VAN HALEN - UNCHAINED

Released: July 1981

Album: Fair Warning

“Unchained” is one of the standout tracks from Van Halen’s fourth studio album, “Fair Warning”. Released as a single in select international markets including Germany, Spain, and Japan, the song has since become a fan favorite and a defining anthem of the band’s David Lee Roth era. Built around one of Eddie Van Halen’s most explosive riffs, “Unchained” captures the raw, muscular sound that made “Fair Warning” the darkest and most uncompromising album in Van Halen’s early catalog.

The song is a masterclass in controlled chaos. Eddie Van Halen deploys a low, drop-D tuned guitar riff that churns with a metallic intensity, while drummer Alex Van Halen locks into a syncopated groove that swings between aggression and swagger. The result is a sound that feels both heavy and airborne — a paradox of weight and freedom that perfectly suits the song’s title. As Guitar World would later note, “It’s as heavy as music can be without being heavy at all.”

Lyrically, “Unchained” is less about narrative and more about attitude. David Lee Roth delivers a performance that’s part strut, part sneer, part self-parody. Lines like “blue-eyed murder in a side-swiped dress” are pure Roth — playful, nonsensical, and utterly magnetic. Midway through the track, the band breaks the fourth wall entirely when Roth begins bantering with producer Ted Templeman in the studio. “That suit is YOU!” Roth quips, to which Templeman famously replies, “Come on, Dave, gimme a break.” The exchange wasn’t planned — it happened spontaneously during recording and was kept in the final mix.

At the time, “Fair Warning” was a sharp contrast to what would come three years later with “1984”, the album that catapulted Van Halen into pop superstardom. Released in the same year Eddie married actress Valerie Bertinelli, “Fair Warning” remained firmly rooted in the hard rock underground, finding its audience on Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) radio rather than the singles charts. Despite not charting, “Unchained” received extensive airplay and became a staple of the band’s live setlists, often serving as a high-voltage centerpiece in their concerts.

A music video was created to promote the song, though the band’s indifference to the medium was evident. MTV had just launched, and the label hired director Bruce Gowers to film a concert performance. Van Halen provided no additional lighting or staging for the shoot, but editor Robert Lombard managed to piece together a compelling clip from the raw footage. The band unexpectedly loved the result, which encouraged them to make future videos — including their next one for “(Oh) Pretty Woman.”

Decades later, Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen would call “Unchained” “the definitive Van Halen song from the Roth era”. It’s easy to see why. The song distills everything that made early Van Halen electric: monstrous riffs, reckless humor, and a swagger that borders on supernatural.