Van Halen "Panama" Isolated Guitar

Eddie Van Halen's been in the news a lot lately so it's a good time to inspect one of his most famous songs. Here's the isolated guitar from "Panama," the third single off the hugely successful 1984 album. The record was recorded in Eddie's 5150 home studio and produced by Ted Templeman, who had also produced the band's previous albums.

Here's what to listen for.

1. On the final mix, the guitar is panned to the left and the effect to the right (in typical early Van Halen fashion) but here it's up the middle. That means that we can't analyze the actual sound as much as the playing.

2. The interesting thing is that there's no sweeting. Everything is done by a single guitar just as it would happen in concert, even the solo. There might have been punches, but they're not evident so it sounds like one continuous performance. I'd love to hear that happen again on records!

3. Listen to Eddie's dynamics. He backs off in intensity during the verses and bridge to leave space for the vocals, and brings it up when the excitement is needed in the choruses - again, just like in a live performance.

4. Also note Eddie's formidable rhythm chops. He's rock solid as he drifts between lead, fills and rhythm, something absolutely required in a power trio.

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Van Halen "Running With The Devil" Isolated Guitar

The first 3 Van Halen albums were spectacular in many ways. Of course, Eddie's playing was a revelation, but overlooked was the sound of those records. The band managed to stay fairly bare bones in its recording style with few overdubs, yet still sound huge. Here's a look inside one of the band's early hits with the isolated guitar track from "Running With The Devil" from the very first self-titled Van Halen album.

The song doesn't begin until 0:30. Listen for the following:

1. The trademark sound on the early Van Halen albums was the reverb on the guitar. Listen to how the somewhat dry guitar is on the left while the delayed reverb is on the right. It's also a very long reverb.

2. Eddie is a very sensitive player and this song shows him at his best. Listen to how intense he plays the choruses, but then backs off during the verses. I bet if he did this song again today there would be three guitar parts instead on just the 1: the chorus guitar, a verse guitar and another playing the fills. I like this one way better, as the entire part is a performance.

3. There's only a single overdub and that's during the solo, where a new guitar enters and switches sides. It's a bit edgier and has less reverb.

Van Halen "Beautiful Girls" Isolated Bass And Drums

There's noting like listening to a great rhythm section and the original Van Halen duo of drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony has proven to be one of the best in rock. Listen to them do their thing in isolation on "Beautiful Girls" from 1979's Van Halen II.

The song, which was originally titled "Bring On The Girls" on the band's 25 song demo, was produced by the great Ted Templeman, engineered by Don Landee, and recorded at the famous Sunset Sound in Hollywood. Like most albums from that era, it was completed in only 3 weeks. Here are some things to listen for.

1. Listen to how forward the snare drum is compared to the rest of the kit. Pretty beefy sound too, as well as a touch of some very smooth reverb.

2. The cymbals are very prominent in the mix to mostly fill in those upper frequencies since the band was a power trio. Their early albums were mostly guitar, bass and drums plus a guitar solo overdub with not much sweetening.

3. Michael Anthony's playing is a little behind the drums, rather than the other way around. This gives the band a sense of urgency.

4. Anthony's playing is far from perfect, not that you ever heard any of the very slight mistakes in the track. There is a pretty big one at 1:47 that wouldn't be left in today.

5. Alex VH has a couple of slow fills as well, like the ones at 3:28 and 3:40. In those days of analog tape and relatively quick recording, perfection was something that was rarely attained (except perhaps for Steely Dan albums, but they also cost a lot more to make and took much more time).

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Van Halen "Running With The Devil" Isolated Guitar

When Eddie Van Halen came on the scene in the late 70s, the guitar world was literally rocked with a new sound and new style of playing. EVH had a skill level and dexterity that hadn't been seen before, but the songs were good too, which soon put the band at superstar level. Here's the isolated guitar track to "Running With The Devil," the first song from their first self-titled album. The song still gets lots of airplay, and the album has gone on to sell over 10 million copies. Check out:

1. The lone guitar element in the song. There's only one guitar at any time during the song, mostly because the band was so used to playing it this way, as it was a staple of their shows before they received a record deal.

2. The guitar sound. It's a trademark of early Van Halen records where the rhythm guitar is panned on the left and a big delayed reverb to the right.

3. The guitar solo is dryer and panned to the right.

The song begins at 30 seconds in.

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Van Halen "Runnin' With The Devil" Isolated Vocals

Here are the isolated vocals from the 1978 Van Halen classic "Runnin' With The Devil" from their debut album. Although David Lee Roth doesn't get many props as a vocalist, you can hear that he really does (or at least did) have a pretty strong set of pipes.

Things to listen for:

1) Check out the long reverb trail. It has a lot of the high frequencies rolled off so it doesn't get in the way of the vocal. This was a big part of the sound of early Van Halen records.

2) The doubled background vocals. They high part is louder on the right side, while the lower one is slightly louder on the left. You can hear at 2:30 when the release of the backgrounds is different on the left than on the right.

3) Listen to record punch on the scream at 1:23. This was recorded on magnetic tape, and the only way to keep the parts on one track was to punch in and out to fit the parts in.

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Van Halen "Runnin' With The Devil" Demo

Here's an interesting little ditty from the 1976 Gene Simmons-produced Van Halen demo tapes. It's "Runnin' With The Devil" and it sounds surprisingly like the finished version that appeared on the band's first Ted Templeman-produced record for Warner Brothers (called appropriately "Van Halen").

Kiss's Gene Simmons saw the band play a gig at the now defunct Starwood club in Hollywood, financed and produced about 15 tracks, and then presented them to Casablanca (their record label at the time) who rejected them. He then had them play a showcase at SIR in New York for Bill Aucoin (Kiss's manager) who also thought they had no potential. Van Halen then came back to Hollywood, played the tapes for Warner Brothers, and the rest is history. The basics on the Simmon's demo were cut at Village Recorder in Los Angeles and the guitar solos and vocals at Electric Ladyland in New York.

Here's the little bit that I heard on the song that's different.
1) The delayed reverb on the guitar that became a Van Halen signature is missing.

2) David Lee Roth's delivery of the vocal doesn't swing as much.

3) The feel of the solo/bridge part is a lot different.

4) There's a hard ending as compared to a fade. (Actually, I got this one wrong.)

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"Hot For Teacher Guitar" Van Halen Isolated Guitar

Today we take a listen to Eddie Van Halen's smoking isolated guitar on "Hot For Teacher." For many guitar players this song is the ultimate in guitar dexterity, and even isolated, Edward does not disappoint.
The song was part of Van Halen's "1984" that was recorded at Eddie's 5150 home studio. It was voted the 39th greatest rock song by VH1. Here are a few things to listen to:

1) What can you say about Eddie's playing except "mind blowing." He's one of the true innovators of modern rock guitar and this song is an excellent example of why.

2) Eddie seamlessly goes between rhythm and lead during the song. Since this was done at home with presumably as much time as needed, I suspect that we're hearing a lot of takes comped into one. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was one entire performance though.

3) The sound of the guitar is great for both the rhythm and lead parts. I'm not sure exactly what gear he used (I suspect it was his "Frakenstrat" and "brown sound" Marshall), but it's the sound that guitar players have obsessed over for years afterwards.

4) The studio sound of the isolated track is different from the original record (the video is at the bottom), in that it's in stereo with a short reverb and long delay timed to the track. While it's basically the same effects setup on the record, the dry sound is panned left while the effects are panned right, which is the same on most of the early Van Halen albums. It's also interesting how low in the mix the guitar is on the final version.

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Van Halen's Legendary M&M Concert Rider

By now, everyone has heard of Van Halen's legendary "no brown M&M's" concert rider back in the 70's (a concert rider is an addition to a performance contract that covers the needs and wants of the artist). If you haven't, The Smoking Gun actually has a copy of it, and it clearly states under the Munchies category, "WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES."

This received a lot of publicity way back when and has gone down in rock history as one of the most self-indulgent demands during a period of perhaps the most self-indulgence ever in the business, but I believe that this demand was strategically placed with a special purpose in mind.

If the band would get to the dressing room and see that their M&M's still had the brown ones left in, they could be pretty sure that their rider wasn't read that closely by the promoter and it was a sign to look for other places where the promoter cut corners. Brilliant!

Concert riders have tamed down a lot in these days of corporate, ultra-professional touring. Lady Gaga's rider, for instance, calls for "a roast chicken, a plate of cheese on ice with a tray of assorted meats, low-fat milk, salsa dips and whole-wheat bread and crackers." Not exactly party material.

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"Panama" Backing Track - Van Halen

Staying with our Backing Track theme for the week, here's one from a rock radio standard - Van Halen's "Panama," off of their album entitled 1984. In this case we'll be listening to the everything but the guitar, although you can still hear a little of it in there as leakage. Here's a few interesting things to listen for.

1) The drums are compressed really hard to make them as punchy as they are. You don't notice it in the track, but you do during the intro to this video.

2) Michael Anthony is a very underrated bass player. Listen to how solid he is here. He's playing 8th notes through much of the song but he's right on the whole time. Remember this was in the days before cut and paste and Beat Detective so it's real playing.

3) Likewise, Alex Van Halen is very disciplined in the his drumming. The fact that he stays with a pattern during most of the song keeps the section solid.

4) David Lee Roth's vocal sound is signature Van Halen - delayed verb with a long decay along with a long delay for depth.

5) The background vocals, which you don't hear much of in the final track, are interesting in that they have a very short reverb which makes it pretty indistinct. It does it's job well though, by bolstering and changing the sound of the pre-chorus and chorus.

6) This song is an excellent example of dynamics on a record. Listen to how the band lowers its intensity at 2:20 while keeping the tempo and feel the same.