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Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Tue 18 August 2026 22:41, UK <\/p>\n
The fact that the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen<\/a> pumped out as much material as they did feels impossible. <\/p>\n Even though there are definitely some records that don\u2019t stack up as well as others, the run between their debut and 1984 would be a towering achievement for any rock band, let alone one that had been touring nonstop in between albums. While Women and Children First seemed to be the most fleshed-out album of their early years, Roth admitted that little to no time was put into \u2018Everybody Wants Some\u2019.<\/p>\n Compared to every other Van Halen release, their third outing feels the most indebted to heavy metal. Despite people who complain that Van Halen doesn\u2019t belong in that cultural conversation, those days opening up for Black Sabbath must have paid off with Eddie<\/a>, whose riffs on \u2018And the Cradle Will Rock\u2019 and the segue \u2018Tora Tora\u2019 are absolutely ferocious.<\/p>\n Before Roth even comes in, though, \u2018Everybody Wants Some\u2019 sounds like it\u2019s being played by rock giants. The production had gone up a notch, and their heroes seemed to be people like Lemmy Kilmister and Tony Iommi, much more than they were Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas.<\/p>\n As for the song\u2019s construction, Roth admitted that half of the track was made up on the spot, telling Musician<\/a>, \u201cAll the best parts of our music are just made up on the spot. The reason there\u2019s so much pressure that makes us produce so well is we wait until the last minute\u2026This song is full of that fast, impromptu, off-the-wall lyrics. And that\u2019s definitely an attitude of \u2018Everybody Wants Some.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n You can really tell that they didn\u2019t put much thought into it, either. That\u2019s not to say that the song is bad by any means\u2013in fact, it might be one of the songs of the Roth era. It\u2019s more about the presentation, with Roth sounding like he\u2019s singing the first thing that pops into his head half the time. There is even one line in the track that he completely screws up, and yet no one bothered to actually fix it because the attitude was there.<\/p>\n That is probably the whole point. Van Halen were never at their best when everything felt measured out with a ruler, and \u2018Everybody Wants Some\u2019 works because you can practically hear the wheels coming off without the song ever collapsing. Roth is half frontman, half bloke shouting whatever comes into his head, while the rest of the band somehow keep the thing upright behind him. It\u2019s messy in exactly the way a Van Halen song should be messy.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n If anything, that kind of mentality might be closer to punk than anything else. Considering they were putting a lot more attitude into their sound on tracks like \u2018Loss of Control\u2019, hearing a song that\u2019s nothing but pure rock and roll debauchery is exactly what you want to hear from a group of guys who spent the last few years conquering the world.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that the instrumentation isn\u2019t clean. Eddie always seemed to be incapable of playing a wrong note in the studio, even on a good day, and while his solo is far from the flashiest thing he had ever played, hearing him bounce off Roth half the time is a thing of beauty once they lock in on a groove.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n