Behind the scenes of the making of the famed 1984 Van Halen Album
Eddie Van Halen had a huge effect on my childhood. From the first time I heard eruption blaring out of a malibu car window, to picking up the guitar. He has been there, and on the day he passed it was horrific. Last week I was rummaging through some videos on you tube, and I ran into some great videos about the behind the scenes of how 1984 was made. Here are my top 10 take aways.
1) Eddie didn’t want to listen to Ted Templeman and David Lee roth anymore. He felt like they were blocking the creativity. So with his new found wealth, he built his own studio 5150.
2. Roth didn’t want Eddie Playing the keys, he said ” your a guitar slinger, play guitar”!
3. Ted Templeman didn’t hear a hit on the initial demos of Jump, but eventually he relented.
4. David Lee and Ted snuck Michael Mcdonald into the studio to help finish I’ll wait. Later Mcdonald had to sue the band to get the royalties. He said it was the most profitable song he’d ever written.
5. David was already planning on going out on his own, but with all the hits on 1984, he decided to stay another round.
6. Eddie hid the masters from Ted so he could mix 1984 himself, having his own studio made it handy to mix things, but eventually Ted got the tapes. Valerie called Ted to ask for his help as Eddie had been taking in excess drugs, from the console and mixing the final takes.
7. The harmonics on drop dead legs, were panned right and left on the headphones for the time, to create a great effect. All Eddie’s ideas.
8. Jumps lyrics were penned by Roth from watching an attempted suicide from the top of a building in L.A. And the original title was just jump!
9. Roth worked a lot behind the scenes with Templeman and often tried to manipulate Edward whenever he could. Needles to say 1984 Eddie had had enough.
10. Ted Templeman resigned at the end of 1984, ending an era of working with Van Halen.
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