Van Halen Not Talkin Bout Love

October 7, 2020 x:25AM

Eddie Van Halen's twenty Greatest Solos

"Eruption," "Panama," "Correct Now" and more — the quintessential modern guitar god's most memorable 6-string feats

It's hard to imagine what rock & coil would sound like without Eddie Van Halen. Similar Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton before him, he unmarried-handedly (or perhaps, in his case,double-handedly) changed the vocabulary of guitar for a generation. His pyrotechnic finger-tapping, elastic dive-bombs, and bursts of melody redefined the guitar solo and inspired legions of copycats in the procedure. But no affair what he was playing, he did information technology with middle. To honor the tardily guitar hero, who died Tuesday at age 65, we've selected 20 of his greatest solos — from unforgettable licks to genuine "how'd he practise that?" head-scratchers — that show off his brilliance.

From Rolling Stone United states

The fourth single from Van Halen's debut and a fan favorite to this day, "Own't Talkin' 'Tour Love," was originally written as a tossed-off parody of the nascent punk motion. "It was a stupid thing to us — just ii chords," Eddie Van Halen revealed to Guitar World. In keeping with the song's slash-and-burn down aesthetic, Van Halen laid off the pyrotechnics in the song'due south solo, delivering instead a ferocious, melodic drone (doubled with an electric sitar for added buzz) that would seem perfectly at home on a Sex Pistols or Buzzcocks anthology. Maybe that's why "Own't Talkin' 'Bout Dearest" would ultimately end up impacting the very genre information technology spoofed: Dark-green Twenty-four hours'southward Billie Joe Armstrong has often said that its solo was one of the commencement he e'er learned. T.B.

Caput over to YouTube and type in "Eruption Comprehend," and y'all'll discover 12-year-old kids that can rip through Eddie'southward signature one-minute-and-42-second solo with pinpoint accuracy. Which speaks less to the difficulty level of the instrumental, originally role of Eddie's pre-testify warm-up regimen, and more than to its condition every bit a modern-day musical standard.Indeed, it's only slight hyperbolic to say that there'southward rock-guitar soloing pre-"Eruption," so there's everything (the entire 1980s, for starters) that came after. The get-go one-half of the vocal is all big ability-chording and high-speed shredding (with a tip of the chapeau to Cactus' 1970 boogie-rocker "Allow Me Swim"), but and then Ed drops the A-flop: a series of cascading notation triads that he sounds using two-handed tapping — "like having a sixth finger on your left hand," he said — that are and so mesmeric, so live, it'southward as if you're witnessing him build a bridge to the future of guitar in existent time.Eddie, of class, wasn't the first person to ever tap a note on a fretboard, but, as he explained in 1978, other players "popped the finger on there to striking one notation. I said: 'Well, fuck, nobody is actually capitalizing on that. … So I started dickin' around, and said, 'Fuck! This is totally another technique that nobody really does.' Which information technology is. I haven't actually seen anyone get into that as far equally they could, because information technology is a totally dissimilar sound."That sound rearranged the Deoxyribonucleic acid of rock guitar forever. R.B.

The same month Van Halen was released, a immature Eddie was asked in one of his beginning interviews if there was a particular solo that stood out to him on the album. "I like 'I'm the One,' the boogie," he responded. It's not hard to see why. "Eruption" might be the Van Halen track that garners all the guitar glory, but for sheer rip-snorting half-dozen-string madness, "I'k the One" is tops. A bizzaro rock-r&b-boogie-blues-jazz-swing amalgam, the song whizzes by at a breakneck pace, with Eddie'due south guitar nimbly careening through the musical twists and turns and decimating the line betwixt rhythm and atomic number 82 playing in a blur of deep dive bombs, screeching choice slides, brain-scrambling finger taps, aggro riffing and chording, and superhuman shredding. Oh, yep — it was also "pretty much spontaneous," as Ed pointed out. It's enough to brand you lot howl with laughter — which, about 30 seconds in, David Lee Roth really does. R.B.

For the first minute or so, "Water ice Foam Human," a cover of a 1950s-era tune by Chicago bluesman John Brim, is pure DLR schtick, with the vocaliser'due south acoustic-guitar boogie and thinly veiled double entendres taking center stage in what appears to exist trivial more a deep-cut novelty track. Fifty-fifty after Michael Anthony and the Van Halen brothers join the party, it's strictly in service to Dave, who continues to chew the sonic scenery like only Dave tin. Until, that is, Eddie's atomic number 82 guitar comes in and completely dominates the proceedings. His opening lick, a flurry of notes that encompasses practically the entire upper octave of the fretboard, sounds every bit if it was actually launched from the heavens, earlier descending downward into the mix via a tangle of tapped, sliding notes and moaning dive-bombs. From there, he'due south off to the races with a dazzling display of juiced-up, futuristic blues shredding. Eddie once called "Ice Cream Man" a "change from the slam-bang loud stuff" that characterized Van Halen — which withal made it about 50 percent more slam-bang than just about anything else on offering in 1978. R.B.

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An unusual cover pick from a band that made something of a addiction of them, "Yous're No Good" was written by Clint Ballard Jr. and sung, in its most famous class, by Linda Ronstadt. For the leadoff track on Van Halen Ii, the band slowed information technology down and heavied information technology up, outfitting it with crushing power chords and Roth'south vocal caterwauls. Eddie, meanwhile, goes all out on the solo, attacking the tune with screaming whammy-bar pulls and dips, cascading percussive harmonics, loopy octave taps and sprinting runs up the guitar neck. If the end issue sounds like nothing then much equally a faithful Van Halen song, there's a reason for it: "I've never actually heard the original," Eddie once admitted. R.B.

Eddie Van Halen rarely cites the influence of other players, but when he does, the nod invariably goes to Eric Clapton — and more specifically, to Cream-era Clapton. "His early stuff is what inspired me to pick up a guitar," Van Halen told Rolling Stone in 2015. "What I really liked was Foam's live recordings, considering y'all could hear the three guys iii guys merely play." And while Van Halen, the band, had four members, at its cadre is a virtuosic power trio created in the image of the guitarist's heroes. The zeal with which Eddie, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony assault instrumental interludes is no more than evident than during the extended solo department of Van Halen 2'due south "Somebody Get Me a Doctor." The guitarist's volume swells, swaggering dejection runs and harmonic flurries are only slightly more thrilling than the spectacular swing and power with which the rhythm section supports him. T.B.

He would eventually settle on the guitar, but Eddie Van Halen began his musical journey every bit an aspiring concert pianist. He would put those classical chops to good use while composing Van Halen II's "Spanish Fly," a minute-long "Ed-tude" for solo nylon-string guitar that features a combination of the guitarist'due south trademark two handed-tapping and lightning fast flamenco-esque note flurries. An inspired piece of music, "Spanish Fly" was also a warning shot fired to remind the legions of hard-rock guitarists who were commencement to imitate his playing style that he could transcend the genre at will. Time to come Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, for ane, got the message. "The first fourth dimension I heard 'Spanish Fly,' I retrieve thinking, How can anybody get that fuckin' good?" he says in Abel Sanchez' Van Halen 101. "It was across insane." T.B.

Along with the last 45 seconds of "Eruption," the first 30 of "Hateful Street" — in which Eddie unleashes a sort of "funk-slap" version of two-handed tapping — is maybe the most often-attempted EVH-ism by budding guitarists (and, manifestly, accomplished keyboardists). Which serves to overshadow the fact that the actual solo in "Mean Street" is a scorcher. Intro'd by a screaming, sky-loftier wail and punctuated throughout with notes that quiver, stutter and convulse within of longer runs and phrases, the atomic number 82 adds some other layer of unease to what is already a dark and tense atmosphere. Regarding the aggressive nature of the solo, Eddie in one case commented, "I wasn't trying to be mad, but it simply seemed to fit." R.B.

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Steve Lukather of Toto was the chief guitarist on Michael Jackson'due south epochal Thriller album, simply when it came time to tape the solo for "Beat Information technology," producer Quincy Jones had only one actor in mind: Eddie Van Halen. When Van Halen arrived for the session, Jackson was working in an bordering studio and the guitarist convinced Jones to reconfigure the vocal'due south arrangement to arrange his idea for a solo. "I was just finishing my second take when Michael walked in," Van Halen told CNN in 2012. "Now in my listen, he's either going to have his bodyguards boot me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. He gave it a listen, turned to me and went, 'Wow, give thanks y'all so much for having the passion to not simply come in and bonfire a solo, but to really brand the sing better.'" The seminal mashup concluded up benefitting both parties involved: Jackson had a Number Ane hitting, and Eddie Van Halen, who was already a heavy-metal hero, became a bona fide rock star. T.B.

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"Push Comes to Shove" was "Roth'southward idea of trying to greenbacks in on the reggae thing," as Eddie told Billy Corgan in a joint 1996 Guitar World interview. And while it misses that mark past a wide margin, it's still a pretty killer melody, all hushed vocals, prowling, disco-dude bass and skittering, darkly atmospheric guitar. The high point is unquestionably Ed'south solo, which, like the remainder of the song, pretty much ignores any hint of reggae, this fourth dimension in favor of a jazz-fusion–y approach, alternate blazing, Al Di Meola–like runs with smooth, Allan Holdsworth–esque legato lines and long notes that dip and soar through the mix. The lead was one Eddie was conspicuously proud of, telling Corgan, "That song has an incredible guitar solo! I'll never forget that one." R.B.

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Diver Down was hardly an creative high point for Van Halen. The 30-minute 1982 anthology is a blitz job padded with no less than five embrace songs, including a soused a cappella version of Dale Evans' "Happy Trails." Information technology does, yet, boast a few VH gems, among them, "Cathedral," i of Eddie Van Halen's nearly historic instrumental pieces. To create the track'southward ethereal throb, Van Halen plugged an old Fender Stratocaster into an echo unit and manipulated the way the device repeated the notes to generate haunting, pulsating, organ-like tones that sound similar they're emanating from a cavernous house of worship. Equally for how the song got its championship, David Lee Roth was more than happy to share his version of events in a 1982 interview with Creem. "Eddie came into the studio with that and I said, 'That sounds similar Bach, y'all could play information technology on the organ,'" Roth said. "Eddie was like 'Bach who?' I was like, 'Don't worry about it, Eddie, name it something churchy and it volition fit.'" T.B.

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Given the level of sexual innuendo contained it its lyrics, the coincidental listener would exist forgiven for thinking that "Panama," the third single from Van Halen's 1984, was inspired by a debauched night of backstage partying in Primal America. But information technology's actually about a automobile — not "California Daughter," David Lee Roth's heavily customized 1951 Mercury that he drives in the brilliantly disjointed "Panama" video, but "Panama Limited" a race car that one time caught the singer's centre at a Las Vegas rails. Eddie Van Halen's solo is appropriately revved up, featuring Chuck Berry–inspired double stops that accelerate into a series of high-test tapping licks. And the guitarist didn't stop there: concerned that his usual whammy-bar–powered ersatz engine growls wouldn't adequately punctuate the song's breakup, Van Halen backed his 1972 Lamborghini, which he once referred to in Autoweek as a "go-kart with 12-cylinder carbs," upwards to the studio and recorded the sound of the engine screaming into the crimson zone. T.B.

"Drop Expressionless Legs" is 1 of those Van Halen songs that even the coincidental fan recognizes, despite the fact that it was never released as a unmarried and wasn't performed live by the band until their 2015 tour. But while the nearly identifiable components are Eddie's syncopated single-note riffs and the rhythm section's AC/DC-ish stomp, the real gem is the minute-or-so outro solo that shows Ed tossing out some truly out-at that place phrases and licks, not to mention plenty of whammy bar squeals, squiggles and flutters. "That ride out solo was very much inspired by [fusion guitar hero] Allan Holdsworth," Ed said. "I was playing whatever I wanted similar jazz — a bunch of wrong notes here and in that location — but it seemed to work." It's a more restrained and exploratory EVH lead, merely i that is still a thrill-a-second ride. R.B.

"'Hot for Teacher' is beyond any boogie I've always heard," Eddie Van Halen told Guitar World in 1995. The usually understated guitarist isn't boasting every bit much as testifying to the whole truth; this is A+ cloth, from the moment that Alex Van Halen kicks into the song'southward trademark drum rumble to almost 5 minutes later, when the track reaches its gonzo conclusion. The vocal's pubescent fantasy of a video, in which each band member is shadowed by his pre-teen doppelganger and a bikini-clad homeroom instructor gyrates on her desk, secured "Teacher" a spot in the pop-civilization firmament — information technology's gotten the Glee treatment likewise as existence covered on South Park — simply information technology's Eddie'south jaw-dropping pb break, which builds intensity and swagger for an astounding 32 bars, that earns the vocal extra credit amid the world's aspiring shredders. T.B.

Although "Jump" would go Van Halen's first (and only) Number One single, it took Eddie Van Halen several years to sell the keyboard-heavy track to his bandmates. "When I first played 'Jump' for the band, nobody wanted to have annihilation to practise with it," Van Halen told writer Chris Gill in 2014. "Dave said that I was a guitar hero and I shouldn't exist playing keyboards. My response was if I want to play a tuba or Bavarian cheese whistle, I will do it." The guitarist wasn't totally indifferent to alienating his base of operations, so Van Halen made sure that "Leap" featured one his virtually succinct and well-constructed guitar leads to engagement … and then defiantly followed it with an as inspired keyboard solo that established him as a master of not 1, but two instruments, cheese whistle even so. T.B.

Emboldened by the success of 1984's "Jump," Eddie Van Halen doubled downwards on the keyboards for 5150, the grouping's commencement album after the departure of David Lee Roth. "Dreams" is one of these synthesizer-driven numbers, a slab of anthemic middle-of-the-road stone over which new vocalist Sammy Hagar ably demonstrates that where conventional vocal chops and range were concerned, he left his more than stylized predecessor in the dust. Van Halen'due south solo is also more than conventional than what his fans might accept been accustomed to but demonstrates a restraint and total command of melody and structure that weren't always evident in his earlier piece of work. "I feel similar I'yard much more vocal-oriented at present," he told BAM around the fourth dimension of 5150'south release. "When you first commencement out, you lot want to practise all the technique shit, but I think I've gotten to the bespeak where playing guitar means more than simply playing fast and beingness a gunslinger." T.B.

OU812, released in 1988, sees Eddie & Co. refining the more than layered, keyboard-supported commercial-stone audio that would characterize most of vocalist Sammy Hagar'southward tenure with the ring. It also shows the group making a concerted try to distance themselves from the scores of "hair metallic" groups — largely created in the prototype of David Lee Roth–era Van Halen — that had taken over both MTV and the charts at the time. But for skillful measure, Eddie would occasionally remind his audience that although he had chosen a dissimilar musical path, he would ever remain a towering presence in the flashy solo set. To that end, Van Halen unpacks his entire purse of tricks — from whammy-bar dives and speed-picking to 2-handed borer acrobatics — for the solo of "Mine All Mine," and you tin can feel the shadow that he casts abound simply a little bigger with each note. T.B.

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Sammy Hagar in one case said "Right Now" came most because "Eddie and I wanted to get serious and talk well-nigh world issues." Which, admittedly, is just about the last thing you'd ever want to hear from Van Halen. Furthermore, all that adulting — Hagar's overly sincere lyrics; Eddie's similarly serious-sounding keyboard tinklings; a message-heavy video — merely served to overshadow the fact that the vocal (which, information technology should be noted, hails from an album named F.U.C.K.) houses a pretty awesome solo, one that whips together wink moves (i.east., siren-similar compression harmonics) with melodic licks and phrases in a tight, pop-single–advisable eight-bar format. Information technology's the kind of guitar lead yous could sing — although you'd probably sound like a blubbering bedlamite if you tried. R.B.

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One of the last gasps of Van Hagar, "Humans Being" was written and recorded at a time when the band and its singer were at loggerheads. And make no fault — Twister soundtrack contribution "Humans Beingness" is far from an A-level Van Halen song. The solo, on the other hand, is pretty stellar, kicking off with a hooky eight-bar segment chock total of trademark Eddie-isms, from tapped passages to whammy-bar squeals, before downshifting into a longer and looser instrumental section that comes off like a more languid take on the "nosotros're runnin' a little bit hot tonight" breakdown in "Panama," and that'due south studded with sliding octaves and police-siren–like dissonance. What's more than, afterwards on in the song Ed reprises the entire first part of the solo verbatim, just for the hell of information technology. "Humans Being" hit Number 1 on Billboard'south Mainstream Rock Songs chart in May of 1996; roughly three weeks later, Hagar was out of the band. R.B.

Similar to Women and Children Beginning'due south "Romeo Delight," the rampaging "People's republic of china Boondocks" finds Van Halen playing information technology fast and heavy just 'cause they can. Which also means that, in classic VH style, the solo is pure Eddie unleashed — and, in some spots, near playful, from the "horse whinny" whammy-bar manipulations that crop up in his master solo and outro pb, to the loopy guitar-and-bass unison tapping phrases that kicking off the tune and reappear later on. "A lot of people thought that I used a harmonizer or octave box on the intro to that song, simply that is just [bassist] Wolfgang [Van Halen] and me," Ed told Guitar Globe. The song is probably as much fun to play as it is to heed to, which made information technology one of the few A Different Kind of Truth cuts to exist performed regularly on Van Halen'southward 2012 and 2015 tours. T.B.