I must have been about six or seven when I encountered Van Halen first. It was the 2005 classic Herbie: Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan. With a love of cars from an early age- the disc was very worn…
About halfway through the film, a low point for the star (Herbie, not Lohan), there is a demolition derby sequence in which the car almost commits automotive suicide but decides – under persuasion from Lohan – to pull itself together and escape. As this realisation occurs, Herbie decides on Jump by Van Halen as the theme music to the redemption story. Every time this section came on, I’d turn the volume up on the TV and do as Van Halen instructed in my lounge, then I’d rewind it and listen to it again. Although this may not quite have been what Eddie Van Halen had in mind as the distribution for his music, it certainly had an effect on me.
Since playing guitar, I’ve revisited the music. It would be easy to write off Van Halen as an 80’s hair band but the difference with Van Halen is always Eddie’s guitar. First of all, there’s the look. There are certain iconic guitars: there’s Brian May’s homemade edition; Slash’s Les Paul; BB King’s ‘Lucille’ and Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Frankenstein’. It’s simply striking. A cherry red background with black and white slashes all over- you could hang it in a modern art gallery. But then there’s the sound. All guitars have voices and EVH’s definitely screams. If you’ve ever accidentally trodden on a dog’s paw, you’ll know the solo sound – if that dog was on speed and spoke through a stack of Marshalls on full volume.
EVH developed cancer of the tongue in 2000 and blamed holding a metal pick in his mouth whilst delivering his iconic ‘tapping’ technique, he conceded, “ I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything”. This may be one of my favourite stories of self-diagnosis.
Undoubtedly Van Halen songs shall have a boost on streaming platforms at the moment but I urge you to ditch that and at least make the jump to YouTube because the stage dives, the fire, the excess of it all is joyous.
If all else fails, might as well jump.
By Adam Baker
Feature Image Credit: Pitchfork