RIP Eddie Van Halen

2020, the year that keeps on giving. I am so, so bummed that Eddie is gone. They were my favorite band, growing up. I had almost all of their albums at one point. I finally did get to see them live in college, on the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour.

The thing that always stuck out to me the most about Eddie Van Halen was how he always looked like he was having a blast playing the guitar, while other guitarists would often look like they were in physical agony.

RIP Eddie
#saintofshred

My older brother introduced me to 1984 in 1984. I was impressionable, and devoured their back catalog. Van Hagar? Loved them too. Cherone? Not so much.

Over the decades, I saw them four times. Hagar in his 93 prime, and three times with Roth thereafter (law of diminishing returns).

Regardless of singer, the crowd always chanted for Eddie. Eddie was a force of nature. Writing this in the past tense is bumming me out.

I got home this afternoon, crawled to my bar and had a few glasses of whiskey while listening to: Diver Down, 1984, FUCK, and the Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (Because I love 'Me Wise Magic').

Yeah this sucks. Although I pretty much hate shred guitar that's really only because so many people did it so poorly. Eddie was not one of those people. Along with Randy Rhoads he strapped a rocket onto guitar playing and launched the possibilities into the stratosphere for every generation to come.

Hopefully he's running with the devil now.

Yeah, that smile...he was always so stoked to be playing and that made his virtuosity infectious...his playing was so effortless and you could tell he just loved putting it out there.

I was never a big fan outside of enjoying the singles and videos as a kid, but that first record just -rips-. They toured that album opening for Black Sabbath and the Ramones. What a night that must have been.

One thing that's glossed over in talks of Eddie (and 1984-era Van Halen as a band) is not only how almost universally popular they were in smalltown America in the 80's, but how COOL they were! It was the music for the kids that were drinking beers after school, and smoking cigs, and getting laid, and starting fights, and wearing too much denim. David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen were like West Coast coolness gods who just happened to breeze into your small town, drink all your booze, impregnate all your girlfriends, then leave you in a cloud of smoke as they left town.

In a pre-internet era, their music was everywhere, their popularity was everywhere, and everyone knew who they were, and loved that shit. (Unless you were a basement-dwelling nerd, and even then you were like, "Damn, those guys are cool.")

fightcitymayor wrote: In a pre-internet era,

Thank God for that. Had they come of age now their never-ending soap opera would have imploded their careers on Twitter, regardless of their skill. When Lemmy is telling people you're fucked up, you're fucked up.

hotseatgames wrote: 2020, the year that keeps on giving. I am so, so bummed that Eddie is gone. They were my favorite band, growing up.

Yeah, same here. I have vivid memories of hanging out with my friends Trent and Josh in Josh's garage, and listening to "Jump" and "Panama" over and over and over while we rocked out on our air guitars. Never mind the fact that "Jump" is mostly synthesizer! I was 11, and couldn't be bothered with details. We all three dressed up as Van Halen for Halloween that year. Trent was Dave, Josh was Alex, and I was Eddie (poor Michael Anthony got screwed. I guess we needed another friend.). I had a fake guitar that my dad made for me out of a piece of scrap wood, and that we painted with the iconic red and white stripes. Goddamn that feels like a million years ago.

I saw Van Halen in concert three times, all in the Sammy Hagar era. "1984" was the album that made me a fan for life, and of course that was the last album with Dave, so sadly I never got to see the original band together. I liked the Hagar era stuff just fine, but there was just some weird, unreplaceable alchemy with Diamond Dave.

2020, man.

I listen to a lot of late 70s and 80s music these days. The stuff just has an upbeat feel good vibe. Yeah, the lyrics are mostly about meeting girls, getting with girls, partying with girls, breaking up with girls, regretting breaking up with girls, and getting back with girls, the music itself just makes me happy.

Modern rock (what is left of it) is too damn edgy with so much mental health and personal anguish in it. Or it's euro epic metal which is about who knows what. While I'm sure nostalgia is coloring my views, I sure would like more 80s style hair metal that isn't quite as mocking as Steel Panther.

To those lamenting never seeing them with Diamond Dave. I never did either, but I did see him on one of his solo tours.

HE SUCKED. He is an arrogant douche, as you know, and his guitarist was a chump. No, I didn't get to witness the majesty of Steve Vai. That would have made up for Dave.

hotseatgames wrote: To those lamenting never seeing them with Diamond Dave. I never did either, but I did see him on one of his solo tours.

HE SUCKED. He is an arrogant douche, as you know, and his guitarist was a chump. No, I didn't get to witness the majesty of Steve Vai. That would have made up for Dave.

My buddy Johnny was a paramedic with the FDNY and worked a few shifts in an ambulance with DLR in the Bronx when he had a brief stint as a first responder. He said the same thing. Although to be fair, Johnny did say that he kept making a big deal about reaching down between his legs to ease the seat back, which Dave didn't think was so funny, so that may have set a tone...

My initial reaction to this news was minimal. It didn't hit me hard like when Bowie and Prince died. I liked Van Halen okay, at least their hits, but I never saw them in concert or bought any of their albums. But seeing everybody else react so strongly forced me to reflect some. And then I remembered that there was a time when I liked Van Halen so much that I paid an airbrush artist to make me a custom Van Halen/Panama shirt. It was colorful glimpse of jungle splashed in front of chrome-like VH logo. I sort of blocked that memory out because a certain ex-girlfriend ended up with that shirt and I don't think about her much anymore.

Yesterday and today, I've been hearing a lot of Van Halen on the radio. And with the distance of all these years, I realize that Eddie's guitar work was what I really liked about them. So dynamic, intricate, and compelling. David Lee Roth seemed cool when I was a teenager, but now his singing just doesn't impress me anymore and frankly detracts from certain Van Halen songs.

Apparently, EVERY "celeb" had thier picture taken with Eddie and he's smiling in every single picture.

On that note, ran into him at the STL airport and managed to mumble "Love your work" and he just wagged his finger at me and said "Naw, man, it's ALL play." Fucking legend.

WadeMonnig wrote: Apparently, EVERY "celeb" had thier picture taken with Eddie and he's smiling in every single picture.

On that note, ran into him at the STL airport and managed to mumble "Love your work" and he just wagged his finger at me and said "Naw, man, it's ALL play." Fucking legend.

There's a running theme here. The guy loved what he did, and loved people.

Check out some things Dweezil Zappa had to say (years ago) about growing up in Southern California in the orbit of EVH: