, the guitar maestro admitted that he felt like the only person in the room half the time, usually making sure that everyone else had their parts in order while he burned midnight oil trying to get everything exactly right.
For a record that was all about Eddie showing his stuff, he still couldn’t catch a break from his producer, Ted Templeman, on the song ‘Unchained’, with engineer Donn Landee recalling, “Ted didn’t like what Ed was playing and Ed did not want to play what Ted was suggesting. That whole day, making that whole song fit together, was crisis after crisis–there was no other day like that I had working with anybody, ever. Ted tortured Ed, and to this day, he doesn’t know it.”
Judging by how the song sounds, though, it looks like Eddie got his way in many respects. There are a handful of parts that feel more in line with their usual sound, but the flanger effect he has on his guitar combined with the massive riff that kicks off the entire tune is enough to put it alongside nearly anything from their first record and in league with the finest songs that the band ever wrote.
But the biggest miracle behind it is that ‘Unchained’ actually sounds like a good time. Anyone can try their hand at making songs that are as perfect as they can be, but while perfectionism always results in something sounding forced, we’re lucky to have songs like this as the exception to the rule.
