Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)

Subject: Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 04:02 PM

Eddie Van Halen, Guitar Hero, Dies At 65

No, he's not folk, but if you strayed at all into the rock arena you know about Van Halen.

RIP.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 04:28 PM

Eddie didn't invent tap-style guitar playing, but he certainly brought it into the mainstream.

RIP

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Oct 20 - 05:54 PM

One of the first rock musicians in my adolescent memories of the Marine House...

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 02:26 AM

He was a very clever guitarist.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 04:31 AM

But I Steve Morse.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: fat B****rd
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 06:06 AM

RIP Mr. Van Halen

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 07:04 AM

Seems to have been a legend to guitarists but just about nobody else ever heard of him.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 07:26 AM

Jack, EVH is considered a "Guitar God", even among non-players here in the U.S. and is still extremely popular though he was well past his heyday when he died.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 07:36 AM

Eddie's contribution to rock guitar is enormous. His "tapping" technique was a major innovation, and even though earlier guitarists used that technique in a very limited way, it was Eddie who showed it's real potential. There is hardly a rock guitar living today who not indebted to Eddie.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Johnny J
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 08:59 AM

Whether his music appeals to everyone or not, I very much doubt if there are more than a few people out there who haven't heard of him.
;-)

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: gillymor
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 09:05 AM

His playing and his band never did much for me but they're still all over the air waves.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 10:09 AM

You might not have heard of him, but you certainly heard him.
That guitar riff at the start and throughout Michael Jackson's Black and White song

As for the tapping technique. He may not have invented it, but it was Eddie who glamourised it.

Like the late great Eric Roche, Eddie re-imagined guitar playing, and after him you played with the knowledge that the guitar could do things previously unthought of.


All kinds of players could be heard incorporating (or at least trying to incorporate) tapping into their playing - jazz, folk, the so called 'shredders' of course, air head pop

By the way, when ordinary musicians without being ordered by a formal set of rules adopt a technique - its called 'the folk process'.its the stuff that rises like smoke from.
sweaty gigs in unimportant places.

You don't dig into the folk library for it. You dig into your soul. Hoping one day to uncover the treasure.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 10:15 AM

But I prefer Steve Morse's playing, I should say!

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 12:19 PM

Here's a solo from 1986 that should get your attention. There is an amazing array of riffs on classical pieces coming through in here.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 01:46 PM

Personally I liked what he did with cover versions of established songs.


Especially
"Dancing In The Streets," still a good pop song,
and his cover version took the song
beyond what Martha Reeves and the Vandellas had done with it.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 02:57 PM

I never cared for the band Van Halen. I thought their songs were sophomoric and their reliance on a sex-god lead singer/frontman detracted from the music. But Eddie's guitar playing was amazing. I would have liked to have seen him in a more musically mature context.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 05:20 PM

Theres no 'should' about it. theres no moral imperative to like the guy's music.

for a while he interested string players of all kinds into looking that bit further. Its a good legacy.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: Hagman
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 08:54 PM

Al, do you perhaps mean Michael Jackson's "Beat it", rather than "Black and (or) White"?

Brilliant pop stuff.

Subject: RE: 2020 Obit: Eddie Van Halen - guitarist
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 09:09 PM

no apparently its that durdle -erdle erd der! ( der der der der) obviously sampled, and used a punctuation mark throughout.

I think it was that anyway. I used to read guitar magazines.

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 06:32 AM

Apparently, he started with piano with his father's encouragement and was much feted,
playing classical pieces but throwing in his own variations because he was "faking'
the reading a bit. Then he got bored with that.

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 08:10 AM

I listened to 5 minutes of an IEM recording of VH during my drive to work this morning, so excellent quality, but frankly although he played very fast, it was a mess. Not for me I'm afraid.

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 08:29 AM

Good point, Bonzo. I've never heard any thematic continuity in his soloing, he just seems to jump from one ultra-fancy riff to another, couple that with David Lee Roth's peurile lyrics, pounding unimaginative drum work and you have a pretty toxic brew. I suppose my negative attitude toward their crap has got to do with being forced to listen to it on job sites for too many years.

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Oct 20 - 11:47 PM

Fun article:

Eddie van Halen Broke The Guitar Solo

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: Mooh
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 03:50 AM

What needs to be said about EVH has been said. My social networks have been flooded with the news.

I remember when he first appeared on the airwaves and in the music press, it sent all of us young flash players back to the woodshed. Monster skills he had.

Subject: RE: Obit: guitarist Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020)
From: gillymor
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:39 AM

That was a fun article, Mrrzy.

I liked the description of Eruption: '“Eruption” is a blitz of noise, technique, and sheer propulsion, like someone stuffing Jimmy Page and Andrés Segovia into a blender with a bunch of Everclear and Hawaiian Punch.'
And he was right, EVH could swing. Listen to the supercharged John Lee Hooker style boogie of Hot For Teacher. I just got tired of listening to that band's songs over and over again.