Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Motorbooks, and Martin Popoff for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Van Halen was as much a part of my younger days as just about any musical act. Granted, I was only eight when they first formed, but throughout my musical journey, they were the antithesis of what I was hearing on WLIR, the “new music” station. As much as that music shaped my life, so did the raw exuberance of Van Halen, particularly Eddie’s guitar work.

Martin Popoff is a well-known music journalist. The 50th anniversary of the formation of Van Halen is 2024, Popoff takes a look back and chooses 50 moments in the history of the band that were pivotal. The result is a book that would have been described as a “coffee table book” back in my parents’ day. The idea was, that you left books like these on the coffee table when company came over to impress them. I’m not sure that happens all that much in the current day, but for fans of the band, this retrospective demands to be out on your coffee table.

Popoff covers it all, and pretty much sequentially, starting with the formation of the band and how singer David Lee Roth was kind of an ill-fit from the start. The Van Halen brothers (particularly Eddie) might not have been easy to get along with, and Popoff acknowledges some of Eddie’s questionable decisions over the years, but adding Roth as the lead singer was more in deference to management and the record company than anything else. The Sammy Hagar is covered as well, along with the information that Hagar was considered before Roth was added in the first place.

The pictures are just gorgeous, reprinted in beautiful form from the early days on. Some of the shots I could look at and say “I remember seeing that or something close to it.” As I said, the band’s fans will get the most from this. Popoff covers the making of the albums and gives them reviews throughout the book, as well as getting into the technical side of recording without getting too detailed. You don’t have to have a lot of technical musical knowledge to appreciate what he talks about here.

The clashes within the band are discussed, although not with the details that were given elsewhere. I’m thinking about Sammy Hagar’s book Red which gives more information on the fractures in the band during his tenure. However, Popoff isn’t burying this either. The result is an honest look at the band for those who can definitely appreciate it.

This is a book for collectors and fans of the group. It’s beautifully presented with plenty of information, and sidebars covering details Popoff doesn’t get to in his 50 moments in the history of the band. There’s so much here to enjoy and appreciate, and the cover would look good on your table.