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Eruption at 40


JimiH

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What's the over-under on how long anyone here who wasn't playing guitar before Van Halen 1 came out made it before trying the tapping section after getting their first electric guitar?  I think it was the second thing I tried to learn the first night I got my electric for my birthday in 1993. 

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Great performance. The young generation has so much to choose from.

Van Halen mk1 is iconic as it ever was. It wasn’t the guitar alone, although, a heavy weight in it.

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I see so many great bedroom guitarists on YouTube who can play VH tunes so well, and I shake my head at the comments suggesting they play better than Ed, blah, blah, blah. Not to take anything away from their playing abilities, but it's a lot easier cruising on a road someone else paved than it is having to plow through virgin wilderness in a covered wagon. Eddie took his homemade axe and hacked his way through a jungle, paving a way so all those YouTube players could stroll through without the same effort. He innovated the style and wrote the music. Everyone else is just a tracer (Chasing Amy reference. Watch the film to get my point).

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Every VH Mk1 album was eagerly snapped up because we wanted to see what new innovation EVH brought to the instrument this time. What song would have some mind-blowing technique that was jaw-dropping......

Eruption

Spanish Fly

Mean Streets

 No one  came close at the time.

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3 hours ago, FGJ said:

I see so many great bedroom guitarists on YouTube who can play VH tunes so well, and I shake my head at the comments suggesting they play better than Ed, blah, blah, blah. Not to take anything away from their playing abilities, but it's a lot easier cruising on a road someone else paved than it is having to plow through virgin wilderness in a covered wagon. Eddie took his homemade axe and hacked his way through a jungle, paving a way so all those YouTube players could stroll through without the same effort. He innovated the style and wrote the music. Everyone else is just a tracer (Chasing Amy reference. Watch the film to get my point).

Absolutely true. 

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7 hours ago, DBraz said:

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it.  

My friend Tony's '76 Monte Carlo headed north out of town.  I didn't ask "who is that?" I asked, "what is that?" as in, "what instrument."  Absolutely changed everything for me.

3 hours ago, FGJ said:

I see so many great bedroom guitarists on YouTube who can play VH tunes so well, and I shake my head at the comments suggesting they play better than Ed, blah, blah, blah. Not to take anything away from their playing abilities, but it's a lot easier cruising on a road someone else paved than it is having to plow through virgin wilderness in a covered wagon. Eddie took his homemade axe and hacked his way through a jungle, paving a way so all those YouTube players could stroll through without the same effort. He innovated the style and wrote the music. Everyone else is just a tracer (Chasing Amy reference. Watch the film to get my point).

This is what I have tried to instill in my children and in the younger guitarists over whom I have had the great privilege to have influence: context!  When the kids showed an interest in Van Halen,  I provided context by playing snippets of The Village People (they were familiar with them from ball games), several Nile Rodgers tunes, Donna Summer, etc.  After a few minutes of that I put on Eruption cranked way up - try it some time, it's shocking.  I explained, it was in that musical context that we heard this.  It was from Mars!

Sure, there was rock out there at the time ( 2112, for example, was a couple of years old by VH1!) but disco was more or less ubiquitous (we had Rick Dees on 560 WHBQ, Memphis, for cryin' out loud!).  I'd had a cheap Sears guitar for probably two or three years.  It gathered dust no more!  :)

I put EVH right up there with Hendrix: there is rock music before him and rock music after him.

 

Oh, and thanks for posting such a well-made (as well as well-played) video!

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I forgot to mention that David Lee Roth tried to pickup my girlfriend, Martica, when they came to town for a promo. No one showed up. So he was hitting on her. It was at Spec's Music '77-'78 (?) which is now, sadly, a PetSupermarket. 

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When that opening bass thump for Running with the Devil came on the radio the first time it blew us away.  We were skateboarding at a ditch and I always had my car stereo blasting while we skated.  Then Eruption blew us all away.    Saw VH in 78 with Black Sabbath.  VH was amazing.  Made Black Sabbath look old.

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7 hours ago, gorch said:

It wasn’t the guitar alone, although, a heavy weight in it.

It's so funny since he was using what shouldn't have worked or what might have been thrown away.   A body that was a cast off, a Gibson pickup in a Strat, no tone control, actually using the Strat tremolo far beyond it's intention, a brass nut, the list goes on.  Yet, it's a benchmark of tone to this day.  

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9 hours ago, DBraz said:

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it.

I as well.

In L.A. visiting my High school buddy, first year of collage.

Brought home "Mammoth" (VH1).

Brought the Album to Art Class.... "Hey, you got to hear this...."

Spun that record on the cheezy record player...

Oh the faces and OMG's...... priceless.

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

It's so funny since he was using what shouldn't have worked or what might have been thrown away.   A body that was a cast off, a Gibson pickup in a Strat, no tone control, actually using the Strat tremolo far beyond it's intention, a brass nut, the list goes on.  Yet, it's a benchmark of tone to this day.  

And if nobody knew it was Eddie's, no one would touch with a ten foot pole, much less play.

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3 hours ago, scottcald said:

It's so funny since he was using what shouldn't have worked or what might have been thrown away.   A body that was a cast off, a Gibson pickup in a Strat, no tone control, actually using the Strat tremolo far beyond it's intention, a brass nut, the list goes on.  Yet, it's a benchmark of tone to this day.  

This brings me to the theme that cork sniffing is for pussies. The whole discussion about wood and so on is worthless when it comes to playing.

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13 hours ago, DBraz said:

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it.

Likewise. I was in Stetson Middle School- 8th grade, I believe.  I was running around at that time listening to Jimi, Kiss, Zeppelin, Sabbath and AC/DC, thinking that was the very pinnacle of human achievement in rock guitar. I was walking out of the band/choral music room after listening to Groove Train by Heatwave. One of my buddies ran in, all excited, with VH's first album in hand, breathlessly telling me I HAD to hear this band. I only got to hear one song and it was Eruption, of course. I was not sure what to make of it. I mean, my allegiances were to the aforementioned bands. These Van Halen guys seemed to be upstarts. But that guitar... holy fuck! That set me on a course of daily VH listening that lasted well into my late teens when I discovered Yngwie, Vai,  Satch and all the rest. To this day, few, if any, have matched EVH's impact on me from a guitar wizardry standpoint.

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10 hours ago, FGJ said:

I see so many great bedroom guitarists on YouTube who can play VH tunes so well, and I shake my head at the comments suggesting they play better than Ed, blah, blah, blah. Not to take anything away from their playing abilities, but it's a lot easier cruising on a road someone else paved than it is having to plow through virgin wilderness in a covered wagon. Eddie took his homemade axe and hacked his way through a jungle, paving a way so all those YouTube players could stroll through without the same effort. He innovated the style and wrote the music. Everyone else is just a tracer (Chasing Amy reference. Watch the film to get my point).

Yep, look no further than two-hand tapping.  That technique had been around a bit, and the basics aren't all that hard, but then no one put it together into a coherent statement that was integrated into an overall style until EVH did.  And even then, the number of players that sounded like they just played that way instead of having the "tapping section" in a solo are still few and far between.  

Or for an alternative, David Gilmour has never played a solo that I haven't been able to play for years.  Yet I've never written a solo half as awesome as the one in "Time."

Oh, and What's a nubian?

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13 hours ago, velorush said:

I didn't ask "who is that?" I asked, "what is that?" as in, "what instrument."  Absolutely changed everything for me.

Exactly! Driving down the Bayshore between Millbrae and San Mateo. 

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18 hours ago, FGJ said:

I see so many great bedroom guitarists on YouTube who can play VH tunes so well, and I shake my head at the comments suggesting they play better than Ed, blah, blah, blah. Not to take anything away from their playing abilities, but it's a lot easier cruising on a road someone else paved than it is having to plow through virgin wilderness in a covered wagon. Eddie took his homemade axe and hacked his way through a jungle, paving a way so all those YouTube players could stroll through without the same effort. He innovated the style and wrote the music. Everyone else is just a tracer (Chasing Amy reference. Watch the film to get my point).

I see your point, and pretty much agree. Many musicians are content to dissect their favorites to the nth degree. It's a challenge to get "into" a piece and perform it flawlessly. When I see guys like this I gotta give them props for doing the work.

However, I also feel it's perfectly ok to take this route. Most musicians are hobbyists and have no real aspirations to write/perform original music, so they do what gets them off.

The challenge of playing your own music is a great thing, too. It's not easy to write original music, and those who do it well are just as "amaze-ballz" as the rec-room copyists out there.

“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.” 
-- B. B. King

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  • 2 weeks later...
On January 20, 2018 at 10:51 PM, RobB said:

I see your point, and pretty much agree. Many musicians are content to dissect their favorites to the nth degree. It's a challenge to get "into" a piece and perform it flawlessly. When I see guys like this I gotta give them props for doing the work.

However, I also feel it's perfectly ok to take this route. Most musicians are hobbyists and have no real aspirations to write/perform original music, so they do what gets them off.

The challenge of playing your own music is a great thing, too. It's not easy to write original music, and those who do it well are just as "amaze-ballz" as the rec-room copyists out there.

“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.” 
-- B. B. King

Sure, I totally agree. I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with learning and playing other people's music. I was earlier focusing on YouTube comments that suggested that those who copy music are equal or better than those they're copying. So while learning a difficult song requires lots of effort and talent (heck, there are little girls on YouTube that can play Eruption), actually writing those songs and/or innovating the style is half (or more) of the battle. In fact, I would argue that there are more people with raw technical playing ability than there are great song writers or innovative players.

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EVH has gone on record stating that one of his favorite guitar solos is Neil Young’s repeated one note solo on Cinnamon Girl.

I think of Angus’s first solo on TNT....one bent note slowly released....it’s perfect and it gave me chills the first time I heard it. 

Oh, I love the way EVH started Eruption...just a vol swell growl into a flurry of notes. Everything about that solo is perfect.

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On 2/3/2018 at 11:02 PM, FGJ said:

Sure, I totally agree. I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with learning and playing other people's music. I was earlier focusing on YouTube comments that suggested that those who copy music are equal or better than those they're copying. So while learning a difficult song requires lots of effort and talent (heck, there are little girls on YouTube that can play Eruption), actually writing those songs and/or innovating the style is half (or more) of the battle. In fact, I would argue that there are more people with raw technical playing ability than there are great song writers or innovative players.

Picasso could not draw, but he could innovate!  EVH changed guitar playing, so it does not matter whether or not people can play his style at the age of 8 or can outplay him on technical points.  He wins because he started it all. 

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