This year marks the 40th anniversary of Van Halen’s 1984. An album filled with legendary songs (“Jump”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher”).
Today, we’ll examine AVH’s inspiration for one of the greatest drum tracks ever: Hot for Teacher.
Recorded between June and October 1983, and released in January 1984, “1984” is Van Halen’s best-selling album and the last one with David Lee Roth.
The song
Starting off with one of the most famous double-bass intros in rock history, AVH then kicks in with a maniac shuffle that supports his brother’s insane tapping guitar.
One of the best hard rock songs ever, and one of the best drum performances ever put to tape.
The influences
Like most amazing musicians, AVH took inspiration from legendary drummers, so, let’s break this down.
According to Matt Dean, in his book “The Drum: A History” (2011) AVH got his inspiration mainly from 2 sources, and then added his own spin to give the song its unique character.
The double bass shuffle:
The world-famous double bass shuffle is reminiscent of Billy Cobham’s “Quadrant 4” song, from his 1973 album “Spectrum”.
The main ostinato:
The Lambo:
Last, but not least, -and although it’s not an “influence” -, it’s an important thing to note. In his book “A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music” (2020), the producer for “1984”, Ted Templeman tells the story of the mythical Lamborghini story of the first few seconds in “Hot for Teacher”.
“Ed and Donn [Landee, engineer] experimented quite a bit as well. Donn miked up Ed's Lamborghini [1972 Lamborghini Miura S] a couple of different ways, capturing the lope of the idling engine and the roar of the exhaust as Ed stepped on the gas pedal. They toyed with the idea of putting the engine sound on "Jump" as I remember.
Donn and I also worked with Alex to create his trademark drum intro for the song. There's one thing about the drum part that's flown under the radar. If you listen to the very beginning, it doesn't sound like a drummer; it's too random a pattern. That's because the first five seconds are the Lamborghini exhaust, then Al's electronic drums come in. The song begins with bumm, blu-lu- lum, bumm - that's the telltale engine lope, that high-octane growl that signals you've got something big under the hood. It's unmistakable to me, since I'm so car-crazy. It took Donn a lot of time and work to match up the sound of the Simmons drums to the sound of the idling engine.”
This 1972 Lamborghini Miura S is a great drummer…
What’s some other overlooked stories in drumming history?
