It literally took my breath away when I read the headline “R.I.P Eddie Van Halen” this afternoon. As a teen in the 80s, Van Halen was a major, major part of my adolescent years. I always planned to see VH in concert but, alas, never really got the chance in Boise, Idaho.
It’s definitely not their most well-known or regarded album, but Women and Children First was my life. I’d play the song “Fools” over and over on repeat after a bad day dealing with assholes. The whole album spoke to me; not a single track that wasn’t a classic.
Sorry to all the Over the Top fans, but the best scene in movie history set to a Van Halen song is from Better Off Dead.
I bought the digital “Deluxe Edition” of A Different Kind of Truth when it was released. It included videos of acoustic versions of Panama and Beautiful Girls, which were really great. Just Eddie, Dave and Wolfgang hanging out and having a great time playing a couple of their classics, no frills. You can’t say that he wasn’t a true musician.
Quincy Jones always knew what he was doing. I’m sure he would’ve flown Eddie in if he had needed to. But Thriller was recorded in LA, he didn’t even need to make a long-distance call to make the deal.
I mean, it’s 1982 and you’re setting out to create the biggest album of your career with one of the greatest performers the world has ever known and you have the insight to make one of the tracks a rock and roll song. I mean, I’m hard pressed to imagine that Jones would even have had a second pick when it came to hiring Beat It’s guitarist. (although come to think of it, Prince certainly could’ve handled it. but EVH particularly really owned the hard rock sound of the time.)
Definitely a massively influential part of my young life. I still make my kids listen to Panama. I was blown away the first time I heard Running with the Devil.
I’m not going to say that Eddie died young - he lived big for a long time. But his influence will be felt for a long time yet.
i love those sort of stories, where circles overlap. i have a current friend (who i met on twitter, of all places) who lived in Littleton at the same time, not far from me, but we never met before until now. we have SO MUCH in common, it’s like we grew up together.*
you were definitely much cooler than me. i didn’t clue in to DEVO and the Surfers for years and years. i was the typical classic rock stoner until after high school.
*EDIT: i want to make clear, we are friends now in the meatspace, not just online. he lives in Reno, like i do, and we met here a couple years ago, after following each other on twitter for awhile.
I also just want to say I’ve always loved Dance the Night Away because it has such a melancholy sound, for a pop song from a party band about dancing that isn’t really danceable.
It’s hard to overstate just how much of a major influence he was on rock and roll. I would argue perhaps the biggest since Hendrix. The kind of tapping runs he’s known for are everywhere in metal and hard rock today, but the first time people heard Eruption, it was just like WHAT. WAS. THAT?!?
As a long-haired kid with an electric guitar in the 80s, stating my fondness for VH in this thread would just be redundant. What I came here to say though, was that as my tastes have become less metal, less rock, less white, etc., Van Halen remains some of the only music of the era and genre that I still truly appreciate, instead of just reminisce to.
Also:
Robert Johnson
Charlie Christian
T-Bone Walker
Les Paul
Peter Green
Syd Barrett
T-Bone Walker
Mike Bloomfield
Django Reinhardt
Roy Clark
Tommy Tedesco
etc…
oh, wow. no wonder. I had no idea Quincy Jones produced any rock acts. my mental map of his career was jazz piano→arranger→movie and tv scores→Off the Wall→Thriller→label impresario/whatever the hell he damn well pleased.
I read this elsewhere but I’ve not been able to come up with any citation that its true, other than Van Halen also working on the Thriller album with Jones.
