It can sound a little different - and can sometimes sound better (sometimes much better; sometimes worse). There's WAY more to it than simply digital vs vinyl.
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I think for a lot of people it's the feel of physically holding a piece of art. That smell when you first open the sleeve. Pulling out the liner notes and reading lyrics and looking at the artwork. Takes you back to a different time in your life.
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I think for a lot of people it's the feel of physically holding a piece of art.
That's me. I've always loved good cover art and it's even cooler when it's record sized and not CD size. It hits even more when the record itself has a color scheme to match the album art.
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Ditto... could use some advice on where to move next with my setup - I'm running a Rega P1, have a new Elys cartridge arriving tomorrow, and running everything through a Schiit Mani.
My vinyl collection has exploded over the last couple years, starting with the re-release of NIN's Downward Spiral and The Fragile, and I'm actively seeking out new releases (e.g., AC/DCs upcoming Pwr Up) as well as classics.
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For me it was entirely that used records are like a dime. There is a lot of music out there that I'm not going to actually put up any money for but for a dime, sure I'll take a copy.
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The song has to be compressed and decompressed to play in a digital format which can leave a tinny sound. You can find uncompressed digital versions, but the files sizes are large (like Gb large) which needs lots of storage space. The vinyl version doesn't need compressed (why the records are larger and on both sides) so it is more true to the original recording and lends more warmth and authenticity to the music, like you are sitting in the studio listening to the recording. Some of that depends on the speakers and system used to play the vinyls and most people probably don't notice the flatter canned sound in the digital version. Vinyls are for the purists.
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...it is more true to the original recording and lends more warmth and authenticity to the music, like you are sitting in the studio listening to the recording
This. I like a bunch of music that was recorded when the record was the pinnacle of technology, so the artists and producers recorded in such a way that it sounded like they wanted it on that particular format. Still sounds good today, and, to your point, is more true to the original recording.
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I hate to be that guy, but there is lossy compression (mp3, aac, etc) and lossless compression (flac, alac, etc).
With lossy compression, bits are thrown out in order to make the file smaller - but there is no de-compression. The files are much smaller than the original, but once compressed, the missing info is gone forever; it can't be recovered.
With lossless compression, the algorithm compresses the size of the file (by roughly 40% or so), but nothing gets thrown out. So when the data is decompressed, it is a bit perfect identical of the original. Think of it as a zip file for music which unzips the file in real time as it gets played back and converted to an analog signal for your speakers of headphones.
Then there is something called "dynamic range" compression which is a common music processing tool that also impacts sound (often much more than the lossy & lossless "digital" compression mentioned above, in fact) but is something entirely different. However the terms often erroneously get co-mingled even though they are not at all the same thing.
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Thanks for the full explanation, I read about this awhile back when I was trying to figure out why vinyl was making a comeback, but could only remember the reader's digest version.
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Cranked up RWtD on my cassette player when it first came out every single day while driving to my 1st job back in high school. Saw Eddie do his thing early 80's Hampton Coliseum. Good memories...
Fuente and the team paid tribute to Eddie as they blasted RWtD to start off their practice session.
RIP
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So many to choose from. My favorite would differ from what I think the best is.
If there is one Van Halen song I think encompasses every aspect of their character it has to be "I'm The One" off the debut. It's fast it's fun, it's got a doo wop break in the middle, some really good bass work by Michael and Alex's drums sound amazing. and it's got one of Eddie's best solos. No not one solo......it's got two guitar solos.
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"Mean Street, then Little Guitars, or Take Your Whiskey Home". Wow, my list almost exactly....All of these for sure. I'd venture to add Full Bug or Dirty Movies. Thanks for this memory thread.
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Fuzzy on the Roth song title, but it was a strange ballad I really liked, maybe "Damn Good"? He had a poignancy to his vocals, and it wasn't a song that would lead to histrionics or screaming. Also thought he brought a funny tilt to the I Ain't Got Nobody diddy. Otherwise, I agree with you. His voice grated on my ear.
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The song is definitely "Damn Good" and it is one of my all time favorites. It is the song that makes me think of my college buddies more than any other. Steve Vai's acoustic guitar work on this is great as well. Got to listen to this song sitting on a beach in Aruba with my best buddy from college (30 years later!) last year and it brought tears to my eyes.
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First time I heard it I was driving up a mountain a day after losing a good friend, and tears were most definitely in my eyes. Via's work was what set the song off and underscored the pathos of the lyrics.
Haven't heard it in years, but will listen to it again this evening. I consider it a great song.
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Mine is probably "light up the sky" or "somebody get me a doctor"...captures the absolute shredding and power of my favorite band. These aren't really "radio"' mainstays but capture all that Van Halen is and was. "Somebody get me a shot!!" ....also anytime i hear panama I feel things are running a little bit hot tonight...I can barely see the road from the heat coming off of it...i wanna reach down between my legs and ease the seat back....😔RIP EVH
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I'm 47 years old, and I've played guitar for 31 years. As a kid in Houston in the early 80s I wanted to BE Van Halen, they were absolutely the coolest band in the world at that time, and Eddie Van Halen was the unquestioned god of rock guitar back then.
Over the years, my tastes and playing ability became more "sophisticated" (whatever that means I guess lol), and there are guitarists I would consider more influential to me, and maybe even better. But there has never been a more talented and unique guitarist than Eddie Van Halen. And no one in my life ever made me want to play guitar more than EVH.
RIP
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Story time! Once many many moons ago there was an awkward young version of myself. He was a kid without any friends, was not very social, a bit overweight for his age, and was often bullied. Then this little dude decided he wanted to try to not be awkward anymore and decided to participate. This led to many good things like being on the track and cross country team and one of his older friends on the team gave him the Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now album. That goddamn CD was the ONLY thing he listened to for a solid six months (which is forever when you're a kid). Between Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Guns N Roses this youngling found a love for guitar that would take him all the way to Nashville later in life in hopes of playing guitar professionally. It didn't work out, but it was worth the ride.
I don't listen to Van Halen much anymore. I haven't in over a decade (maybe even two) but you bet your ass I listened to that Live Album this evening. The nostalgia that came with Aint Talkin Bout Love, Judgement Day, Right Now, Love Walks In, and Dreams hit like a pile of bricks.
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Very sad day in music indeed. While I consider Hendrix the first true absolute visionary on the electric guitar, I think Randy Rhoades and EVH were the next generation of shredders and innovators. The whole Spinal Tap "these go to 11" trope basically came from EVH, who was famous for just cranking every knob on his Marshall Plexi to 10 and letting it rip. One of the true greatest guitarists of all time. Will have to crank some Van Halen this week.
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First record I ever had was van halen, nothing was funnier as a kid then ramping the speed up and making them sound like squeaky mice and a really fast guitar but todays the day we all crank it up at work.
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Eddie did things with a guitar that nobody had ever heard before. Electric guitar style makes a pivot point in history when he comes along. The only other time in my life when I heard things on the radio and didn't believe a guitar was making the sound was Tom Morello and RATM. Visonary and still impressive and rarely paralleled to this day.
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I have already responded with my favorite songs...but also remember Eddie played guitar for Michael Jackson's beat it with a sick shredding solo. I don't know that we will ever see a guitarist change the game like he did like neil peart did for drummers. Dance the night away eddie...you damn atomic punk🥺
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He did the score for an obscure film called The Wild Life.
Some of those songs he turned into full pieces on later albums. The song that appears in Back to the future during the Darth Vader scene is actually from The Wild Life.
I was the lead guitarist in a junior high band when Van Halen 1 hit the airwaves. It didn't take long for EVH to make his presence felt everywhere. I remember hearing the album for the first time at the local mall's record store and being stunned.
Over the next few years, something amazing happened in the guitar industry - no one wanted Gibsons and Fenders anymore. Everyone wanted EVH's guitar - a Frankenstrat, Parts O Caster, or whatever you want to call it. A cheap ass guitar made from the bones of other dead guitars, painted however you wanted it to look. He showed kids they didn't need to spend a fortune to get a good guitar. And in doing so he inspired a generation of new guitarists, and turned the industry upside down.
Between companies like Kramer who took advantage of this, and the dozens of hairband guitarists who emulated EVH, he became the most influential musician on the planet for a span of over 10 years. It took the grunge movement to turn that around.
That said, he had next to ZERO influence on ME as a musician. I just never caught on to the two hand tapping, whammy bar diving technique. I was a Page-Beck-Clapton-Gilmour guy and remain so to this day. But EVH's greatness and impact on the music world cannot be overstated - the most revolutionary musician since Hendrix.
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Well said Baltimore hokie...as a drummer I couldn't imagine having a brother like Eddie that Alex had. They fed off of each other with thunder...RIP Eddie
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I was probably a sophomore in HS when VH1 came out. When I head the album the first time, it was one of maybe a handful or so of times I heard something which was...unlike anything I'd heard before. VH's version of You Really Got Me was like a supersonic jet compared to The Kinks version (which is also great and probably sounded just as cool in 1964).
I was learning guitar at the time - and still play - but I've never really tried to do the EVH thing (even though I understand what he was doing). He just thought In a completely different way and it wasn't at all natural for me. But it was always fun when the subsequent albums came out, to see what new grunts and growls and rollercoasters he would come up - and figure out how he did it.
One thing many people don't know is they assume he was heavily influenced by Hendrix or Jeff Beck or guys like that, but he said he was more influenced by Clapton - which actually isn't that surprising because it wasn't just the gymnastics of his technique which made him great, it was also the melodic nature of his playing. You could sing his solos. And don't underestimate his rhythm playing; he was one of the best.
The first time I saw VH was in 1980. This was in the days of general admission and you were literally putting your life at risk being in front of the stage before the main event hit the stage. It was maybe the best concert I've ever seen (and I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bands of all shapes and sizes). They were still young, fresh, full of energy and didn't hate each other yet - and had enough of a catalog to not have to play every song and had developed a swagger and complete confidence on stage. They just exploded. I saw them a handful of times in later tours before Roth left and while they were still good, something wasn't quite there.
A few years back, my brother played me the raw tape recordings he made of that show - and my memory was right...they were really good that night. Unfortunately there is very little visual or audio record of that tour.
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One thing I've always thought but never said aloud, how badass of a last name is "Van Halen"? Of course you can shred and melt faces with a last name like that. Eddie Smith? Doesn't know how to spell guitar. But Eddie VAN HALEN?? Of cooourse he can shred.
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One of the coolest things I came across in my my Van Halen nostalgia trip this week is the fact that EVH's first home built guitar "Frankenstein" is on display at the NY Metropolitan Museum of art:
"Frankenstein"
Object Details
Title:"Frankenstein," composite electric guitar
Artist:Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (American, born Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1955)
Amazing muscian, but an equally amazing inventor and innovator. Likely did as much to advance guitar technology as Les Paul.
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Comments
Fuck 2020
Fuck 2020
Guess I'm spinning a Van Halen record tonight.
I just checked and the only record I have is Fair Warning. I have two singles - Panama and Jump. But my record player isn't functional at the moment.
My toddler broke mine a few months ago. Sucks
I have 5150 and 1984.
I never got into records when they made their comeback. What is the draw versus digital?
It sounds
betterdifferent.You had it right originally. Better sound from vinyl.
It can sound a little different - and can sometimes sound better (sometimes much better; sometimes worse). There's WAY more to it than simply digital vs vinyl.
I think for a lot of people it's the feel of physically holding a piece of art. That smell when you first open the sleeve. Pulling out the liner notes and reading lyrics and looking at the artwork. Takes you back to a different time in your life.
That's me. I've always loved good cover art and it's even cooler when it's record sized and not CD size. It hits even more when the record itself has a color scheme to match the album art.
I've specifically started catching rare editions of vinyls from my favorite artists.
Colored vinyls, autographed, etc..
Nothing outside of nostalgia and the feel of doing something cool, I'll be the first to admit.
If there's enough interest, we could start a vinyl thread to talk records, swapping, etc.
I'm in. That's my kind of conversation.
Ditto... could use some advice on where to move next with my setup - I'm running a Rega P1, have a new Elys cartridge arriving tomorrow, and running everything through a Schiit Mani.
My vinyl collection has exploded over the last couple years, starting with the re-release of NIN's Downward Spiral and The Fragile, and I'm actively seeking out new releases (e.g., AC/DCs upcoming Pwr Up) as well as classics.
I'd be down for that. I used to enjoy laying on the bed spinning some good music. I got lucky that I inherited a good collection from my folks.
Sucks losing such a good guitarist. Fuck cancer.
For me it was entirely that used records are like a dime. There is a lot of music out there that I'm not going to actually put up any money for but for a dime, sure I'll take a copy.
The song has to be compressed and decompressed to play in a digital format which can leave a tinny sound. You can find uncompressed digital versions, but the files sizes are large (like Gb large) which needs lots of storage space. The vinyl version doesn't need compressed (why the records are larger and on both sides) so it is more true to the original recording and lends more warmth and authenticity to the music, like you are sitting in the studio listening to the recording. Some of that depends on the speakers and system used to play the vinyls and most people probably don't notice the flatter canned sound in the digital version. Vinyls are for the purists.
This. I like a bunch of music that was recorded when the record was the pinnacle of technology, so the artists and producers recorded in such a way that it sounded like they wanted it on that particular format. Still sounds good today, and, to your point, is more true to the original recording.
I hate to be that guy, but there is lossy compression (mp3, aac, etc) and lossless compression (flac, alac, etc).
With lossy compression, bits are thrown out in order to make the file smaller - but there is no de-compression. The files are much smaller than the original, but once compressed, the missing info is gone forever; it can't be recovered.
With lossless compression, the algorithm compresses the size of the file (by roughly 40% or so), but nothing gets thrown out. So when the data is decompressed, it is a bit perfect identical of the original. Think of it as a zip file for music which unzips the file in real time as it gets played back and converted to an analog signal for your speakers of headphones.
Then there is something called "dynamic range" compression which is a common music processing tool that also impacts sound (often much more than the lossy & lossless "digital" compression mentioned above, in fact) but is something entirely different. However the terms often erroneously get co-mingled even though they are not at all the same thing.
Thanks for the full explanation, I read about this awhile back when I was trying to figure out why vinyl was making a comeback, but could only remember the reader's digest version.
2020 is the absolute worst
FAVORITE VAN HALEN SONG?
GO!
Unchained
Eruption
Humans Being.
Yeah it's an odd choice but I'm okay with that.
Twister still holds up. Great movie.
Why Can't This Be Love strangely enough.
featuring what might be my favorite lyric in all of music.... only time will tell if we stand the test of time
bro 🥺
I also really really love Right Now
Jump
"You can't go wrong with a positive verb" - David Lee Roth
"Look, I'll pay you for it, what the fuck..." - David Lee Roth
Everybody wants some
Always think of the movie Better Off Dead when I hear this song. "I want my two dollars!!!!"
Me too...
"Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?"
Ice Cream Man or Running With the Devil. Blasted RWtD on the way home this evening.
Ah, the classics.
Nicely done.
Brings back some cloudy memories.
Cranked up RWtD on my cassette player when it first came out every single day while driving to my 1st job back in high school. Saw Eddie do his thing early 80's Hampton Coliseum. Good memories...
Fuente and the team paid tribute to Eddie as they blasted RWtD to start off their practice session.
RIP
Panama
"Model citizen, zero discipline"
Too many to name. Their catalog is so deep. They evolved their sound so much over time and it (almost) always sounds great.
Related: I knew 2020 was going to suck when it started with Neil Peart dying.
Hot for teacher all day long
Great video.
I don't feel tardy
My butt, man!
Ain't Talkin Bout Love
Probably "Ice Cream Man" is my favorite.
So many to choose from. My favorite would differ from what I think the best is.
If there is one Van Halen song I think encompasses every aspect of their character it has to be "I'm The One" off the debut. It's fast it's fun, it's got a doo wop break in the middle, some really good bass work by Michael and Alex's drums sound amazing. and it's got one of Eddie's best solos. No not one solo......it's got two guitar solos.
Mean Street, then Little Guitars, or Take Your Whiskey Home
"Mean Street, then Little Guitars, or Take Your Whiskey Home". Wow, my list almost exactly....All of these for sure. I'd venture to add Full Bug or Dirty Movies. Thanks for this memory thread.
Dance the Night Away
The solos from Beat It and Marty McFly's Johnny B. Goode. Mostly /s
Any song that does not have David Lee Roth "singing"
He could sing fine in the studio and when he could remember the lyrics.
eh, something about his voice hits me wrong, almost as bad as Brian Johnson
Fuzzy on the Roth song title, but it was a strange ballad I really liked, maybe "Damn Good"? He had a poignancy to his vocals, and it wasn't a song that would lead to histrionics or screaming. Also thought he brought a funny tilt to the I Ain't Got Nobody diddy. Otherwise, I agree with you. His voice grated on my ear.
The song is definitely "Damn Good" and it is one of my all time favorites. It is the song that makes me think of my college buddies more than any other. Steve Vai's acoustic guitar work on this is great as well. Got to listen to this song sitting on a beach in Aruba with my best buddy from college (30 years later!) last year and it brought tears to my eyes.
First time I heard it I was driving up a mountain a day after losing a good friend, and tears were most definitely in my eyes. Via's work was what set the song off and underscored the pathos of the lyrics.
Haven't heard it in years, but will listen to it again this evening. I consider it a great song.
Mine is probably "light up the sky" or "somebody get me a doctor"...captures the absolute shredding and power of my favorite band. These aren't really "radio"' mainstays but capture all that Van Halen is and was. "Somebody get me a shot!!" ....also anytime i hear panama I feel things are running a little bit hot tonight...I can barely see the road from the heat coming off of it...i wanna reach down between my legs and ease the seat back....😔RIP EVH
I'm 47 years old, and I've played guitar for 31 years. As a kid in Houston in the early 80s I wanted to BE Van Halen, they were absolutely the coolest band in the world at that time, and Eddie Van Halen was the unquestioned god of rock guitar back then.
Over the years, my tastes and playing ability became more "sophisticated" (whatever that means I guess lol), and there are guitarists I would consider more influential to me, and maybe even better. But there has never been a more talented and unique guitarist than Eddie Van Halen. And no one in my life ever made me want to play guitar more than EVH.
RIP
I feel ya.
He changed the way the instrument is played.
Sad day.
That's a nice tribute.
Ain't talkin bout love.
Story time! Once many many moons ago there was an awkward young version of myself. He was a kid without any friends, was not very social, a bit overweight for his age, and was often bullied. Then this little dude decided he wanted to try to not be awkward anymore and decided to participate. This led to many good things like being on the track and cross country team and one of his older friends on the team gave him the Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now album. That goddamn CD was the ONLY thing he listened to for a solid six months (which is forever when you're a kid). Between Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Guns N Roses this youngling found a love for guitar that would take him all the way to Nashville later in life in hopes of playing guitar professionally. It didn't work out, but it was worth the ride.
I don't listen to Van Halen much anymore. I haven't in over a decade (maybe even two) but you bet your ass I listened to that Live Album this evening. The nostalgia that came with Aint Talkin Bout Love, Judgement Day, Right Now, Love Walks In, and Dreams hit like a pile of bricks.
Very sad day in music indeed. While I consider Hendrix the first true absolute visionary on the electric guitar, I think Randy Rhoades and EVH were the next generation of shredders and innovators. The whole Spinal Tap "these go to 11" trope basically came from EVH, who was famous for just cranking every knob on his Marshall Plexi to 10 and letting it rip. One of the true greatest guitarists of all time. Will have to crank some Van Halen this week.
So now Bill and Ted will never have a triumphant video? Enjoy that big concert in the sky...
First record I ever had was van halen, nothing was funnier as a kid then ramping the speed up and making them sound like squeaky mice and a really fast guitar but todays the day we all crank it up at work.
Junkies have been playing their tunes all day, forgot how many great hits they have
Eddie did things with a guitar that nobody had ever heard before. Electric guitar style makes a pivot point in history when he comes along. The only other time in my life when I heard things on the radio and didn't believe a guitar was making the sound was Tom Morello and RATM. Visonary and still impressive and rarely paralleled to this day.
Big Bad Bill (is Sweet William now); it involved Eddie and Alex's dad too.
I live my life like there's no tomorrow
And all I've got, I had to steal
Least I don't need to beg or borrow
Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills
I found the simple life ain't so simple
When I jumped out, on that road
I got no love, no love you'd call real
Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home...
I have already responded with my favorite songs...but also remember Eddie played guitar for Michael Jackson's beat it with a sick shredding solo. I don't know that we will ever see a guitarist change the game like he did like neil peart did for drummers. Dance the night away eddie...you damn atomic punk🥺
He did the score for an obscure film called The Wild Life.
Some of those songs he turned into full pieces on later albums. The song that appears in Back to the future during the Darth Vader scene is actually from The Wild Life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwQZwnTx2mA
Most people don't listen to Van Halen lyrics.....but they should!
Man I forgot about that...nice post man👊🏻
I was the lead guitarist in a junior high band when Van Halen 1 hit the airwaves. It didn't take long for EVH to make his presence felt everywhere. I remember hearing the album for the first time at the local mall's record store and being stunned.
Over the next few years, something amazing happened in the guitar industry - no one wanted Gibsons and Fenders anymore. Everyone wanted EVH's guitar - a Frankenstrat, Parts O Caster, or whatever you want to call it. A cheap ass guitar made from the bones of other dead guitars, painted however you wanted it to look. He showed kids they didn't need to spend a fortune to get a good guitar. And in doing so he inspired a generation of new guitarists, and turned the industry upside down.
Between companies like Kramer who took advantage of this, and the dozens of hairband guitarists who emulated EVH, he became the most influential musician on the planet for a span of over 10 years. It took the grunge movement to turn that around.
That said, he had next to ZERO influence on ME as a musician. I just never caught on to the two hand tapping, whammy bar diving technique. I was a Page-Beck-Clapton-Gilmour guy and remain so to this day. But EVH's greatness and impact on the music world cannot be overstated - the most revolutionary musician since Hendrix.
Well said Baltimore hokie...as a drummer I couldn't imagine having a brother like Eddie that Alex had. They fed off of each other with thunder...RIP Eddie
I was probably a sophomore in HS when VH1 came out. When I head the album the first time, it was one of maybe a handful or so of times I heard something which was...unlike anything I'd heard before. VH's version of You Really Got Me was like a supersonic jet compared to The Kinks version (which is also great and probably sounded just as cool in 1964).
I was learning guitar at the time - and still play - but I've never really tried to do the EVH thing (even though I understand what he was doing). He just thought In a completely different way and it wasn't at all natural for me. But it was always fun when the subsequent albums came out, to see what new grunts and growls and rollercoasters he would come up - and figure out how he did it.
One thing many people don't know is they assume he was heavily influenced by Hendrix or Jeff Beck or guys like that, but he said he was more influenced by Clapton - which actually isn't that surprising because it wasn't just the gymnastics of his technique which made him great, it was also the melodic nature of his playing. You could sing his solos. And don't underestimate his rhythm playing; he was one of the best.
The first time I saw VH was in 1980. This was in the days of general admission and you were literally putting your life at risk being in front of the stage before the main event hit the stage. It was maybe the best concert I've ever seen (and I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bands of all shapes and sizes). They were still young, fresh, full of energy and didn't hate each other yet - and had enough of a catalog to not have to play every song and had developed a swagger and complete confidence on stage. They just exploded. I saw them a handful of times in later tours before Roth left and while they were still good, something wasn't quite there.
A few years back, my brother played me the raw tape recordings he made of that show - and my memory was right...they were really good that night. Unfortunately there is very little visual or audio record of that tour.
One thing I've always thought but never said aloud, how badass of a last name is "Van Halen"? Of course you can shred and melt faces with a last name like that. Eddie Smith? Doesn't know how to spell guitar. But Eddie VAN HALEN?? Of cooourse he can shred.
One of the coolest things I came across in my my Van Halen nostalgia trip this week is the fact that EVH's first home built guitar "Frankenstein" is on display at the NY Metropolitan Museum of art:
"Frankenstein"
Object Details
Title:"Frankenstein," composite electric guitar
Artist:Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (American, born Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1955)
Amazing muscian, but an equally amazing inventor and innovator. Likely did as much to advance guitar technology as Les Paul.