For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (also known as F.U.C.K.) is the ninth album by the
American heavy metal/hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991. It debuted at
number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, and maintained the position for three
weeks. The album's title came from lead singer Sammy Hagar, who wanted to push the
issue of censorship with naming Van Halen's album with a vulgarity, stating, "That's
when censorship was a big issue. I wanted to name the album just Fuck."[1] Hagar
eventually backed away from the outright vulgarity after he was told by his friend,
former world lightweight boxing champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, that the word
"fuck" was an acronym for the phrase "for unlawful carnal knowledge" (though this
is generally considered a false etymology). Their tour promoting the album
was named F.U.C.K. 'n' Live.
The album itself was marketed as the "return" to Van Halen's hard rock roots, with most
songs being guitar driven, and the synth sounds being replaced by pianos, as the synth
sound had become very dated by the time of the album's release. This can be prominently
heard on "Right Now", the most popular song from the album and likely from the "Hagar era".
The band also reconciled with producer Ted Templeman who produced earlier Van Halen albums
to return to work on the album. This was the first album that Eddie Van Halen recorded
without his trademark Marshall Super Lead serving as the primary amplifier. The Marshall
was fading[3],so Eddie went with his 1989 Soldano SLO-100 to record the album primarily,
though the Marshall was used sparingly[4]. A prototype for what would become the Peavey
5150 series of custom amplifiers was also used[5]. Peavey's release of the 5150 series
coincided with the release of the album.
"Poundcake" featured the sound of a battery operated power drill, which Eddie held to the
pickups of his guitar and revved, creating the intro. The song "Top of the World" features
a riff that was first heard during the outro of the 1984-era hit "Jump". For this reason,
"Top of the World" is frequently played directly after "Jump" and appears immediately after
it on the "Best of Both Worlds" compilation. The instrumental "316" is named for the March
16 birthday of Eddie's son Wolfgang, who is currently Van Halen's bass player, although the
song predates his birth (as part of it was used by Eddie at the beginning of his guitar solo
on "Live Without A Net").
01-van_halen-poundcake.mp3
02-van_halen-judgement_day.mp3
03-van_halen-spanked.mp3
04-van_halen-runaround.mp3
05-van_halen-pleasure_dome.mp3
06-van_halen-in_n_out.mp3
07-van_halen-man_on_a_mission.mp3
08-van_halen-the_dream_is_over.mp3
09-van_halen-right_now.mp3
10-van_halen-316.mp3
11-van_halen-top_of_the_world.mp3
Format : MPEG Audio
File size : 12.3 MiB
Duration : 5mn 21s
Overall bit rate : 320 Kbps
Album : For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Track name : Poundcake
Track name/Position : 1
Performer : Van Halen
Recorded date : 1991
Writing library : Exact Audio Copy (Secure mod / LAME3.92
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : MS Stereo
Duration : 5mn 21s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Stream size : 12.3 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.92
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