1984 album in review: Van Halen--1984
How do I approach writing about an album that sold over ten million copies, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts, and produced a massive #1 single in "Jump"? I'll just start off with a personal approach.
It's impossible to over estimate what a big deal Van Halen was in the early and mid 1980s, especially if one attended a small town Midwestern high school like I did. VH was voted favorite band by my 1986 senior class. (I voted for U2). If all or most of the kids in my school liked something, I was naturally skeptical, and Van Halen seemed a bit dim and dumb. A lot of flash with no substance. I mean, U2 was an "important" and "serious" band. They'd played at Live Aid and the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope tour! (I could be such a serious and self-righteous little turd back then).
All that said, I couldn't deny how catchy "Jump" was when I first heard it in late 1983. Eddie Van Halen's synthesizer line is an earworm. In his memoir Brothers, Alex Van Halen discusses musical hooks/riffs that seem as though they have always existed but just need to be discovered, and he specifically mentions that synth line. Listening to "Jump" just a few days ago, the song struck me as majestic. Just the way Eddie kicks it off with that synthesizer riff and then Alex joins in with a little drum fill before settling into the groove with his brother. It actually made me emotional listening to these siblings communicating musically and playing off each other, particularly considering Eddie is no longer with us.
(Speaking of that synthesizer, I clearly remember being in a 10th grade psychology class, autumn 1983, when a group of boys were talking about the upcoming new Van Halen record and how it was rumored to have...[gulp]...synthesizers! Oh, the horror!).
As for Van Halen being empty-headed, I've now listened to enough VH to know that isn't true. Well, not entirely true, anyway. Sure, Van Halen is primarily about giving the audience a good time. I theorize that this is due at least in part to the Van Halen brothers being immigrant sons of a working class family. They didn't have the luxury to be overly artsy fartsy. It was either make it as professional musicians or spend their lives in blue collar or grey collar jobs--though Eddie was enough of a musical genius that he probably still could have carved out a career in music. And then there's David Lee Roth, who had the flamboyant spirit of a song-and-dance vaudevillian. And though Diamond Dave came from a much more privileged background than the Van Halen brothers, he wasn't suited to any other life than one as a performer.
Now on to 1984, the album, which was released in January '84, one month after the leadoff single, "Jump." The album is a big swing by the band stylistically. The opening track (and title track) "1984" might have made listeners think they'd accidentally bought a prog rock album, or RUSH's 2112 had been placed in the sleeve instead of the new Van Halen record. "1984" is a spacy synthesizer track with no vocals that clocks in at 1:07. Just as the track ends and VH listeners are uttering, "what the fuck was that?," the already released single "Jump" enters as a palate cleanser. And anyone worried that it's all synthesizer had to have been relieved when they heard a smokin' Eddie guitar solo about 2/3 of the way in.
"Panama" is the third track, and sounds like a race car revving up, which is fitting considering the song is actually about a fast car and not the nation of Panama. Of course, this being Van Halen, we get a little sexual innuenda thrown in, too.
"Top Jimmy" contains some of the most intriguing guitar playing on the album, particularly in the harmonics in the song's intro and middle section, which remind me of RUSH's sonf "Red Barchetta." (Apparently the song is about a band called Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Kings that David Lee Roth play many times in the '70s).
I don't have much to say about side one closer "Drop Dead Legs" other than it's simply a good rock song.
The drum patter at the beginning of "Hot For Teacher," which leads off the second side, sounds like a motorcycle engine idling. As for the subject matter: hey, it was the '80s. What more can I say?
"I'll Wait" is a song about a guy who has a crush on a magazine photo of a beautiful woman. Eddie returns with more proggy but catchy synth playing, while his brother Alex's drumming is powerful. I have frown to love his distinctive snare sound. It's not that he plays anything dazzling, it simply sounds pleasant to my ears.
"Girl Gone Bad" is just another great Van Halen rocker, with Michael Anthony's active, propulsive bass and more blazing, smoking Eddie guitar pyrotechnics. Lyrically, the title is self explanatory. It's a girl who arrives in the big city and becomes a sex worker.
1984 concludes with "House of Pain," another white hot rock tune with the darkest lyrics on the album. This isn't just a house of pain, it sounds like a house of violence, disappointment, and sadness. But when you have Eddie Van Halen blowin' the roof off the sucker, Diamond Dave could be singing about ice cream and lollipops and it wouldn't likely matter.
1984 breezes by in about 33 minutes. The album is equal parts progressive, pop, and the bludgeoning rock that VH fans had come to expect. It was also David Lee Roth's last album with VH until 2012.
I've grown to truly appreciate the band's excellence over the years. Van Halen was so ubiquitous in my high school and college years that I took them for granted. I heard them so often that it didn't seem necessary to own their records. (When I managed to find all the Roth era albums on CD in the cheapo bins, I snatched them all up. I've never had much interest in the post-Roth era, but I may just change my mind).
Now excuse me while I crack open a can of Budweiser, fire up a clove cigarette, pop my 1984 tape in my boombox, and crank the volume on that fucker to 11.
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