The album cover Van Halen rejected out of hand for being too punk: “Fuck this shit!”
First impressions always count in every situation, but particularly so in rock music. No one gets anywhere by being an unassuming wallflower, and that applies both in a personality and an image sense. You have to be original and make a fresh statement compared to anything else that has come before, even if it means ruffling a few feathers along the way. In the case of Van Halen, it also involved contesting their image before they were turned into something they never intended to be.
The battle began in late 1977, when the band had recorded what would go on to be their legendary debut album, ready to unleash the reigns of their hard rock brand to shake up the status quo. But as it turns out, their label, Warner Bros Music, had very different ideas. As far as images go, there are few more iconic than the album cover that would eventually grace Van Halen’s debut, but it would never have happened if the band hadn’t fought back.
Indeed, the first cover that the label drafted for Van Halen was completely at odds with what the band had in mind. Striking up an image which primarily had Alex Van Halen at the helm, rather than David Lee Roth, and with the four-piece generally looking moody and forlorn, it gave more of an impression of an outfit befitting the punk agenda than one that wanted to blaze the roof off of any place they played. Needless to say, it didn’t go down well.
“You should see the first album cover Warner Bros designed for us,” Eddie Van Halen scorned in a later interview with Guitar World, “They tried to make us look like The Clash. We said, ‘Fuck this shit!’.” In many ways, although it could be misconstrued as diva demands creeping in from the earliest opportunity, the band were absolutely correct to make their priorities clear because, ultimately, no one got into rock music to be a people pleaser.
However, in complete fairness to Warner Bros, it wasn’t as if they had constructed an image of Van Halen that was without some form of precedent. Given the musical climate of the time, when punk bands ruled supreme, and the Van Halen brothers themselves were often seen frequenting and performing at punk clubs across California, it was logical to think that these new kids on the block would want to be considered in the same vein as their contemporaries.
But Van Halen’s vision was never just to fit in or form part of a crowd. They were a distinctly unique outfit whose entry onto the scene had to be unmistakable; hence, they couldn’t be compared to any other band already in existence. Subsequently, with that message well and truly left ringing in the ears of the label, a new artwork was created, one that would go on to represent the pinnacle of the Van Halen brand forever.
In many ways, it was just as well that Van Halen knew to stand their ground, because without their iconic album cover of them performing at the Whisky a Go Go club on the Sunset Strip, their status as one of the best bands of the era, with one of the best debut albums to boot, may never have come to be.
For any young, wannabe rock stars, it’s a lesson in perseverance and ultimately trusting your own intuition. If Van Halen had followed their label’s lead, they may simply have crashed and burned.
