Published on Oct 11, 1997
Whenever I have difficulty deciding what the next album I should
dig out of the Pierce Archive (our motto: “The Bears
suck
!!!”) for reviewing, I usually get a great suggestion via
e-mail from a reader.
Trent Nakagawa, for example, is someone who likes to keep me on
my toes by suggesting those albums that others might not think
about. The last time we talked, Trent asked me about digging out
some old Van Halen – one that many people might not have in their
collections. Bingo – today’s review subject, 1980’s
Women And Children First.
Following the runaway success of their self-titled debut in 1978
and the followup
Van Halen II in 1979, Eddie Van Halen and crew faced a
difficult decision: continue in the same musical path and risk
stagnation or take a different approach to the music and see what
the end result is. They chose the second path – and started the
band down a path of three albums that found them struggling to find
their musical direction.
Women And Children First is not a terrible album, but it
shows the band’s ideas swamping them.
The opening cut, “And The Cradle Will Rock,” was a solid enough
rocker to suggest that clown prince of rock David Lee Roth and crew
still had the magic that had powered their last two albums. This
song also features what I think is the first noticeable use of
keyboards as a major part of a Van Halen song; the mellotron in the
rhythm track is actually an intregal part of the song, and without
it, the track would be much weaker. Eddie Van Halen turns in a
traditionally great solo, if not one that was a little more
controlled.
After this one song, though, the rest of the band’s past is
thrown right out the window. The followup track (and the only other
one that gets regular radio play) “Everybody Wants Some” features
Roth leading the band into cock-rock territory with a jungle beat.
Roth’s spoken-word asides in the instrumental break is a sign of
things to come for the band (Roth in the middle of
1984‘s “Panama,” Sammy Hagar on
5150‘s “Good Enough”) – the creation of a plot within the
song. As rock numbers go, this one is merely okay, and is nowhere
close to their best.
The remainder of
Women And Children First is just one big experiment – and
one that, for the most part, fails more often than it succeeds. The
opening guitar orgasm of “Fools” seems like Eddie Van Halen is
trying to recapture the glory of “Eruption” (off of
Van Halen), while the remainder of the song is a weak
attempt at shuffle blues. “Could This Be Magic?” is the band’s
first serious attempt at an acoustic track – a funny thing for a
hard rock band to want to master – and is a waste of time. And
“Loss Of Control” – hell, I’m at a loss to explain what this track
was supposed to be. The frenzy of the song and the vocal delivery
is one big mess – avoid it at all costs.
But this is not to say that all the experiments on
Women And Children First are bombs. The album’s closer, “In
A Simple Rhyme,” is a song that does not get the attention that it
should. The vocal harmonies, combined with the sudden shifts from
balls-out attack to softer, melodic strains, remind me a lot of The
Who in their glory days. Whatever the case, it works – even Roth
manages to tone his delivery down to meet the demands of the track.
Also, the closer on side one, “Romeo Delight,” is a pleasant little
number that is a sign of things to come just one album later, on
Fair Warning.
Am I saying that Van Halen should have stayed in the same vein
that their first two albums did? Not necessarily – by the second
side of
Van Halen II, you could hear a little bit of experimentation
going on. This was for good reason – their sound
was beginning to stagnate, and the band needed to find fresh
ideas to keep them on the top of their game, However, I don’t think
that going to acoustic-based numbers like “Could This Be Magic?”
was the answer – it sounds as out of place as the jazz number “Big
Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” did on
Diver Down.
Possibly had Van Halen combined the slightly harder,
keyboard-driven edge (“And The Cradle Will Rock”) and the melodic,
harmony-driven style (“In A Simple Rhyme”) for the bulk of the
album, they would have found multi-platinum success much earlier
than they did. Instead, Van Halen throws the road map they had
followed away – and promptly get lost pulling out of their own
driveway.
Women And Children First isn’t a
bad album – it’s just a very different listen. I think I
liked it more when I was younger – maybe I’d feel a little
different about this album on another day. I think you’ll make the
same discovery – you’ll either hate this album or love it… though
your opinion may flip-flop depending on what day of the week it is
and where the moon is in the sky. This one is worth checking out,
but approach it with caution.