![]() ![]() Starting with an introductory drum roll from brother Alex and a giant power chord, "Eruption" packs three distinct mini-movements into its one minute, forty-two second duration. After this, "Eruption" became the sound of thousands of aspiring guitarists shredding away (or trying to) in their bedrooms or garages, or the aisles of the local guitar shop. It also drew a clear line in the sand marking off a "before" and "after." You can trace a variety of influences that can be heard in "Eruption," but the simple fact is that Van Halen's playing doesn't really sound like anything that had come before. ![]() "Eruption" stands alongside Jimi Hendrix's "Star-Spangled Banner" performance at Woodstock as a definitive statement of what the solo electric guitar can do. This aptly named blast is ground zero for any consideration of why Van Halen, the guitarist, matters. Thus, I've made no effort to choose a representative cross-section of songs from across the band's career. But first a note about my choices: As a native Southern Californian who bought the first Van Halen album when it came out in 1978 (when I was the ripe old age of 10) and saw the band twice - on the last tour with David Lee Roth in 1984 and the first tour with Sammy Hagar in 1986 - I feel no conflict in declaring myself an unabashed partisan of the Roth-fronted version of the band (v. These are not necessarily the "greatest" Van Halen solos, but they represent something of the breadth of his musicianship and cumulatively paint a portrait of Eddie as a guitarist who dwelled in multiple dimensions. Here are five songs where we can hear that balance in full bloom. It's that blend of spontaneity and precision that runs through his greatest recorded performances. A killer Van Halen solo or riff has the air of being tossed off on the spur of a moment. Yet whereas Paul wedded his playing to equally innovative recording techniques to create a hyper-modern style of virtuosity that wore its debt to technology on its sleeve, Van Halen used the technologies available to him to create a sense of rawness and immediacy. In this the comparison with Hendrix is on target, and again with Les Paul, both of whom expanded the range of what was possible with an electric guitar. He developed a repertoire of techniques that transformed the way that the guitar was played. Van Halen was not just an awesome guitarist. That tinkering quality also applied to his playing. Obituaries Eddie Van Halen, Guitar Hero, Dies At 65 Similarly, his celebrated "brown sound" – the highly saturated overdriven timbre that enveloped his playing – came from his experiments with amp modification and the array of effects pedals that working rock guitarists of the 1970s had at their disposal. Dissatisfied with the specifications of the two most widely used electric guitars of his day – the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul – Van Halen built his own guitar some time in 1976-77 from borrowed parts, creating a hybrid instrument that looked like it barely hung together but had a sound and feel that created a whole new class of guitars, the "superstrats" that became a new industry standard. ![]() Like Paul, Van Halen was what I would call a "tinkering virtuoso." That is, he dedicated much of his craft and creativity not only to refining his prodigious guitar technique, but also to tweaking and adjusting the basic tools of his trade. The encomiums that have proliferated since Van Halen's death on October 6 have made comparisons with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and others who comprise the pantheon of rock's fabled "guitar heroes." A more revealing comparison is with Les Paul, a pre-rock guitar virtuoso who set the template for much of what followed. Eddie Van Halen spent a lifetime chasing the sounds that he heard in his head.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |