Birthday Blips: Eddie Van Halen

I've mentioned more than once in this series that I play instruments. I play piano and guitar. As poorly as I play them, these are not lies. I can sit down and play a tune on each instrument. Nothing spectacular, but a tune nonetheless. I say this only to introduce today's birthday, Eddie Van Halen, born Jan. 26, 1955.

Eddie Van Halen is a master of guitar. There are few that will challenge this. He is repeatedly put in a class with Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn in terms of his technical ability. But that leaves me with one question: why don't I like his music?

So far, this Birthday Blips segment has been praiseworthy of musicians I feel deserve respect. My hopes for this project are more than that, though. I'm no taste-maker, and don't expect anyone to feel I promote my preferences as superior than anyone else's. I write about my taste-influences because that's all I know. I want to hear how others agree and disagree with my thoughts. That's why I get into what makes us like the music we do, and that's why I want to get into how I never liked Van Halen.

I had many chances to be influenced to love Van Halen. My neighborhood used to play kick ball in the street when I was about eight years old. All ages played, and I clearly recall the boom box being brought out to provide us with some inspiration. One of the most played albums was Van Halen's 1984. I loved the obnoxious opening, "Hello Bayyyyyyyyybay!" and I loved the sound of the guitar throughout. "Jump", "Panama", and " Hot For Teacher" all stand out as memorable tunes from the disc, but I can't say I've ever had the desire to go back and listen to the album again. I've heard the songs I've mentioned since then and had a nostalgic moment for my past, but I can't say I've listened to them and respected how they've stood the test of time.

To put it simply, I prefer substance over style. And to me, Eddie Van Halen has a ton of style (and twenty tons of technical ability) over substance. As someone who has tried to play a guitar, I have to give eternal respect to Eddie Van Halen for what he accomplished with the same six strings I've struggled with. Still, I also must say that I've never found the respect for the excessive guitar showiness that I feel his music, along with a lot of other 80s metal music, thrived upon. After all, there's a reason why the simplicity of Nirvana and the rest of the early nineties' simple power chords caught on with fervor that they did. And maybe that's why I always favor passion over mastery. But I'm always willing to admit that I may have missed something, and that's why we have a comment section. So what do you think?

And always, listen to tunes I've referenced at:

http://blip.fm/PeetieWheatstraw

Comments

[Nick Carraway]

While I wasn't a huge Van Halen fan and I only know their radio singles, you have to agree that Eddie Van Halen captured the 80s style. He was as iconic as Slash and probably just as talented. My favorite thing about him was that Charvel handmaid custom guitar with the single humbucker and the black and yellow stripes. How sweet it must be to not only be a master of an instrument, but to also build one specifically adapted to your unique playing style. I give mad respect to Van Halen for that.

His obvious Guitar Hero status aside, I think maybe you were turned off by all the drama that accompanied Van Halen over the years. When Sammy Hagar was added, the sound changed a little bit. I think as you pointed out in an earlier post, sometimes the best art comes from ugliness. In Eddie's case, his tension with David Lee Roth was what really produced the band's best work. In the later years, I got sick of the constant rumors of a Roth comeback and kind of tuned Van Halen and their sound out, a thing relegated to a bygone era.

Two more interesting facts about Eddie Van Halen that you have to respect though: he recorded the lick for Michael Jackson's hit "Beat It" and he also did a come back tour a few years ago with his son playing bass guitar. Gotta love it when the music runs in the family.

[James Dugan]

I am not a Van Halen fan but my favorite memory of Van Halen comes from the carnival that would come to the Boys Club in my neighborhood every year. They had the endless amount of games for a dollar, three unsafe teenage rides with carnies smoking at each door, ten kiddie rides that would be deserted after sun down, and the pizza was great. It was the beginning of summer, usually late May, and everything smelled like freedom.

One night of that fateful and lost week, I played the dart game that asked you to pop a balloon. I actually won and for my victory I received a mirror with Van Halen symbol on it. I thought I was king. I gave it to my high school sister and she placed it on her room wall. It was still there when my parents moved.

That is my memory for Van Halen -- I missed them musically and only remeber the rift between Hagar and Roth, but I remember the mirror that made my sister's wall. Music does bring about stuff.

Thanks

[PeetieWheatstraw]

Carraway--Thanks for those two interesting facts--I was unaware of and impressed by each. That guitar sound on "Beat It" instantly made sense when I thought about it, but I never knew it as a Van Halen riff. Certainly a timeless contribution to music, as well as a genre jump predating the 1986 Run DMC/Aerosmith combo on "Walk This Way". Good stuff.

Dugan--What an awesome memory and story connected with something so far on the fringe of what it really was. That story reminds me of James Joyce's "Araby". And you're right about music triggering these kind of memories and connections, even when the actual sounds of music are not involved.

Thanks for adding your thoughts to this segment. I hope more join in with their stories and experiences.