Complex Numbers

Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love

Coincidence that this particular article came up today. You'll see why in a minute.

Eddie Van Halen endured a 'horrifying racist environment' before becoming a rock legend  
In an interview with Marc Maron, former bandmate David Lee Roth revealed just how painful the experience was for the late artist, who was of Indonesian and Dutch descent.

It would be very weird if articles appropriate to other topics of the day didn't come up every now and then, but this one's almost eerie -- there are about 40 links in my queue, and this is the only one that I recall with the theme of racism, and it just happens to be right after I saw West Side Story, which also deals with racism and is set in the same general era. You know the story. Movie review at the bottom, as usual.

Anyway, the article.

Music fans around the world are mourning the loss of iconic Van Halen rock star Eddie Van Halen.

Yes, this article is from last year. But considering I'm still mourning Leonard Cohen from 2016, it wouldn't surprise me.

And while many today honor his legacy as one of the all-time greatest guitarists, fans are also highlighting past interviews describing his encounters with painful racism and discrimination because of his mixed race in his early years.

Bit of background for me: I've never particularly liked Van Halen's music. I've never particularly hated it, either. It was just kind of there, on the radio. But I recognize that the band was talented, and that a lot of people were big fans. However, I didn't much care about things like the David Lee Roth / Sammy Hagar spat. I only say this to point out that at no time did Eddie Van Halen's ethnicity matter to me one bit. I mean, from the name, I figured he had some Dutch in there, but my favorite musician also has Dutch ancestry, so I didn't think anything of it one way or another.

And I had absolutely no idea that he was part Indonesian.

Van Halen... was the son of Dutch and Indonesian immigrants and spent his childhood in the Netherlands.

It doesn't take much knowledge of history to figure out how that might have happened.

His former bandmate David Lee Roth, a fellow rock superstar, once revealed on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" just how painful the experience was for the young Van Halen and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen.

I would, however, like to point out that from what little I know about Roth, I'm not sure I'd fully trust anything he said about Van Halen. I suppose they might have reconciled at some point, but again, I have no idea and I can't be arsed to look it up. Still, I don't know why he'd make up something like that, and there seems to be some primary-source confirmation later.

He added that the brothers, who were often referred to as "half-breed" in the Netherlands, still met difficult circumstances after immigrating to the U.S.

I'm not exactly surprised.

"My first friends in America were Black," Eddie told the journalist. "It was actually the white people that were the bullies. They would tear up my homework and papers, make me eat playground sand, all those things, and the Black kids stuck up for me."

I really wonder why he said "actually" there. I mean, that's what I'd expect from racism in the US. Who did he expect to be the bullies? Other marginalized people?

There's not much more to the article, just a few more details which you can see for yourself at the link, but since I didn't know about it I figured other people might not, either. Whether you're a Van Halen fan or not -- and like I said, their music didn't usually do it for me -- you gotta admit that they were talented, and everyone loves a rags-to-riches story.

I just hope that someday, we won't have to hear stories about people being picked on for being different. I doubt it, but I can hope. Even if it did provide the impetus for him to become one of the most famous guitarists in rock.

After all, nothing could have annoyed those bullies more. Living well can be the best revenge, or so they say. I wonder how many of them ended up being fans? "Oh, him, yeah, that's the weirdo we used to shove into a locker at school. Dude can shred!"

One-Sentence Movie Review: West Side Story:

Absolutely gorgeous movie of the Oscar-bait variety (not that the Oscars have been worth a damn for many years), but I'm not sure there's anything new to the story, and the whole "horny teens create unnecessary drama and widespread collateral damage" thing has been played out for at least decades, if not longer.

Rating: 4/5