Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock’n’roll(Reverb)

'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.' In keeping with Roth's sentiment, Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock'n'roll follows the band's pursuit of the art of artlessness, and describes how they characterize what historian Kevin Starr terms '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.

About the Author :
John Scanlan is a cultural historian and the author of several books for Reaktion including Easy Riders, Rolling Stones: On the Road in America, from Delta Blues to ’70s Rock (2015) and Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine (2016).

Review :
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. (7/10) A look at the influences and events that shaped the band and its relationship to Southern California's sense of cultural exuberance. 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. 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. Diamond Dave as a Zen master? Eddie Van Halen as musical monk? Thats the case John Scanlan makes - tongue only partly in cheek - in this learned but lively take on Van Halens rise to the pinnacle of rockstardom, improvising all the way. Philosophy you can dance to. excellent . . . an enlightening read that significantly adds to the scholarship on Sunset Strip musical history