Van Halen at 50

by Martin Popoff

Explore the extraordinary history of Van Halen through the groundbreaking band’s 50 most important moments, brought to vivid life with photos and memorabilia.

Formed in Southern California in 1974, Van Halen became one of the best-selling bands in rock history and one of the highest-grossing tour acts with their rock-solid rhythm section, the histrionics of outrageous frontman David Lee Roth, and the wildly inventive and until-then unimaginable guitar heroics of Eddie Van Halen. In Van Halen at 50 , prolific rock journalist Martin Popoff pays tribute to the band on the occasion of their 50th anniversary by curating 50 significant milestones, from their formation in 1974 to the passing of Eddie Van Valen in 2020 . This volume
 
Across five decades, Popoff covers it
 
In addition, Popoff includes a selection of sidebars covering specialized topics like Eddie’s finger-tapping technique, the band’s album art, and the eternal Dave vs. Sammy question. Every page is illustrated with incredible images , including on- and off-stage photography, gig posters, 7-inch picture sleeves, ticket stubs, and more. The result is an apt tribute to one of the most popular bands in rock history.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

192 pages, Hardcover

Published May 28, 2024

About the author

At approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor-In-Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I get up and nothin' gets me down
You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around
And I know, baby, just how you feel
You got to roll with the punches to get to what's real
Ah, can't you see me standin' here?
I've got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't you see what I mean?
Ah, might as well jump (jump)" - Van Halen: Songwriters: Alex Van Halen / David Roth / Edward Van Halen

This is a nice book for fans of Van Halen. This book talks about the tours, the albums, their concerts, musical skills, the important dates, and major events for the band. It also discusses the issues between the band members ranging from personality issues, difference of opinions concerning music and artistic clashes. The title of this book comes from the author showing 50 milestones on the band's 50th anniversary.

I found the book to be a little clunky at times and I felt it had a flow issue as a result. This was due to the author breaking down the album art and the concerts. Having said that, I enjoyed the pictures, the album art, learning some things that I did not know about the band, and the individual band members and their side gigs. Although the book does talk about the band, it gave a lot of attention to Eddie Van Halen (much deserved), David Lee Roth and Sammy Hager.

An overall interesting and informative book for fans of the band. I liked the personal approach to describing the members of the group and showing them as not only Rock gods but as people with had their own struggles in life. Plus, you get to see some memorabilia and great pics.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Motorbooks and Edelweiss who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popoff loves rock n roll and his biography states that he has written more record reviews than any one else ever (over 7900) and has published 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. Here, he lends his expertise to the subject of the mighty Van Halen fifty years after they burst on the scene like a mega-tornado blowing everything down in their path. Complete with lots and lots of full-color photographs, it is divided into fifty mini-chapters, offering a taste of Van Halen across the last fifty years with analysis of the recordings and information about the tours and the various incarnations of the band. In short, it is everything the casual fan wants to know and more and lots of things the serious fan knows but wants to revisit. For many of us, it is simply a trip down memory lane.

The book begins with a quick tour of the early lives of Lee Roth and the Van Halen brothers and their discovery at Gazzari's by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley (Kiss). Although the demo did not lead to anything, their next flirtation with the record industry did, although it gave a glimpse into future issues with David Lee Roth and his eventual replacement in the band. Chapter three offers us their debut album, which was nothing short of groundbreaking, including Eddie's warm-up exercise that became Eruption, Ain't Talkin About Love, Jamie's Cryin, and You Really Got Me, all of which are classics today. The book details how this debut album along with II catapaulted Van Halen to the forefront of the massive hard rock resurgence. The book charts the band's musical touring rather than just the havoc wrought on hotels and busses on their tours. 

There are also chapters discussing Eddie's musical techniques, particularly tapping, noting that he was not the first to tap, but that his tapping in terms of quantity and quality overwhelmed everyone else. Eddie himself has apparently stated he was inspired by Page's work on Heartbreaker in 1971 at the Forum. 

The book discusses changes to the band's composition, notably Sammy Hagar replacing David Lee Roth, and Eddie's marriage to Valerie as well as Eddie's cancer, his bouts with drugs and alcohol, and then shockingly early death. Nevertheless, it is not a biographical book so much as a musical tour through the history of the band's albums and tours.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know you’re getting old when the bands you loved as a teenager are all turning fifty. Van Halen at 50 is the latest photographic history book in a series featuring some of the greatest rock/metal bands of all time, by prolific Canadian music journalist Martin Popoff. I read and enjoyed AC/DC at 50 last year, so was pleased to see this one appear on NetGalley. Van Halen don’t get as much radio AirPlay here in NZ as comparable bands from the 70s and 80s, and I didn’t know much about them, so learning about the band’s tumultuous history was fascinating.

While I read this on Kindle for IPad, it would be far better in the hardcover format. Liberally illustrated with memorabilia and photos of the band at work, both onstage and in quieter moments, this presents a short chapter for each of 50 key episodes in their rock career, all labeled with a song title. Most of the history is presented chronologically, beginning with the birth of the band in Pasadena in 1973, but there are extra commentary sections featuring the author’s opinions on different aspects, like ranking the 16 album covers in reverse order of preference. It’s all written from the POV of a passionate but appropriately critical fan who’s not afraid to critique their playing, albums and shows.

While I wouldn’t say I was a massive fan, I like a lot of Van Halen’s songs, but never got the chance to see them live, as they haven’t visited New Zealand this century. I did see David Lee Roth at the UK Donington Monsters of Rock festival in 1988 when he was third on the bill after Iron Maiden & Kiss - this isn’t mentioned, but the book does talk about the Sammy Hagar-fronted American Monsters of Rock tour the same year, which I didn’t know about. We didn’t have MTV growing up (yes I was a deprived child lol) and hard rock/heavy metal did not get shown on TV in the UK in the 80s, so I only knew and saw what I read in Kerrang - so it was hilarious to see the band members’ outrageous fashion choices from back in the day!

The saddest part was reading about the lifelong struggles of genius guitarist Eddie - first with alcohol & drugs, then with David Lee Roth (who the author refers to as Dave, as if he knows him - maybe he does?) and finally with cancer. His premature death at 65 was one of the biggest losses to music fans in that horrible year. I didn’t know anything about his son Wolfgang, but am interested to hear him play now. In fact the one thing that would improve this book is if you could just click on links within it to link to video and audio clips of the songs and shows mentioned, to listen to while you read, rather than having to search separately. Hopefully one day the technology will catch up!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto/Motorbooks for the advance review copy - and especially for making it available to me again when I missed the archive date. Van Halen at 50 is published on May 28th.

[Tony Farinella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was incredibly disappointing. Perhaps I’ve read too many books about Van Halen, but it offered nothing new in terms of information or stories. It’s a coffee table book celebrating 50 years of Van Halen, but as I read it, all the stories were familiar and common.

I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed his book on Guns N’ Roses at 40 and thought it was a fun and informative read. Unfortunately, this book isn’t really enjoyable. The author is very smarmy and seems overly critical of the band. Even though he claims to be a fan, it doesn’t come across that way. He’s very critical of Sammy Hagar and doesn’t seem to like David Lee Roth either. The whole book just fell flat for me.

[Ink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I am GenX and as such, Van Halen were in their heyday when I was growing up. However, as much as I collected the music of Van Halen, my teenage adoration was directed toward the other well know band whose lead singer also came from Indiana (and who, to this day, I will still say epitomised the late 80s, early 90s for me)

I digress. Van Halen was one of those band s that everybody knew their music, everybody knew who they were and everybody would get up and rock out when Van Halen came on the radio. Ahhh, good times. Likewise, were the publications, Kerrang and Metal Hammer for one and this book reminds mw of the layouts of the same, giving me that warm feeling of nostalgia

However, a really good thing oubout "Van Halen at 50" is that it takes us on a journey from Van Halens inception to almst the present day, full of stories, discography, live tours and the good, the bad and the downright ugly events that personify the bands tumultuous relationships with each other

A fantastic read for all ages, music lovers, and lovers of 20th centrury history , of which, Van Halen and their music were a musical icon

Thank you to Netgalley, Quarto Publishing Group – Motorbooks, Motorbooks and the author Martin Popoff for this awesome ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

[Nik.The.Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read! I've always loved VH, and I learned some fun facts about them from this book. The pictures were fun to look at, and of course I had to play some of my favorite songs while I read! This was make a great coffee table book! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book on exchange for my honest review.

[Janel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! As a huge Van Halen fan, this book was very enjoyable to me. Very informative, respectful, and well written. I’d recommend to any fan of Van Halen or rock music in general.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Motorbooks, and Martin Popoff for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Van Halen was as much a part of my younger days as just about any musical act. Granted, I was only eight when they first formed, but throughout my musical journey, they were the antithesis of what I was hearing on WLIR, the “new music” station. As much as that music shaped my life, so did the raw exuberance of Van Halen, particularly Eddie’s guitar work.

Martin Popoff is a well-known music journalist. The 50th anniversary of the formation of Van Halen is 2024, Popoff takes a look back and chooses 50 moments in the history of the band that were pivotal. The result is a book that would have been described as a “coffee table book” back in my parents’ day. The idea was, that you left books like these on the coffee table when company came over to impress them. I’m not sure that happens all that much in the current day, but for fans of the band, this retrospective demands to be out on your coffee table.

Popoff covers it all, and pretty much sequentially, starting with the formation of the band and how singer David Lee Roth was kind of an ill-fit from the start. The Van Halen brothers (particularly Eddie) might not have been easy to get along with, and Popoff acknowledges some of Eddie’s questionable decisions over the years, but adding Roth as the lead singer was more in deference to management and the record company than anything else. The Sammy Hagar is covered as well, along with the information that Hagar was considered before Roth was added in the first place.

To read my full review, please go to Van Halen at 50 by Martin Popoff – Rockin’ Those Coffee Tables

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teen in the 1980's, this was a walk down memory lane. I thought I was pretty knowledeable about the history of the band, but I learned early into the book that I'm not! I didn't know that Gene and Paul of Kiss fame had discovered the band! The book is a mixture of history of the band from its early days and the many changes throughout the years along with a lot of great pictures. Many of the pictures I recall seeing from those early years, but there were plenty of new ones to enjoy.
As far as the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar debate, I would have to say that I lean more on the side of Sammy since he the lead singer my high school and college years. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a few of the early Dave hits!
I think this book would be a hit for any music lover, but maybe more so for those of us who grew up listening to the band. Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Motorbooks, NetGalley, and Mr. Popoff for allowing me to read the Arc. I would love to see sit it in all it's glory in print when it is released in May 2024.

[Hope Griffin Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was about 15, my friend who hooked me up with a tape of a new band. I sure hadn't heard of them before but Wow! They were amazing. The guitar was fresh, like nothing I'd ever heard before. I knew. I played guitar. So this group knocked me back! Over the years my tastes would change, but I always loved Van Halen.

This gorgeous book from Martin Popoff isn't your Mom and Dad's coffee table book. This has some teeth in it. With some serious history lessons in all things Van Halen, from their club gigs to the disputes with Diamond Dave, The Red Rocker, Sammy Hagar and into the blip of Gary, this explores aspects even seasoned fans may not have known. Did you know Dave appeared on the Letterman show with his nose bandaged not because Alex slugged him finally but because he dropped a mic stand on his nose. Learn about the stories behind the Monsters of Rock tour, Sammy's tequila , rum, cocktails. The how and why Dimebag ended up with the exact guitar Eddie gave to Rita to put in his coffin. Eddie's wedding day! Wolfgang in the band.

I definitely would want to get my hands on the hardback edition of this. Seeing this on your screen is one thing. Seeing it and holding it is another.

The one line I found odd was about 'those in the axe position, you hear about Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen and really no one else. I think Eric Clapton said it best when he would get asked what it's like being the best guitarist in the world:

"I don't know. Go ask Prince."

King Edward certainly earned his right to glory. His son is creating quite a name for himself as a virtuoso. There are other guitarists but I won't name them here. This book is Van Halen country.

I'll leave you, dear reader, with a quote from a conservative Christian woman in the 80s who happened to catch a sober David Lee Roth with a tan hat and army green button down shirt on doing an interview:

"Well, sure, he has long hair but he's brushed it and he's put himself together nicely in the latest fashion and speaks clearly. He seems reasonable." ~ my Mom

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Van Halen at 50 by Martin Popoff and I just loves these books especially learning about old bands your parents may of listened to and then grew up playing their songs or albums. Van Halen was formed in Southern California in 1974,
Van Halen became one of the best-selling bands in rock history and one of the highest-grossing tour acts with their rock-solid rhythm section, the histrionics of outrageous frontman David Lee Roth, and the wildly inventive and until-then unimaginable guitar heroics of Eddie Van Halen.

This book is a tribute to the band Van Halen at 50th anniversary by curating 50 significant milestones, from their formation in 1974 to the passing of Eddie Van Valen in 2020.

This book is a must have for new or old fans.

Sadly my parents are not here now, it would have been a great book to share with, especially my dad.....over a cup of tea and a few biscuits!

[Bonnie Kernene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am from the generation that enjoyed Van Halen during their run as one of the greatest hard rock bands ever. This book goes through their history with all of the members of the band, including the 2 main singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. You will always find fans that will argue as to who was the best between them, but in my opinion, they were both great for the time period they were in. If I had to pick, however it would be Sammy, as I had been listening to him from his Montrose days. This book showcases the band is such a great light. The pictures are so excellent that it makes you feel like you are or were there. Their concerts were fabulous and entertaining and this book really relates that. I truly recommend this book to those who like to read about rock and roll or love Van Halen. It is so very worth your time. You won't want to put it down.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Van Halen at 50 is a great coffee table book for fans. The photos are wonderful. Popoff’s chronological history was detailed and interesting. His prose was a bit clunky at times, which was made more challenging by the tiny font. Some of the typeface was white with a shiny black background, which frequently picked up glare. Quality chronology of milestones in the band’s history as well as albums with A and B side songs and timing (interesting for those who started their Van Halen collection with CDs.) The photos of bands, ticket stubs, concert posters, and album art are the best part and the feature of this keepsake book. From the prose I learned quite a bit of history and new facts—like Eddie on Thriller! Thank you to Quarto Publishing for the advance review copy!

[Mary Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Net Galley for this e-copy of Van Halen at 50 in exchange for a honest review.This is a wonderful coffee table book full of beautiful photos and a chronological account of the band and from its’ formation to its early success to the departure of David Lee Roth to Sammy Haggar’s appearance to the eventual return of David Lee Roth and unfortunately Eddie’s death at 65 in 1920..It also talks about Eddie’s personal life and his marriage to Valerie Bertinelli and their son Wolfgang’s prowess on a variety of instruments.This book is perfect collectible for the Van Halen fan!
Please note 1 mistake I found on page 108 is when it says Wolfgang lost his father at 19..His dad died when he was 29.

[JCS · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, full of great photos illustrating fifty important moments on the fiftieth anniversary of the forming of this wild and creative rock band. A wonderful celebration of an iconic group of musicians and entertainers. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book for a Van Halen fan. Chock full of beautiful, full color and black and white pictures that show the band's history, and tons of informative text. Would make a great coffee table book, and discussion piece.

[Robert Carver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting anecdotes but not really much in the way of new information. An enjoyable read for the Van Halen fan.

[Bryan Woyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any VH fans. Learned a bunch and loved the pictures.