The album Eddie Van Halen could never make again: “It’s very unique”
Nothing that Eddie Van Halen ever did was based on trying to get a hit.
He was always a guitarist who relied on instinct more than anything else, and given the fact that he singlehandedly reinvented what the guitar could sound like in a rock and roll context, it’s not like anyone should have been questioning his better judgment. He knew what made Van Halen sound great whenever they hit the charts, but there were experiments that Eddie knew he could never repeat again.
Granted, there are pieces of Van Halen’s discography that were always going to be like capturing lightning in a bottle. No matter how many bands were spawned from their debut record, a lot of the energy of that record was them rehashing what they had played during their live set. They had put their best foot forward right out of the gate, but it didn’t matter so long as Eddie kept coming up with classic licks.
He may have had to deal with David Lee Roth’s rockstar posturing every now and again when they started performing, but he did seem to get his way most of the time on record. Women and Children First is one of the heaviest albums that they have ever made, and while he may have had less patience for the rest of the band phoning it in on Fair Warning, songs like ‘Mean Street’ and ‘Hear About It Later’ are an absolute treat for people interested in the small idiosyncrasies of guitar playing.
Then again, there was always going to be a bit more shine on what the debut had to offer. There weren’t the gorgeous keyboard lines of their later work or even some of the heavier grooves that turned up on their later records, but it is a one-stop shop for everything that the band had to offer. ‘Eruption’ is still the greatest guitar solo Eddie ever came up with, and hearing him make strange sounds on ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ and ‘Atomic Punk’ is still wildly inventive to this day.
And while Roth has always been more of an entertainer than a singer, this is also the best that his voice has ever sounded. He wasn’t trying to do anything too flashy back then, but when you hear him reach into the stratosphere to hit those screams in ‘Runnin’ With the Devil’ or even when he brings things down a notch on ‘Ice Cream Man’, he has the same kind of swagger and charm that made him look like a sun-kissed version of Elvis Presley half the time he stepped out onstage.
But even when they were making other landmark records like 1984, Eddie felt that there was no way that the band would ever be able to make another version of their debut, saying, “The first album sounds a little better, but it still wasn’t the way we imagined it should sound. It’s very unique sounding. I wouldn’t even know how to duplicate it, to tell you the truth.” Then again, that’s sort of a blessing and a curse when it comes to any band.
On the one hand, it keeps them from being a one-trick pony every single time they walk into the studio. Not everyone wanted to hear another version of ‘You Really Got Me’ or ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’, so hearing them expand their craft across their albums might have been a lot better than rehashing all of their older ideas.
A Different Kind of Truth may have been the closest that the band ever came to rehashing their old tunes, but by that point, it wasn’t about trying to recapture the same magic that came out on their debut. It was to remind everyone of the kickass rock and roll band that Van Halen always was, and since it would be their last record, it was better for them to go all the way back to the beginning.
