This past week , the music community, guitar players , and the world suffered a crushing blow. One of the most innovated guitar players to have ever lived passed away. That man was Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen alone changed the way guitar was played and the amount of players (including myself) he inspired cannot be more meaningful. He was born in the Netherlands on January 26th, 1955 and was the youngest son to Jan Van Halen and Eugenia Van Halen. When his family relocated to Pasadena, California , Eddie and his older brother Alex Van Halen would form a strong sibling bond and always practiced day and night on their instruments. Originally, the roles were switched. Alex was on guitar and Eddie was on drums . Thank goodness they flipped . Luckily, the other original Van Halen members David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony were in a short distance of one another in the same neighborhood and soon enough the mighty Van Halen was formed. Talk about a Cinderella story.
Eddie Van Halen single-handedly revolutionized his own signature sound and technique and took all the fundamentals of the electric guitar, and flipped it on its head. His guitar tone, pinch harmonics, and tapping technique is to die for and is envied by musicians everywhere. He was the guitar hero of not only my dad's generation, but his influence crossed over into mine. What I respect about Eddie the most is that he took his influences (Eric Clapton the most note worthy) and made a mark all his own . There will never be another like him ever again.
Eddie Van Halen and Van Halen as a whole have had a great impact on my life. Since my love for music began back in elementary school, I was introduced and exposed to some of the best music ever written. From The Beatles, The Stones, AC/DC, Cream, The Carpenters ,to Frank Sinatra I was an open book and took everything in. It wasn't until 7th and 8th grade when I finally got introduced into the mighty Van Halen. When I heard Van Halen for the first time , my mind was blown. I was immediately in love with Eddie's guitar sound . I was obsessed on how heavy his tone was along with his underrated rhythm playing was (Mean Streets and So This is Love are the best examples).
Like so many other inspiring guitar players though , I was over the moon on the masterpiece what is known now as 'Eruption". No guitar player has or since then has created such a rule-breaking/ innovated instrumental since then . I could sit here and try to explain, but that would be just as useful trying to teach all you quantum physics. We would all have to ask the Mozart of guitar himself.
Van Halen itself as a band itself got me through a rough patch in my life which was the dreaded years of junior high . Everyone knows what junior high was like. It's the time in your academic life where its that awkward period when your face looks like a pepperoni pizza, you're crushing on the prettiest girl in your grade, and you just want to fit in . For those of us who were awkward , Van Halen's music was that badass friend you always saw in those classic John Hughe's movies ;they walk the walk, talked the talked , and knew how to party and have a good time. With Van Halen's music in my arsenal (along with many other 80's hard rock acts) I felt like a total badass.
Years later, I'm still a die hard fan and I don't plan to stop anytime soon . I'm personally a David Lee Roth era fan of Van Halen mostly because of how raw and powerful Eddie's guitar tone was on the bands first two LP's and Fair Warning, which is my all time favorite Van Halen record. Regardless if your'e in the Roth or Hagar camp, we can all agree on one thing ; Eddie Van Halen was an innovator , genius and a role model for music lovers and guitarist everywhere.
Thank you Eddie Van Halen. You were one of a kind and a true master. There will never be another . Rest easy and fly high
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