What strikes me: the one who draw the guitarist could have done it adding a neutral facial expression (e.g. a jazz musician) but, hell no!, the choice was for a shredding-guitar-solo rock expression. Nice.
One of the greats, that completely re-defined guitar, and spawned a new class of guitar players, as well as gear.
I remember having played guitar for probably a year, when a friend of mine (who had been playing for the same time) threw on Van Halen 1 on a cassette, and we listened to Eruption. It sounded out of this world, like nothing else I had heard.
After listening to Eddie play guitar (on/off) for decades, I've come to love his dynamics and touch, as well as his rhythm playing. He mastered the the technique of blending lead and rhythm into one, in a tight yet loose-feeling way.
There are, and have been, many much more advanced guitar players since Eddie started - but few are as fun to listen to as Eddie, and most of them (in hard-rock and metal) stand on the shoulders of greats like Eddie, either through his playing and style, or gear used. He made 80's superstrats what they are today, he made hot-rodded/modified Marshalls what the are today, hell, he even made the Peavey 5150 what it is today - which in turn spawned a whole slew of metal amps.
It's been a tough year so far, as far as my heroes dying goes. I've been lucky enough to not have lost too many idols in the past, but with the passing of Neil Peart and Eddie - two of my top 5 musicians and music idols of all time, it's been a real blow.
It's been no secret that Eddie has suffered from cancer for years now, but still, you kind of forget about that, until the day comes.
Yes, though Eddie's solos tend to get the notoriety, his rhythm playing was brilliant, arguably his best side. (I thought his lead guitar was kind of haphazard at times.) For rhythm work, I love the title track from "5150". And of course almost anything from the first album. "Unchained" from "Fair Warning" has one of the all-time great opening riffs.
I think maybe Randy Rhoads, had he lived longer could have been as much a trailblazer. He was a consummate and eager learner who apparently in his spare time took lessons from varied styles of guitar players.
Yeah, EVH was majestic and a true sonic innovator! Unlike 99% of other shredders he had a tremendous grasp of pop songcraft, natural showmanship and a sense of musical humor...plus you'd see as many females as dudes at a VH concert! So many Eddie solos are chock full of "Sounds great, ooh where the hell did that left turn come from?! Even better!!" moments. And of course - brilliant rhythm playing with that rich, aggressive tone. RIP Maestro!
When I was a Sophomore in college (1978) me and some buddies got tickets to see Black Sabbath with Van Halen opening. We were driving up the freeway to go see the show and had 4 of us in our buddy's Mom's Datsun Station wagon he borrowed from her. We were smoking weed to get ready for the concert and had the windows rolled down part way to try to keep from reeking out the car. An ember flew into the back of the wagon and we didn't notice it but the car just kept getting more and more smoky so we kept rolling the windows down more and more which just fanned the flames. The next thing you know the car was in flames in the back. We pulled over and stood by the side of the freeway and watched our buddy's Mom's car burn up.
The cops and fire department came and put it out eventually. The Cop asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride or to call someone. We told him we were going to see Black Sabbath and Van Halen and he said oh wow, you can't miss that I will drive you there. Our buddy said OK he could call his Mom when we got there and arrange rides for after the show.
When we got there our high was blown so we toked out more. When I got in there and the show started, I will never forget Eddie sliding out on the stage on his knees hammering out Eruption. I don't know if it was the weed or the music or both but I swear I had an out of body experience. I had never heard it like that, live was just a whole 'nother level.
Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him.
I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael and Quincy left it in.
He didn't just contribute the solo—he rearranged part of the song! [1]
> Michael [Jackson] left to go across the hall to do some children's speaking record. I think it was "E.T." or something. So I asked Quincy [Jones], "What do you want me to do?" And he goes, "Whatever you want to do." And I go, "Be careful when you say that. If you know anything about me, be careful when you say, "Do anything you want!"
> I listened to the song, and I immediately go, "Can I change some parts?" I turned to the engineer and I go, "OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out." Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it.
I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in.
> And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all a little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, "Look, I changed the middle section of your song."
> Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, "Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better."
I can't think of a more innovative and imaginative musician in history.
He wanted no credit for it - he didn't want other Van Halen members to know about it because they agreed to never do side projects. He wanted no payment for it except a case of beer and Michael teaching him to dance "sometime".
Wikipedia disputes this story, although it does not cite any sources on the "real" story:
> Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes.
So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative.
I also enjoyed this tidbit:
>The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[26]
Steve Lukather from Toto actually played the whole album and he's alive. Please do check him out as well, brilliant player that played at least a riff in every single important album produced in LA during the late 70s and 80s ;).
There's David Lee Roth interview (maybe on joe rogan) where he explains some tricks they used to write solos.
They'd record multiple different solos, then switch between the tracks to come up with unexpected progressions. Clever idea.
I heard that Eddy was asked to to play on Beat It and thought to himself "Nobody will notice". His Bandmates were pissed because VH were on No 1 before Beat It came out. The MJ bought it and the VH fans too.
(Trying to think of something new to add to this discussion, not already mentioned.)
Well, one of the requirements of being a popular hard rock band of the day was to have a triumphant logo, and VH had one of the best. I even drew it once or twice in drafting class. :-)
This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished. It also reminds me that Death just dragged another bead on his abacus and before long my bead will be up.
Also, while I respect and admire what Eddie has done to further the art of playing electric guitar, I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist.
> This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished
Then you need to stop wading in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world.
In terms of just music alone, there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. Two generations or more of musical education where none really existed before, plus an entire generation that saw making a living as a musician as a possibility (whether or not that was true) has led to a situation where almost every town of 50k people or more has musicians in it who are as almost as good or better than any who ever lived.
I am fairly confident that the same thing is true of writing, painting, photography, dance: the pool of talent is out there. If you're as old as you semi-suggest, it gets harder and harder to encounter it. I'm 57 and I have to work quite hard to ensure that I keep exposing myself to new artists and creatives - the natural tendency is to just look back on all the people I discovered between 17 and 27 and then lament them dying. Don't do it! YouTube is a miracle in this respect. There's so much incredible talent and invention out there. Every generation has people in it for you to respect, and they too will die and become the "legends of old".
[* edited "wallowing" => "wading"; did not mean to sound so harsh ]
So sad to hear! For what it's worth, the Van Halen cassette scene in "Back to Future" was my first introduction to this legend: https://youtu.be/BaYADHcpdng?t=17 RIP
iconic scene... this piece was never popular it seems it was used for another score at the time[1]. I guess for me was also my introduction to Eddie Van Halen excellent guitar playing and style.
I wondered what was up a few months ago when I heard he was selling off his car collection. That and the news he had been flying back and forth between the US and Germany for treatment had me concerned.
After I heard the first Van Halen album my Kiss records went in the closet, and I got more serious about music. Never did anything with it, but it was a fun journey, listening to him along the way, wondering what he would do next. A true rock guitar hacker.
His music wasn't really my style, but I remember the Heavy Metal effect pedal from Boss that my cousin owned had a booklet in it with the setups of various professional musicians - to show off how they used Boss pedals in different combinations. Everybody had complicated setups with multiple pedals. Van Hallen's "setup" went something like this:
Only 65. I grew up listening to Van Halen and spent a crazy amount of time trying to play guitar like Eddie. I think their first album was released when he was only 22. What a legend. What a life. Taken too soon. :(
Huge talent and very innovative guitar player. Known for his guitar playing style, dive bombs, tapping, usage of Floyd Rose, custom guitars (Frankenstrat), brown sound, solos, instrumentals, heavy sound and huge music hits.
I cannot think of many influential Rock guitar players as Eddie.
Eddie Van Halen's famous rider(contract) has a useful lesson for tech companies.[0][1]
"It's one of those rock 'n' roll legends that turns out to be true: In the 1980s, the party-rock superstars in Van Halen demanded, via a clause embedded in their tour rider, that no brown-colored M&Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts."[0]
The reason was that if they included brown M&Ms, it was a strong indication they hadn't read the contract, which included intricate but important technical details.
i was never much of a fan of EVH, but i am a huge fan of a bunch of guitarists who would either not have existed (as guitarists) or who would have sounded very different if EVH had not done his thing. so thanks for that, EVH.
Don’t waste your time, Leuconoé, living in fear and hope
of the imprevisable future; forget the horoscope.
Accept whatever happens. Whether the gods allow
us fifty winters more or drop us at this one now
which flings the high Tyrrhenian waves on the stone piers,
decant your wine: the days are more fun than the years
which pass us by while we discuss them. Act with zest
one day at a time, and never mind the rest.
Ask not ('tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years,
Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers.
Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past,
Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our last;
This, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend their strength against the shore.
Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is short; should hope be more?
In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb'd away.
Seize the present; trust tomorrow e'en as little as you may.
I never really got into Van Halen until I was an adult. As a teen in the early 90s a lot of the kids in my circle would make fun of anyone who listened to them because it wasn’t “cool” any more, especially when grunge became popular. Later in my adult years I began to really appreciate EVH’s technique and spent endless hours trying to replicate his style (and mostly failing, as I could never get my stubby fingers to move that fast). A few things I did learn and absolutely loved was his use of pinch harmonics and other right-hand techniques like palm muting and tapping — he of course didn’t invent those things but he elevated to a new level. I also don’t hear this often from fellow fans, but he had a unique “swing” that so many guitarists just didn’t have.
Cool story: I read somewhere that when EVH first started performing in public, he would often play with his back to the audience, as he didn’t want to people to see his techniques and possibly steal them!
RIP Eddie - may you enjoy your time in heaven among the guitar gods. Or is it supposed to be hell? After all you did run with the devil.
Fun tidbit for fans of music theory: EVH tuned the B string on his guitar slightly flat, to form a just-intoned interval with the G string. This allowed him to play distorted major chords without the associated discordant beating. [1]
[+] [-] MrMetlHed|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rodolphoarruda|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klodolph|5 years ago|reply
(And if we’re gonna talk about cool patents by entertainers, nothing’s gonna beat Hedy Lamarr’s work on spread spectrum communications.)
[+] [-] gumby|5 years ago|reply
Not including players of the pedal steel. But that's the patent system for you.
In any case it's all about what you do with it.
[+] [-] Uehreka|5 years ago|reply
(I’d link to the Flickr album with similar patent drawings involving hands, but it appears to be down)
[+] [-] chaostheory|5 years ago|reply
https://www.evhgear.com/
[+] [-] major505|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghostpepper|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TrackerFF|5 years ago|reply
I remember having played guitar for probably a year, when a friend of mine (who had been playing for the same time) threw on Van Halen 1 on a cassette, and we listened to Eruption. It sounded out of this world, like nothing else I had heard.
After listening to Eddie play guitar (on/off) for decades, I've come to love his dynamics and touch, as well as his rhythm playing. He mastered the the technique of blending lead and rhythm into one, in a tight yet loose-feeling way.
There are, and have been, many much more advanced guitar players since Eddie started - but few are as fun to listen to as Eddie, and most of them (in hard-rock and metal) stand on the shoulders of greats like Eddie, either through his playing and style, or gear used. He made 80's superstrats what they are today, he made hot-rodded/modified Marshalls what the are today, hell, he even made the Peavey 5150 what it is today - which in turn spawned a whole slew of metal amps.
It's been a tough year so far, as far as my heroes dying goes. I've been lucky enough to not have lost too many idols in the past, but with the passing of Neil Peart and Eddie - two of my top 5 musicians and music idols of all time, it's been a real blow.
It's been no secret that Eddie has suffered from cancer for years now, but still, you kind of forget about that, until the day comes.
[+] [-] _qulr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Optimal_Persona|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zw123456|5 years ago|reply
The cops and fire department came and put it out eventually. The Cop asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride or to call someone. We told him we were going to see Black Sabbath and Van Halen and he said oh wow, you can't miss that I will drive you there. Our buddy said OK he could call his Mom when we got there and arrange rides for after the show.
When we got there our high was blown so we toked out more. When I got in there and the show started, I will never forget Eddie sliding out on the stage on his knees hammering out Eruption. I don't know if it was the weed or the music or both but I swear I had an out of body experience. I had never heard it like that, live was just a whole 'nother level.
[+] [-] woodpanel|5 years ago|reply
I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael and Quincy left it in.
[+] [-] michaelmarion|5 years ago|reply
> Michael [Jackson] left to go across the hall to do some children's speaking record. I think it was "E.T." or something. So I asked Quincy [Jones], "What do you want me to do?" And he goes, "Whatever you want to do." And I go, "Be careful when you say that. If you know anything about me, be careful when you say, "Do anything you want!"
> I listened to the song, and I immediately go, "Can I change some parts?" I turned to the engineer and I go, "OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out." Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it. I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in.
> And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all a little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, "Look, I changed the middle section of your song."
> Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, "Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better."
I can't think of a more innovative and imaginative musician in history.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/showbiz/music/van-halen-jacks...
[+] [-] PaulDavisThe1st|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AdmiralAsshat|5 years ago|reply
> Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guit...
So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative.
I also enjoyed this tidbit:
>The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[26]
[+] [-] strictnein|5 years ago|reply
https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0?t=185
[+] [-] MrGando|5 years ago|reply
Eddie was the man though, sad times.
[+] [-] xdrone|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] olivermarks|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scns|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonAndOn|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mixmastamyk|5 years ago|reply
Well, one of the requirements of being a popular hard rock band of the day was to have a triumphant logo, and VH had one of the best. I even drew it once or twice in drafting class. :-)
[+] [-] butterisgood|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brtkdotse|5 years ago|reply
Also, while I respect and admire what Eddie has done to further the art of playing electric guitar, I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist.
[+] [-] PaulDavisThe1st|5 years ago|reply
Then you need to stop wading in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world.
In terms of just music alone, there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. Two generations or more of musical education where none really existed before, plus an entire generation that saw making a living as a musician as a possibility (whether or not that was true) has led to a situation where almost every town of 50k people or more has musicians in it who are as almost as good or better than any who ever lived.
I am fairly confident that the same thing is true of writing, painting, photography, dance: the pool of talent is out there. If you're as old as you semi-suggest, it gets harder and harder to encounter it. I'm 57 and I have to work quite hard to ensure that I keep exposing myself to new artists and creatives - the natural tendency is to just look back on all the people I discovered between 17 and 27 and then lament them dying. Don't do it! YouTube is a miracle in this respect. There's so much incredible talent and invention out there. Every generation has people in it for you to respect, and they too will die and become the "legends of old".
[* edited "wallowing" => "wading"; did not mean to sound so harsh ]
[+] [-] pupdogg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lmedinas|5 years ago|reply
1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU
[+] [-] major505|5 years ago|reply
I also love the scene in Mission To Mars where they play Dance the Nigth Away in the space ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZCmgYITgQ&ab_channel=Beeza...
[+] [-] Cheyana|5 years ago|reply
After I heard the first Van Halen album my Kiss records went in the closet, and I got more serious about music. Never did anything with it, but it was a fun journey, listening to him along the way, wondering what he would do next. A true rock guitar hacker.
[+] [-] redis_mlc|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ckastner|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9r-NxuYszg
[+] [-] lsllc|5 years ago|reply
https://www.vhnd.com/2019/03/16/story-behind-van-halens-most...
[+] [-] YeGoblynQueenne|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jakeva|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seattletech|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lmedinas|5 years ago|reply
Huge talent and very innovative guitar player. Known for his guitar playing style, dive bombs, tapping, usage of Floyd Rose, custom guitars (Frankenstrat), brown sound, solos, instrumentals, heavy sound and huge music hits.
I cannot think of many influential Rock guitar players as Eddie.
[+] [-] golemiprague|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] neurotech1|5 years ago|reply
"It's one of those rock 'n' roll legends that turns out to be true: In the 1980s, the party-rock superstars in Van Halen demanded, via a clause embedded in their tour rider, that no brown-colored M&Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts."[0]
The reason was that if they included brown M&Ms, it was a strong indication they hadn't read the contract, which included intricate but important technical details.
[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/...
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contrac...
[+] [-] PaulDavisThe1st|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sgt101|5 years ago|reply
–Derek Mahon, The Hunt by Night (1982)
[+] [-] crocktucker|5 years ago|reply
Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...]
(Wikipedia: It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus in 17 BC.)
[+] [-] golemotron|5 years ago|reply
Poignant. Thank you.
[+] [-] murat124|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8
[+] [-] temporallobe|5 years ago|reply
Cool story: I read somewhere that when EVH first started performing in public, he would often play with his back to the audience, as he didn’t want to people to see his techniques and possibly steal them!
RIP Eddie - may you enjoy your time in heaven among the guitar gods. Or is it supposed to be hell? After all you did run with the devil.
[+] [-] swamy_g|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vr46|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colanderman|5 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.petersontuners.com/inTune/Eddie-van-Halen