Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In search of lost wild times. Centuries of land reclamation in the Netherlands have converted underwater expanses to livable tracts. We may have this process to thank for some of the most unforgettable and propulsive rock music ever recorded. “Theboom boom boom of the pile drivers—that was like the soundtrack of my early childhood,” Alex Van Halen writes of growing up in Holland. “Maybe that’s why I became a drummer.” Written a few years after the death of his brother Ed (not “Eddie,” as others called him)—the preternaturally gifted guitarist for the band that bore the siblings’ name—this breezy memoir is full of such delightful details, chronicling the brothers’ rise from scrappy Dutch immigrants to rock gods. The sons of a “tiny but tough” Indonesian mother and a Dutch musician father, Alex and Ed started playing music together at an early age, landing gigs in Pasadena, California, in the 1970s. Along the way, they met Dave Roth, “a hyperactive kid” with “an interesting drawl” who preferred the songs of Louis Prima and Al Jolson. But Dave’s clownish antics (and skintight pants) were the dose of showmanship that the Van Halen boys (and bassist Michael Anthony Sobolewski) needed. Dave also suggested a new band name: the strong-sounding Van Halen instead of—wait for it—Rat Salad. Much has been made of the eventual disharmony between Roth and the brothers (Roth “needs attention like everyone else needs water: to live,” Alex writes), but the author revisits this time without rancor, praising Roth for his lyrics. Penned withNew Yorker writer Ariel Levy, the book delves into the brothers’ addictions and hedonism, thoughtfully appraising each. It’s the making of the music, though, that is the heart of this book, providing its steady pulse. Playing their “warm, big, and majestic” songs, as Ed put it, made them happy, and millions around the world are grateful for the joy they spread with those transcendent sounds. A loving and lighthearted reminiscence of a fraternal bond that powered a singular rock band. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.