“Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell, 1984
“Dig that steam, you giant ass, it's making me scream.”
van halen, 1984, “Drop Dead Legs”
In 1949, George Orwell published his novel 1984Reverse the numbers of the year he spent working on it for significance the future. From then on, “1984” became a symbol of a sinister, surveillance-driven dystopia, and the term “Orwellian” was born.
Science fiction writers keep choosing years that seem futuristic — say, 1984, or 2001, or 2012 — as the settings for their works, but unfortunately — or really fortunately, given the alternative — the present keeps catching up. For 35 years, 1984 represented the future. And for even longer — 40 years at this writing — it represented the past.
Van Halen 1984 (Or as the cover says, MCMLXXXIV), released on January 9, 1984, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, and was the first album I purchased with my own money. Now, as a middle-aged parent, “with my own money” sounds pretty funny, but it wasn't then, and presumably still is for modern 13-year-olds. But today's young teens, with their Spotify and YouTube, don't need to make the difficult decision I did: which is One album Am I going to put down money this month? I chose 1984In all seriousness, it affected the entire rest of my life. The future is before me, and contrary to Orwell's vision, it will be good.
This was Van Halen. The future will be wonderful.
1984 It opened with the instrumental “1984” made up of what could only be It's called future mixingdespite its humble origin as an introduction to Michael Anthony's live bass solo – is quite an upgrade, with apologies to guitarists everywhere. Blade Runnerwhich was released a little earlier, in 1982, contains similar constructions to signify the same thing.
“1984” was not Van Halen's first instrumental. But, unlike “Eruption,” there were no smashing drums, and it certainly wasn't, say, the coolest guitar solo ever. Like “Intruder”, the intro to their cover of “Pretty Woman” from Diver downand even more like the misleading title “Sunday Afternoon in the Park” from Fair warningIt looked ominous, and perhaps even unsettling.
“1984” led directly into “Jump,” suggesting that the future, now that it has finally arrived, will not be so unsettling. It might be okay after all. Eddie Van Halen had wanted to record a version of “Jump” for years by then, but blond professional singer/karate player and occasional singer David Lee Roth and producer Ted Templeman thought it was the wrong sound for the hard rock band famous for its eponymous super guitar. , with apologies to drummer Alex, who technically shares the name.
They were living in the past, man. “Jumping” was the future. It would reach No. 1 on the charts.
“Jump” still has that amazing, loud, syncopated guitar solo that comes out of nowhere, full of fast strumming and finger snaps, as if to remind the listener of the genius behind the chords. But Eddie wasn't just a genius guitarist. He was just a genius. He actually reinvented electric guitar playing, even reinventing the electric guitar itself with his famous homemade Frankenstrat. Eddie was both the scientist and the monster. Now everyone knew he was the songwriter, producer, engineer and innovator whose first instrument was actually the piano.
However, the video for “Jump” – which is inseparable from the song itself – eschews the futuristic and techno style of a lo-fi stage performance, with Eddie playing guitar for the entire song despite the big keyboard sound, save for a split-screen synthesizer solo. Where Eddie or Eddies handles both. It's noteworthy and memorable for Roth's high kicks and goofy band bonding. This future was not Orwellian or… Blade Runner.
The future will be interesting. The future may look a lot like the past.
Roth has always been careful about his lyrics — this is the guy who sang “I take a moople at a lookie for a moop meet” (or something; I've listened to the line ten times for this elegant transcription) in Everybody Wants Some. He noted that the movie “Jump” was about suicide after seeing a story on the news about a man jumping off a building. Separately, he said that about a stripper. Both sound entirely believable, in keeping with the band's near-hidden darkness, as I previously wrote about Van Halen's debut, and mostly unhidden lightness. “Ah, Maybe I'd Better Jump” is also a hymn of hope and despair.
The future… uncertain?
While “I'll Wait” reuses synthesizers, it has the opposite feel and message from “Jump” —no Jumping. “I wrote a letter and told her those words… I never sent them; she would not have heard.” It's not so much like Roth in that his implication is that this relationship — with an image of a woman, not an actual one, as in Def Leppard's “Portrait” — can never come true.
Other songs, such as “House of Pain”, were based on previous unreleased Van Halen material. It turns out, later, that much of the rest 1984 He listens to the past rather than looking to the future, though perhaps not as far back as the almost medieval royal love of “I'll Wait.” “Panama,” with another live concert video and its revving engines, propulsive drums, and hot guitar, is in the great rock and roll tradition of comparing fast cars to fast women or comparing chasing women to chasing cars or something, a la “Mustang.” “Sally” or “Maybelline”: “Here she comes, full force and top to bottom… There's nothing like her, her shining machine… You'll lose her in the turn/I'll get her,” and more.
By contrast, “Hot for Teacher” is unambiguous and literal, and its video is also backwards-looking, featuring grainy black-and-white, child-like shots of each band member, and a closing verse that parodies the ending American graffiti (Quick diversions from kids to images of their future, e.g. “David Lee Roth went to Hollywood and became the host of America's favorite TV game show” etc.). However, you'd be forgiven for not remembering anything about him other than the video's teacher/contestant/beauty pageant contestant. Might as well jump. When she takes off her clothes for the first time, the video turns technicolor, like kids riding a tornado into Oz. But it's not Oz. It's like the teenage sexual fantasy of Oz. And no less than Tipper Gore, who a year later founded the Music Resource Center for Parents and spurred congressional hearings on catchy lyrics, said the video “scared me” and “scared my kids,” which seemed to be the point. But it was so over the top that it's hard not to laugh, then or now.
in other ways, 1984 It was not the beginning or the future, but the end. Roth and Van Halen would soon break up. Now, 40 years later, the album is in the past. But, as Orwell suggested, Van Halen took control of their present and then took control of the past, and not in an Orwellian way. Orwell Winston, the protagonist 1984, will succumb to conformity in an unhappy ending, but I still think Van Halen is great, just as I did when I was 13, regardless of all sense of maturity or progress. Proust has his madeleines, but music is the best time machine for me 1984 It even comes time-stamped.
As it turns out, even if you have purchased excitementIt Was All Going to Work Out: Eddie played a solo on “Beat It” as well. Yes, Eddie Van Halen will die in 2020. But Van Halen won't and won't. 1984 It will have a huge impact on bands and fans alike. The era of rock and metal ushered in by Van Halen would peak and then decline as the 1980s ended, but then come back as classic rock for 13-year-olds, who could easily find and listen to it without parting with their money. In the age of Spotify and YouTube. For new listeners today, the 1980s have become a genre rather than an era.
I retract what I said about the timestamp. Although he won the title after a year and a symbolic year, 40 years have proven that 1984 It transcends time itself. Oh, can't you see what I mean?
