In the state of California, there is a specific Welfare & Institutions Code called a 5150, which allows authorities to place a person under an involuntary psychiatric hold if the person is, "as a result of mental disorder, a danger to others, or to themselves.”
It was this sort of isolation Eddie Van Halen was looking for when he decided to call his newly built recording studio the 5150 Studios.
Van Halen was hoping to gain more control over the recording process than he had in the past, and perhaps more importantly, wanted a space to work on music that his bandmates might not approve of.
While the boards and tape machines were being installed during construction, Van Halen did something that no self respecting heavy metal musician was supposed to do. He did something that would have driven his lead vocalist David Lee Roth and his producer Ted Templeman insane. He began playing around on a synthesizer.
The Dutch-born Eddie and his drumming brother Alex had grown up in musical family. Their father Jan, was a jazz musician, and started them on piano by the time the boys were five years old. It was his intention that they become concert pianists. Instead, his son Eddie would become one of the greatest rock and roll guitarists of all time.
But here he was, holed up in his studio doing the most rebellious thing of all.
Playing keyboards.
Eddie later recalled his bandmates telling him“You’re a guitar hero, don’t stretch yourself too thin. Don’t start playing other instruments.”
But he refused to budge. He thought he had something here. And he was going to prove it with their next album, showing the world that synthesizers and hard rock could go together.
And so, on January 9th, 1984, Van Halen released their sixth studio album 1984. Their synth rock track Jump because their first and only number one single, and the album would go on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide, sending Van Halen to another stratosphere of fame and carving out their legacy as one of the premier rock acts of the 1980s.
But Van Halen weren't the only iconic musical act to release an album that day. As it turns out, Yoko Ono released Milk and Honey, her and John Lennon's final studio album together, on the very same day.
How do these albums compare against each other? Is John Lennon talented enough to strike it big on the charts four years after his death? And what breaks up a band faster, a synthesizer or Yoko Ono?
We're going to find out. Welcome to When Albums Collide.