EVH, I don't get it...

[Andee Blacksugar]

Certainly, one hallmark of any great guitarist is a signature style & tone that is immediately recognizable anytime you hear it. Eddie definitely has that.

But for me the most fundamental, indeed visceral, characteristic that makes EVH’s riffing so captivating is his attack. On VH1, he transcended all his contemporaries with the way he took the guitar and made it a fire-breathing monster. To this day, I’m still in awe as I listen to the way he just gouges those strings and how that translates through his amp and cab into incredible musical aggression. He flat out owns the sonic playing field on that album. When he’s done, there’s nothing left standing. The more I play the guitar, the more respect I have for that astounding display of mastery of the instrument.

well said. the thing about EVH and Van Halen as a whole is that there was simply nothing that sounded like him/them before (or since, despite uncountable cheap imitations, which have undoubtedly tarnished the band's legacy). the first VH album may as well have been beamed here from another galaxy. and a huge part of that blindingly alien luminosity was Eddie's otherworldly sound, skill and imagination.

 

[King Guitar]

When I was younger I didnt get Hendrix or the Beatles. Man was I crazy, not a competition but they were game changers for sure.

Same with Iomi's Riffs, EVHs Rhythm and Lead Playing, Rhodes Classical Feel in a Hard Rock Context , Yngwies Harmonic Minor stuff and Hetfields Right Hand. All flashpoints in rock guitar for me.

The first two guys to be huge game changers were these two geezers IMO

 

[charveldan]

Rock guitar is dead to me when youngsters question the existence of the Holy Grail of tone/technique, maybe the OP should stick to john mayer/nickleback records.

 

[zuel69]

love it, why bother!

I don't get Michael Jordan. I mean, he's no Meadowlark Lemon.

 

[MississippiMetal]

There have been so many imitators of Eddie that now his genius from back then is no longer realized.

EXACTLY. The younger generation is doomed to overlook the genius of people like Eddie because we came along after the emergence of people who have taken what Eddie did and polished it or played it cleaner or expanded upon it.

It's like watching a horror movie. Someone my age watches the original Night of the Living Dead and goes "This shit isn't scary. LAME!" Because we've seen the slew of zombie movies that have come after, some of which are far more realistic and terrifying.

You can bet your ass NOTLD cleared out theaters in its day. But we've become desensitized to it. It's not scary to us anymore because we're a society who favors the latest version over the one that started it all. And in that we fail to appreciate the original because we often can't get past the (often times) more superficial benchmarks of the imitators.

The thing that blows me away about eddie, aside from his tone, technique, is not what he played, per se, but the...for lack of a better word, AFTERMATH of his notes. The void just on the cusp of his notes had this presence that surrounded the audible portion of his playing and made it seem so much bigger. I've yet to hear anyone recreate that "in between the lines" effect, no matter how closely their setup mimics his tone. I'll probably get flamed for this observation, especially since I'm such a staunch opponent of corksniffing, but that's just the way life is. What I lack in consistency, I make up for in sincerity.

 

[university81]

i was also born in 81, he's certainly up there in the top 10

it blows my mind that first album was 1978 .. that it was even being played before that, i think the best way of comparing the impact would be like when grunge destroyed everything in the 90s , *i purely mean on an impact level*, which is something i think you certainly experienced growing up in your teens like me, when 'smells like teen's spirit' hit mtv and the like (and i really don't like that song as it got overplayed to death growing up) pretty much killing off era of what they call in france 'hard rock FM' which sounds better than hair metal to me

from a historical point of view he's one of the most influential players ever, you can put him alongside hendrix/page for the amount of players he's influenced (especially in the 80s), and it's definitely deserved, really tasty/exciting licks/solos and killer riffs and feel to the whole thing, i get the impression that stuff is about to blow up, tinkering on the edge,
EVH is not just his crazy solos the songs are absolutely killer and translate the whole feel just as well, whereas a lot of what followed in the 80s fell into the same bag, EVH is and still remains instantly recognisable

that's why EVH does it for me, if it's not your thing I can understand, but for a lot of people i think his impact/style/flair/playing is simply undeniable,

listen to the early records and think of the history/context behind it might help get a better understanding , then again if you were never into that kind of music i don't think that'll change

YMMV =)

 

[DeezDemos]

Nothing wrong with not getting it. Although I strongly recommend that you keep trying.

Best reply in this thread!

 

[Vrad]

Certainly, one hallmark of any great guitarist is a signature style & tone that is immediately recognizable anytime you hear it. Eddie definitely has that.

But for me the most fundamental, indeed visceral, characteristic that makes EVH’s riffing so captivating is his attack. On VH1, he transcended all his contemporaries with the way he took the guitar and made it a fire-breathing monster. To this day, I’m still in awe as I listen to the way he just gouges those strings and how that translates through his amp and cab into incredible musical aggression. He flat out owns the sonic playing field on that album. When he’s done, there’s nothing left standing. The more I play the guitar, the more respect I have for that astounding display of mastery of the instrument.

well said. the thing about EVH and Van Halen as a whole is that there was simply nothing that sounded like him/them before (or since, despite uncountable cheap imitations, which have undoubtedly tarnished the band's legacy). the first VH album may as well have been beamed here from another galaxy. and a huge part of that blindingly alien luminosity was Eddie's otherworldly sound, skill and imagination.

I remember when I heard Eruption for the first time. I was late to the party (it must have been around 1986 or so). I was blown away. Now this is at the height of all the shreddy hair metal, then I learned that Eruption was recorded/released in 1977/1978! LOL!

Also add to the enormous impact he's had on gear.
Humbuckers in strats
Floyd
Modded Marshalls...
Variacs
5150's/5150ii's
Wet/dry rigs etc...

The list goes on.

In my eyes, EVH has had more influence on rock guitar than anyone before or after him.
Oh yeah, I'm not even a huge Van Halen fan. But his influence is epic.

 

[shredhead7]

I didn't get EVH either until much later, and I grew up in the 80's. Like you, I was influenced by everyone that was influenced by him (standing on the shoulders of greatness). Having said that, when you compare the following youtube video's keep in mind that music at this time was ABBA, the Bee Gees, disco in general, that was popular in the US. For rock, you still had Zep on the radio, the Who, Alice Cooper, and pretty much every other tired boring song that you hear on classic rock radio 30 years later. The guitar gods of the day were Schenker, Uli Roth, Clapton and Hendrix (obviously not alive). All of these guys are great in their own right, but then this drops seemingly from outer space: (note, the speed, the rhythm-how swinging is this?, and his use of effects, punching in flangers and phasers for a single bar-on/off just enough to say what was that?, and his tone was completely different than the typical Les Paul + Marshall of the late 60's and 70's)

And for something mixed up:

 

[thiswaythatway]

Hot for teacher has the best guitar solo ever in it, only Hendrix is better..

I'll take CLiffs Of Dover over anything Eddie ever did, or Hendrix. And the live version on Austin City Limits is even better than the studio version.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I must be looking to get shot around here

I respect everyone's opinion, I'm not a guy that'll try to push down your throat what my pov is on things, but I don't understand the EVH stuff that much. I didn't "grow" up in the 80s (was born in 1981) so the 90s was my thing, which should explain a lot about why I don't get it, but still.... listening to Van Halen and Eddie's stuff I don't get why he was sooooooo idolized. He could definitely play, but his style is just not my thing at all.

Now, I didn't use to like Hendrix and now I totally LOVE HIM..... I wasn't looking in the right places..... now I've seen the light.

Can you point me to a few "ground braking videos" of Eddie so I can "get it" ?

I feel a little void as a guitarist because I don't quite get the hype, like I should get it but I don't.


Go easy on me please

You don't have to like him just because a bunch of older people on a forum do, follow your own path.

 

[petejt]

I've always appreciated Eddie's music and all aspects of it (playing styles, guitar tone, innovation etc.), but I've never dedicated myself to it.
You tend to find a lot of people that were in high school when Van Halen was in the centre of the music world, which is why they get so hyped up about it. They latch onto Eddie's achievements & ideas and copy them (like a lot of guitarists throughout the 1980s), then proceed to be stuck in that time period for their whole lives. It happens about a lot of popular things, but particularly famous musicians and bands. I personally don't really like the whole "generation" bandwagon thing at all- I believe that you can enjoy anything from any time period, regardless of if you were growing up at the time when it was prevalent. And also I disagree about having to conform & like something just because it is/was prevalent in popular culture while being an adolescent. But for a lot of people, that is the case.


I'm mostly drawing on a parallel discussion I had with someone regarding other bands. He was really stuck in the early 2000s time period, when he was really popular in high school and came of age. He asked me what was the greatest band of all time, and said his were Pearl Jam and Powderfinger. I said that I never really cared for them (actually I always thought they were rather dull and tedious). He explained that they were really big in "our Year" and "our Era". I just looked like him thinking "what the fuck?" If "your year" is only when you were a teenager, then what- are you almost dead for the rest of your lifetime and just living in a coma?
I didn't get it- what was so great about those two bands? Just like your question about Eddie Van Halen- sure enough he's remarkably talented and successful, but why is he revered so much? It's the same thing- there happens to be a lot of people that take popular culture for granted, they latch onto successful and popular things that occurred while they were coming of age. The unfortunate thing is many of those people get stuck in life- they are stuck in those periods. The 1980s just happens to be infamous for it, and Eddie Van Halen in particular because there was a flood of copycats that followed, so his popularity perpetuated rather strongly for a full decade, if not more.


EDIT: I'm not saying that this is the only reason, but what could be one of the major reasons.

 

[Vrad]

I must be looking to get shot around here

I respect everyone's opinion, I'm not a guy that'll try to push down your throat what my pov is on things, but I don't understand the EVH stuff that much. I didn't "grow" up in the 80s (was born in 1981) so the 90s was my thing, which should explain a lot about why I don't get it, but still.... listening to Van Halen and Eddie's stuff I don't get why he was sooooooo idolized. He could definitely play, but his style is just not my thing at all.

Now, I didn't use to like Hendrix and now I totally LOVE HIM..... I wasn't looking in the right places..... now I've seen the light.

Can you point me to a few "ground braking videos" of Eddie so I can "get it" ?

I feel a little void as a guitarist because I don't quite get the hype, like I should get it but I don't.


Go easy on me please

You don't have to like him just because a bunch of older people on a forum do, follow your own path.

No one said he HAS to like EVH... but his contribution is undeniable.

 

[bsp01]

Getting it, is simply realizing that nobody played like that, ever, before Eddie.

There's lots of phenomenal guitar players, Eddie among them. He just did things nobody else was doing, playing with so much energy and swing. Not to mention pushing techniques that had never been explored fully (not just tapping). He even changed that basic guitar/amp world a fair bit. He essentially came up with the "super strat" concept, and pushed his amps and effects in ways others hadn't.



...off topic, but I just saw this and laughed, so I'll share it here.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I must be looking to get shot around here

I respect everyone's opinion, I'm not a guy that'll try to push down your throat what my pov is on things, but I don't understand the EVH stuff that much. I didn't "grow" up in the 80s (was born in 1981) so the 90s was my thing, which should explain a lot about why I don't get it, but still.... listening to Van Halen and Eddie's stuff I don't get why he was sooooooo idolized. He could definitely play, but his style is just not my thing at all.

Now, I didn't use to like Hendrix and now I totally LOVE HIM..... I wasn't looking in the right places..... now I've seen the light.

Can you point me to a few "ground braking videos" of Eddie so I can "get it" ?

I feel a little void as a guitarist because I don't quite get the hype, like I should get it but I don't.


Go easy on me please

You don't have to like him just because a bunch of older people on a forum do, follow your own path.

No one said he HAS to like EVH... but his contribution is undeniable.

He doesn't have to understand him either

 

[shreder75]

EVH wrote assloads of great songs...great ROCK songs...(lyrical content not withstanding..hehe)...he was the best rock guitar player/song writer at the time for that type of music when he first popped on the scene...he wrote songs that anybody could get into....music fans, casual listeners, guitar players...both from a musical and commercial stand point...

there was a reason VH, as an opening act, would blow the headliners off the stage..

EVH inspired an entire generation of guitar players...sure, there were more technically gifted guitar players out there...but as a whole, EVH was the total package at the time...tone that came outta nowhere, a lead style that was new and over the top, songs that kicked ass and weren't just a platform for his lead skills...

I'll take early VH over just about any other revered instrumental guy all day long..cause it was about the songs...the fact that he played with gobs of fire don't hurt none either...

but hey, that's just me..and I ain't that old

 

[Gainfreak]

As others have stated, you don't have to get EVH but if I'm being honest, not knowing why he is an Icon is puzzling to me and it has nothing to do with when you grew up.


Like you, I grew up not really caring for some of the more popular players but I knew exactly why they were Idolized. I guess that's where we differ.

Anyway, listen to what moves you and forget everything else.

 

[petejt]

Anyway, listen to what moves you and forget everything else.

Exactly.

 

[Vrad]

I must be looking to get shot around here

I respect everyone's opinion, I'm not a guy that'll try to push down your throat what my pov is on things, but I don't understand the EVH stuff that much. I didn't "grow" up in the 80s (was born in 1981) so the 90s was my thing, which should explain a lot about why I don't get it, but still.... listening to Van Halen and Eddie's stuff I don't get why he was sooooooo idolized. He could definitely play, but his style is just not my thing at all.

Now, I didn't use to like Hendrix and now I totally LOVE HIM..... I wasn't looking in the right places..... now I've seen the light.

Can you point me to a few "ground braking videos" of Eddie so I can "get it" ?

I feel a little void as a guitarist because I don't quite get the hype, like I should get it but I don't.


Go easy on me please

You don't have to like him just because a bunch of older people on a forum do, follow your own path.

No one said he HAS to like EVH... but his contribution is undeniable.

He doesn't have to understand him either

You're such a rebel. No one tells you what to do or to think... right? BIG FU TO THE MAN!

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I must be looking to get shot around here

I respect everyone's opinion, I'm not a guy that'll try to push down your throat what my pov is on things, but I don't understand the EVH stuff that much. I didn't "grow" up in the 80s (was born in 1981) so the 90s was my thing, which should explain a lot about why I don't get it, but still.... listening to Van Halen and Eddie's stuff I don't get why he was sooooooo idolized. He could definitely play, but his style is just not my thing at all.

Now, I didn't use to like Hendrix and now I totally LOVE HIM..... I wasn't looking in the right places..... now I've seen the light.

Can you point me to a few "ground braking videos" of Eddie so I can "get it" ?

I feel a little void as a guitarist because I don't quite get the hype, like I should get it but I don't.


Go easy on me please

You don't have to like him just because a bunch of older people on a forum do, follow your own path.

No one said he HAS to like EVH... but his contribution is undeniable.

He doesn't have to understand him either

You're such a rebel. No one tells you what to do or to think... right? BIG FU TO THE MAN!

More like a big FU to internet cliques