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RIP Eddie Van Halen, dead at 65 (1 Viewer)

Sullie said:
So, I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was 10 years old, me, my brother and some of the neighborhood kids used to throw up a huge giant tent in our backyard and we would camp out, run around the neighborhood like idiots, etc.  And one of the guys brought a little AM/FM radio and we had the local FM rock station playing.  Of course, all the usual rock from 1978 was on, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Boston, The Who, pretty much all the classic rock from back then but then, out of nowhere, comes "Eruption/Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen and I remember being absolutely, blown away by it.  It wasn't just incredible, it was mind blowing to me, maybe I didn't get out much but it sounded like absolutely nothing I had ever heard of up to that point.  But the combination of those two songs made such an impact on me that I'm pretty certain, Van Halen I was one of the first audio cassettes (and it would end up being one of many that I would purchase because I so often wore them out) I ever bought and I would go so far as to say that Van Halen (at that time) really turned me on to buying music.  I remember listening to those early Van Halen albums over and over again. 

I don't think there are many guitarists I feel as strongly as I do about Jimi Hendrix but I would put Eddie Van Halen right up there on the same level as Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan is another one I feel pretty strongly about, just absolute masters of their crafts.  Damn this really sucks.  I don't really ever get worked up about celebrities passing but this one and Neil Peart passing this year really hurt, definitely an end of an era.
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I'm a few years older, 14 in '78 and yeah it was an explosion when that album came out. It really was like everything changed overnight. I would assume the only thing close was Hendrix when he burst onto the scene. 

 
facook said:
Literal chills at the sound of those keys.
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As a Howard Stern fan the song Dreams always stuck with me because when Artie finally broke down and admitted he was back on heroin and left the studio, they cut to a break and just played this song out which apparently made Artie cry even more. 

I don't know. It's such a good song. Not musically complex, but spiritually uplifting. 

 
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Very sad, too young.  But he produced a lot of great music and left his mark on the world.  RIP Eddie.  

 
got ozzies bone yard on, great memorial ongoing. Picked up some pliny the elders and gonna listen to the master 

 
I will always remember Van Halen from my jr. high days and the kids I used to hang around with every time I hear a Van Halen song.  Weird how songs will take you back to an exact moment in time.  I remember listening to my walkman with VH playing while we sat around the outside of the jr high cafeteria talking about girls or whatever.  Makes me feel old when a part of my childhood passes on.  I rank this one up with MCA from the Beastie Boys passing for me ... both musicians were so intertwined in my youth.

RIP

Suck a D Cancer.

 
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This really sucks for me.  VH is my absolute favorite.  I loved them with DLR and SH.

It was the whole package to me.  VH was ingrained in my adolescence and young adulthood.

The videos, Jump,  Hot for Teacher, Panama.  

His music injected into movies , The Wild Life (you can hear future VH tunes in the background music), Better off Dead,  Back to the Future, Weird Science..  Bill and Ted, Twister

The solo on Beat it.

Never to be duplicated.  Thanks for all the memories.  RIP.

 
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Never got to see VH with Roth, but saw them 3 times with Hagar.  Best of the 3 was July 4th, 1993 at the Weedsport racetrack in NY.  The all-american band on the 4th of July...so perfect and so much fun.  The band was having a blast too...fireworks going off as they were finishing the set, and they were walking off the stage, Eddie ran back up to the mic and said he didn't want to go home and the other guys dragged him off smiling.  Just a great time.  

RIP EVH.  Thanks for the music and the memories.  

 
Van Halen 1 (?) was the first album my mom ever bought for me.  Never forget being in Kmart with her and asked and couldn't believe it when she said yes.  A month later my room was decorated with cutouts of the crew from the various rock magazines of the time.  It's a great memory and happy I got to see them live once in my life.  :(

 
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I am utterly speechless. Can't believe Eddie is gone. I am grasping at things to say I am so shocked and sad.

There are just a handful of guitarists, if that, who when you hear them, they instantly change the way you hear the instrument, that go beyond having a signature style and literally change the shape of how that instrument can be played or heard, and mold the music around their extraordinary talent.

RIP. 

 
jamny said:
I'm a few years older, 14 in '78 and yeah it was an explosion when that album came out. It really was like everything changed overnight. I would assume the only thing close was Hendrix when he burst onto the scene. 
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I was 12 in 78, and I agree - Eddie's guitar was like music from another planet.

 
Pretty gutted as he’s much younger than the rock stars that should be dying now. Loved Van Halen as a kid and coincidentally I’ve been listening to them a lot in recent months - and now that will continue.

 
:sadbanana:  Friend and I talked a lot about how many hours we spent driving around listening to VH in high school. Tough one.

 
1984 hit when I was 13. I went back to buy all their previous albums when I hit high school.

:(

i still love ice cream man damn it!!

 
I've gone through numerous versions of tapes & CDs (yea I'm old, got vinyl too) from playing VH so much.  Best friend from HS texted me around 3 & shut my day down.  Bit my tongue telling my wife who of course knew what it meant to me.

Jim Kelly had celebrity softball games up here back in the Bills glory days.  I'm not one to go things like that as a spectator (as a FBG I only roll as a VIP, but I was just out of college).  However, Jim had befriended Eddie through golf tourneys & Eddie attended.  He didn't play, but was on field & you could tell from athletes that he was biggest star.  Bruce, Thurman, Bennet there along with Boomer Esiason, Marino, etc. (as an aside, will never forget most impressive at plate was Tasker).  After game all players & VIPs went to tent for food & drinks. I snuck around fence to where I could just see inside.  Lots of loud chatter for a bit & then Eddie starts noodling & place goes silent. 

 
Had the radio tuned to our local rock and roll station on the way home yesterday.

I bet I heard no less than 5 other cars jamming to Van Halen on the 15 minute drive - at the stoplights, stop signs, driving near other cars with the windows rolled down. Brought a smile to my face.

Also got to explain to my 15 year old son, who was in the car with me, about Van Halen and how awesome they were. Of course the radio then plays Eruption, so I crank that baby up and we jam to that and You Really Got Me the rest of the way.

It was awesome.  :headbang:

 
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ChiefD said:
Had the radio tuned to our local rock and roll station on the way home yesterday.

I bet I heard no less than 5 other cars jamming to Van Halen on the 15 minute drive - at the stoplights, stop signs, driving near other cars with the windows rolled down. Brought a smile to my face.

Also got to explain to my 15 year old son, who was in the car with me, about Van Halen and how awesome they were. Of course the radio then plays Eruption, so I crank that baby up and we jam to that and You Really Got Me the rest of the way.

It was awesome.  :headbang:
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Jump came on as me and my daughter rolled up to practice.  She liked it which was surprising :)

I know it was the Kinks and it was a controversial cover but I love You Really Got Me - VH version

https://youtu.be/9X6e7uctAww

 
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Even though VH was the soundtrack to my junior high/high school years, I've had a bit of a falling out with their sound the last few years.

Doesn't change the fact that EVH brought years and years of enjoyment to my friends and me. 1984 was, and is, still a perfect rock album. 

Jump was simultaneously the high water mark for Van Halen and Western Civilization itself. Everything has kind of gone downhill since then.  

 
Still listening to VH today.   Wonder how many days that will continue to get this out of my system.  I still remember listening to a lot of Cash and Petty after their deaths.   You really have a new appreciation for the greats once they are gone.  

Eddie is just so damn smooth on guitar.   It’s ridiculous really.   I got to see VH in 86 and about 2010.   I recall finding myself focusing on Eddie for big chunks of time in amazement.   

 
CGRdrJoe said:
got ozzies bone yard on, great memorial ongoing. Picked up some pliny the elders and gonna listen to the master 
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Deep Tracks (ch 27) is doing a tribute to VH all day.  It's awesome and so sad at the same time.

 
How Eddie Van Halen transformed Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'

Eddie Van Halen made rock history when he added 20 scorching seconds to Michael Jackson's “Beat It.”

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

October 6, 2020, 5:44 PM

• 3 min read

The Associated Press

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Van Ha...Read More

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen performs in Phoenix. Van Halen, who had battled mouth cancer, died Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. He was 65. (AP Photo/Tom Hood, File)

NEW YORK -- Before Eddie Van Halen agreed to add a guitar break to Michael Jackson's “Beat It,” one of the most famous cameos in rock history, he had to be sure the phone call from producer Quincy Jones wasn't a practical joke.

“I went off on him. I went, ‘What do you want, you f-ing so-and-so!,’” Van Halen told CNN in 2012, 30 years after he worked on the song. "And he goes, ‘Is this Eddie?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what the hell do you want?’ ‘This is Quincy.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know anyone named Quincy.’ He goes, ‘Quincy Jones, man.’ I went, ‘Ohhh, sorry!’”

Van Halen, who died Tuesday at age 65, needed less than an hour in the studio and 20 scorching seconds on record to join white heavy metal to Black pop at a time when they seemed in entirely different worlds, when the young MTV channel rarely aired videos by Black artists. “Beat It” became one of the signature tracks on Jackson's mega-selling “Thriller” album, won Grammys in 1984 for record of the year and male rock vocal performance and helped open up MTV's programming.

Van Halen himself would admit he was initially skeptical of contributing to Jackson's album, wondering how much he had in common with a singer he remembered for chanting “A-B-C, easy as 1-2-3.” But Jackson had written “Beat It” as a rock song, anchored by a hard and funky ruff by guitarist Steve Lukather. When Van Halen arrived at the studio in Los Angeles, Jones told him he could improvise. Van Halen listened to "Beat It," asked if he could rearrange the song and added a pair of solos during which, engineers would long swear, a speaker caught on fire.

As he was finishing, Jackson walked in.

“I didn’t know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, ‘Look, I changed the middle section of your song,’” Van Halen told CNN. "Now in my mind, he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, ‘Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.’”

Van Halen worked for free, was not credited on the album and didn't appear in the video. But his touch was undisguisable. After the record's release, Van Halen would remember shopping in a Tower Records while “Beat It” was playing on the sound system.

"The solo comes on, and I hear these kids in front of me going, 'Listen to this guy trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen,'” he said. “I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘That IS me!’ That was hilarious

 
belljr said:
1984 hit when I was 13. I went back to buy all their previous albums when I hit high school.

:(

i still love ice cream man damn it!!
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I did the same thing.  Didn't dig very deep on music about then.  Jump got my attention and loved 1984 from that.  I was at a friend's house and when he found out i loved Jump, he basically put Van Halen on said to shut up and listen.  Started with Eruption and my mind blew.  I remember sitting there.  Bought II and Fair Warning immediately. 

 
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