"Everybody Wants Some - The Van Halen Saga" by Ian Christe

The story of multi-million selling hard-rock band Van Halen is such a fascinatingly convoluted one, that you would think that many biographies would have been dedicated to them across their thirty-year career.

But in reality, only David Lee Roth's "Crazy From The Heat" memoir admirably tells the band's story, and even at that, from a typically egocentric, one-dimensional point of view. "Excess All Areas", UK writer Malcolm Dome's effort, is shockingly biased towards the band's early years, and is really more of a photo book than it is a biography.

Ian Christe is really the first man to tackle the entire Van Halen story, with "Everybody Wants Some - The Van Halen Saga", just released in paperback. At 295 pages, it is comprehensive to the point of covering some of the shows on the band's recent reunion, with Roth at the helm.

The book reads very much like a long magazine article, and is clever in its prose without ever befuddling the reader - a description which could also apply Van Halen's music itself. The author makes note that he took to his research as if he was compiling the biography of Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln, and that research is evident in the tremendous use of quotes here, largely taken from rock music magazines that adored Van Halen at their peak.

You could say, therefore, that there's little to be learned here by someone who read those magazines while growing up, but while that may be the case, never has a Van Halen book - not even the famed "Van Halen Encyclopedia" - held so much information about the band in one, single place. Even hardcore fans will be sure to learn something new, and will most assuredly be reminded of something that slipped from memory over the years.

Overall, "Everybody Wants Some - The Van Halen Saga" is a tremendous look back at one of the greatest rock bands of all-time. With more stories than fast-tongued frontman Roth could tell you in one sitting, it's an entertaining ride all the way.