The Massively Influential Song Van Halen Wrote as a Parody: “It Was a Stupid Thing to Us”

Van Halen’s 1978 self-titled debut album sent shockwaves through the rock and roll world. Not only does it contain songs that are widely regarded as examples of the band’s best work, but it also helped shape the future of the genre. Eddie Van Halen influenced countless guitarists and helped set the bar for the coming decade. One of the more influential tracks on the album was originally conceived as a parody of punk rock.

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Eddie Van Halen started writing “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” a year before he brought it to the rest of the band. He wrote the song with its repetitive riff as a send-up of the simple arrangements of punk rock. “It was a stupid thing to us, just two chords. It didn’t end up sounding punk, but that was the intention,” he said of the track.

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Dig! points out that both “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” and “Jamie’s Cryin’” laid the groundwork for the hair metal of the 1980s. More than that, the band helped to usher in a new era of heavy metal and hard rock. The popular music landscape of the decade would have likely looked much different if not for their debut album.

“When rock fans dropped the needle on Van Halen, they didn’t hear lengthy, self-indulgent jams or lumbering, doomy dirges. On the contrary, they heard what Roth would later term ‘Big Rock’: a streamlined sonic assault,” author Greg Renoff wrote in Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Party Band Saved Heavy Metal. “They invented pop metal–radio-friendly hard rock catchy enough that it could sell millions in a musical climate that was flat-out hostile to the genre.”

Former Van Halen Bassist Reflects on “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”

Recently, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony spoke to Professor of Rock about his three-decade career with the band. During the conversation, he took time to reflect on “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.”

“When Eddie came up with the lick, it was kind of like a nod to, like, punk,” Anthony said. “Punk rock, like The Ramones, you’ve got one [or] two chords and that’s it,” he added. “Eddie came up with this thing. The whole song is just that one lick throughout the whole song. It has no other kind of B-section that takes you somewhere else or whatever. That’s exactly why that song came out like it was,” he explained. “It shows you what you can do with two chords.”

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