“We’re human”: the band Eddie Van Halen thought sounded too perfect
Every artist will chase perfection every time they walk into the studio. No one will end up cracking the code on how to write the perfect pop song, but if they can get somewhere close to it when jamming amongst their bandmates, it’s usually worth it when the singles start tearing up the charts. But some songs aren’t meant to be laboured over, and Eddie Van Halen thought that what these 1970s legends were doing was far too perfect for their own good.
Then again, it’s hard to talk about perfection when listening to Eddie Van Halen. Even if not everything they played was exactly in tune or went over well, no one could deny that Eddie’s fingers seemed touched by God, especially when he launched into his tapping solos, which could have left audiences entertained the same way that they would have been if they had listened to a pop song.
But most of what Van Halen didn’t cater to pop. Although David Lee Roth liked the idea of being an all-star frontman, it was all about making the best live show that anyone had ever seen, which meant dipping their toes into everything from hard rock to pop to swing to whatever other warped idea came into their heads.
And given what the rest of the charts looked like, Van Halen was one of the biggest oddities of the time. As much as people liked the idea of a new rock band coming to town, the flavour of the day had been the rootsy rock coming out of California, like the Eagles and Joni Mitchell. And out of every other California act, no other band personified the perfect pop group quite like Fleetwood Mac.
Although they were a hot mess behind the scenes, every album that ‘The Mac’ made under the guidance of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks was a thing of beauty. No matter how much they hated each other’s guts, the reason why Rumours worked so well is because of how well they crafted the songs, whether that was the sunshine of ‘Go Your Own Way’ or the dark underbelly of ‘The Chain’.
As far as Eddie was concerned, though, that kind of approach was much too precise for him, saying: “All our albums have mistakes — big deal, we’re human. But they reek of feeling, and that, to me, is what music is all about. It’s not like Fleetwood Mac. You know, they spend so much time and money on their albums. I think that if something is too perfect, it won’t faze you. It’ll go in one ear and out the other because it’s so perfect.”
Both bands have released absolute classics, but it’s like Eddie didn’t have a point. Look no further than the next album that Fleetwood Mac made, Tusk, and you’ll see what he means. While some songs are still absolutely pristine, their double album is a lesson in why some albums can go from sounding clean to clinical all too quickly.
Because for all of the perfect songs that Van Halen made, it was never about delivering a note-for-note performance. What he made had to come from their heart, and listening through any of the band’s back catalogue, you can hear the four guys inside the record turning their passion into art.
