You just reminded me of that South Park moment:

This was a great cover and I enjoyed immensely.


I just subscribed to your newsletter (channel).

Holy shit I got chills from this.

I just want to say that this year has been so shit, I'm really ready to put it behind us. And another legend dying, fucks sake.

Maybe I DO have to order a EVH Standard electric guitar after all....

I'm also not a fan in the true sense of the word, but everybody knows how much of an important guitar figure this man was and forever will be.

His solo in MJ's "Beat it" might be the best goddamn solo in a successful mainstream pop song. Rest in peace!

rip master

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I 100% believe the years of heavy smoking sealed Eddie's fate. It's sad, but it's true.

I was talking to my guitar teacher (who worships Eddie Van Halen) once. Eddie's smoking was brought up. I mentioned I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, and he said he never has either, mainly due to the cancer risk. (For me, it never looked appealing at all.)

He did, however, mention that he had an uncle who was a heavy smoker for basically his entire adult life. He lived to be 86, and he never once had cancer of any kind. He died in his sleep, and his autopsy determined he died of natural causes, and did not have undetected cancer.

So there are exceptions. You also have some very healthy people who end up getting cancer at an early age and die from it who have never smoked a cigarette.

Yeah not everyone gets cancer from it, but it's still not good for you.

Ever see this video about the album?



On a side note, I am planning on doing something just like Todd in the Shadows and his Trainwreckords series on my YouTube channel, but with metal albums. I plan on beginning it this month.

Some albums I am planning on having in my series include Massacre - Promise, Celtic Frost - Cold Lake, Tygers of Pan Tang - Burning in the Shade, and maybe a few others. (I know, there is nothing remotely metal about that particular Tygers of Pan Tang album, but since Tygers of Pan Tang are a metal band, I'll discuss it.)

Todd's entire Trainwreckords series is worth binging, as is his One Hit Wonderland fwiw. That video was the first thing I thought of when I saw people uh... "praising" VHIII

Eddie's health issues were caused by a lot more than just smoking cigs. Not defending smoking by any means, but the guy was a longtime alcoholic and reported meth abuser. Either way you never know what has your number...ozzy and keith richards are still going stong as is angus young. BTW watch with the nicotine gum. I quit cigs finally cold turkey after years of trying on and off. I got addicted to that gum for a while and its not meant to be chewed. You end up swallowing the juice and it gives you stomach problems eventually. Just fyi.

I'm not a massive fan of VH, but enjoyed it a fair bit in my early teens. A random fbook page described VH's music in their little RIP as the musical equivalent of a dog wearing sunglasses, which is pretty true and half the reason why I liked them back in the day. Will give some of the early ones a spin over the next week or so.

I sweep pick the end tapping arpeggio instead of tapping it. I did a bunch of takes back to back. Anyway, that rounds off my tribute to EVH for now. Eruption and Beat it!

Yes, he often recorded entire songs in one take. It's pretty amazing how effortlessly he switches from rhythm to lead in a split second, never losing the timing. Also, this riff is killer. It's more or less a thrash riff. He blended blues and classical influences so well, often resulting in very metallic riffing in basically pop songs.

While he's doing this, he's also singing backup vocals, harmonizing with Michael Anthony. In some of their more melodic songs, the two of them could give the Beach Boys a run for their money. They carried the songs while Dave did his large-than-life theatrics and screams. In the middle of this song, they throw a curve ball and switch to a shoo-be-do vocal a cappella, and somehow it just works. NOBODY else could pull that off. Eddie and the band kicked so much ass, yet they nearly always had a smile on their faces. They simply loved what they were doing, and that vibe flowed to their audience.

Just about every metal band was influenced by them in some way. Damn near every guitar solo has something that was derived from Eddie Van Halen. He was that good. He was a legend in his own time, and sparked waves of clones, resulting the entire glam/hair scene, which in a lot of ways fed the thrash/death scene. His influence can't be overstated.

I first listened to VH when I was only 5 years old. 1984 had just been released, and I think my older brother got it for Christmas or something. I was too young to fully understand what I was listening to, but I liked it. I watched their videos, and basically grew up with VH as the soundtrack to my youth. This loss is devastating to me. I feel like I've lost a best friend, as their music was always there. Even the Sammy era is important to me. No matter how deep I got into metal, I'd still throw one a VH disc and rock out. And now he's gone, far too soon. The world is a lesser place without Eddie Van Halen.

To hear a really good student of Eddie Van Halen, yet somewhat of a contemporary, check out George Lynch of Dokken. Not enough can be said about Lynch, he is one of the great examples of lead guitar shredding with class and taste. Great note choices and exotic scales he invents himself. Dokken was literally a band that sometimes had GREAT songs, but most of the time the songs centered around this beautiful lead guitar solo, so that Dokken is a rare band that literally is a showcase of a genius guitar soloist named George Lynch. His solos are songs within the song. Dokken solos are masterpieces.





Eddie Van Halen is the main influence for guitar soloing in the 80's but this is before neoclassical shred guitar playing from shrapnel records which took guitar playing to the next level after EVH. Eddie started what you can call basic shredding, but he was the best at it. He's known for his phrasing which lends to a tone called the Brown Sound. The best guitarist to copy this brown sound imo was Warren Demartini of Ratt, and also Jake E. Lee of Ozzy. Let's not forget that Randy Rhoads came out at a similar time as Eddie and his playing was partially a copy of Eddie.

Back in the day you couldn't even mention Eddie without mentioning Randy Rhoads.

Almost all of the early NWOBHM guitarists were EVH clones, and quite good at it. See Angelwitch, Tank, Satan, Blitzkrieg, Diamond Head, Venom, and Iron Maiden. Not all of them did the tapping, but most of them had chops.

Did Eddie hold up to the shredders in the 80's and 90's and even now? Of course his technique was more limited than them, but he got the ball rolling for the BROWN SOUND which is the basis of heavy metal guitar tones in the 80's and afterwards.

as Marvin the Paranoid Android said, "I'm feeling very depressed".

VH3 is as terrible as everyone says it is. BUT it was their ONLY total crap album, which is a better average than most bands get. Even the LEAST of the Hagar albums had a few good tracks.

Oh, anyone who loves Van Halen should hear the first Montrose album. IT'S A CLASSIC.

Listening to VH nonstop since his passing made me remember how much of a fucking beast Alex is, too. Imagine if he'd been in a thrash band. In fact it's safe to assume it'd sound a lot like this.

Do guitar players regard him as the greatest ever?

I still think the first Montrose album is the greatest album to ever be released to involve any Van Halen member.

Shit yes. This. This is the best song from that album, by far. Alex has always kind of lived in his brother's shadow, but listen closely to all the weird, monstrous and progressive fills he throws in under the radar. That's one talented bloodline.

It's funny you decided to sweep pick the arpeggio instead of tapping it. My equivalent would be asking me to build a rocket instead of a skateboard.

You said everything I feel, but a lot better than I could've.

I'm guessing the HATE for the Hagar era will die now that he's gone.

Hating the Hagar era is a badge that so many dudes I've met have been carrying around for decades. And it's laced with a ton of macho bullshit. Like I'm some kind of pussy for loving the song "Dreams" off 5150. The solo in that song still blows me away to this day and is 100% signature Eddie Van Halen.

I hate to admit to being one of those guys for years - my wife actually thought the band name changed to 'Van Hagar', as I'd never called those record anything else - great stuff as you say, but school-age habits die very hard...

I just love listening to Eddie play guitar so much that all I heard when there were albums with a new vocalist was "more songs with EVH guitar solos".

Plus, I was way too young to be listening to them in the Roth era. I probably didn't start really listening to them till I was 14, or 15 in '95, so I don't have nearly as much of a bias as others do which I do understand.

If I had been around at the beginning I can see myself hating the Hagar era also. I don't know.

Miami Justice - What Dokken album should I listen to? The only thing I really know and love by them is "Dream Warriors" and that amazing music video.

Nah...Van Hagar still lacks what made DLR era VH so memorable, the attitude. Yes the guitarwork is still there but then Hagar comes in and ruins it. Hagar is like a god here in STL but I never could get into his work other than a few Montrose cuts. So for VH I'll stick to the first six. I like "pussy" songs so its not that, but I like my VH with swagger and I just don't get that from the Hagar era.

I especially agree with the harmonies and The Beach Boys comparisons. I was pretty young listening to Van Halen, so it took me a long time to understand what I loved so much about Van Halen was also the high pitched harmonies that Michael Anthony added to the songs.

That is why getting rid of MA gets rid of part of what made VH great. As amazing as EVH was those first VH albums are a pure synergy of players making a greater whole.

Yeah I'm an all ear player and also know a lot of music theory, so I reframed that ending with arpeggios that are sweep picked. You have to be creative with learning pieces by different artists. Human hands are different and you have to, to some extent do what your hands are capable of, but if you do too much of your own thing than you can't really be a virtuoso - I used to follow a very standardized permutation approach. I did a lot of wood shedding learning other people's music and that's what I learned about guitar playing. I'm not as good as I used to be on the guitar, but I treat the guitar as a means to wail.

I should say EVH started standard 80's shredding, definitely not "Basic". I definitely play in this style as my home on the guitar, but it's heavily inspired by George Lynch and Glenn Tipton from Judas Priest, among many others.

Lynch can't even play other people's music. According to him, he barely knows any chords. He treats the guitar mostly as a lead instrument (yet let's not forget he has some of the best 80's riffs ever, it seemed like he even started the 80's hair metal riff), which is the approach I'm going towards, but with speed metal riffs. I used to be able to do anything on the guitar it seemed, but now a days I have my own voice and am more human.

You asked about dokken songs, well I learned the Dream Warriors solo by Dokken, so you love that song and so do I- This is my absolute favorite solo of ALL TIME:



Patricia Arquette is like "What a great solo!" until Freddie Krueger steals him away.







Just walk away solo is breathtaking. I have a video I'll post on my channel of me playing it.



The Hunter solo is another one I've been fascinated since the days of real player and we didn't have youtube to watch videos or mp3s. Lynch was the david gilmour of metal - just a few notes but what the hell, is that GOD on the guitar? Makes gilmour sound like a basic simpleton. I really mean that. Lynch had that mystique, besides being this surfer shredder, where he can play just a few notes in a solo and really slow down. Wait...is that GOD on guitar??????


This solo is Godly, and takes you back to a more Eddie Van Halen style to Lynch's playing.

The timeline for heavy metal guitar playing goes: Jimi Hendrix - Eddie van Halen - Yngwie. No one is denying that.

This is absolutely spot on and one of the keys to what made VH so amazing and unique- these killer details that they had in many, many songs that, as you said, NOBODY else could've pulled off.

Consider Eddie's off-kilter melodies in the breakdown that leads to Dave's "You'll get some leg tonight for sure! Tell us how you do!"... "Come on, Dave. Give me a break" in 'Unchained' (before it rockets off again). Or the jazzy "lounge act" vibe of 'Push Come To Shove' "Anything left in that bottle? Give me another cigarette..." against those killer bass lines & guitar effects.

But I won't sit here and write out examples all night, they were just everywhere, almost every song from the Roth era had at least two or three details that few bands could get away with, imo. But for them it was nothing- they'd throw it in and it'd work.

It's pretty much accepted too that David Lee Roth was less of a "singer" than he was a showman. But that said, who else could pull off screams like the ones he did in 'Runnin' With The Devil' or in so many other great songs? I mean, I know a lot of vocalists can scream, but Roth's were in a style that was perfectly suited to Eddie's songs and VH's style.

I was listening this week and thinking, "Yeah, you can kind of hear that Roth's not really a "natural" in one sense, that he could never touch a Ronnie James Dio or Freddie Mercury or someone like that. But then, they could never do what he did. And I realized that it's really the relief or "release" of how well Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony could harmonize on backing vocals that threw Roth's vocals into contrast and then made the songs that much more effective. I mean, without their backing vocals, I don't know if you actually could stand an entire song of just Dave's vocals And I mean no disrespect, but listening to 'Hear About It Later' now, and imagining it without the relief/release of those backing vocals, idk

More people have been influenced by him than let on. In recent decades it has become fashionable to distance oneself from that style of guitar playing - mainly because most guitarists don't practice enough to be able to play like that. It's the same with Neil Peart's style of drumming: most drummers can't do it so they pretend "less is more".

What is great about Eddie Van Halen is how different he sounded from everyone else who was around at the time. He came up with his own style of playing and his own sound. A lot of people who don't play the guitar can't understand why I like Van Halen so much. It's because, while some songs are cheesy, they had a level of creativity and imagination that you don't find with most of the 1980s VH clone bands (or in rock music in general).

Or it doesn't? I think only Yngwie would put himself in that company. The others were brilliant writers, too, which really isn't his Yngtanic Majesty's strong point. Not denying his influence or skill, but he's not in that company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5781HJq ... e=youtu.be

I never knew this happened.

If anyone has other videos of Van Halen I've never seen please post them.

Lynch and EVH are kinda the same in some respects - very unique players with "flowy" technique.
Neither of them has that Hetfield sense of human metronome going, and it adds to it if anything.
Particularly in the solos - there are lots of bends/notes that just end up "in between" at times but it fucking makes their songs.

The first time I ever nailed the intro to Hot For Teacher I thought I'd reached peak guitar. Sadly that was not true, haha.

I disagree. Not only is Yngwie a brilliant songwriter with a wonderful discography AT LEAST until Odyssey (he has tons of great stuff after too), his significance for the instrument is just as important as the names mentioned - if not more, he really took shredding and neoclassical to a new level and everyone - and I mean everyone - had to sit down and study him. He absolutely belongs in that company and to be honest this is the first time I hear he *doesn't*. No matter how cliche he became or how much of an asshole he is, the man is one of the most important guitar players in the 20th century. A nice vid on Yngwie by one of my favorite musicians ever.

As for Eddie, I grew up with Van Halen as an afterthought, a band that I knew existed (I knew Ain't Talking... and Panama really - and that intro on Back to the Future!), he was the one with the tapping and that was it really. Until I met a friend (guitarist), who grew up on VH buying 5150 when it came out, changing his life. He turned me on to VH and made me aware of his contribution and particularly his "space/sci-fi" playing, esp. for the time he came to the scene. 80s before the 80s. A great example of his alien riffs is Get Up from 5150. Listen to that riff and his playing overall (Alex too!), all the vocal harmonies going on... it's really a killer track!

Honestly, I think Yngwie lacks what Hendrix and EVH had in spades; great riffs. Yngwie was a big influence on lead playing but I just don't see him as anywhere near a Hendrix or a Van Halen who made non-guitarists sit up and pay attention whereas Yng was "strictly for guitar nerds". Yngwie is big in the shred community, whereas EVH and Hendrix were just a massive deal for music in general. Yngwie never wrote anything that has that real crossover, stadium-level appeal whereas EVH and Hendrix have at least an album's worth each.

Don't get me wrong, Yngwie was impressive and very unique. But... let's not get hyperbolic with his significance.

Umm, I said "heavy metal guitar playing". Can you stop being adverse for the sake of being adverse. You don't like Yngwie, 1000s of guitarists do. Why are you even arguing?