The Van Halen Story

The Van Halen Story is a DVD I purchased with the fantasy that it would actually go behind the scenes and tell the story as it really happened. It doesn't disappoint.
Actually, I was more skeptical than hopeful if I'm going to tell the truth. I have purchased a bunch of DVDs like this, these "Rockumentaries" that are put together by amateurs that do not turn out good at all more often than not. Of course I have to buy the DVDs, just in case they do turn out to be of good quality. I finally viewed The Van Halen Story - The Early Years and was pleased and entertained with the presentation.

The DVD chronicled the history of the first incarnation of Van Halen. It started with the birth and upbringing of the original four members.
Edward Van Halen - guitar
Alex Van Halen - drums
David Lee Roth - vocals
Michael Anthony - bass
The DVD spends a lot of time in the story when Eddie and Alex were starting out in bands in high school. There are some great old photos shown to illustrate the time period. There's relatively only a small amount of time spent talking about David Lee Roth's youth spent growing up in Indiana and NYC. Of course even less is spent covering bass player Michael Anthony's youth or high school days. It tells a story of fate and the stars aligning that drove out the existing members of Mammoth (the original name of the band), and the forces that brought together the original four.

It tells the story of when the four members of Van Halen, as we know them now, got together and how the band paid their dues. Practice was four days a week, they played a show for two to three nights a week, and in the beginning for no money most of the time. Their luck sort of changes when the stopped playing so many backyard parties in Pasadena, and ventured to Hollywood to play. A buzz about the new young guitarist swelled rather rapidly, and one night while they were playing, they caught the eye of Gene Simmons, bass player of superstar rock band KISS. You hear an audio of Gene telling his story with the band. Also, some pictures of Gene without makeup hanging with the boys of VH. Simmons flew the band to NYC, and they recorded a lengthy demo tape of about 11 songs. When Gene tried to sign the band to Casablanca Records, he was told no. Yet, with this new polished demo tape, the band shopped it around and was signed very quickly to Warner Bros Records with the help of Milton Bearle's nephew.

From the title of the DVD, I thought that they story would end when they got signed, but thankfully they went through all six albums with the original lineup. Also covered are those infamous contracts that Van Halen used to draw up with the venues they were playing. They needed to make sure that their contracts were being read and taken seriously, so they would put little things like "no brown M&Ms backstage" and things of that nature.
Now of course I should mention that hardly any Van Halen music was used in the making of the DVD. There was only about five seconds of a live guitar solo from Edward Van Halen, and at the end they showed about ten seconds of the band singing Happy Trails in a live concert. By the time the band releases their sixth and final album (original line up anyway) the band has become one of the biggest bands ever, a living legend, one of the most respected acts to ever record and tour.

Who tells the story of the early days of VH? Well, the band members themselves tell much of the story from archived audio and video clips. Alex Van Halen seems to tell most of the story out of the four. Then there are the childhood friends who remained close through their early club days and big success as well. Ex-bandmates were interviewed including the original bassist, Mark Stone, from Mammoth, and the guitarist, Tony Codgen, from Michael Anthony's previous band, Snake.

My favorite stories came from Eddie Anderson. This guy was the manager and bodyguard for David Lee Roth. He tells some of the zany happenings that surrounded the band, and mostly Roth. For instance after the Diver Down tour he remembers the time when he and Roth and a small crew went down to the Amazon after their tour in Argentina ended. They spent a month in the jungles and ended up getting lost expectantly.

The DVD was surprisingly entertaining and very informative. Like for instance I didn't know that toward the breakup, David Lee Roth was already practicing with his DLR band for months. That came as quite a shock to me. It was a hard pill to swallow that it is all Dave's fault and that dumb ego of his, because I love Dave. But now this is history, no matter who tells it or tries to spin it. You may not be entertained musically from this DVD, but the stories were enough for me.


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