And the Cradle Will Rock…

Hey there Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew is spinning "And the Cradle Will Rock…" from Van Halen's Women and Children First album right now on THE ZOO, and man, this one still hits like a freight train rolling through a backyard party. It kicks off that 1980 record with a sound that fools a lot of folks into thinking Eddie Van Halen is just tearing up another guitar riff, but the truth is way cooler. That opening blast is actually an old Wurlitzer electric piano he picked up at a pawn shop, pumped straight through his Marshall stacks and an MXR flanger. Eddie just pounded on the lower keys hard enough to break a couple of them during the session. Producer Ted Templeman walked in, heard that weird whooshing noise, and asked what the hell it was. Eddie laughed and said he was just screwing around, so they rolled tape. It was the first time keyboards showed up on a Van Halen record, and a lot of people never even realized it.

Eddie and his brother Alex jammed on the basic riff for two hours a day across two straight weeks after they got back from the road. They were having a blast because it sounded so wicked, but they did not know where to take it until the chorus just appeared out of nowhere. Eddie later said the solo is unusual, one short spontaneous lick that came out on the first take while he was channeling jazz-fusion guy Allan Holdsworth. He had been listening to Holdsworth a lot, and that influence slipped in. The whole instrumental track got done quick, same as most of the album, which the band knocked out in about a week because they were renegotiating their deal and just wanted to capture that youthful fire. David Lee Roth has talked about how the best parts often come at the last minute while standing around waiting for the tape to roll.

The title plays off that old nursery rhyme Rockabye Baby, and the lyrics paint a picture of some kid who would rather chase rock and roll than settle into whatever the elders think is a real job. Roth delivers it with that high-flying attitude, talking about junior's grades and how the cradle is gonna rock whether the parents like it or not. Live on the Invasion Tour supporting the album, the band did not want their guitar hero standing there playing keyboards, so Michael Anthony handled the Wurlitzer part while Eddie stuck to the six-string. Michael has said it was just another flavor the band Van Halen-ized, the same way they used to take other people's songs in the clubs and turn them into something that sounded like them. Years later on the 2007 and 2008 runs, Roth started changing the line to ask about Wolfie's grades, nodding to Eddie's son.

That whole keyboard experiment pointed the way toward bigger things down the line, even if the rest of the band pushed back at first. They figured fans wanted the shredder, not a piano man. Eddie had been trained on classical piano as a kid, so it was bound to come out eventually. He bought that Wurlitzer and the first thing he banged out on it was an early version of what became Jump. The resistance showed up again when he brought that one in, but Cradle proved they could make keys sound nasty and heavy instead of soft. Eddie thought Women and Children First was the adventurous record, with songs like this and Could This Be Magic and In a Simple Rhyme. He figured Fair Warning got called weird mostly because of the cover, while the music on this one took more risks.

Van Halen got their start the old-school way, out of a Dutch immigrant family that landed in Pasadena with next to nothing and a piano. Eddie and Alex were born in the Netherlands, Eddie in 1955, and the whole crew moved over in the early sixties. Their dad Jan was a clarinet and sax player who hustled gigs, and their mom Eugenia pushed the boys into classical piano lessons so they would have a respectable path. They practiced hard, but rock and roll grabbed them. Early on Alex played guitar and Eddie sat on the drums. Eddie got a paper route to pay for a drum kit, and while he was out delivering papers Alex started practicing on it. Alex got good fast, even nailing the Wipe Out solo, so they switched. Eddie grabbed the guitar and never looked back. They formed little bands like the Broken Combs while they were still in elementary school, playing lunchtime sets at Hamilton Elementary. Later came groups like the Trojan Rubber Company and then Mammoth, a power trio with Eddie singing lead and Mark Stone on bass.

Mammoth used to rent a PA from a flashy local singer named David Lee Roth who fronted the Red Ball Jets. Eddie got tired of handling vocals, so they brought Roth in. The name Mammoth was already taken by another outfit, and they almost went with Rat Salade before settling on Van Halen. Michael Anthony came over from his band Snake after opening for them one night. Anthony has talked about seeing the brothers play and thinking they were something special, even if Roth's stage getup made him do a double take at first. They ground it out on the Southern California club circuit, backyard parties, the Starwood, Gazzarri's on the Sunset Strip, covering everything from disco to hard rock and slowly working in their own songs. Eddie used to sit on the edge of his bed for hours working up ideas, then take them to practice in Roth's dad's basement where he and Alex would jam until something clicked. Gene Simmons caught them and helped with a demo, which led to Warner Bros. signing them. Ted Templeman produced, and the rest is the kind of story that keeps us spinning records like this one for the Zoo Freaks.

You can dig deeper on the official site at van-halen.com, catch the latest on their Facebook page, scroll the photos on Instagram, or follow the chatter on X. Fans keep the conversation going over at VHLinks and in groups like the one tied to that site on Facebook. Stick around, Zoo Freaks, because the cradle is still rocking and the next cut is already queued up.