The 1984 song Eddie Van Halen knew his band hated: “Nobody wanted anything to do with it”
It’s no real question of who called the shots whenever Van Halen made a new record.
Although everyone could chip in and add their own spice to the music, there was no question that Eddie was the one willing to try anything and everything every single time they worked on a new record until it sounded perfect. There may have been a few moments where he got his ideas across perfectly, but when you look at some of their biggest hits, Eddie needed to go through a lot of red tape for the band to even entertain his ideas.
Granted, it’s not like Eddie got what he wanted every single time he made a record, either. He didn’t initially want ‘Eruption’ to be recorded at all because of how secretive he was about his playing, but when you look at the way that he performed, it’s almost impossible to think of him without his tapping techniques. He was born to play that way, but when you knock it out of the park like that, everyone normally wants the same thing over again.
And even for a young rock band, Van Halen went through the wringer a lot more than most whenever they got into the studio. It wasn’t out of the question for them to get right back to the studio and start working on something new the minute they got home from a tour, and while that did help keep them sharp whenever they worked on Women and Children First, everyone seemed to be done with each other the minute that they took a break after Diver Down.
They needed time to recharge their batteries a little bit, but Eddie wasn’t the kind who just stops making music. He was going to do everything he could to make sure that every one of his records sounded perfect, and even though he was a guitar god, it wasn’t out of the question for him to work on some songs that were dominated by the keyboard whenever he found the right idea.
The rest of the band would have preferred that he stick to guitar, but ‘And the Cradle Will Rock’ was proof enough that that idea at least worked a little bit. Eddie could make a piano sound mean whenever he wanted to, but ‘Jump’ was going to be a hard sell for anyone to pull off. This was a pure pop song that happened to have a few guitar licks in it, and Eddie remembered having a major uphill battle when he brought it to the rest of the band.
He loved the idea of trying new things, but since David Lee Roth wanted to stick to the formula, Eddie knew that he needed to put his foot down if he wanted to get the song across the finish line, saying, “Once [producer] Ted heard that song, he was full-hog in. He said, ‘That’s great! Let’s go to work.’ When I first played Jump for the band, nobody wanted to have anything to do with it. Dave said that I was a guitar hero and I shouldn’t be playing keyboards. My response was if I want to play a tuba or Bavarian cheese whistle, I will do it.”
In fact, the one piece of the song that seems to be out of place is the guitar hero, ironically enough. The tune is already great without bringing in Eddie’s tapping solo, and while he does fine work here on the record, the whole thing feels like it belongs in a completely different song, down to the fact that it was so obviously punched in when you look at the way that it plays off the rest of the band.
Considering how many doors the song opened up for them later down the line, though, it was a fair trade for Eddie to start experimenting with new sounds on 1984. He didn’t feel the need to repeat himself over and over again, and even if the future of the band was going to come without ‘Diamond Dave’, getting Sammy Hagar to sing gave Eddie permission to try out new songs like ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’ later down the line.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter
All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.