I know this has nothing to do with eddie dying. rip. but i just wanted to say. i think Hagar was the better singer. I just prefer the 80s synth rock sound. Not to say roth wasn't good. he was great. i just prefer hagar.
Eddie Van Halen has died
101–110 of 214 posts
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's hypocritical and worth calling out for discussion, not justifying with a shrug. if a particular user doesn't care about kobe, why then care enough to flag? just let it go and move on to items of greater interest. it's not a political issue rife for flamebait, certainly no moreso than van halen.
I agree with you. But there's nothing you can do to change it. I'm not saying you should stop calling it out either, but the only result will be that eventually you will annoy the mods - not because of what you're saying but because you're being repetitive and "repetition is the enemy of curiosity" - and they'll either ask you to stop and you will, or you won't and they'll ban you.
none of this discussion is ban-worthy by any reasonable measure, but rather should impel thought, not simply reaction.
> "repetition is the enemy of curiosity"
that's certainly not true. expertise requires repetition (as kobe would tell you) and no one would disdain researchers for their repetitive curiosity.
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#103Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "thus allowing the player to create new techniques and sounds previously unknown to any player" Not including players of the pedal steel. But that's the patent system for you. In any case it's all about what you do with it.
To be pedantic, Pedal Steels are supported by legs like a table. You are probably thinking of lap steels. When played standing up, they are usually supported just by repositioning the strap.
An even better example I don't know why I spaced on it.
Not that I'm complaining he was given a patent.
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#105why should eddie van halen be discussed and memorialized here when kobe bryant’s death was relentlessly flagged and censored from discussion?
Few things are more horrible than angry internet arguments about whose life was worth more. Please don't go there here, even if you think a past story should have had more attention on Hacker News. The answer to a lot of these questions, btw, is randomness. Even when it's not the whole answer, it's usually part of the answer, and another part of the answer is judgment calls which may not look so different from random…
the flagging of the dozens of posts about kobe's death over many hours certainly wasn't simply random. randomness would posit the likeliness of at least one of those stories escaping flag-death, as happened with this particular story (a number of van halen stories didn't make it to discussion, only this one).
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#106One of the greats, that completely re-defined guitar, and spawned a new class of guitar players, as well as gear.
I remember having played guitar for probably a year, when a friend of mine (who had been playing for the same time) threw on Van Halen 1 on a cassette, and we listened to Eruption. It sounded out of this world, like nothing else I had heard.
After listening to Eddie play guitar (on/off) for decades, I've come to love his dynamics and touch, as well as his rhythm playing. He mastered the the technique of blending lead and rhythm into one, in a tight yet loose-feeling way.
There are, and have been, many much more advanced guitar players since Eddie started - but few are as fun to listen to as Eddie, and most of them (in hard-rock and metal) stand on the shoulders of greats like Eddie, either through his playing and style, or gear used. He made 80's superstrats what they are today, he made hot-rodded/modified Marshalls what the are today, hell, he even made the Peavey 5150 what it is today - which in turn spawned a whole slew of metal amps.
It's been a tough year so far, as far as my heroes dying goes. I've been lucky enough to not have lost too many idols in the past, but with the passing of Neil Peart and Eddie - two of my top 5 musicians and music idols of all time, it's been a real blow.
It's been no secret that Eddie has suffered from cancer for years now, but still, you kind of forget about that, until the day comes.
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wikipedia disputes this story, although it does not cite any sources on the "real" story: > Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson kn…
So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative. Yes, that's exactly why I was searching for that transcript. Maybe Howard Stern will re-air it or re-publish the interview in his app (I don't live in the US, so I don't have proper access to the show's content sadly). Thats why I added the IIRC . But whatever VH said in that interview clarified were that knocking…
Because musicians never lie or self-aggrandise, of course ;) i bet it’s one of those things where half the people in the recording studio have a different story to tell.
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#108I saw on Twitter he has a patent for a guitar... "support device" that includes the greatest patent image I've ever seen: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656917A/en
> "thus allowing the player to create new techniques and sounds previously unknown to any player" Not including players of the pedal steel. But that's the patent system for you. In any case it's all about what you do with it.
Or you can just sit in a chair and stick a regular guitar in your lap, like lots of people have done.
For example, Jeff Healey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgOUzodS6E&t=2m25s
(Not trying to turn this into a competition, by the way. His style definitely seems like it was influenced by Van Halen.)
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#109This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished. It also reminds me that Death just dragged another bead on his abacus and before long my bead will be up. Also, while I respect and admire what Eddie has done to further the art of playing electric guitar, I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist.
> This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished Then you need to stop wading in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world. In terms of just music alone, there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. Two generations or more of musical education where none really existed before, plus an en…
I got the same feeling as brtkdotse when Chris Cornell of Soundgarden died. "They aren't making them like that anymore". And if they are, I haven't found any.
Can you give us an example (like a YouTube link) of a modern guitarist (from the past 15 or so years) that approaches Eddie Van Halen's level of talent or innovation? An uplifting thought is that, like Cornell, although we have lost him, we still have his music.
Another "hacker's guitarist" is Tom Sholz of Boston. If the younger generation has never heard of him, his story is amazing too (an MIT trained engineer; rock star; built his own gear; wrote, played, recorded and produced his own work):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Scholz
While his style is a little different than EVH, he has a similar innovative spirit.
Re: Eddie Van Halen has died
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Few things are more horrible than angry internet arguments about whose life was worth more. Please don't go there here, even if you think a past story should have had more attention on Hacker News. The answer to a lot of these questions, btw, is randomness. Even when it's not the whole answer, it's usually part of the answer, and another part of the answer is judgment calls which may not look so different from random…
the flagging of the dozens of posts about kobe's death over many hours certainly wasn't simply random. randomness would posit the likeliness of at least one of those stories escaping flag-death, as happened with this particular story (a number of van halen stories didn't make it to discussion, only this one).
Yes, that's a good point.