The book was written between 2008 and 2010, and its subtitle – the ‘Exuberant California’ part, which was originally the book’s main title (the publisher wouldn’t have it) – was inspired by Rem Koolhaas’s book, Delirious New York, which had also celebrated the relationship between a place (New York City) and its distinctive culture.
The book is not a biography, nor is it about ‘fandom’ or audiences or popularity or genre distinctiveness, as other preoccupations of cultural studies of popular music. As part of the Reverb series – which I founded and of which this was the first book – it’s focus was on the relationship between a place and the emergence of a particular creative culture. It therefore focused on the role played by factors such as the Southern Californian climate and the unique urban space of Los Angeles in the development of a ‘state of mind’ or creative aesthetic. ‘California Zen’ was an expression coined by historian Kevin Starr to describe the state of mind of that place. And given the overt Zen proclivities at work in Van Halen, ‘Zen Rock‘n’Roll’ also seemed an apt expression to describe an approach to performance and recording that at its most distinctive managed to capture a ‘liveness’ that reflected an idea of performance as something fundametally belonging to the realm of unthinking.
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From the jacket copy:
‘I hate the word maturing,’ singer David Lee Roth once said. ‘I don’t like the word evolving – or any of that bullshit. The point is to keep it as simplistic, as unassuming, and as stupid as possible.’
Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock’n’roll follows Van Halen’s pursuit of the art of artlessness, and describes how they characterise ‘Zen California’ – a state of mind and way of being that above all celebrates ‘the now’. In rock’n’roll terms it stands for the unregulated expenditure of energy; for a youthful exuberance that seems destined to extinguish itself.
While many have attempted to discover the secrets of Van Halen’s appeal through more conventional biographical approaches to their career and music, John Scanlan looks instead at the deeper and unexamined aesthetic and philosophical influences of a band that were always an island unto themselves. Through a series of illuminating moments and impressions – from origins in the decaying Sunset Strip of the early 1970s to eventual retreat into the Hollywood Hills a decade later – he shows how Southern California in the wake of 1960s was the only time and place that Van Halen could have emerged. Along the way, the book explores the brittle relationship between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen; the unique climate of Southern California, and what it lends to a sense of cultural exuberance; the echoes of Zen and Beat aesthetics in David Lee Roth’s appreciation of spontaneity and transience; and the real roots of Eddie Van Halen’s so-called ‘Brown’ sound.
Van Halen is a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary band, caught in the events of a revolutionary time. The book will appeal to fans of the group, as well as readers with an interest in the history and aesthetics of rock’n’roll, and the culture of California.
210 x 148 mm
224 pp. + 29 illus.
Paperback
ISBN: 978 1 86189 916 3
Editions:
Reaktion (UK), 2012
University of Chicago Press (US), 2012
Available from:
Reviews
LA Times book selection, with ‘Van Halen’ (bottom right).
A Los Angeles Times Recommended Summer Read, 2012
'Scanlan suggests that we've misunderstood Van Halen all these years or at least not given the band its due. Roth and his comrades weren't just hard rockers, Scanlan argues, but avatars of a kind of philosophy. In Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock 'n' Roll, Scanlan argues that Van Halen were purveyors of what he calls Zen rock, worthy of comparisons to the Beat poets - if not for the work they created, then at least for their state of mind.'
— Keith O'Brien, Boston Sunday Globe, 15 July 2012.
'Through its ten chapters . . . Scanlan takes you through the journey of Van Halen, via various in-depth musings of a social and historical persuasion that, the author suggests, uncover more potent truths than their regularly touted musical inspirations. It's an engaging way of reading up on the ins and outs of "California Zen", romanticism, and the evolving 60s-80s Hollywood music scene . . . a refreshing history lesson [by] a very articulate and knowledgeable writer.’
– Classic Rock magazine
'Making unlikely connections between Van Halen and movements as seemingly remote as the Beats and Bebop, Scanlan convincingly makes the case that the relationship between Roth and Eddie Van Halen reveals something of the essence of California . . . it is a tale concerned with the "art of artlessness", and the importance that living in the now had always assumed in the culture of California.'
– Dagens Næringsliv's D2 Magazine
'Diamond Dave as a Zen master? Eddie Van Halen as musical monk? That's the case John Scanlan makes – tongue only partly in cheek – in this learned but lively take on Van Halen's rise to the pinnacle of rock stardom, improvising all the way. Philosophy you can dance to.'
– Barnes and Noble review
'excellent . . . an enlightening read that significantly adds to the scholarship on Sunset Strip musical history'
– LA Letters, KCET (Southern California Public TV)