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Van Halen - Runnin' with the Devil

"Runnin' with the Devil" is a rock song and the first track from Van Halen's 1978 eponymous debut album. The song lyrics were inspired by the Ohio Players song "Runnin' from the Devil".

• In 2009 it was named the 9th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.
• The song also sparked controversy at the time due to its title.
• This is the first song on the first Van Halen album. It starts with a backwards blare of car horns, which was made by a contraption Eddie Van Halen put together using a bunch of horns, a car battery, and a footswitch. They used to use it when they played at clubs.
• Van Halen included this song on a demo Gene Simmons produced for them in 1977. After seeing them in concert, Simmons flew the band to New York, bought them clothes, and set up a recording session. They didn't get a record deal out of it, but gained valuable experience.
• Gene Simmons had the idea for the car horns at the beginning. He had the band do this on the 1977 "House Of Pain" demo he produced for them.
• At one point, David Lee Roth says, "Goddamn it lady, you know I ain't lyin' too ya, I'm gonna tell you one time." Roth was never eloquent, but he was occasionally introspective (see "Hang 'Em High"), and even poetic (see "Secrets").
• The song contains many of the things Van Halen became famous for - David Lee Roth's squeal, Eddie's guitar solo, and Michael Anthony's backup vocals.
• Eddie's guitar is on the cover of the album. He pieced it together using parts of different guitars until he got the sound and feel he wanted. It is striped black and white on the album, but Eddie later painted it red.
• This was easy for the band to record because they did not use many studio tricks. They pretty much recorded what they had been playing live for years. Later Van Halen albums became much more complicated.
• Van Halen opened concerts for Journey and Black Sabbath after releasing this album, helping it sell over 5 million copies as more people found out about them.
• This gets constant play on Classic Rock radio. It was not played a lot when it first came out because nobody had heard of Van Halen, so it was never burned out.
• Adam Sandler pretends to play this with a Devil Horned blade he uses as a guitar at the beginning of the 2001 movie Little Nicky.
• This bears a strong resemblance to Pink Floyd's similarly titled song "Run Like Hell," particularly in the intro (one note on the bass played over and over interrupted by a guitar with echo). Both songs were released within a year of each other, so it is probably just a coincidence.
• The was used in the 2000 movie Ready To Rumble.

The lyrics:

Yeah, yeah, ah, yeah

I live my life like there's no tomorrow

And all I've got, I had to steal

Least I don't need to beg or borrow

Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills

Ooh, yeah

(Ahh)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Ahh-hah, yeah)

(Woo-hoo-oo)

Runnin' with the Devil

Yes I'm, yeah, hoo

Ooh, you know I

I found the simple life ain't so simple

When I jumped out, on that road

I got no love, no love you'd call real

Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home

(Ahh, yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Hold on, hold on I'm runnin' ah yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Ooh ooh, one more time)

(Ha-yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Oh, yeah, ya-yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Woo, woo)

Runnin' with the Devil

(I'll tell you about it)

I found the simple life, it's so simple

When I jumped out, on that road

I got no love, no love you'd call real

Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home

(Ha-yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Oh, yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil

(Ah-ha, yeah, ah-ha, yeah, ah-hah, yeah)

Runnin' with the Devil