Van Halen

Seems like the best VH thread to bump, saw them in concert last night. What a great show, musically just awesome. Hot For Teacher was worth the price of admission alone. Dave is .. well Dave. Never a great live singer, he rambles on a bit much, but still still a great front man and just an awesome show. Alex is still a fucking monster on the drums, Eddie is playing great (even for Eddie), Wolfgang is good and handles the backing vocals well. They did a nice job with the set list, pulling out some stuff they had not played in a really long time
 
Here is an excellent, candid interview I found yesterday. I believe it was a recorded phone interview, in order for the taper to then write a magazine article.

Very behind the scenes (Eddie says "don't print this" before revealing his true thoughts on several occasions). This is clearly more of a phone conversation between friends, rather than just a reporter and rock star.

I am currently reading "Running with the Devil", written by the bands manager (covering the whole Roth period of Van Halen) - which is excellent btw (I wish a Maiden book would be so revealing!) and I found this Eddie Van Halen interview absolutely fascinating.

Enjoy! ;)

 
RIP Eddie Van Halen, one of the most influential guitar players of all time.
That just sucks ... I think the number of people that could be called "revolutionary" in music is pretty small .. and Eddie belongs in that category. So much of 1980s and beyond guitar playing was influenced by him. I had hoped for another album and more tours from Van Halen ...
 
Yet another life long smoking musician pays the price for their habit (shades of Bowie & Lemmy). Glad I got to see VH live with both Sammy (80s & 90s) & with Dave (2008).

@bearfan is correct; Eddie was up there with Jimi as massively important influence on almost all rock guitar players.
 
Steve Vai put it best IMO:

"Feeling deep sadness and overwhelming appreciation.
The appreciation and love for him is bigger though.
Let’s take a minute and try to imagine our world if he never showed up.
It’s unthinkable.
Thank you King Edward. You are deeply loved and will be missed."
 
I'm not a Van Halen fan but I appreciate some of their songs and my respect for Eddie as a guitar player is still huge.
He lifted Michael Jackson's Beat It to another level.
 
R.I.P Eddie. One of the most influential heavy metal guitarists along with Tony Iommi, Richie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads, Gary Moore, Glenn Tipton, K.K Downing, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Dave Mustaine, Michael Schenker and James Hetfield.

My favorite Van Halen albums: Van Halen I, Van Halen II, Women and Children First and Fair Warning.
 
Eruption.

102 seconds that caused a paradigm shift in music and inspired a generation to pick a guitar.

I remember when their first album came out. It was blasting in the high school parking lot between classes and for the entire lunch periods every single day for literally months. People standing around the cars with the best stereos, freezing to death just to hear On Fire. Oh, the irony.

Even though, other than adding keyboards to his repertoire, his style didn't expand much over the years, his sound was uniquely his own.

A true heavyweight.
 
Eruption.

102 seconds that caused a paradigm shift in music and inspired a generation to pick a guitar.

I remember when their first album came out. It was blasting in the high school parking lot between classes and for the entire lunch periods every single day for literally months. People standing around the cars with the best stereos, freezing to death just to hear On Fire. Oh, the irony.

Even though, other than adding keyboards to his repertoire, his style didn't expand much over the years, his sound was uniquely his own.

A true heavyweight.
I recall it pretty much the same, though I was living in San Diego .. so no cold :) .... That album was the rock equal of Moses bringing down the tablets from the mountains. I really think it is impossible to overestimate what an impact that album had and the ones that followed.
 
That album was the rock equal of Moses bringing down the tablets from the mountains.

I just listened to Eruption there a minute ago. I really love all the great seventies guitarists, Ritchie, Schenker, Uli Roth etc. but Eruption must have sounded like it was from a different Universe coming out at that time.
 
Today, because of his death, I decided to listen to Van Halen (the album) for the first time. My initial reaction was "I've heard all of this before", followed by "hold on, does that mean everybody copied him?"
 
Today, because of his death, I decided to listen to Van Halen (the album) for the first time. My initial reaction was "I've heard all of this before", followed by "hold on, does that mean everybody copied him?"
Pretty much .... and I would say keep listening to the albums after it .. the next 5 albums after that are pretty fucking spectacular as well.
 
RIP EVH. Had to listen to Fair Warning yesterday. That's the VH album that resonates with me the most. Saw them live for the first time on that tour. He was simply the best.
 
Probably the best tribute to EVH's playing, by Adrian Vandenberg:

As everybody will have heard or read by now Eddie(Edward) Van Halen passed away yesterday. What a huge loss.. Without a doubt one of the absolute greatest and most influential musicians of all time. Millions of guitar players, in the rock field or not, have been influenced by his playing, directly or indirectly. In that respect he was the natural successor to Jimi Hendrix in my opinion, a true pioneer.
There are so many elements and colours to Eddie’s playing; blues, rock, jazz and classical and that whole cocktail bounces out of the speakers, always sparkling with an incredibly dynamic expressiveness.
For a player who was seen as a ‘rock guitarist’ his playing smoothly transcended all genres, proven by Eddie’s fluid solo in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’. Eddie made it seem so effortless, always with that endearing, almost childish smile on his face he’d play stunning solos with an amazing, rock solid sense of timing. I’ve always felt that because of his explosive solo’s his fantastic, tasteful rhythm playing has often been overlooked. His choice and placement of chords, untwined with tasty, fluid licks are just as unique as his solos. I could go on and on..
Edward Van Halen has a more than well deserved top spot in music history among the all time greats and leaves behind a timeless body of work as a musician, composer and performer. One of a kind.
R.I.P. Eddie, you’ll never be forgotten..

P.S.
Dammit...#eddievanhalen #eddievanhalenrip
 
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