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RIP Eddie Van Halen


Patrick Bateman

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Anybody who came of age in the late 70s and dropped the needle on VH1; it just was wasn’t the same since especially for us guitar players. I was just blown away. Every summer a new VH album came out and my friends and I waited. VH1 - VH2 - Woman and children first - Fair Warning ... I loved them all.

Just a taste of the swing and rhythm of Eddie



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4 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

I remember seeing Van Halen about 2-3 times in one year in Dallas. Texxas Jam at the Cotton Bowl, 5150 and OU812, they also had a "make up" concert in Dallas as well. Best show was 1984 in Reunion Arena. Dave in his heyday was pretty awesome, wasn't a dude alive that didn't want to be him.

CHIEF

getting tickets for that 1984 show was nuts at the ticketmaster office near walnut hill.  cops/helicopters.  crazy shit.  If I remember it correctly, they finally had to take your name and address and then they sent you a raffle like ticket with a number on it to get back in line later in the week.

 they added the 3rd show due to demand.  we ended up scalping some floor seats from some dude in red oak for the 3rd show and sold our first show nosebleeds.

the opening with unchained will never be forgotten by me.  I can hear it, smell it and taste the gin now.

Happy Trails, EVH.

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I grew up on VH, but saw them live only once - in '84 at the Erwin Center.  Dave had on the chaps, the huge styrofoam cowboy hat and rode around on the inflatable microphone.  When he offered to buy everyone a drink I just knew he was talking to me personally. Eddie was a fucking witch but everyone knew that already.

RIP Ed

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The first album I ever owned was 1984.   Van Halen has always resonated with me, especially around good times with buddies and just plain ole indulgent guitar rock.

 

 This was written  for a friend who committed suicide, so the circumstances are certainly different; but the title is appropriate for today. RIP Eddie. 

 

Edited by slorch
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Goddammit.  Fuck.  RIP.

I had to sneak Van Halen tapes into my religious household because Rock was Satan's music.  First cassettes I ever bought with my own money.  I love every single Roth-era VH album.  It was obsession to make the "VH" all over my spiral notebooks.  If there was a Hit Parade with them on the cover, I had to buy it.  Loved the movie "Better Off Dead" even more with the "everybody wants some" scene. 

Back when rock was just fucking fun, and Eddie was a big reason for that.  Thank you, EVH, RIP.

 

 

Edited by MC Fresh Breath
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I posted in the other thread that was apparently not the "official one"....I was on a conference call when I got the news alert, and made an audible moan/gasp, that caught everyone's attention.....and then I literally shed a tear.

Saw them in their "MTV Era" prime at The Summit in 1984....3rd of 3 consecutive shows (and a few times in their "reunion" years)......

Such an awesome talent.......truly my first bona fide "Music Hero"

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1984 was the first cassette tape I bought with my own money.  My dad made me throw it away because of the smoking angel, but I fished it out later, sliced a hole in my mattress and there the cover stayed for 10 years.  Still have it.  My first defiance of authority was due to VH.

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11 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

I remember going to my buddy's house in Jr. High (1978) & he put VH1 on his stereo and said "listen to this".

Man. The way "Running with the Devil" starts (bass line... huge guitar riff) still takes me back to that moment. It was a game changer for Rock & Roll.

My favorite song of theirs. 

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1 minute ago, MirrOlure said:

I posted in the other thread that was apparently not the "official one"....I was on a conference call when I got the news alert, and made an audible moan/gasp, that caught everyone's attention.....and then I literally shed a tear.

Saw them in their "MTV Era" prime at The Summit in 1984....3rd of 3 consecutive shows (and a few times in their "reunion" years)......

Such an awesome talent.......truly my first bona fide "Music Hero"

Yeah, the wife came home to pick up a monitor and she could tell I was off.  My voice cracked when I told her.  I'm a grown fucking man that deals with pressure daily.  

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I used to be able to name every song in order from the original DLR fronted Van Halen albums.   And each song's running time.  Van Halen is my favorite name by a long bit.  EVH might have been an asshole but I'm with anyone says he's a top 3 guitarist of all time and arguably the best.  

It took me a few minutes to let this sink in.  I knew his cancer was going to kill him young but that doesnt make this any easier.   I'm not a happy camper right now. 

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If first heard VH on KZEW 98 FM.  I was stupefied, enthralled, slack-jawed, gobsmacked and enchubbened.  What in the world has just met my 8th grade ears?  What is this witchcraft coming over the radio?

I bolt over to the local record store and slap my money down to get Van Halen on vinyl and fly back home to put it on my Panasonic turntable / receiver with the Panasonic Thruster speakers.   I crank it up all the way to listen to Running With The Devil only to be completely set free and listen in sheer awe when Eruption / You Really Got Me came on in sequence.  Instantly my hearing permanently went down to 50% in both ears and tinnitus in both ears.

My old man screams upstairs to me "turn that gotdam, mother fucking jungle music down!!!"  At that point I knew I was on to something really, REALLY good.

I get on the blower to Steve and Richie and say "get your sorry, pot-smoking, skank-banging asses over here....NOW! and check out what I have cued up on the rotator!"  They stagger over and are enraptured, as well, as we listen to the entire album at least 5 times in a row, begin to end, front to back with volume up wall to wall and tree top tall.  

A few months later we are at Dallas County Convention Center watching VH go through their entire first album plus You're No Good from Van Halen II as their set list and as Black Sabbath's opening act.

To this day I still crank up EVH and VH way too loud.

The great ones seem to die far too young.

RIP, EVH.  You cut a wide swath and will be missed.

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55 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

2020 sure as fuck ain't done.  wish i still had my 1984 cassette.

RIP to a genius.  a legit fucking genius.


Only tapes I ever wore out so bad and had to get new ones....

Powerslave, Live After Death, Appetite for Destruction, and 1984. 
 

 

Ah, good times.

He was a natural musical genius. He also burned a lot of bridges, but the world is still better off from his influence. 

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Brutal.  Another soundtrack of my youth.  I've told this story on another thread, but 1981, me and 2 buddies were dropped off at the VH show at the Forum.  Fair Warning tour.  14 years old.  No adults, no cellphones, just "meet at this spot afterwards."  Intense show, my friend's dad was in the music biz so they were great seats, but pretty overwhelming for a kid.  But unforgettable.

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First REAL experience hearing Van Halen was in our next door neighbor Kurk Lee's --- actually, his older brother Paul's -- Chevy conversion van with shag carpet covering damn near every inch of the interior. Kurk had the 8 track of VH and grabbed, the keys to the van, his younger brother (Mark, my age) and several other neighborhood kids from our tiny little shit hole MN town & we drove down to the A&W blaring the shit out of it. I don't even know if Kurk had his drivers license. Not that it mattered, their dad was a mechanic & all 5 sons and 4 daughters were gear heads so they were all driving before they were teenagers. Paul ended up finding us at the A&W and beat the shit out of Kurk for taking his van without asking.  Not sure of the head end, but the speakers were definitely Kraco's.

RIP, EVH.

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9 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

RIP. Damn

Man I bet 1978-1983 was a great time to be a teen. From the stories y’all are telling. 

hey, you aren't THAT much younger than I am and...

Yeah, I wish I'd been see to see them during the original DLR years.

At least I saw them when they reunited years later with Wolf on bass. Not the same thing, but it was enough.

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3 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

hey, you aren't THAT much younger than I am and...

Yeah, I wish I'd been see to see them during the original DLR years.

At least I saw them when they reunited years later with Wolf on bass. Not the same thing, but it was enough.

Yeah I just meant to be like 16-18 years old then. Before my time. RIP Eddie! 

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