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Eddie Van Halen has died

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Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#181

Post by tkgally »

valusr wrote: post #164

He's the most famous alumnus from my high school. RIP Eddie.

We were cross-town rivals, then. David Lee Roth attended my high school (John Muir, also in Pasadena) three years ahead of me.

Here's my Van Halen story. In my last year of high school, one of my friends was a budding rock guitarist. He often talked about the local band Van Halen and what a great guitarist Eddie was. Van Halen was scheduled to play a show in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 25, 1975—thank you for the date, Wikipedia [0]—and my friend and I went together to the Berry & Grassmueck music store on Colorado Boulevard to buy tickets. At the counter, my friend said something like "I’m really psyched! We're going to get to see Van Halen! He’s great!,” and a fellow standing nearby perked up. After we left the store, my friend told me, “That was Eddie Van Halen!” Just hanging out in the local music store, apparently.

My main recollection of the show is that it was extremely loud: several stacks of Marshall amps in a concrete-lined exhibition hall and only a couple hundred people scattered around the floor to absorb the sound. I wore earplugs, but my ears still rang afterwards.

I see now that the next day was Eddie's twentieth birthday [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Van_Halen_concert_tours

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#182

Post by jariel »

Never a huge fan of 'Stadium Rock' I saw him live with Van Halen on free tickets and it was just immense. Only then did I understand what 'Stadium Rock' even meant. All talent, zero gimmicks, just raw genius filling up an entire stadium.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#183

Post by annnoo »

ct-1111 wrote: post #109
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

One of the most innovative guitarrists of the current era is (for me at least) Tim Henson of Polyphia. Modern, innovative guitar playing has changed a lot in the last few decades. You probably won't find the most innovative players in classic Hard Rock or Metal Bands. You can find them instead in different sub-genres which have a deep focus on the "newer" style of playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkHD4OVjS4E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gkpYORQLU

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#184

Post by jariel »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #32
brtkdotse wrote: post #15

This 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…

"there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. "

No there isn't really - totally the opposite.

The number of professional musicians has dropped dramatically over the decades.

In the 1920s-1950s 'musician' was a 'job'. Then the phonograph became big, the number dropped by 90% then over a few more decades another 90%.

It's no longer an occupation, it's just a hobby.

There are tons of people who take 'fine arts' at Uni etc. but they're not necessarily that good, and very few of them will be able to work in the field and develop careers.

'Orchestral' even on big albums is all fake, it's just to easy to do and too expensive otherwise.

'Creative' yes, a lot of that, but have a look at the Billboard 100. It's 'audible creativity' but all made by algorithms, it's more 'art' than it is 'music' in some sense.

The other issue is that the bar to entry is lower as well, so for every 'extra genius' we get out of that 'open process' there are also 1000x more posers, fakers, people just making arbitrary sounds and it's harder to wade the the noise. 'The system' used to do that for us i.e. the musical community would 'find' the talent generally. There is no 'system' now, just YouTube.

Thanks for they Polyphia link though.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#185

Post by [deleted] »

woodpanel wrote: post #27

Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael…

[deleted]

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#186

Post by woodpanel »

michaelmarion wrote: post #49
woodpanel wrote: post #27

Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael…

He didn't just contribute the solo—he rearranged part of the song! [1] > Michael [Jackson] left to go across the hall to do some children's speaking record. I think it was "E.T." or something. So I asked Quincy [Jones], "What do you want me to do?" And he goes, "Whatever you want to do." And I go, "Be careful when you say that. If you know anything about me, be careful when you say, "Do anything you want!" > I listen…

I've read the same article, but as a non native speaker wasn't sure, whether he just rearranged his part or the whole song. It did read like the latter, but, after all, this was not just a random song from some random musician, but from Micheal Jackson and Quincy Jones. Amazing.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#188

Post by ThePadawan »

guidedlight wrote: post #72
ghostpepper wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone else find it strange that Van is actually a middle name, thus rendering his name as HALEN EDWARD VAN

“Van” is part of the surname. It means “of” or “from” in Dutch. It’s similar to “De” prefixed to Spanish surnames.

Yes, but the patent application lists his name as "Halen Edward L Van".

So apparently this was misfiled (under the last name "Halen") or filed correctly, just displayed weirdly on patents.google.com (since it appears correctly on the linked uspto.gov [0]).

[0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H....

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#189

Post by woodpanel »

toyg wrote: post #107
woodpanel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree, but there were conflating stories about the knocking for decades. That MJ is listed as "drum case beater" in the credits is surely not helping.

However this HS interview was done at least 15 years after, a time after which I assume any secret joke they conspired must have worn off.

I've listened to a rerun from that interview, which might was recorded in 1998 (http://marksfriggin.com/news98/3-16-98.htm)

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#190

Post by m463 »

michaelmarion wrote: post #49
woodpanel wrote: post #27

Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael…

He didn't just contribute the solo—he rearranged part of the song! [1] > Michael [Jackson] left to go across the hall to do some children's speaking record. I think it was "E.T." or something. So I asked Quincy [Jones], "What do you want me to do?" And he goes, "Whatever you want to do." And I go, "Be careful when you say that. If you know anything about me, be careful when you say, "Do anything you want!" > I listen…

Wow, awesome peeks behind the scenes at how stuff is really done.

It's also really interesting when really talented people - who are usually isolated by the law of numbers - get together.

A fascinating movie about music from way before van halen/michael jackson era I watched recently:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)

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