Those fearing a pop conversion had their fears allayed when they finally got their hands on 1984. It was the return to form and relevance they had between waiting for. Rather than being synth dominated the burbling electro noise was used to subtly add texture to the album and beef up Eddie’s attack.
Eddie had recovered his joie de vivre, rediscovered his driving riffs on “Panama” and most importantly recaptured the skill that separated him from every other guitarist on the planet. While Eddie was renowned for his insane speed and his frantic double handed fret work, his genius always lay in his note selection; his knack of picking unusual notes, throwing in that extra strum or taking a riff off in a direction you weren’t quite expecting ,if only for a second or two.
The end result can be seen on “Top Jimmy” and on “Hot for Teacher’s” unforgettable riff. His playing adds a level of unpredictability giving those tracks a sense of loose rock and roll chaos, as if they wobble and veer, when of course they’re perfectly controlled.
Eddie wasn’t being technical for technical’s sake, he never overplays on this record, and he never showcases his ability at the expense of the musicality of piece. Instead 1984 was a master class in how to incorporate the visceral bite and frantic soloing you’d expect from a dirty sleazy rock and roll show into short sharp perfectly packaged pop songs.
Unfortunately the sleaze and sexism of 1984’s second half still lives on today in the form of tongue in cheek parody band Steel Panther and the sadly straight faced Airborne. Putting the vacuous and hedonistic lyricism to one side, a whole scene of bands including Black Stone Cherry and The Answer have emerged who look to the 70s, 80s and Eddie Van Halen for inspiration in their guitar work.
1984’s most important influence, however, was the way in which it successful intertwined synth and guitar work. Being a classically trained pianist Eddie had no trouble letting the two instruments exchange spiralling solos on “Jump”; opening up new realms of tonal and textural contrasts for hard rock guitarists to explore and develop.
You cannot overstate just how important it was for a cool, credible and incredibly popular American hard rock band to make this leap. It opened the door for today’s hard rock and metal bands like Children Of Bodom and In Flames to fully incorporate synth and guitar work without fear of ridicule, contempt or the “sell out” label.
Van Halen weren’t the first in this regard, but they were important converts who wrestled synths away from the realms of prog rock and cheesy pop, opening up a world of possibilities and sub genres in the process.
