Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography (15 page)

Eventually, recording on the next record proceeded in earnest. Prior to the album’s completion, Ed told Rosen: “I think this next one is going to be a hellified record. The majority of the solos will be overdubs. It just depends on how it feels right. There’s a fast boogie called ‘Hot for Teacher.’ . . . Lots of overdubs. My dad might play an intro for a song. There’s a song called ‘Panama’ with a live solo. And a song called ‘Jump.’” The latter Edward played a rough demo tape over the phone for Jas Obrecht during their 1982 interview. The demo was merely a sketch at that time, but within it were all of the essential elements of “Jump.”

When asked how fans might react to Ed’s burgeoning fascination with synthesizers, he responded, “I think as long as I do whatever I do well, whatever they say, I don’t really care. I mean they can’t say that it sucks. If they don’t like seeing me play keyboards, that’s too bad.” Another unique instrument Edward used on the album was a prototype stereo guitar built by Steve Ripley. “On this guitar you can pan each string to whatever side you want,” he said. “And I have a super duper prototype which allows you to not only put each string to the left or right, but you can also add an effect to each string, left or right. It’s a crazy sound.” This guitar was used to record “Top Jimmy.”

Early that summer, Eddie and Valerie rented a beach house in Malibu from composer Marvin Hamlisch where they spent their weekends trying to relax. Ed continued to work on music, though Valerie’s only consolation was that he was at least within sight. Over the July Fourth weekend, Eddie heard a news report warning swimmers of strong riptides, and Ed, knowing Valerie was not a strong swimmer—nor he for that matter—warned her to be careful. A hairdresser friend of Valerie’s, Jimmy, went out to the water with her and within minutes they were in serious trouble. Eddie noticed and leapt into action, yelling for Valerie to swim sideways and not fight the current, but she was too far out to hear. Panicked, Ed ran over to a group of volleyball players begging for help. The volleyball players were strong swimmers and jetted past Ed, who was still in shallow waters, to get to Valerie. The two Samaritans dragged Val out of the water passing Ed in the shallows. Eventually, Valerie and Edward stumbled together and hugged, both obviously quite shaken.

TV-Movie Music

While still at the Malibu beach house, Ed was roped into recording some music for one of Valerie’s many made-for-TV movies,
The
Seduction
of
Gina
. Eddie said he felt “cornered” in contributing to the score. “I went to pick Valerie up from the Burbank Airport after she had been filming up in San Francisco for a week and I saw her and she was all excited. And she said, ‘Write a song to this,’ and she explained the scene. As soon as I got home I started plinking on the synthesizer and came up with something. She heard it and said, ‘That’s perfect.’ Donn and I went down and saw the dailies and it did fit. It’s pretty much perfect for the scene, but the director wanted vocals.”

The director soon wanted more and more out of Edward, pushing him for additional pieces and eventually asking him for a tape of ideas (which he refused to do) as well as pushing him to do the whole movie. In his response, Eddie let loose an innocent line that reflected volumes about his feeling about lead singers, and/or singers in general. “They’re trying to get me to do the whole flick and I don’t want to. There’s too much pressure; I’m not mature enough to handle that kind of shit. I don’t know how to deal with adults who want to sing.”

Additionally, the tabloids were now targeting Eddie and Valerie every chance they got. They even wanted to purchase the Malibu house from Hamlisch, but an
Enquirer
story overestimating their net worth ruined their chances at getting any kind of a realistic price for the property. Every few months, one tabloid or another ran an article about the couple’s relationship problems and that they were close to a split. While none of it was true, Valerie said, “If you read it often enough, or if others read it often enough and call to ask if it’s true, as they did, it pollutes the air.”

Alex was having his own marital problems at the same time. He had married his Valeri in June after two years of courting; however, the marriage ended in divorce only two months later.

In December of 1983, the January 1984 edition of
Hit
Parader
hit the stands with a very happy looking Edward on the cover. The fan magazine proclaimed Van Halen—who had not toured for almost a year or put out any new material for a year and a half—to be America’s number one rock band. This was just prior to the release of
1984
. The
Hit
Parader
article was a clear example of exactly the kind of thing that the press twisted or conveniently got wrong on purpose. “Eddie VH,” they wrote, “regarded by many as rock’s premier guitarist, broke his hand in the midst of the group’s tour, forcing them to cancel the European leg of their road jaunt.” A more confused and discombobulated explanation could not possibly have been given.

CHAPTER 16 

The Peak

Valerie put it bluntly when she said, “Ed was at the peak of his artistry as he worked on songs for the
1984
album.”

1984
was officially released the first week of January, although the album itself features a 1983 copyright date. “Jump” was released as the first single back in mid-December, but it took a fairly slow route up the charts. However, by late February, it became the one and only Van Halen song in the band’s history to hit #1 on the
Billboard
charts. It stayed #1 for a solid month.

I will never forget the first time I heard “Jump.” I was out on the driveway shooting hoops when my older brother Brandon and his friend Steve pulled up in the driveway. I could already hear music coming from the car. Brandon opened up the passenger door and said, “Come here! It’s the new Van Halen song!” I came over and instantly was perplexed by the synthesizer sound. Then I heard the guitar solo, which was familiar territory, and then the keyboard solo kicked in. I was amazed, in shock. Brandon and I were both giddy, but I will never forget Steve looking over at me with a smirk and saying, “I don’t like it.” Steve said it as if he knew he was going to have to live with it because, even if he didn’t like it, he knew that everyone else would.

Again, “Jump” was written quite some time before. The song languished reportedly because Dave and Ted Templeman were both against incorporating synthesizers so heavily into Van Halen’s repertoire. The building of 5150 finally gave Ed the license to record it alone with Donn’s help. He said, “The first thing I did up here was ‘Jump’ and they [Roth and Templeman] didn’t like it. I said ‘Take it or leave it’; I was getting sick of their ideas of what was commercial.” Furthermore, Ed claimed he was told “that people wouldn’t like seeing me playing keyboards. I disagreed with that so this time around I just did it.”

In 2009, Edward said that the reason he had even built his home studio in the first place was out of the driving desire to properly record the synthesizer parts for the song. An excerpt of his interview with Steve Baltin reads as follows: “It’s like ‘Jump’: It was our only #1 single, and believe it or not I built my studio to put that song on our record ’cause everyone hated it… Alex and I tracked the whole thing, certain people didn’t want to be a part of it… and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Hey, yeah, great!’ But it was like pulling teeth to get the person to sing the damn song… . But I was always up against certain people saying [about ‘Jump’], ‘That doesn’t sound like Van Halen.’ [I was told] verbatim, ‘You’re a guitar hero; nobody wants to see you playing keyboards.’ Well, I didn’t mean to ram it up their poop chute, so to speak, but it’s our only #1 single… . It’s a keyboard-based song. ‘That’s not Van Halen.’ Well, what is Van Halen? Van Halen is whatever I write because I write all the music [
laughs
]. But I get outvoted because we are a democracy, so to speak.”

On the surface, there is a simplicity to “Jump” that is universal in a way that transcends any culture around the world. But just beneath the surface is a hidden, meshed complexity that requires a critical ear to find. There are very subtle synth-note octave stretches throughout. The bridge of the song is layered with several synth lines and an arpeggiated guitar line, and the music behind the guitar solo almost defies comprehension. It almost seems to make no sense, and is of course lost to the beautiful guitar solo, but it is the epitome of the “fall down the stairs and land on your feet” Van Halen principle. When people first heard Edward’s keyboard solo—and when they first saw it on MTV—they were duly impressed and immediately won over, if I may speak for a generation of American culture.

Ted was actually squeezed out for the most part for the recording of
1984
, which Ed and Donn Landee did primarily by themselves—obviously a result of the bond they had developed, particularly in building 5150. A September 1984
Hit
Parader
article chronicled an ugly episode in which Ted and Eddie actually came to physical blows. The article said: “Reports emanating from Los Angeles describe an alleged fight between Edward and the band’s long-time producer Ted Templeman. Evidently Templeman… criticized Edward’s increasingly egotistical attitude. This forced the axe-slinger to retort with verbal and physical force… . Ted wasn’t thrilled with being left out of the recording process and… there was a bit of hostility on of their parts.” In fact, the article said that Ted’s name was included in the
1984
credits solely out of a “feeling of commitment” based on all the work they had done together in the past.

Of course, Dave relented on “Jump,” wrote the lyrics and vocal melody as always, and the song skyrocketed. Dave in turn took heat for initially pooh-poohing the song, although he didn’t necessarily apologize. “I don’t remember from two years ago,” he said, referring to the fact that the song had been in demo form since 1981 or 1982. “Maybe it wasn’t right for two years ago… . We can’t possibly put everything on the album. ‘Jump’ made it there eventually.” Of course, without Dave’s concept and lyrics, no one knows where the song may have gone. That is impossible to know. What is known as that it became more than just the number one song from the early spring of 1984; it is a song that endures, a song that will be around forever.

Dave assumed the director’s chair for the song’s video—a straight-ahead mock stage performance all for reputedly “$600.” This was likely Dave’s reaction against video like “Thriller” that cost millions to make. Whatever the actual cost, the simple idea was colorful and effective and was a huge hit in heavy rotation on MTV. Ed is seen mostly playing guitar, but there are several shots of him on keyboard (hilariously covered in studio dust). Ed smiled for almost the entire video, and even hammed it up quite a bit singing the “Jump!” refrain with good humor. Dave performed a standing back flip for the video (reversed to look like a front flip) that took him three takes to nail. Dave’s overall improvement as a music video director would have him at the same helm for two more songs on the album.

“I’ll Wait” was the other synthesizer-driven masterpiece of the album. The combination of Dave’s dark lyrics and Ed’s moody keyboard lines made for an absolutely classic rock song. No one knew it at all, much less now but especially not at the time, that Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers and solo fame was a co-writer on the song. The extent of his input is not known, but he is clearly listed as a co-writer in the ASCAP database. His songwriting credit has been left off of the American release of the album since the day of its first issue. The irony is that Edward was himself the uncredited guest on Nicolette Larson’s debut, whereas Michael McDonald was a credited collaborator. It is likely that Templeman’s Doobie Brothers connection led to this rather unlikely combination of talents. Nevertheless, the result was yet another timeless classic from the
1984
album. Dave contrasted the two keyboard-driven songs: “‘I’ll Wait.’ Totally different feeling from something like ‘Jump.’ ‘I’ll Wait’ has a very somber tone. Almost sad. But it still has a lot of torque. It gives the impression of being fast.”

The
1984
Tour

The first leg of the
1984
tour concentrated on the southeast United States, kicking off on January 18 and wrapping on February 22 with an amazing twenty-six shows in just five weeks. Every single show was sold out, including a final two-night stand in Atlanta. Multiple-night stands would become common on this tour, as fans just could not possibly get enough of Van Halen.

As the tour started though, the final wedges were essentially in place between Dave and Ed. Summarizing the mood at the time, Valerie said, “Ed and Dave had basically had enough of each other. Onstage there was nothing but respect, but offstage they were like warring countries, unable to communicate.” Dave continued to be bothered by the fact that Eddie had ventured out of the camp to do something as high-profile as “Beat It” and also that he had done work for Valerie’s TV movie, which happened to air that January. As per his earlier comments, Dave must have felt like Eddie was now running off with bits and pieces of the scenery—that is, while the play was actually being performed, sold out, every night—on Broadway. All it took was for it to come up a few more times…

On tour, Ed’s drinking worsened as tension behind the scenes of the band reached unbearable highs. About the
1984
tour Valerie said, “Ed had changed. He would breakdown physically, suffering headaches and stomach problems from all the fighting, and the stress and pressure he felt. Off the road, he sealed himself in the studio.” He was feasting on alcohol and cocaine. Valerie could no longer keep up with his usage.

That spring, the Roth-directed video for “Panama” hit MTV. The video was an absolute classic workout of on-stage performances littered with fun little cameos of the band backstage and elsewhere. Dave’s work behind the camera had come full circle. One could not flip on the channel in the spring of 1984 without seeing “Jump” and “Panama”—as well as “Beat It.” The videos were run almost non-stop. “Jump” was on the radio constantly on every station: rock, pop, and even R&B (now even Van Halen was crossing over). Every single fanzine had Van Halen on the cover in one way or another; in fact there was not a single
Hit
Parader
in 1984 that did not feature an article or photo spread on the band. The tour sold out at every single stop. Despite what was going on behind the scenes, Van Halen was absolutely on top of the entertainment world, period. All of the attention was fairly disconcerting for Eddie, even though one could argue it was all he ever wanted. A decade later, he noted, “When ‘Jump’ went number one, I was almost embarrassed.”

The pace of the
1984
tour was nearing the ridiculous. The second leg, which ran thirty days from March to April, included twenty-three shows. Of note is that fact that of those shows, seven cities got two, or even three, shows: two nights in Cincinnati, two nights in Providence, two nights in Philadelphia, two nights in Landover, two straight back-to-back nights at Madison Square Garden in New York, two nights in Detroit, and three consecutive nights in a row in East Rutherford at the Meadowlands Arena. Fan demand was insatiable. The third leg was similar: from mid-April to mid-May, twenty-four dates including multiple night stands in San Francisco (three consecutive nights at the Cow Palace), Los Angeles (two nights in a row at The Forum), Phoenix (two shows), and San Diego (three nights in a row at the San Diego Sports Arena).

While on break in April, Eddie spent two nights in the studio with Brian May just jamming on three songs. Two were very offbeat Brian May compositions—something along the lines of a cheap anime cartoon’s opening credits music. One other, “Blues Breaker,” was a tribute to Eric Clapton. Because one song was called “Star Fleet,” Brian dubbed the jam session group Star Fleet Project.

Brian May sent the “Blues Breaker” song to Eric Clapton who reportedly found the song to be not terribly bluesy. Ed was greatly disappointed. On top of that, Eddie had finally met Clapton the previous year.
Rolling
Stone
reported that Edward “was so nervous that he got drunk and blew the whole thing.” Later, Eddie elaborated: “I’ve met him, and we’ve talked. But he isn’t really an easy guy to talk to, and I’m shy. It was just a backstage-hello kind of deal.”

Can It Last?

In May, the June 1984 issue of
Musician
hit that stands. The front cover featured a smiling Edward leaning back with his head on Dave’s shoulder while Dave has his back to him and his pulling a full “pose” for the shot. The prophetic title of the cover on the article was “The Oddest Couple: Can It Last?” The article that ran was at the time taken as an indication of just what incredibly disparate personalities combined to make a whole so much greater than they were as individuals and that was the magic of the band—the four different personalities. Hindsight, though, shows just how thinly veiled Ed and Dave’s comments about each other were. They were interviewed separately.

Eddie was out to recast himself in a new mold of his own definition—and to shed any attachment to Dave or to the band at large and prove that he was only out to please himself and no one else. He wanted to make it clear that he was “different”—a word which he pronounced with an exaggerated American accent to the point that the interviewer, Charles M. Young, wrote the word as “diffirnt” repeatedly throughout the piece.

Young may have been the first writer to make the suggestion: “Anyone so blessed with talent—so goes the equation—is going to be equally cursed.” Edward’s following rant would be the subject of much debate: “It’s an obsession. I’m not saying I’m better than anyone else. I’m diffirnt. I play diffirnt… I’m totally into… I’m obsessed with music. I’m selfish. I’m a sick fuck… . I’m not saying I’m an unsocial asshole, but I don’t need humans a lot. I got my wife. I got my brother. I got my parents. I got Donn. That’s it, concerning deep humans.”

When people read the list, the obvious question was “What about Dave?” Ed mustered a left-handed compliment for Dave, saying “He’s good. A complete motherfucker, man. Okay, so he’s not an opera singer.” Edward added, “Kids come because they want to live the fantasy of Dave. That image: fuck all night and get wasted. But that’s Dave and not me.”