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“Unchained” stripped: Eddie’s isolated guitar track

May 24, 2010 37 Comments

Here’s Eddie Van Halen’s isolated guitar track for “Unchained.” This classic has long been considered one of the favorite songs of many Van Halen fans. It was voted favorite song by the fans in issue #7 (Winter 1997) of The Inside magazine. From the classic opening chords, the fast paced riff, to it’s conclusion, this song is a masterpiece, and simply shows VH at their peak.

The live version from the 1981 Fair Warning tour:

Here’s an old cover of “Unchained” from the 1990′s, with Dweezil Zappa on guitar, Great White’s Jack Russel on vocals, Marco Mendoza on bass and Eric Singer on drums.

Filed Under: Van Halen
  • Erick

    In my opinion it’s the perfect opener. I wished they would open the 07/08 tour with Unchained.

  • Tommy Boy

    Fucking awesome…

  • Top Jimmy

    Jesus Christ, that tone!!

  • Noodles

    The F**king Best. Great synopsis, guys. Yeh, when they encored with it in ’81, EVERYBODY went beyond bonkers … the flanged riff sounded like a T-rex anally assaulting a Lear Jet in Cobo Hall that night!

    btw — LOVE that photo (yep, Detroit, 4th Of July 1981) you’ve got going as background! i remember that hat well….

    Thanks again for all you do, VHND! Keep flying the Mighty =VH= !!

  • Rick Pride

    Jack Russell is awesome!!!

  • J5150C

    One of the best guitar riffs ever!!

  • http://www.vhnd.com Garrett

    Man, I love these iso/master tracks…a guitar player’s dream come true. : D

  • http://VHND The Booger Man

    I still have every single edition of The Inside Mag. Good times back in mid 90′s. I used to get impatient waiting for them though but was worth it.

  • SCAR

    Every fucking time I listen to that song it blows my fucking mind!!!! LET’S FUCKING PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • anythingleftinthatbottle

    Can you imagine having these isolated tracks back in the day’s of sittin at the foot of your bed trying to figure out all those notes rewinding tape or re-setting needles on you r record player!

  • RickieVanWhalen

    Love the harmonizer on the solo

  • Lupercal

    Man, these isolated tracks are great. So many hidden gems in Ed’s playing, even for those of you who’ve been listening to this song since you got the album on its day of release in ’81.

    I love that Oakland performance. I mean, its shows like that that really make you wish you could step in a time machine just for one night. I’ve seen it a few times, but never before did I appreciate Mike’s stage presence and energy, especially when you compare him to Wolfgang…he is beating the shit out of that P-Bass!

    The track with Dweezil on, not so good. The guitar is pretty much spot on but the vocals are shite, even those who loathed Gary Cherone and Sammy’s versions of Unchained must appreciate how badly Jack Russell sings that tune.

  • ImTheOne

    Just plain awesome!!!

  • Craig

    @RickieVanWhalen, is that a harmonizer? Could be an MXR blue box – it really does sound like an octave fuzz àla “Fool In The Rain.” Although Ed was known to be using the Evantide by then, so you may well be right.

  • Dan

    Great Tune = Van Halen
    Great White = Bad Idea

    Van Halen covers seem to one up the old song
    Covering a Van Halen tune just shows the other band’s music inferiority to Eddie, Dave, Alex and Mike.

    Then again, I am biased for sure.

  • JLR

    I agree the cover version with Jack Russel is Brutal…Dweezil Zappa sounds great though.

  • http://www.merchnow.com blindbubbacheeks

    Zappa rules. I loved how he kept specific elements of EVH’s solos, but just shredded the fuck out of anything else he didn’t feel like playing note for note.

  • chris.omeara

    The Jack Russell cover sounded great to me. I’d rather hear that than “Love Walks In” or “When It’s Love” any day of the week… Great White’s “Face The Day” was good too…

  • Michael C.

    @Craig, nice comments. I agree. I never thought of a harmonizer, either. But, like you said, I could be wrong. Thanks for asking the good questions and not arguing your point like so many do. Classy people are what we like in here.

  • Hey Man, That Suit Is You!

    How freakin’ great is EVH….

  • http://none Ilivewithfools!!!

    Thank God we got some positive VH remarks on here before all the creampuffs get on here cryin’ about new music.Settle down complainers,just callin’ it how it is.

  • http://vhnd.com 51yr old fan

    what is understood doesn’t need to be discussed. that is THE BEST SONG EVER and THE BEST VIDEO EVER. that is the song and video i would reccomend to ANYONE who is not familiar with what VAN HALEN is and means to us fans.

  • Rob Newell

    Love the footage of the 81 tour. Never seen it before. What a performance. Is there a recording of the whole show out there somewhere and of so, how can it be obtained ? I’d love to watch that through and dream of what used to be, just on the off chance it never is again. I’d love to know if it is out there somewhere. Hope to hear from someone about it. Thanks in advance. Rob.

  • mjc

    live with fools you have a short memory.2 years ago Ed told rolling stones.com there’d be new music&tours.Ed’s the one causing the frustration with his pathetic prolonged silence.

  • CHRIS

    Hey mjc chill out man! I’d rather a 100% Van Halen album than a repeat of the Charone VH 3 album.

    When VH are good a ready they’ll make the music we have waited for all this time. Make no mistake it hurts them as much as it hurts us that there’s no new VH music. Van Halen has always been about moving forward.

    In the meantime enjoy life and be thankful that King Eddie is alive and well. We almost lost him back in the early/mid 2000′s. Remember? EVH had & recovered from cancer. Anyone that has confronted that terrible illness will tell you how much cancer can suck the life out of you. Plus Eddie & Alex’s mother passing away, and his divorce from his wife Valarie. Life is good for King Ed right now, Van Halen’s music is a blessing anything new from them is just a bonus.

    P.S. As for the new album, I wouldn’t mind a double VH album!! They haven’t done that yet!

  • Lupercal

    @ Rob Newell

    Theres two other performances from Oakland ’81, “So This Is Love” and “Hear About It Later”, some of the best tracks from their entire catalogue, and some of their best tracks from Fair Warning.

    I think Eddie’s effects are cool, to me it sounded like a chorus but apart from the MXR Phase 90, Wah and MXR Flanger, I really have no idea what he uses in terms of effects.

  • http://michaelq.com.au MichaelQ

    While this is completely awesome, you know what it needs?

    A band.

  • Diamond Dean

    UNCHAINED, up there in the top 5 VH greatest songs, the best opener they ever had , the break in the middle , classic , this song has it all , great solo . Never heard Sammy do a decent version , Garys version was pretty good , isnt it funny how everyones says Hagars such a great singer , but cherone did the ROTH stuff a hell of a lot better IMO.

    The tribute is pretty damn good , considering i dont know any band or performer that has done a VH song anywhere near as good as VH

    What a godsend it wld be to have all the old live performances released n remastered on dvd??? Ahhhhhhh Eddie we dont deserve it , keep them to yourself

  • Karl

    I knew Ed was good but the way he swapped guitars and back again just after the solo was seamless. Amazing! :-)

  • pete

    ilivewithfools….dont worry,most people are starting to accept that eddie is not capable of writing a new album.he was great and things like this reminds us of that.

  • dude

    Awesome stuff. I love Ed’s little mistake at the beginning of the live version. He goes into the verse too early. Makes me feel better about my silly playing mistakes! But what a great time and tune!

  • steve

    nobody does Ed better than Dweezil

  • Ron

    This is a great tune but it’s a close second to Mean Street in my opinion. The guitar on that track is just awesome. Having them both on the same album just means Fair Warning is far and away the best one VH ever put out.

  • MICAL VEE

    I saw the FAIR WARNING tour and UNCHAINED is a KICK ASS song…They started the show with ON FIRE and that was the best show opener i saw VH start with!!! Then again if they would have opened with unchained…..

  • ikethebird

    Nice tone but didn’t care for the remake.

  • Rob Newell

    Thanks @Lupercal. I guess they are just on youtube. I’ll have a dig around. Shame the gig itself isn’t available for download or purchase.

  • Chad

    Why not issue an official live album of that Fair Warning tour? A lot of that material sounds fantastic.

    Dweezil’s version is cool, but Jack Russell is a little out of his element there.