RIP Eddie Van Halen

Rock and Roll Guitar Heroes.  We used to have too many.  They still live on whatever you listen to for your Classic Rock fix.  But they have disappeared today.  Great guitar players will always come along. But they heyday of Rock and Roll near the top of the mainstream music scene has been over for some time.  

Eddie Van Halen was one of the last of the Guitar Gods.  He came just as the influence of the 70's guitar heroes were was still reaching a new generation of players.  But in 1978, Eddie Van Halen was different than all the other younger guitarists of his generation.  This was a new sound.  Heavy Metal meets LA Punk meets good old fashioned 70's Classic Rock. It's not hyperbole to say, Eddie was the most influential guitarist of his generation.  Go back and look at the Rock landscape after Van Halen released their debut in 1978.

I was a Van Halen fan.  Not much of a Van Hagar one.  There is a difference.  With David Lee Roth, Eddie was breaking barriers.  By the time the Hagar years came, Eddie continued his love of synths, but they became a conventional Rock band.  And Roth, despite not having Hagar's pipes, wrote better songs, and the band's good times persona was a direct result of his charisma.  

So, go back to those first 6 Van Halen albums.  Skim the first 2 they did with Hagar.  Download 1991's "Right Now".  Eddie's legacy is on those sessions.  Ironically, his most heard solo occurred on Michael Jackson's "Beat It".  Eddie's one take solo is a masterpiece.  If you were to put together a greatest hits of Eddie Van Halen's guitar works it would rank with "Eruption", "Runnin' With The Devil", "Jump", "I'm The One", near the top.