Rocktober '80s Song #5: "Romeo Delight" by Van Halen (1980)

Yesterday, the music world lost a giant.  Eddie Van Halen succumbed to his long battle with throat cancer, dying at the age of 65.  He was rightly regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all-time, revolutionizing guitar playing with his innovative finger tapping technique and bringing an almost classical virtuoso mentality to rock guitar playing.

Van Halen basically ruled the '80s.  I have a vivid memory of when I was a 6- or 7-year-old kid in suburban Houston, and my friend had just got the 1984 album on tape.  We listened to it in his family room, and we just went nuts, air guitaring, karate kicking, and just flying around like psychos to the likes of "Panama," "Jump," "Hot For Teacher," and "Top Jimmy."  It's one of those watershed moments in my musical upbringing that I'll never forget, like the first time I heard Guns N' Roses when I saw the video for "Sweet Child O' Mine" while visiting a friend in Memphis or hearing Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" for the first time in a high school football locker room.

Anywho, if I were to properly put forth a Van Halen song that truly exemplified Eddie's talent, it would be the inimitable "Eruption" from the band's self-titled debut or his astounding acoustic flamenco instrumental "Spanish Fly" from Van Halen II, but both of those were released in the '70s, so I can't use them for this Rocktober.

Thankfully, there are plenty of EVH classics from the '80s, both from the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar eras.  Unlike some, I like both eras, though I do prefer the DLR era.  Those first four albums -- Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First, and Fair Warning -- are just ridiculous, and Diver Down and 1984 are damn good too.

My favorite Van Halen song is "Romeo Delight," off of 1980's Women and Children First album.  It exemplifies everything I love about early Van Halen.  The song is pure energy, shoved in your face at breakneck speed.  "Romeo Delight" is a party song that makes you (or me, anyway) want to buy a T-Top Trans Am, crank this song at max volume, and cruise to the best party of the summer at 90 miles per hour.  From beginning to end, the song kicks ass, starting with Eddie's heavy, fast riff, before slowing down for the verses, to crescendo into the ball-busting chorus, when Michael Anthony's signature harmonies perfectly complementing Roth's vocals. It makes great use of anticipation by slowing down and getting quiet in the middle of the song, making the explosion back into the chorus even that much more fulfilling.  Eddie has an expectedly great guitar solo as well.  I love the line in the chorus, "I'm takin' whiskey to the party tonight and I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze."  Aren't we all?

So wherever you are, turn the volume up and appreciate a still young-and-hungry band hitting on all cylinders and making you remember what it felt like to be a teenager or a college-age kid when the world in your hand, at least for one night of debauchery.