Van Halen’s “Almost Infamous”
Here’s a entertaining recollection of what it was like to discover Van Halen back in 1978, and then to actually meet them on their first world tour. Written by Jeffrey Liles from the Dallas Observer.
Echoes & Reverberations: Van Halen’s “Almost Infamous”
It was the spring of 1978 and rock music was in big trouble. The Village People’s “YMCA” was sharing space on the Billboard charts with the Bee Gees and Andy Gibb. The Rolling Stones had (gasp!) gone disco with their single “Miss You,” and Styx was encouraging us to come sail away in their twisted tsunami of spandex and hairspray. At the same time — and still very much under the radar, mind you — weird stories about bizarre new punk rock bands like The Clash, Sex Pistols and The Ramones were starting to show up in magazines like Creem and Circus.
As the proud adolescent owner of a beat-up old Gibson SG guitar, I was
ready to make some noise and take on the world. The only problem was that
all of my heroes had either shamelessly sold out, or settled into a
comfortable heroin hibernation. Led Zeppelin had lost their swagger, I was
already sick of Rush and Yes and all that falsetto prog-rock, and, of
course, I fucking hated disco music and everything it stood for.
I needed new ammunition.
Then, a revelation: in April of that year I walked into Disc Records in
Valley View Mall and saw a stack of free seven-inch singles on the
counter. The record bore a Warner Brothers label with a generic sleeve;
the artist was somebody named Van Halen.
The A-side was a cover of The Kinks’ classic song “You Really Got Me”; the
flipside a track called “Atomic Punk.” Who knows? Maybe this was a
“gimmick” song by a guy like Van Morrison who put out a record to make fun
of punk rock, and they figured giving it away free was the only way anyone
was going to hear it.
I collected seven-inch singles like other kids collected baseball cards,
so I slipped a copy of it into my backpack and didn’t give it a second
thought. It wasn’t until I got home and put the record on my turntable
that I realized my initial impression was way off base.
Just ten seconds into “You Really Got Me,” and I knew that we were dealing
with uncharted territory. That was the loudest I had ever heard a guitar
mixed in relation to the rest of the instrumentation on a record. It
sounded like the guy was playing through a dozen Marshall stacks. The solo
was a kinetic blitzkrieg of random harmonics and static electricity.
Unfathomable realization, wrapping one’s head around the unthinkable:
“God, this guy is even better than Jimmy Page!”
Then I flipped the single over and heard the intro to “Atomic Punk.” The
guitarist was doing something that was totally different: instead of
hammering the strings up and down, he created a unique dissonant melodic
figure by scraping the pick sideways across the top of the strings, while
simultaneously running the signal through a distortion pedal and phase
shifter at the same time.
I had never heard anything like this in my life.
It was heavy metal music that was actually commenting on the threat of
punk rock invading its territory. The guitar solo in “Atomic Punk” was all
over the place; again, this guy was pulling noise out of nowhere. Somehow,
he was tapping his right hand on the neck of the guitar to create a sound
that was original and spectacular.
For an easily impressed teenager, it was the most amazing thing I had ever
heard. The next day at school was spent, for the most part anyway,
standing out in the smoking area giving my unsolicited opinion about Van
Halen to anyone who would listen. (Yes, I still thought Van was the
artist’s first name for a week or so afterward.)
By the end of that week, “You Really Got Me” started getting occasional
airplay on “The Zoo” — KZEW — and all of this random enthusiasm started
making a little sense to my friends.
(Quick question and aside for fellow audiophiles and headphone historians:
aside from Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”,
when was the last time an artist had a breakout hit with a cover of
another artist’s song?)
When Van Halen’s debut album appeared in record stores a few days later,
rumors started to fly about the back-story of the band. The photos on the
record jacket were blurry and out of focus, and the name “Gene Simmons”
was at the top of the “thank you” list on the back of the record.
Could this band actually be Kiss without their make-up?
The photo of bassist Michael Anthony on the album jacket looked scary,
like we imagined Simmons might look. The photo of Eddie Van Halen could
have easily been Paul Stanley. Keep in mind that none of us had ever seen
Kiss without their face paint at this point. This scenario was totally
plausible at this point.
As a band, Kiss had already far outlived their usefulness. (If the 1976
single “Beth” wasn’t the last straw for most hard core Kiss fans, then the
disco track “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” was the final nail in our
forehead.) I was never made for lovin’ Kiss myself, but I thought if they
could pull something like this off, they might actually be geniuses after
all.
A week or so later a handwritten sign went up on the wall at Disc Records
that read, “MEET VAN HALEN HERE on APRIL 15 at 11:00 a.m.” This was good
news and bad news: the good news was that I was going to get to the bottom
of this Kiss thing; the bad news was that April 15 was a school day, and
11 in the morning was when I was usually enjoying some nice REM sleep in
my third period Introduction to Algebra class.
My mom, bless her heart, could see how important this was to me. She wrote
a note to get me out of school that morning. My best friend Vern Evans and
I made our jailbreak and hauled ass up to Valley View Mall in his parent’s
yellow Ford Pinto to go meet our new heroes.
One of those other kids who also played hooky that day was Dallas musician
Peter Schmidt (Funland/Bedhead/The New Year).
“I was in eighth grade at the time, and I was still in private school
wearing the uniform and all that, so my mom got me out of school and took
me up there,” Schmidt recalls. “My older brother had turned me onto the
band, and I had this red vinyl copy of the first record with this weird
Warner Brothers Looney Tunes logo on it that I really wanted to get
autographed.”
11 a.m. came and went, and no Van Halen. “There were only twenty or so
people waiting for the band,” Schmidt says. “I still remember this guy had
brought a white Aspen Les Paul copy up there that he wanted the band to
sign.”
I temporarily left the store and headed towards the parking lot. A rickety
old brown school bus then pulled up and stopped by the mall entrance next
to El Fenix restaurant. The first guy off the bus was bassist Michael
Anthony, who couldn’t have been an inch over Five-foot-six. (So much for
meeting Gene Simmons and validating the Kiss rumor.) Then Eddie, 22 years
old with an ashy Marlboro still dangling from his lips, climbed off the
bus and gave me a soul brother handshake.
“Are you the only one here?” he asked. I assured him that all of my
friends were big fans, but they were all still at school. “Here, take
these,” he said, handing me a fat stack of blue backstage passes, “Give
these to all of your bros and come see us tonight. We’re opening for
Journey and Montrose over in Fort Worth.”
Holy shit. I had never even seen a backstage pass, much less ever ventured
into the “promised land” of the dressing room/backstage area at a rock and
roll show. Hell, I had never even been to Fort Worth. My life had pretty
much sucked balls up until that golden moment. Now the most amazing
guitarist I had ever heard had just given me a dozen backstage passes to a
rock concert.
Inside the store, the band was making the most of their meet-and-greet.
“David Lee Roth grabbed that guy’s guitar and jumped up on the counter,”
says Schmidt. “There was hardly anybody there, but they were already sort
of putting on a show.” Roth, who looked like the long-lost twin of Black
Oak Arkansas’ Jim Dandy, was halfway through a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and
it wasn’t even noon.
I was already thinking ahead: Evans and I had to get back to J.J. Pearce
High immediately and round up a couple of licensed drivers to take half
the school’s smoking area regulars to Fort Worth on really short notice.
Three hours later our cannabis caravan made its way west. Ridin’ shotgun
in the yellow Pinto, I led an inspired discussion about current musical
trends and tastes. Most of us hated Journey’s only hit “Wheel In The
Sky,” and had no idea what in the hell Montrose was. (Coincidental side
note: Montrose lead vocalist Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth in Van
Halen years later.)
And while everybody loves driving straight into the sunset with their lips
wrapped around a burning twig, we were on a simple but specific mission:
we just needed to get there in time to see the opening act.
Peter Schmidt wasn’t so lucky that night.
“I actually missed Van Halen’s set,” he says. “My brother and I got stuck
in traffic on I-30, and their set had started at like seven o’clock. I
think they only played for like 30 minutes.”
Like Schmidt, none of us really cared about Journey or Montrose, we just
wanted to check out Van Halen, go hang out backstage and see what a real
groupie might look like in real life.
We arrived at Will Rogers Auditorium and pulled into the parking lot, and
I gave everybody the passes. None of us knew the proper protocol for what
we were doing; we didn’t have actual tickets to the show, and didn’t
realize that we were supposed to go through the front door like everybody
else.
Our Levi’s jean-jacket gang headed straight to the backstage door, where
we met by a security guard who was temporarily distracted by all of the
lip gloss, boob jobs and miniskirts hovering nearby. The man could have
easily been a stand-in for John Goodman in The Big Lebowski.
Our discussion went something like this:
Me: “I’ve got a backstage pass.”
Him: “Well, put it on then.”
Me: “Put it on? On what?”
Him: “You have to wear it.”
Me: “Wear it? What do you mean?”
Him: “You have to put it on or I can’t let you back there.”
Me: “Can you put it on for me? I’m not sure what you mean.”
Him: “No, just stick it on your shirt there underneath your jacket.”
That’s when he saw the 35mm camera that I was trying to smuggle in.
Him: “Is that a photo pass you’ve got there?”
Of course, I had no idea what a photo pass was.
Me: “Uh, yeah. The lead guitarist in Van Halen gave it to me.”
Him: “OK, whatever. Have a good time, you guys.”
We stuck our passes on our shirts and headed backstage. None of us had any
idea where to go or what to do, but we then spied Van Halen making their
way towards the stage. Eddie saw me and yelled out, “Hey! You made it!”
and then strapped on his axe, which looked even older and more beat up
than my own guitar. It only had one pick-up and a single volume knob, and
it looked like the thing was being held together with black duct tape.
I remember thinking to myself, “Hey, if he doesn’t need a $10,000 1958
Gibson Les Paul to sound that good, then maybe I don’t either.” This guy
was already my hero.
The auditorium, which holds about three thousand people, was less than a
third filled at this point. This didn’t stop the band — dressed in the
exact same clothes they were wearing on the album cover — from throwing
down an amazing half-hour set.
As soon as they walked offstage, the party was on.
My friends and I wandered back towards the dressing rooms. A few of us
helped ourselves to free beer and food from the catering line. This new
feeling of privilege and entitlement gave us an overwhelming sense of
confidence.
We then came across a line of guitars belonging to Ronnie Montrose. All of
us each reached down and picked one up, like we were shopping at Guitar
Center or some shit. About two minutes into our impromptu jam session, the
road manager for Montrose walked in and caught us in the act.
Him: “WHAT IN HOLY FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?”
Me: “Don’t worry, dude. It’s cool. We’ve got passes!”
Him: “GIVE ME THAT FUCKING GUITAR, YOU IDIOT!”
The mortified road manager looked closely at my pass, and then brought the
wrecking ball down on my world.
Him: “Kid, that’s NOT even a REAL backstage pass. That’s a promotional
sticker that says “Backstage Pass” on it. How old are you? And how did you
people even get back here?”
My zit-pocked entourage were then promptly escorted out the backstage door
by a pair of burly bouncers; past the John Goodman-lookin’ security guard,
the groupies and properly credentialed stagehands and dope dealers; then
rudely deposited right back into the now-crowded parking lot from whence
we came.
Damn. What a fuckin’ buzzkill.
However misguided, maligned or defeated we might have felt at the time,
Van Halen had inadvertently given us a brief insider’s glimpse into that
last gasp of 70’s rock decadence. By the time Van Halen II came out a year
or so later, most of us had moved on to the Sex Pistols, Killing Joke and
Generation X.
Thirty years later, vinyl records are considered antiques; punk rock has
been mainstreamed to death, and a reunited Van Halen is selling out arenas
again.
Anybody got a Zig-Zag? — Jeff Liles
Filed under: Van Halen
Leave a comment
trackback • RSS 2.0
December 11th, 2008 at 6:13 am
WOW! A movie should be made about your story, what are you waiting for?!!!! Maybe Van Halen would support and help you out dude!!! DO IT!!! VAN HALEN RULE!!!!!
December 11th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Nice article.
Eddie didn’t use a distortion pedal on that song, or any other song he’s recorded.
The intro to Atomic Punk involves repeated palm scrapes. There is no pick in the mix.
Damn. That must have been cool.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:59 am
WoW…I wish I could have experienced that…VH
December 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Awesome article. There are just not enough stories like that to go around.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:18 am
That is soooo awesome!!!
December 11th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Wonderful! Can’t get enough stories like that!
December 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Amazing story! Long live VH! When are they going to do something in the studio?
December 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
In that same time you scooped up that 1st 45, I was walking by an open basement door in Arlington, MA and heard something that just sounded … like angry aliens on attack.
It was mid-way thru this thing I was told was called … “Eruption” … from that very second until now, I have been an Edward Van Halen Fan-atic.
And I never looked back nor away.
And I never will .. staying loyal to the next exit off the musical highway following Mr. Hendrix … the EVH exit
‘nuf said
December 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
What an awesome story. Very “Almost Famous”-like.
Van Halen in a mall…love that.
Thanks so much for sharing that!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Cool story, that must have been a great experience, who knows when a band just starting out will make it big? Only with VH, you KNEW they would be big. But I was only 3 when that happened, but since I was 9 years old and I first heard 1984, I’m hooked!!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Damn sounds like a movie script to me. Get this story over to a writer quick. This story has more relevance to fans then “Almost Famous” does. Isnt Van Halen the best or what?
December 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I think the most enduring thing re: Van Halen “stories” like yours is that so many people have them. Van Halen undoubtably changed everything in music, actually 3 times (Cherone bashing aside) The “early” days of VH, like this, are the most exciting to read becuase they were “not famous” yet. There are so many yet to be made movies all swirling around the planet known as Van Halen amd the stories of impact they had on not just one individual, but generations of “kids”. Thanks for the great story Jeff. Just what I needed today!!
Matty
a brother fan-addict
December 11th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
This is by far, THE BEST story i have ever heard. I wish i had been born in time to see them just starting out like that. Van Halen = GOD!!!
December 11th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I NEED A SMOKE AND A BEER after reading this!!!!!
December 11th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Chris, I was just thinking the same thing - it would make for a great straight-to-DVD party movie to rent on a Sunday night, when you’re sitting around your living room getting all f*cked up. LOL
December 11th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
This is a great story. I can’t get enough of stories where people relate what went through their minds when they first hear VH. For me, it was “Eruption.” Hearing that song in my car stereo driving home after just buying the cassette changed my life. Just hearing it, you knew that the parameters of music — as you’d previously known them — were completely broken. It was like hearing the future — but in the present.
30 years later and I still get goosebumps listening to it and remembering that moment. It still makes my fur rise!
December 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Great story!
Long live the Kings of Rock and Roll with True Soul….The Mighty Van Halen!
Gives us some new songs Eddie! We’re Jonesin’!
5150 Forever!
December 12th, 2008 at 3:32 am
That was truly a great story… and so is this…
I am 25 and every time I rock out to some =VH= my dad always tells me of the time he sort of “brought” Van Halen to the mid-west…. You gotta understand my dad is around 20 years older than me and I grew up listening to all the stuff my parents did, VH, Rush, Ozzy, etc… He always tells this story of how in December of 1978 his father was transferred from LA to Cincinnati and how he was 16 and a junior in high school when this happened. He had seen VH many a times at backyard parties and the Whiskey and what not, had the album and realized what a fireball of electricity this was to rock music. How VH were unique and unlike anyone before them. By the time he moved to Cincy his album was worn, but the rich preppy kids he was now going to school with were into “The Boss” aka Bruce Springsteen. He would say to them, “screw this crap, you gotta hear some Van Halen!” They would laugh and be like “Who is VH?” They weren’t getting any radio play because no one out there had ever heard of them. He said he grabbed a couple of friends after school, went home, lit one up and he put the album on. He said the look on their face was priceless, like they had been given the answer to the question of life. The next few weeks after Vh caught on like a wildfire and everyone was clammering to get tickets for when they came to the Cincinnati Gardens in 1979. It is great to hear him tell his VH stories because he has a lot of them… The above story made me feel similar to the way my dad talks about EVH and the boys. Rock on!
December 12th, 2008 at 4:25 am
GREAT story. I am the exact same age as you and can remember experiencing many of the same things you describe about hearing VH-1 for the first time. But, I grew up in a very small town, and things like this never happened there. So, I just have to envy you, to have such a fun experience.
There is no period in a band’s career more special than when they are JUST breaking out, blowing the act they open for off stage every night, flying second class but kicking ass on stge every night, in the press as the “Who are THESE guys?…”, but they are barely older or cooler than the kids who are buying their records… that feeling, that dynamic can never ever happen twice.
And when that same band, 2 years later is selling millions, riding in Limos (not broken down school buses : - ), flying first class and NOT always greeting people back stage with “hey man, you made it!!”… then that time is over. It doesn’t make them bad people at all, but they are different people, they are big now, there are other things to think about like the charts, big mortgages, kids, that famous chick you might be dating, etc.. … But what YOU experienced… that can only happen once in a band’s life, and you were there.
GREAT story, I really enjoyed it.
December 12th, 2008 at 7:10 am
I rode my bike down to my local Radio Shack (which was the only place to buy records in my small town). I picked up the first Van Halen record and bought it because I liked the pictures. I rode home and dropped the needle. Jaw dropping, life changing experiences like that don’t come along very often. Now I’m 44 years old with 2 kids and a career and I still remember that feeling every time I hear Running With the Devil.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
dude you rule man to see the legendary Van-Halen awesome been a fan of theirs since the 1st album. I play drums and sometime try to copy alex, man u should make a dvd about that man. AWESOME!!!!
December 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I remember getting last minute tickets to the Diver Down tour in Dallas, TX. The friend I went with brought his girlfriend and her friend. I was only sixteen and had barely even heard of Van Halen. I was entranced immediately by the show. Then Dave got the crowed all rowled up and next thing I know, my suedo blind date is all over me. We start making out and I end up on third base. All of this with Van Halen playing in the background. I get back to the show in time to catch Eddie’s solo and have been the biggest Van Halen fan ever since. I would play back the Records and Cassettes over and over again trying to copy Eddie’s licks on my Sears electric guitar. Man, what memories. Jeff, your story brought it all back. Thanks for that!
December 12th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
The first time I heard Van Halen was between classes when I was a sophmore in 1980. Somebody was blaring Everybody Wants Some over a cassette player and I thought the sounds coming out of the guitar were cool and that Roth’s middle of the song rap was great. A couple weeks later I was playing guitar with a kid in his garage and he put Van Halen 1 in his car cassette player and my mouth just hung open. Those days were really something. Will we ever have musician’s that creative and original again? Who knows? I started playing bass in a 3 piece band and in 1981 we saw VH on their Fair Warning tour at the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids Iowa.
Good times,
Rock on,
Lance
December 13th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Those of us the same age as Van Halen have many stories. Here’s one:
Van halen was the opening act for some friends of mine’s progressive rock (Genesis type) band at the local junior high auditorium in La Canada, Ca. My friend went to the sound check (for our friend’s band) and heard Van Halen. We were in a band together waiting to rehearse at his house. He pulls up and says “We got to go early and catch the opening act, Van Halen”. We were’nt even hard rock fans at that time. We had moved on from Zeppelin and Sabbath to King Crimson type prog rock.
Well VH blew our friend’s band out of the water so bad that we left after just one song. This was 1975, and from that point on I was a VH fan, seeing them dozens of times way before they ever got a record deal. I got to tell you all, they were every bit as good as they ever were back then. They had their act together before they ever did a single gig, and they had a good deal of their material already written, songs that even appeared all the way thru “1984″
I met all of them thru the early years. I grew up close to Pasadena. Knowing they were going to make it, I saved several flyers they used to hang on telephone poles. I’ve got so many old VH stories, I should write a book!
Bill
December 14th, 2008 at 7:20 am
The story from the guy who’s Dad moved to Cincy and turned everyone on to VH is very reminiscent of my first VH experience.
Living in Indianapolis, a new kid moved in down the street, he was from Southern Calfironia. He was a few years odler than me and my friends, but being the new kid, he just wanted someone to hang out with, and show off to.
I was 13 in 1979. I, like many, had been listening to all the wrong stuff without knowing it.
So anyway, we burn our usual one after school, and Barry says “Hey, come up in, you guys need to hear something”. Like many of you have said, I still remember this detail for detail after all these years, such an impression it had on me, like people remember the Kennedy assasination or the moon landing. We goes upstairs to his room, and he breaks out the VH album. The guys looked cool on the album, and a little scary. Pulls the record out with a knowing smile, lays the needle on the record, and man, it was on. From the opening sound of Ed’s guitar on Running with The Devil, my jaw hit the floor. What in the hell was this??? Then eruption blows your head completely apart, and on and on and on. We listened to the whole album like 3 times all the way through. Ed’s playing was so obviously way ahead of his time, head and shoulders above everyone else. Dave’s vocals were so cool, as was Alex’s drumming and Mikey’s vocals and pumping bass.
Just like all of you, my life changed that day. Fuck the Boss, (the first concert I ever went to), and all the crap I had been into, I was now a rocker!
Didn’t make a concert until 1984 tour, but what a tour! The band was peaking just before the fall. Saw every single tour since then, front row for the F.U.C.K. tour, and made two shows for the Reunion Tour. One was early, in Oct. 2007, and then the very last show in Grand Rapids. Pretty big difference. I’d thought the first show was great, but they were much better the second half of the tour. I’ve seen a lot of videos on YouTube, and from what I can see, the Grand Rapids show was the best the did. Dave’s voice was at it’s best, and Ed just got better and better after coming out of rehab again. Was 3rd row in the Pit for that show, unfreakinreal.
Zepplin and Hendrix were great, AC/DC is awesome. Skynyrd kicked ass. But Van Halen rules the universe!
I heard there was supposed to be a video of the reunion tour out for Christmas, guess it’s not gonna happen.
Read in a article here that Ed is waiting for Wolf to get out of school in the spring to start recording next album. Just counting the days.
Rock On Van Halen fans!!
December 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
i once had a drunken conversation with an older guy who went to see sabbath at the manchester apollo,england in 78 or 79. he told me that no one had really heard anything about the support band so everyone was upstairs in the bar drinking ‘newcastle brown ale’.then for no apparent reason,everyone started to hurry downstairs.it turned out that someone had ran up to the bar and shouted something along the lines of ‘you wanna get down here and see this fucking kid on guitar!!!’ every time i go to the apollo now, i always wish i could go back in time to see a skinny young eddie and the guys when they blew sabbath off stage that night.it is well documented that ozzie knew sabbath werent the kings anymore!
December 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
that`s pretty cool….but I have worked the Van Halen shows and actually played the Frankenstrat…awesome memories
December 17th, 2008 at 1:56 am
hey, why cant i share this on (off my) facebook?
January 18th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Thank you so much for reposting my story.
Bless your hearts.
JL
myspace.com/Liles
myspace.com/cottonmouthtexas
myspace.com/historyofdallasmusic