Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (1978)
By the mid-1970s, hard rock was getting a little stale. The big guns like Led Zeppelin and the Who were dealing with success and excess, and as a result they were spending more time off the road. Heavy guitar acts were still selling tons of albums and concert tickets, but a lot of them were dumb and bloated. Punk rock was one reaction, as bands like the Ramones and the Clash emerged.
But in California, a different kind of reaction was taking place. In 1973, two brothers, Edward and Alex Van Halen, teamed up with a hammy R&B singer named David Lee Roth to form a band called Mammoth. Roth convinced them to change the band name to Van Halen and when Michael Anthony joined on bass, they had their lineup. Edward was a guitar virtuoso and Roth was a natural showman, so soon the band was wowing audiences at backyard parties and clubs on the Sunset Strip. Gene Simmons of KISS produced a demo tape for the band but couldn't get any takers.
Eventually, producer Ted Templeman saw them play and signed the band to a deal with Warner Bros. Records. They quickly recorded their debut album in the fall of 1977. Released in February 1978, the self-titled album quickly gained VH some notice. It was the combination of Eddie's guitar mastery and Roth's cocky charisma that made the band stand out from their contemporaries.
The instrumental "Eruption," featuring EVH's two-handed tapping style, blew away hard rock fans who were mesmerized by the sheer speed of his playing. It also inspired a generation of flash guitarists who would form their own bands in short order. Roth, who wasn't the greatest technical singer, nevertheless impressed on songs like "Runnin' With the Devil," "Jamie's Cryin'" and a cover of the Kinks' classic "You Really Got Me."
But the mission statement on the album was "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," a no-nonsense, pissed off screed that concisely displayed the attitude, power and fun of Van Halen.
"You know you're semi-good lookin'/And on the streets again/Oh yeah, you think you're really cookin' baby/You better find yourself a friend, my friend/Ain't talkin' 'bout love/My love is rotten to the core/Ain't gonna talk about love/Just like I told you before."
The opening riff is memorable and nasty, giving you an idea of the fury that was to follow. The attitude is almost punk, at least in an IDGAF kind of way. Hell, the Minutemen even covered it.
The power and speed of Van Halen was a real kick in the ass to the dinosaur acts that were still roaming the earth like Foghat and Ted Nugent. Hell, even Black Sabbath got a dose when they brought VH on the road with them in 1978. Ozzy and the rest of the Sabs were not in the best shape by that time, having done enough coke over the previous several years to kill an army of elephants. On that tour, Van Halen routinely blew the roof off whatever arena they were playing during their opening set, leaving Sabbath to pick up the pieces.
I was only 10 when the first VH album came out and I can't say I was really aware of it. I got into the band a few years later when their third album, Women and Children First, came out. And then I was hooked. By the time I was going to concerts, the band was on their last tour with David Lee Roth (although we didn't know that at the time) and tickets were near impossible to get. I ended up seeing them with Sammy Hagar in 1986, as well as Roth and his solo band the same summer. Roth and VH teamed up for a few reunion tours and an album in the new millennium, but sadly, Eddie passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. His legacy as a guitar legend lives on.
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