Pound Hound Van Halen

Fascinating. I guess Van Halen are too recent or not old enough to be talked about anymore?

What a fickle bunch we are :p

Seriously, I've re-discovered Van Halen again, what an amazing time the 80's were when Eddie Van Halen and his band exploded onto the scene.

Van Halen were a massive success story of sorts, success with the Van Halen brothers and Dave Lee Roth (OMG) and in hindsight Sammy Hager ... The MK III Van Halen was a disaster though (IMHO) Gary Cherone just never fitted in at all for the final VH studio album

Eddie really turned around guitar playing with his innovative style. his solo *Eruption* is still amazing to me at least.

Anyway, heard Eddie is quite ill these days, alcoholism and throat cancer have him beat it seems?

In a turn around to current tradition, I'd like to pay homage to Eddie Van Halen while he's still alive. He inspires a million guitarists to this day.

Eddie Van Halen is as near to Hendrix as it gets.
 
Eddie was an innovator and was one of those rare guitarists who made a generation pick up a guitar. I suppose I got bored with them when Hagar joined. It took me until last year to get my hands on a video concert featuring DLR singing from about 82.

The first time I saw them was supporting Black Sabbath and they had just made their first album. They were awesome and it was one of the best concerts ever. Contrary to popular belief Van Halen didn't blow Sabbath offstage.
The other amazing thing about the concert was that Van Halens roadies got a standing ovation for their professionalism at packing up - it was scripted somehow.
 
Van Halen are a great band and their first album is superb, not a bad song on the album.

I only saw them once, supporting AC/DC at Donington, now that was a great line up and fantastic day all round. :)
 
Big Kev said:
Van Halen are a great band and their first album is superb, not a bad song on the album.

I only saw them once, supporting AC/DC at Donington, now that was a great line up and fantastic day all round. :)
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Can you remember when somebody chucked a bottle at DLR and he stopped the song (I'm On Fire)? He then pointed out the guy and said "I know who you are and after the show I'm going to **** your girlfriend" and they continued with the song after a count in. I thought that was the best putdown ever.
 
I love the early Van Halen, they are one of my favorite bands. Tracks like "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" or "Unchained" are awesome. The drums bass, guitar and vocals are amazing. EVH guitar tone is incredible on that early stuff. But they lost something with Hagar. TO be fair some of the Hagar stuff is ok, "When It's Love" and I like other tracks from that era, but their peak was with Roth. When they did those new tracks with Roth there was definately a touch of the vibe there that was very like the old stuff. These days every new album they out out seems to be worse then the previous one, that last one was abysmal. EVH playing doesn't seem to have the vibe or fire it did in the past earlier.
 
dmpoole said:
Can you remember when somebody chucked a bottle at DLR and he stopped the song (I'm On Fire)? He then pointed out the guy and said "I know who you are and after the show I'm going to **** your girlfriend" and they continued with the song after a count in. I thought that was the best putdown ever.
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if that actually happened it raises the awesomeness of DLR tenfold!


i really like van halen, got a couple of their albums but i havent listened to them for ages!

i always find it amusing when people say eruption is the hardest solo in the world, they are right, but for the wrong reasons.... its so hard to play because after about 8 bars you want to shoot yourself :(
 
Its usually on the top 10 of songs that are banned in guitar shops. :D I don't think its that bad myself, but I wouldn't listen to it that often as its just really an exercise in tapping.
 
Makavelli said:
nero - just noticed your Way of the Exploding Fist banner - nice one. Takes me back to my speccy days
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Heh heh! Thanks! It's actually from IK+ but I loved WOTEF as well! IK+ clinched it with the digitised sound from 'Enter the Dragon' though! :)

My fav Van Halen track has to be Unchained followed closely by panama and jump! So many great tracks though. Only really listen to early DLR van halen.
 
Sparky191 said:
They had keyboards before Hagar. Jump is practically all keyboards and that was with DLR. EVH started out on the piano.
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Silly me - I even have a version of me doing it. Jump (1m) (Quite proud of that)
What I meant to say was that keyboards became more prominent with Hagar.
EVH realised that he could play keyboards because he had now got a guitarist on stage to fill around him.
Watch VH concerts pre Hagar and there was no keyboards except for Jump, pre 1984 there wer no keyboards and then watch concerts with Hagar and you're shouting at EVH to get off the keyboard.
 
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