Maps of Music

Women and Children First (1980)

Where the lyrics of Women and Children First take you, and where it was really made.

The opening track's guitar-like sound is actually a Wurlitzer electric piano run through a Marshall amplifier.

Key places

Recorded at Sunset Studios in Hollywood (1980)

Recording site Sunset Sound — The album was recorded in Hollywood at Sunset Studios over about two weeks. The pin marks the studio area in Hollywood. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Third studio album by the American rock band Van Halen
• Released 26 March 1980 on Warner Bros. Records
• Produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee
• First Van Halen album with no cover songs
• The opening track's guitar-like sound is actually a phase shifter-effected Wurlitzer electric piano played through a Marshall Plexi amplifier

Background

• The album has more studio overdubs and less emphasis on backing vocals than the two preceding albums
• Two songs, "In a Simple Rhyme" and "Take Your Whiskey Home", had been written and recorded six years earlier, before Michael Anthony joined the band
• Those songs were recorded as demos at Cherokee Studios, and the album versions differed in some lyrics and music
• "Fools" had been played live as early as 1975, and "Loss of Control" debuted in 1977
• "Everybody Wants Some!!" was a concert staple through the 1984 tour

Recording

• Recorded in Hollywood at Sunset Studios in about two weeks, like the two previous albums
• The rain sound on "Could This Be Magic?" is real: it was raining outside
• The band recorded that rain in stereo using two Neumann KM84 microphones and added it to the track
• "Growth" is a brief instrumental at the end of "In a Simple Rhyme", beginning at 4:19

Cover

• The cover photo is credited to Norman Seeff
• The vinyl LP version included a poster of a Helmut Newton photograph of David Lee Roth chained to a fence

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Van Halen was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972.
• The brothers Alex (b. 1953) and Eddie Van Halen (b. 1955) were born in Amsterdam, moved to Pasadena in 1962, and began playing together in the 1960s.
• The band went through the names Broken Combs, Trojan Rubber Co, Genesis, and Mammoth before becoming Van Halen in 1973.
• David Lee Roth joined as lead vocalist in 1972 and Michael Anthony joined on bass in 1974.

Members

• Eddie Van Halen (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Alex Van Halen (drums), David Lee Roth (lead vocals, 1974–1985), Michael Anthony (bass, 1974–2006).
• Sammy Hagar replaced Roth in 1985 and Gary Cherone replaced Hagar in 1996.
• Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son, replaced Anthony on bass in 2006.

Career

• The self-titled debut album (1978) reached No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified Diamond by the RIAA.
• The album 1984 (1984) produced 'Jump', the band's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
• With Hagar, the band released four U.S. number-one albums, including 5150 (1986) and OU812 (1988).
• Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020; Wolfgang later confirmed the band had ended.
• The band has sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews for the album were generally favorable
• Rolling Stone's David Fricke highlighted "Romeo Delight", "Everybody Wants Some!!", and "Loss of Control", calling them "works of high-volume art"
• Fricke praised the band as "exceptionally good players"
• Fricke and Robert Christgau both compared Eddie Van Halen's guitar work to Jimi Hendrix
• Christgau gave the album a B rating, saying the Hendrix comparisons were earned and that Eddie was no clone
• The album was described as the record where the group started to get heavier, both sonically and, to a lesser extent, thematically

Reappraisal

• In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album "mature, or at least ... a little serious"
• Erlewine noted that there is a bit of a dark heart beating on this record
• Kerrang! listed the album at number 30 among the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time
• Rolling Stone listed the album at number 36 in its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time

Records

• Billboard 200 peak: number 6
• Netherlands peak: number 3
• Germany peak: number 19
• UK album chart peak: number 15
• Japan Oricon album chart peak: number 25
• The album went platinum within a year of release
• Certified gold in the United States on 29 May 1980, platinum on 2 June 1980

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The vinyl LP was sold with a poster of David Lee Roth, which was originally given out as a promo.
• "Act Like It Hurts" is an unreleased instrumental that was the title Eddie Van Halen originally wanted for "Tora! Tora!"; its riff was later used for "House of Pain".
• "Could This Be Magic?" has the only female backing vocal ever recorded for a Van Halen song, sung by Nicolette Larson.
• "Growth" faded out on the original vinyl LP and cassette but got a cold ending at full volume on the compact disc.
• "Everybody Wants Some" appeared in the 1985 comedy Better Off Dead, in a sequence with a singing and guitar-playing hamburger.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · pt.wikipedia.org

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