You are exactly right about it being more dark and less party and this is my favorite song on that album.
The key to me was, especially with DLR, they sounded and looked like they were having FUN. EVH’s smile was great.
He was a fantastic song writer, producer, keyboard/syth/pianist, and an extraordinarily gifted guitarist. He really changed how everything was done after him. He even changed the types of bands that got record deals. What an awful loss to the music world.
You'd think that Van Halen and Harrison would be warnings enough, but vaping and continued use of tobacco products has not abated. You need to witness the ravages of head and neck cancers up close and personal as I did during my professional career to have reality bite. Be forewarned.............Doc
Nicotine should be outlawed or be a prescription drug only.... Cigarette smoking is a stupid,stupid habit that is only acquired through marketing and peer pressure.
R.I.P. Eddie, what a talent! Lung cancer is a cruel disease. I have watched it take good friends, relatives and without the burden of COPD John Prine might have beat Covid. Damn.
I lost 3 of my grandparents (2 in their early 60s, one in their 70s) from smoking related cancers.. it sucks. Smoking sucks, and the addiction sucks
So sad. He was the first shredder, and still the best. I've never been a fan of shred guitarists but Eddie was different. He wasn't all about playing the most notes per minute, he was everything you could want in a guitar player. I think the thing that drew so many to Van Halen was Eddies shear joy of playing guitar. Never saw him without that huge grin on his face. He made smiling on stage cool. RIP EVH!
Just watching some letterman YouTube videos of him jamming with the band and his tone,picking,and notes sound so good,so fresh and ripping.
For the last 38 years whenever I heard or saw new guitarists I always compared and used evh as the bar.I sort of see evh and vh as the overlords of the whole hard rock scene post-1977...It's hard to imagine not seeing his face pop up for interview s or media anymore.
This was a bad week atop of everything else we're faced with, loosing Eddie from our musical world was a major shock. I know a lot of members here are younger players and that's great, but to us more seniors, loosing someone your own age who you grew up with feels like I'm getting closer to the end of my book.
Like countless others I've gone back to his records and the thing that totally stuns me is how much he was a "natural". One of perhaps 3-4 in history. The only others that come to mind right now as I write are Django and Wes. His musical ideas flow, defying every convention of structure, style, harmony. Harmony! He is totally out most of the time floating above the song structure and then in a flash he's back in, then he zips out again. It's not the speed. It's the damn music and it's as if he hadn't learned it (although Lord knows the countless hours he must have spent with his instrument day in, day out). Not to mention the badass rhythm guitar player and riff-maker he was. What a loss to music. And still the loss of the man may be even greater. With love, Eddie.
A Little Interesting Tid bit here from Steve Vai ---> This would be a very interesting story for guitar players, I think: I was at my house in Hollywood, and in my studio, I was using my guitar, my rig, my pedals, my amps. And Edward came in. We were just hanging out and talking, and he says to me, “Let me show you this one thing I was working on.” And he takes my guitar and he starts playing and I realized instantly that it was Edward Van Halen. It didn’t sound anything like me. It had that “brown sound.” It was everything we love about Ed’s tone. He was playing my exact gear, and it sounded like him. Of course, I could never play like him. I never tried. Only an idiot competes with Eddie Van Halen Steve Vai
