Eddie Van Halen has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#41

Post by woodpanel » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #36

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…

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 came from.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#42

Post by strictnein » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

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…

For the curious, the knocking is at ~3:05 in the music video:

https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0?t=185

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#43

Post by saghm » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

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.

> I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist

I enjoy his guitar playing as well, but I agree with you here! I have the unpopular opinion that the stuff he was doing with the synth in the late Roth and throughout the Hagar era is better than some of the more traditional hard rock stuff. "Right Now" is one of my favorite songs ever, and it's relatively light on the guitar for a Van Halen song.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#44

Post by woodpanel » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #35

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 wanted no credit for it - he didn't want other Van Halen members to know about it because they agreed to never do side projects. He wanted no payment for it except a case of beer and Michael teaching him to dance "sometime".

And according to VH, he may in the end have bought the six pack of beer himself [1]

[1] http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-...

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#45

Post by khazhoux » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

sali0 wrote: post #4

2020 strikes again.

You're being downvoted, but who can deny that this has been a harsh year? Normal life has disappeared, many of us can't even go outside for nearly two months due to fires, medical ignorance in the US is running rampant, the upcoming vote is already being tampered with... and as a reward, we get to see icons of our youth taken away.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#46

Post by xdrone » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

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…

There's David Lee Roth interview (maybe on joe rogan) where he explains some tricks they used to write solos. They'd record multiple different solos, then switch between the tracks to come up with unexpected progressions. Clever idea.

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#47

Post by crmd » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

jjulius wrote: post #33

oxymoran wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s like comparing a turn table used for DJ’ing to a record player used to just listen to records. Completely different application, accessories, and technique.

Not really. The patent just takes the guitar and stabilizes it in a horizontal position, instead of a vertical position, allowing you to do something different with the same instrument. Nothing about the guitar itself changes whatsoever, but the orientation provides for the guitar to be used differently. The better analogy would be, say, if you took an SL-1200 (a turntable manufactured for DJ'ing) and it rotated it "…

I’m not a fan of battle style but is it really fundamentally different? Eddie’s patent is more like rotating the deck about the z axis and holding it like a guitar. Which would be pretty cool and ridiculous come to think of it :-)

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#48

Post by klodolph » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

MrMetlHed wrote: post #3

I 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

The shoes Michael Jackson used for Smooth Criminal were patented as well.

(And if we’re gonna talk about cool patents by entertainers, nothing’s gonna beat Hedy Lamarr’s work on spread spectrum communications.)

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#49

Post by michaelmarion » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

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 listened to the song, and I immediately go, "Can I change some parts?" I turned to the engineer and I go, "OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out." Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it. I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in.

> And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all a little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, "Look, I changed the middle section of your song."

> Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, "Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better."

I can't think of a more innovative and imaginative musician in history.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/showbiz/music/van-halen-jacks...

Re: Eddie Van Halen has died

#50

Post by Lol_80005 » Tue, Oct 06, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

clairity wrote: post #39

why should eddie van halen be discussed and memorialized here when kobe bryant’s death was relentlessly flagged and censored from discussion?

Nerds don't like sportball, but programming nerds like abstract creators. Eddie was a mind bending genere pushing creative force. His impact was bigger than sportball. Often other obituaries are noted here. Sportsball not so much, unless it's statistical sportsball. Van Halen is probably a stretch tbh, so I don't want to defend it too much either. This site is still better than twitter.