Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Case Study: Van Halen, "Dance the Night Away"



Fuck, Van Halen had a ton of good songs. Just looking at the hits, you've got the titanic "Jump," the rock solid "Running With the Devil," the gloriously sleazy "Hot For Teacher," cover versions of "Pretty Woman" and "You Really Got Me" that brought them to new frontiers, showy instrumentals like "Eruption"... this band was the glitzy, glamorous synthesis of everything rock was becoming in the late 70's.

But for me, the song that sums up all the pleasures of listening to Van Halen is "Dance the Night Away." Not a little-known song by any stretch, but one that seems to take a backseat to those gems. This song has it all, though, and to the fullest degree: it has one of Roth's best vocals, sexy but charming and playful, beckoning in the lyrics, "But don't skip romance 'cause ya old enough / to dance the night away." Those lyrics are terrifically simple-minded, but they're aptly effortless. They soar and infuse the soul to do just that. It's a perfectly fitted good-time rock and roll song that comes with a genuine sense of wellness.

And that guitar. Oh, boy, that guitar. EVH was a player of immense technical skill and discipline, and sometimes even his best work sounds overly clean and precise for my rock tastes, but that groove, the way it ebbs and flows beneath the vocal, especially the hook under the chorus, the way it walks and pings, oh yeah. That tone is so crisp, and that riff leading into the fadeout just completely sums up the entire mood and movement of the song. You could listen to it for ten more minutes, especially thanks to the fine rhythm work of Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony. This is the best possible combination of his pristine guitar and Diamond Dave's wild vocal, I tell you, and that's amongst many fine examples. The strange alchemy that was Van Halen (the real Van Halen) is in its best balance here. If it's not their "best song," the one that marks the highwater of their accomplishments, it's the one that shows exactly what this band is like.

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