201–210 of 214 posts
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Does anyone else find it strange that Van is actually a middle name, thus rendering his name as HALEN EDWARD VAN
His middle name was ‘Lodewijk’, ‘Van’ is just part of a compound last name like Von Richthofen or Fitz Patrick, O’Leary, Di Chirico, etc.
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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.
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> 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 'fi…
This is completely orthogonal to the question how much talent there is. The fact that less people can make a living doing something that doesn't require any capital investment, just time and skill, doesn't have any real direct impact on how many people get really good at it.
"It's just a hobby" is a weak put-down, and really doesn't apply to thousands of people who play instruments at incredibly high levels of skill, even though they do not do so for a living. Certainly, it's going to help development if you play more (for whatever reason). But I don't think that you can claim that only way to get to be "that good" is to be a paid professional. There are many musicians whose early work as a "professional musician" was just a side gig anyway, and they didn't play significantly more than dedicated "hobbyists".
The spread of music education (public and private) and the dramatic drop in the real cost of musical instruments has exposed way more people to the possibility of playing music. Sure, most of them will be in the middle of the bell curve, but this process has (1) lifted the absolute height of the bell curve (more people) which (2) means more people over at the right-hand end of the curve.
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> 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…
You and everybody replying to you are making the same baffling mistake, i.e., assuming that technical/song writing ability/education = star. If you want technical ability, there are 8 year olds on YouTube with better chops than EVH. Possibly every 8 year old has better chops than Kurt Cobain. But technical ability does NOT make you a rock star. Same applies to the other fields you mention, painting etc. I'm sure youn…
I wasn't suggesting that technique is everything. Great musicians have imagination and strong connections to existing cultures (even when they ignore them). But so many people talked about EVH in terms of his technique ("OMFG, did you see that Eruption solo?" etc. etc).
And for reference, the "mainstream culture" I grew up in (London, 70s-early 80s) was unimpressed by EVH and american rock in general.
But yes, rock is not mainstream anymore, and thus "rock stars" are not a thing. Bieber is not even close to being a "rock star" - we had "pop stars" all through the 60s and 70s and they were entirely distinct from the "rock stars" of those same eras.
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His middle name was ‘Lodewijk’, ‘Van’ is just part of a compound last name like Von Richthofen or Fitz Patrick, O’Leary, Di Chirico, etc.
So in that case, why does it make sense to split up a compound name?
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"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 'fi…
> The number of professional musicians has dropped dramatically over the decades. This is completely orthogonal to the question how much talent there is. The fact that less people can make a living doing something that doesn't require any capital investment, just time and skill, doesn't have any real direct impact on how many people get really good at it. "It's just a hobby" is a weak put-down, and really doesn't app…
I agree music is accessible in a different way today, but kids used to grow up in musical families, and there were a lot of them.
My entire, large, family plays music. And played together. Tons of people used to play piano, guitar, fiddle, it was not inaccessible or elite. Instruments have been cheaply available for decades.
Also - time. People are constantly busy these days and hugely distracted. Eddie Van Halen literally got good by spending years and years alone, isolated in his room practising. So while that has nothing to do with pro/not-pro, it's definitely a cultural artifact.
One 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…
Yes, though Eddie's solos tend to get the notoriety, his rhythm playing was brilliant, arguably his best side. (I thought his lead guitar was kind of haphazard at times.) For rhythm work, I love the title track from "5150". And of course almost anything from the first album. "Unchained" from "Fair Warning" has one of the all-time great opening riffs.
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I studied classical guitar in university, Randy Rhoads was a favorite amongst the metal guys who turned classical because he played classical guitar too. The Van Halen brothers are both multi instrumentalists, both of them took piano lessons from a young age.
Eddie and Alex’s father Jan Van Halen was a hell of a clarinetist and was featured on the dixeland track Big Bad Bill from VH’s Diver Down album. Give it a listen, it’s a treat: https://youtu.be/9RPx6A3gKiA
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Yes, though Eddie's solos tend to get the notoriety, his rhythm playing was brilliant, arguably his best side. (I thought his lead guitar was kind of haphazard at times.) For rhythm work, I love the title track from "5150". And of course almost anything from the first album. "Unchained" from "Fair Warning" has one of the all-time great opening riffs.
He was also a contest winning pianist as a youth, often forgotten.
Is it though? https://youtu.be/SwYN7mTi6HM?t=154