Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy, "Brothers" is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (maybe “Ed” but never “Eddie”), written while still mourning his untimely death.
In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers’ childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother - the kind of mom who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit” no matter how famous they became - a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.
"I was with him from day one,” Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."
There has never been an accurate account of them or the band and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.
Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author’s private archives.
I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Van Halen but I like some of their songs. My sister borrowed this book ... I like reading bios/memoirs so I thought I'd read it too.
It's written by Alex, the older of the Van Halen brothers. The book starts before he and Ed were born, with their parents ... a Dutch father and Indonesian mother meeting and getting married. Growing up, their first language was Dutch so they knew no English when the family moved to California when the boys were young. Their mother made them learn how to play the piano. They loved music, they eventually moved on to Alex learning to play the guitar and Ed learning to play the drums. They swapped instruments and the rest is history.
Alex and Ed weren't stellar students ... they wanted to play music and formed a few bands before finding the right combination with Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth and becoming Van Halen. There was a lot of paying their dues playing in bars, schools, etc. before moving on to be opening acts for Journey, Black Sabbath and more. Along the way, they recorded albums which went platinum. The book ends in 1984 with the release of the album 1984.
I liked this book more than I expected I would. I liked the writing style and it was interesting to read the stories of them being young men on the road touring (it sounds like they had a lot of fun, which was destructive and expensive). It was obvious Alex and Ed were tight as brothers. Alex doesn't through a lot of shade but there are some honest stories of people who did them wrong. I like that there were lots of photographs at the end.
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