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RIP Eddie Van Halen


Patrick Bateman

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No more Eddie Van Halen and the Eddie Van Halen Band.  Bummer.  Any pothead in high school in early 1978 can tell you exactly where they were when they first heard that music.  Usually screaming from a 8 track tape, played thru a Pioneer Supertuner and Jensen speakers.  

I was in Robbie Hickam's 76 Trans-Am in the high school parking lot.  There were about 20 people gathered around her car, listening.    No idea how he was doing that but it was fuckin' AWESOME!

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“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,” his son Wolfgang Van Halen wrote. “He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift. My heart is broken and I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this loss.”

Were it not for his titanic influence, hard rock after the late 1970s would have evolved in unimaginably different ways. Hey may not have invented two-handed tapping, but he perfected the practice and introduced it to a mass audience. But despite his complete mastery of the electric guitar, he never learned to read music.

“I don’t know shit about scales or music theory,” he told Rolling Stone in 1980. “I don’t want to be seen as the fastest guitar in town, ready and willing to gun down the competition. All I know is that rock and roll guitar, like blues guitar, should be melody, speed and taste, but more important, it should have emotion. I just want my guitar playing to make people feel something: happy, sad, even horny.”

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TMZ:

Eddie Van Halen -- the legendary guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen -- has died after a long battle with throat cancer ... TMZ has learned.

Sources directly connected to the rock star tell us ... he died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica Tuesday. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and drummer.

We're told in the last 72 hours Eddie's ongoing health battle went massively downhill -- doctors discovered his throat cancer had moved to his brain as well as other organs.

As you know, Eddie has been battling cancer for well over a decade. Our sources say he's been in and out of the hospital over the past year -- including last November for intestinal issues -- and recently underwent a round of chemo.

Last year we reported ... Eddie was flying between the US and Germany for 5 years to get radiation treatment. Though he was a heavy smoker for years, he believes he developed throat cancer from a metal guitar pick he used to frequently hold in his mouth more than 20 years ago.

 

https://www.tmz.com/2020/10/06/eddie-van-halen-dead-dies-cancer-65/

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9 minutes ago, hullabelew said:

No more Eddie Van Halen and the Eddie Van Halen Band.  Bummer.  Any pothead in high school in early 1978 can tell you exactly where they were when they first heard that music.  Usually screaming from a 8 track tape, played thru a Pioneer Supertuner and Jensen speakers.  

I was in Robbie Hickam's 76 Trans-Am in the high school parking lot.  There were about 20 people gathered around her car, listening.    No idea how he was doing that but it was fuckin' AWESOME!

I first heard it in Jimmy Durst's 71 Chevy pickup through... yep a Pioneer Supertuner and Jensens speakers.  

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12 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,” his son Wolfgang Van Halen wrote. “He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift. My heart is broken and I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this loss.”

Were it not for his titanic influence, hard rock after the late 1970s would have evolved in unimaginably different ways. Hey may not have invented two-handed tapping, but he perfected the practice and introduced it to a mass audience. But despite his complete mastery of the electric guitar, he never learned to read music.

“I don’t know shit about scales or music theory,” he told Rolling Stone in 1980. “I don’t want to be seen as the fastest guitar in town, ready and willing to gun down the competition. All I know is that rock and roll guitar, like blues guitar, should be melody, speed and taste, but more important, it should have emotion. I just want my guitar playing to make people feel something: happy, sad, even horny.”

he pretty obviously knew a lot about music theory lol

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5 minutes ago, Ten Bears said:

I first heard it in Jimmy Durst's 71 Chevy pickup through... yep a Pioneer Supertuner and Jensens speakers.  

I first heard it the day after it came out on Stu Gatley's home stereo.  He and his dad built the speakers.  The amp was a Pioneer receiver.

Those Radio Shack woofers handled the Volvo car horns descending into "Runnin' With The Devil", and they even handled the first bass note.

They didn't handle the second bass note.

We laughed our asses off and took the vinyl over to Scott Smith's house, because he had better speakers that didn't blow up.

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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

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I know it's not old school VH, but the intro to Right Now is one of my favorite piano rock riffs. I learned it awhile ago and barley ever play it but I can get my right hand to do the fingering without thinking.  Just infectious and literally unforgettable. Like Stairway on guitar. 

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2 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

Man people claim that artists today are nothing but image and autotune but then you see a shirtless David Lee Roth and its pure swagger and cocaine. Not much has changed.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say, but I can assure you that 1979 David Lee Roth was the best fucking front man in the world, and perhaps ever.  And no, I don't want to re-litigate the "best front man" thread.

Eddie Van Halen was definitely top 3 rock guitarists of all time and I would never hit a man for saying he was #1.  He was probably #1 in my book.

This is a huge fucking kick in the motherfucking nuts.  God I hate this year.

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