A
Anonymous
Guest
Steve
Steve
jessebondrocks
New member
I'm not a huge fan of van halen the band either... but eddie as a player is amazing. He's the shredder that i can actually listen to for extended periods of time. He's very musical to my ears.
Ethn Hayabusa
Member
TalentlessIdiot":1p8dvdib said:
I'm all for trying things you don't initially like. I didn't like Mahavishnu Orchestra, John Coltrane, Stravinsky, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Wayne Shorter, etc. when I first heard them.
Sometimes things need time to sink in. I feel the same way about books and movies, too. I hated Closer and American Psycho the first time that I saw them, but now they are among my favorite movies.
Coopster
New member
EVH was the reason I got a guitar. That and my mom wouldn't let me get drums. I listened to some music growing up, mostly whatever my parents were listening to which was usually older rock like the Beatles and some jazzy, easy listening stuff. One of my friends turned me on to Def Leppard's Pyromania and that was the first cassette tape I ever bought. But 1984 was an epiphany to me. I'd never heard Van Halen before and Jump appealed to my 14 year old ears so I bought the cassette and discovered that God was in a guitar and amplifier combination. Jump is my least favorite track on that album, Drop Dead Legs is number one. I went on to become an Ed Head and pretty well have been since.
A lot of people have given comparisons here but the one I always use and makes sense to me is the Die Hard comparison. If you watch Die Hard today, without ever having seen it, it's like every other action movie out there. But if you saw it in 1988, when it came out, it was like nothing you'd ever seen. It totally reinvented the genre. Ed's the same way, you had to be there to really get what's so special. If you weren't, you're just looking at history in reverse.
A lot of people have given comparisons here but the one I always use and makes sense to me is the Die Hard comparison. If you watch Die Hard today, without ever having seen it, it's like every other action movie out there. But if you saw it in 1988, when it came out, it was like nothing you'd ever seen. It totally reinvented the genre. Ed's the same way, you had to be there to really get what's so special. If you weren't, you're just looking at history in reverse.
Inca Roads
Active member
I saw somewhere up top,
"HE'S FUCKIN' EDWARD VAN HALEN"
that's all there is too it!!!
For me it was a Movement in time....
It's 1984, we're out in the woods at our favorite spot
with a Bon Fire the size of a small mountain. Drinking
fresh beer out of the keg, got my arm around one of the
sexiest chicks in the town, we both know we're going home
with each other and tearin' of the cloths. We got our trucks
parked around the perimeter and someone puts in Van Halen
Fair Warning.....There wasn't a dude in sight, not Rippin' on
an Air Guitar to what we were hearing. Eddie to us was what
Vanilla Ice Cream is to Apple Pie.....A night like that was only
improved with a little "VAN HALEN" in the back round.
Thank you Edward
"HE'S FUCKIN' EDWARD VAN HALEN"
that's all there is too it!!!
For me it was a Movement in time....
It's 1984, we're out in the woods at our favorite spot
with a Bon Fire the size of a small mountain. Drinking
fresh beer out of the keg, got my arm around one of the
sexiest chicks in the town, we both know we're going home
with each other and tearin' of the cloths. We got our trucks
parked around the perimeter and someone puts in Van Halen
Fair Warning.....There wasn't a dude in sight, not Rippin' on
an Air Guitar to what we were hearing. Eddie to us was what
Vanilla Ice Cream is to Apple Pie.....A night like that was only
improved with a little "VAN HALEN" in the back round.
Thank you Edward
ctoddrun
New member
I havent read the whole thread, but one of my favorite VH moments/songs is Take Your Whiskey Home.
Dude makes that acoustic sound magical to me.
Dude makes that acoustic sound magical to me.
jabps
Well-known member
VH1. I've read through all this thread...and like some on here have stated...it's all about "context"...the time frame etc...Joeytpg":f4apo40n said:
I think what your going through is natural...I completely understand it. In fact even after 35 plus years of playing it still happens to me. Just in the last few years it's happened with Jeff Beck for me...his playing just floors me now and I'm left thinking...why didn't I get this before. It happened with SRV...I remember thinking this dude is just a ripoff of Jimi and second rate at that...after he died I watched a special...and I got it! I remember thinking it was like someone opened a door and in reality it was...another door of understanding. I love it when that happens. It can't be forced though...if you force it you'll never gain a proper appreciation for the player.
To add a little bit ot this thread...although what EVH originally did has been taken 100x further by todays players than what even Ed can comprehend...at the time EVH came out...it was like a Atom Bomb being dropped on the guitar community. I mean the popular players of the day were Joe Perry, Ace Frehley, Nugent...those were the hero's back then. In reality Hendrix still reigned supreme years after his death...and then EVH come's along...and a whole new world of possiblities. Eddie didn't just help reinvent the wheel...he reinvigorated the entire guitar scene...and not just for rock but many different genre's. I don't mean that suddenly DiMeola was copping his licks...more that Ed made it cool to be a guitar hero again.
From that point on...as a guitarist growing up back then. It was like a kid in a candy shop. Every year, newer hotter players. Gary Moore, Rhoads, Vandenberg, Vivian Campbell, Sykes, Jake, Warren, Cavazo, Vito, Vai...etc. Even players that had been around upped their game...notably Neal Schon...it was just a fabulous time to be playing guitar, learning and watching it all grow.
W
Wayniac3
Well-known member
jabps":rmhp2hq4 said:
+1,000,000
I remember hearing each new guy as they came out or got more publicly known (no internet, you tube or live DVD's back then) in the "after Eddie" and "after Randy" years - - Viv, Lynch, Demartini, Vandenburg, Sykes, Gary Moore, Akira, Yngwie, Schon, etc....
Used to love reading the articles on them and their gear, as well as going to the import record stores and hunting the releases down.. the first drop of that needle on vinyl was like the firt time being with a new chick.. magic, and ya never knew how good it was gonna be til ya got there - none bad, but some left you feeling better than others! lol
dpeterson
Member
in a way the internet has ruined everything 
..
start at VH1 like we did.... a good thing would be to listen to Kiss alive II shock me, then play eruption. It was a holy crap what is he doing moment.
one of the reasons i play guitar, i've never met him, and now with all the crap going around, i will probably keep it that way as i dont want to tarnish him in my mind.
dave
..start at VH1 like we did.... a good thing would be to listen to Kiss alive II shock me, then play eruption. It was a holy crap what is he doing moment.
one of the reasons i play guitar, i've never met him, and now with all the crap going around, i will probably keep it that way as i dont want to tarnish him in my mind.
dave
TeleBlaster
New member
van hellion
New member
Joeytpg":2apwmild said:
Eddie is one of my biggest influences. I have spoke and hung with Guthrie alot and when i talk to him he speaks about his clapton/cream influence like i think about Eddie. Hell, my screen name is all about him. To me when speaking of rock guitar, there are 2 guys that completely took the book, threw it out the window, and then wrote an encyclopedia on how you play rock guitar. Hendrix, then everyone expanded on him, and then out of nowhere some 20 something year old reinvents the wheel. I mean dude, eruption!?!!?! the GREATEST GUITAR SOLO OF ALL TIME!!!!! This is all opinion of course but it is how i feel at least.
as for starting album. dude start at the beginning with Van Halen 1. Put yourself in a mindset of the times, it came out in 78. just imagine if you can a world without Vai,Yngwie,Gilbert,Guthrie,Shawn Lane etc. Your riding down the road listening to the radio (doobie brothers, santanna, ted nugent, foghat etc) and out of nowhere you hear running with the devil, ice cream man, eruption, im the one. It would have been like an atomic bomb going off in your car!!!! sadly i wasnt born yet to have experinced that but to me eddie was, is, and always will be the king! its american rock and roll at its finest, and did i mention that he redefined guitar soloing FOREVER with a mere 1:42 guitar solo. just sit back and think about it!!
now if you dont "get it" or like it thats ok too, but if you want to get it check out van halen 1 then 1984. GREAT SONGS!! not just playing, now if you want un apologetic Ed just ripping ass wide open go with fair warning.
Eddie changed my life forever, and will always hold a place at the top of the heap of my favorite and most influential players.
A Wood
Nico
Active member
I think hendrix invented the electric guitar as we know it...
Jimmy page rock n roll guitar...
Ritchie blackmore mixed classical music with rock guitar... And was the inspiration of every guitar virtuoso after
Van Halen was like the industrial revolution of guitar... The guy changed it all!!!
Jimmy page rock n roll guitar...
Ritchie blackmore mixed classical music with rock guitar... And was the inspiration of every guitar virtuoso after
Van Halen was like the industrial revolution of guitar... The guy changed it all!!!
MisterBulbous
Active member
van hellion":38w50kwh said:
I remember being about 12 years old and my uncle always had a bitchin' stereo in his car. We pulled up to the Dairy Queen and Runnin' With the Devil came on the radio as a premier by a new band "from Holland" called Van Halen. After about twenty seconds, he just cranked it up and I felt so cool sitting in his car for the next three minutes. He bought me the album for $2.99 the same afternoon and I wore it out in about three weeks - blasting it out my bedroom window.
Death by Uberschall
Active member
stephen sawall
SEMI ERECT MEMBER
TeleBlaster":259n5h1g said:
Thanks I had lost it ....
jabps
Well-known member
I'm 45...I was old enough and did experience it...as I said above...it was exactly like an Atom Bomb going off. Like I said...Perry, Frehley, Nugent etc... all good meat and potatoes players were the hero's of the day. Most magazines at the time were still hashing out the same old Hendrix articles, Page was more or less the reigning living guitar god, Blackmore was...well Blackmore...more hype than actual substance. And of course Clapton...well think about it like this, Clapton...one of the true legends of the guitar, his big hit at the time was "Cocaine". And then out of the blue comes "Eruption"...the doors weren't just opened, they were blown off. Ed had the same effect on the guitar community as Jimi did nearly 10 years earlier.van hellion":1yxigbjf said:
I mean one of my truly favorite players...Neal Schon, who was more or less established at the time basically said...wtf! He got to see Ed open for Journey night after night. Neals playing went to a whole other level afterwards. EVH did that to everybody! And what's truly mind numbing is the fact that Ed, Lynch and Randy were all playing the same scene...each hoping they'd be the first to get signed...unbelievable.
And here's the thing...Ed isn't even one of my favorite players...he's way down on my list. But I love Roth era Van Halen...in fact the VH era from VHII to Fair Warning...I'd say they were easily one of the best, most lethal live bands ever in the history of rock. Ed's influence is almost unmeasurable...and as I said, he isn't even one of my favorite players.
I really hate to say this but in all honesty...if EVH had died at an early age ala Jimi or Randy...he would be viewed, single handidly as the biggest influence in the history of guitar. At present he's at the very least top 5 in terms of "modern" players of rock...number 2 behind Jimi IMO.
Ventura
Well-known member
Sad but true... Premature death tends to create timeless icons, especially when they get "removed" in the peak or pre-peak of their careerjabps":wt4olm6a said:
V.
67Mopar
New member
I was born in 62, so EVH's playing hit me right in the middle of my 1st year of playing. While hearing VH I was truly a religious experience, even more important than that - VH saved rock music in a sense. Things were in total rut at the time... The 70's mantel of rock music really became "old-hat", and there were really not a lot of good bands left. The biggest bands at that time was probably Aerosmith, Rush, Ted Nugent, Heart, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd, UFO, Steve Miller, Sweet, Lynard Skynard, Allman Bros, Led Zeppelin... Except for Rush - many of those bands had already "shot their wad" so to speak... Enter Van Halen! I don't think there's a single teenager at that time that doesn't remember exactly what they were doing when they first heard VH I ? I was hammered-drunk in my bud's Rambler, going to a disco tech to pick-up some "bush"! 
Being a teen in the 1970's could be stressful at times... This was a popular stress relief exercise: (Getting extremely "stoned" first was critical for this exercise...)
1. We placed our stereo speakers roughly 20 inches apart.
2. We then laid-back and placed our head between the speakers.
3. We then placed pillows at the back, top, and front of the speakers to prevent sound leakage.
4. We then played Pink Floyd's DSOTM at mega-high volume! (Supertramp "COTC" worked great as a 2nd feature!)
Being a teen in the 1970's could be stressful at times... This was a popular stress relief exercise: (Getting extremely "stoned" first was critical for this exercise...)
1. We placed our stereo speakers roughly 20 inches apart.
2. We then laid-back and placed our head between the speakers.
3. We then placed pillows at the back, top, and front of the speakers to prevent sound leakage.
4. We then played Pink Floyd's DSOTM at mega-high volume! (Supertramp "COTC" worked great as a 2nd feature!)
A
Anonymous
Guest
because tone like that is Godly.
period.
jabps
Well-known member
Mopar...you'd have to add KISS along with Zeppelin as being the biggest in terms of world wide popularity, ticket and album sales during that era. Nobody can deny that, even if they hate KISS...in fact the year that VH1 was released, KISS pocketed nearly 120 million dollars, an absurd amount of money given 1978 and especially considering they didn't tour that year.67Mopar":6ltal8j8 said:I was born in 62, so EVH's playing hit me right in the middle of my 1st year of playing. While hearing VH I was truly a religious experience, even more important than that - VH saved rock music in a sense. Things were in total rut at the time... The 70's mantel of rock music really became "old-hat", and there were really not a lot of good bands left. The biggest bands at that time was probably Aerosmith, Rush, Ted Nugent, Heart, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd, UFO, Steve Miller, Sweet, Lynard Skynard, Allman Bros, Led Zeppelin... Except for Rush - many of those bands had already "shot their wad" so to speak... Enter Van Halen! I don't think there's a single teenager at that time that doesn't remember exactly what they were doing when they first heard VH I ? I was hammered-drunk in my bud's Rambler, going to a disco tech to pick-up some "bush"!
Being a teen in the 1970's could be stressful at times... This was a popular stress relief exercise: (Getting extremely "stoned" first was critical for this exercise...)
1. We placed our stereo speakers roughly 20 inches apart.
2. We then laid-back and placed our head between the speakers.
3. We then placed pillows at the back, top, and front of the speakers to prevent sound leakage.
4. We then played Pink Floyd's DSOTM at mega-high volume! (Supertramp "COTC" worked great as a 2nd feature!)
How does that pertain to VH...well, the real beauty of Van Halen was, they were the complete antithesis of KISS. Where one band relied on a massive stage production, makeup, bombs and pyro...the other did it with nothing but sound and lights and yet both have managed to influence essentially everything that came after them in one way or another.
Also...I personally loved some of the 70's bands...Thin Lizzy, Queen, Rush, Skynyrd, Journey...even Aerosmith (whom I despise) made some incredible music in that decade...in reality, music that's stood the test of time alot better than just about every band that came out of the 80's and 90's. It's weird because even though my formative years on the guitar were the late 70's early 80's...there's very few 80's bands (that influenced me at the time) that I can stomach to listen too anymore. I either listen to modern music or one of those 70's bands.
I agree that guitarist were in a rut during that timeframe and most rock critics hail it as the "punk" era or lambast it for "disco"...there's no doubt how Ed affected the guitar playing community and music in general. And one would have to agree that most of the "legendary"rock bands and artists that still exist, still going strong (in one form or another) today came out of that decade. Pretty amazing considering the 70's is percieved as a weak era musically.