The world was rocked this week with the announcement that Edward Van Halen had died at the age of 65, from cancer.
Van Halen’s debut album, 1978.
Any attempt to articulate the impact he and this band had on the world of rock music and popular culture is futile. Words cannot describe the tectonic shift that occurred in music and rock guitar in 1978 with the debut album Van Halen I. Probably one of THE greatest debut, rock albums of all time.
Not only was this album founded on melodic and aggressive riffs, layered with bluesy, seductive, vocals peppered with falsetto screams, aptly supported by harmonious background vocals, and catchy choruses, it was - most of all - a master class in guitar wizardry and finger gymnastics the world had never seen before.
While Eddie Van Halen was often the first to point out he did not invent many of the techniques he used, it is fair to say he stumbled upon them himself despite no knowledge of prior guitarists having employed them and utilizing known and little used techniques to great effect and success.
Eddie onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, 2015 with his EVH Wolfgang guitar.
What is often neglected in discussions and music punditry about Eddie Van Halen’s guitar virtuosity, is the fact that he was also a prolific song-writer. And it was this talent that established the commercial success of the band which exposed a gasping, massive, global audience to his unprecedented talent as a rock guitarist.
No aspiring, rock musician since, has wrapped their hands around a guitar and not strummed, plucked, squealed, tapped or dive-bombed on the instrument without owing thanks, in some way, to Eddie Van Halen. Even the generations who may know little about him and never listened much to his music. Many who came after Eddie tried to emulate him or were inspired by him to find their own path, have all contributed in ways that, ultimately, pays homage to Van Halenism.
Eddie was an autodidact (education without the guidance of masters or institutions). He never learned to read music - he was all about tone and feel. There were no rules, no parameters and no restrictions on what you could do, how you could play, and how you could sound. He was a true original - a genuine rarity.
Eddie turned his music success and guitar mastery into a branding, marketing and endorsement machine. Eddie, in large part, fueled the success of Kramer guitars in the 1980’s. Floyd Rose - the innovative locking tremolo system Eddie helped develop - owed their success to the musical ‘gun slinger’. The indestructibility and precision of the Floyd Rose system sent manufacturers into a tizzy to try and secure a supply chain agreement to ensure they could capitalize on its popularity by incorporating this device into their respective instruments.
Eddie’s extensive use of phasers and flangers launched a line of Van Halen branded pedals by MXR (Dunlop) which sell consistently to this day. Eventually Eddie would launch his own line of “EVH” guitars, amplifiers and speakers, working with such established manufacturers as Peavey, Music Man and Fender.
It is impossible to estimate how much Eddie Van Halen contributed to the global economy since 1978 as it relates to album sales (80 million worldwide as of 2019), concerts, merchandise, guitars, amplifiers, pedals, etc. Not to mention the slew of rock-guitar aspirants who bought guitars, amplifiers and accessories of brands completely outside the EVH stable of endorsed products, over the last several decades . Whatever that number is, be assured it is undoubtedly well into the billions.
THE INTANGIBLE
It was 1978, I was in art class - second floor of the east wing of my high school. It was a warm, sunny day in early June. The swing-out windows were open. My art class was right above the school parking lot and smoking area. Someone had parked their car outside, with windows down and was cranking “Eruption”. It stopped me dead in my tracks! What was this? Who was this? How could this be? Is that a guitar or a keyboard?
Music has a way of reminding us exactly when and where we first heard a song or soundtrack. Music is emotional, intimate and personal. It moves and inspires us. It makes us happy, sad, angry. It is universal. All human beings, in all cultures, throughout human history have listened to and created music to connect, reminisce, associate, inspire, motivate, and to evoke a myriad of emotions. Music has even been used as rallying cries for battle. It is math, physics, chemistry and geology all rolled into one artistic science. Even Steven Spielberg speculated that it would be music that would be the key to communicating with extraterrestrials in “Close Encounters of The Third Kind”.
David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen, 1978.
Perhaps this is why, like millions around the world, I am deeply saddened and affected by Van Halen’s passing. Most of us never knew him personally. Never met him and, frankly, have no idea what kind of a guy he was. But it doesn’t matter. We all had a relationship with him through his music. He spoke to us with sound, tone and melodies. He made us feel. And it is this relationship through which we mourn the loss of a rare talent.
The very fact that I am writing this blog post, on a website of a company I own that builds guitars, is to a great extent because of him. Now, I’ll be honest, Eddie Van Halen wasn’t my only inspiration - Randy Rhoads, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, Rik Emmett, Alex Lifeson, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and many, many more all have contributed to my love of the instrument. But Eddie was an influence that probably had greater impact on me than most. And this is probably true for millions of guitar players around the world.
It is possible we’ll never see the likes of a Van Halen ever again. The “guitar hero” is somewhat a thing of the past. Spending 15 minutes on YouTube, one can easily find 16 year olds (and younger) emulating not just Van Halen, but players such as Malmsteen, Bettencourt, Gilbert, Holdsworth, Govan and DiMeola.
There has been a rock guitar revolution over these past decades. An ascendancy of technical achievement that was once the exclusive domain of classical and jazz guitarists. And the person who revolutionized rock guitar on this path towards a broad adoption of hammering-on, sweeping arpeggio’s, two-handed techniques, harmonics and . . . well, whatever else one can think up, was to a large extent, Eddie Van Halen.
He is an icon. A legend. Thank you Eddie for all that you did, and will continue to do.
R.I.P.