If you grew up in the 80s, hell, if you've listened to anything guitar-related from the last 40 years, you know who Eddie Van Halen was. Not just another guitarist, he defined a sound that was immediately recognisable.
I'll leave it to the critics to settle his place in the pantheon of great musicians. He was instrumental (no pun intended) in the soundtrack of my growing up.
While I love the hard rocking tracks, the one song that made the biggest impression on me was 'Dreams'.
In the mid-90s, my dad spent 10 days in ICU. I drove to the hospital every day to sit by him and on the 20 minute drive played that track over and over. It literally got me through being terrified that I might lose my dad.
I never saw the band live, and I never met him, but Eddie and his guitar are old friends that will be missed.
In the summer of 1978 my older sister moved back to the family house and during her absence she accumulated a pretty large record collection.She was excited by one record in particular.It was by a new band called Van Halen and she let me hear it.Listening to that record was one of those "doors of your mind opening" sort of things.I had never heard that kind of guitar work and even though I was just a whippersnapper,I had already listened to a lot of music thanks to my sister and to my mom who always had a small Philco radio blasting out 50's and 60's oldies and old school mariachi.Eddie Van Halen pretty much reinvented rock & roll guitar playing.Of course,the great guitarists of the era were still around.....guys like Jimmy Page,Brian May and Eric Clapton but Eddie Van Halen had created something new and exciting.I was fortunate enough to see Van Halen live in 1979 on the tour for their second album,Van Halen II.They were a great live band and put on a fantastic show.The thing that got me was that Eddie not only recreated his studio sound in a live setting......he made it look easy.The guy was seriously good.It's sad to see all these rock & roll icons passing away but at least we still have the music.
This is terrible. 2020 keeps taking more and more people away from us. I didn’t really listen to his music, but I know he was well respected and was a fantastic musician. May he Rest In Peace.
Yeah, I was out driving a few hours ago and heard it on the radio. I cranked up the volume whenever a Van Halen song was on the radio today to honor him. I can't say I'm a hardcore Van Halen fan since I pretty much only know their top ranked songs, but they are one badass band. R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen.
I grew up in the 80's and while I wasn't a huge Van Halen fan, I certainly spent time rocking out to some of their more popular songs on MTV. He was a phenomenal guitarist. This is sad news, indeed.
As an electric guitar player, I was really bummed to hear about his passing. This video of him playing is one that always was inspiring to me as a musician and I feel like this sort of summed him up, musically speaking:
(Volume warning to those with or without headphones, might want to turn it down a little depending where you are. It's pretty long video but worth the watch, imo.)
My condolences to his loved ones and fans. We lost a truly unique soul today.
