16 ms·

Eddie Van Halen has died

612 points by psim1 6y ago

vondur 6y ago
Sad news, he was one of the best rock guitar players of all time. So many good songs covering 4 decades. RIP.
- matchbok 6y ago
  You mean, people who understand science? What is the point of your comment?
MrMetlHed 6y ago
I saw on Twitter he has a patent for a guitar... "support device" that includes the greatest patent image I've ever seen: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656917A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656917A/en
- gumby 6y ago
  > "thus allowing the player to create new techniques and sounds previously unknown to any player" Not including players of the pedal steel. But that's the patent system for you. In any case it's all about what you do with it.
  - oxymoran 6y ago
    That’s like comparing a turn table used for DJ’ing to a record player used to just listen to records. Completely different application, accessories, and technique.
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      Perhaps, but modern decks have lots of features that record players don't have like effects and EQ. In this case the patented device is basically played in the same way (or can be) just in a different place. It's intended to be for tapping but that's a common pedal steel technique
      - caseyohara 6y ago
        This is really pedantic, but even in a modern DJ setup the effects and EQ are part of the mixer, not the turntable. The mixer is separate from the turntables, it's the thing with the knobs and faders usually between two turntables. Even modern DJ turntables are still very, very basic: https://www.technics.com/us/products/dj-series/direct-drive-turntable-system-sl-1200mk7.html https://www.technics.com/us/products/dj-series/direct-drive-... They are just more rugged than your everyday home listening record player.
        vict00ms 6y ago
        Your pedantry is outdated: there are Serato-compatible decks that have MIDI pads built into them, not everything is trying to mimic the SL-1200s aesthetic these days.
      - lilSebastian 6y ago
        Decks have neither of the examples you claim. Are you confusing an deck with a mixer, sometimes referred to as a mixing desk (though incorrectly)?
        mhh__ 6y ago
        https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-gb/product/controller/ddj-400/black/overview/ https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-gb/product/controller/ddj-400/b...
        caseyohara 6y ago
        That's not a record player though, that's a DJ controller. Very different.
        mhh__ 6y ago
        The parent comment was comparing DJ equipment to a record player (to this patent), which I feel is a poor example because modern DJ equipment almost always has different equipment too rather even if you could technically do it with a fader and some record players (as in at a gig, I'm aware people still mix on vinyl - pretentious as it can be). The patented guitar thing is literally played the same way but in a different place, which I think should really be considered prior art unless the fashion aspect is considered rather than purely functionality.
    - jjulius 6y ago
      Not really. The patent just takes the guitar and stabilizes it in a horizontal position, instead of a vertical position, allowing you to do something different with the same instrument. Nothing about the guitar itself changes whatsoever, but the orientation provides for the guitar to be used differently. The better analogy would be, say, if you took an SL-1200 (a turntable manufactured for DJ'ing) and it rotated it "battle style" - same instrument, same accessories, but a different orientation resulting in a fundamentally different use of the device.
      - crmd 6y ago
        I’m not a fan of battle style but is it really fundamentally different? Eddie’s patent is more like rotating the deck about the z axis and holding it like a guitar. Which would be pretty cool and ridiculous come to think of it :-)
        munificent 6y ago
        > I’m not a fan of battle style but is it really fundamentally different? It gets the tone arm out of the way, which is what makes scratching a lot more feasible.
        jjulius 6y ago
        That, and the footprint of a setup is reduced when decks are placed battle style. This is important because turntablism requires a lot of very quick manipulation of both decks and mixer, and it's easier to do this if everything is a lot more compact. That's also why you typically see turntablists using a simple, small two-channel mixer while other DJs tend to employ wider, bulkier 4+-channel mixers. To OP's point I could've maybe dropped the word "fundamentally" in my post because at the end of the day the fundamentals remain the same, as do the fundamentals of the guitar in the patent vs regular use.
        paljasma 6y ago
        It is possible to scratch the sl-1200/sl-1210 at 90 degree angle and at 180 degree angle, by Dj Marky: https://youtu.be/wA5b_AOjrI8 https://youtu.be/wA5b_AOjrI8 https://youtu.be/6z63irhX6Qs https://youtu.be/6z63irhX6Qs
    - leptons 6y ago
      The analogy does not hold up. There are quite a lot of differences between a "pedal steel" guitar, and an electric guitar. First, electric guitars do not have pedals. Pedal steel guitars do not have a resonating wood body. They produce very different sounds in very different ways.
      - gumby 6y ago
        Of course they do but the description described "techniques"; he's talking about a horizontal guitar play style. As my comment said I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the patent itself (and really the claims are the thing) just saying that that part of the description is probably wrong. And that the patent system doesn't care. FWIW all the pedal steel guitars I've ever seen are in fact electric guitars... but I know what you meant.
        hanklazard 6y ago
        From the image, it looks like it’s intended to be used specifically for two-handed tapping, which was made famous by Van Halen and not commonly used (or at all) in pedal steel playing. Not sure if that would be unique enough to qualify for patent or not. https://youtu.be/z_lwocmL9dQ https://youtu.be/z_lwocmL9dQ
        Exmoor 6y ago
        To my knowledge, steel guitars typically don't even have frets, so it would be essentially impossible.
        sheriff 6y ago
        I play both guitar and pedal steel. The tapping techniques that would be used on a horizontal 6-string guitar would be impractical on a steel guitar (lap or pedal) because the action is too high and there are no frets.
    - sneak 6y ago
      I don’t think that’s true at all. The standard DJ turntable (SL-1200/1210) has no specific features for DJing. I use the exact same ones for “just listen[ing] to records”. Can’t speak to guitars or pedal steel, though.
  - uberdru 6y ago
    That would be Junior Brown's patent. . .
  - sosborn 6y ago
    To be pedantic, Pedal Steels are supported by legs like a table. You are probably thinking of lap steels. When played standing up, they are usually supported just by repositioning the strap.
    - gumby 6y ago
      An even better example I don't know why I spaced on it. Not that I'm complaining he was given a patent.
  - adrianmonk 6y ago
    Or you can just sit in a chair and stick a regular guitar in your lap, like lots of people have done. For example, Jeff Healey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgOUzodS6E&t=2m25s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgOUzodS6E&t=2m25s (Not trying to turn this into a competition, by the way. His style definitely seems like it was influenced by Van Halen.)
    - WalterSear 6y ago
      Or you could just play a stick. https://stick.com https://stick.com Fwiw, I would be surprised if Eddie Van Halen was not aware of the instrument, since they were invented in Southern California ~8 years before the release of "Van Halen".
      - tsimionescu 6y ago
        Unfortunately that site is using TLS 1.0/1.1 and won't open in modern Firefox...
  - beaugunderson 6y ago
    Eddie was a tapper, which is why this is innovative (not having to use your thumb to stabilize the neck opens up greater range of motion for tapping with the fingers). Very different method than pedal steel, which is always barred.
  - siltpotato 6y ago
    To be fair, pedal steels typically have their actions raised so high (deliberately) that tapping isn't possible.
- major505 6y ago
  very neat. Kind of turn the guitar into an a Pedal Steel guitar
- klodolph 6y ago
  The shoes Michael Jackson used for Smooth Criminal were patented as well. (And if we’re gonna talk about cool patents by entertainers, nothing’s gonna beat Hedy Lamarr’s work on spread spectrum communications.)
- rodolphoarruda 6y ago
  What strikes me: the one who draw the guitarist could have done it adding a neutral facial expression (e.g. a jazz musician) but, hell no!, the choice was for a shredding-guitar-solo rock expression. Nice.
  - deleted 6y ago
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  - tomcam 6y ago
    A twist on that is that when Eddie played he had a beatific smile, and never the twisted-face shredder guitar look.
  - m463 6y ago
    he could have made the 142 line ... different too.
- Uehreka 6y ago
  Also a great example of “Patent Hands”: https://5by5.tv/hypercritical/68 https://5by5.tv/hypercritical/68 (I’d link to the Flickr album with similar patent drawings involving hands, but it appears to be down)
- ghostpepper 6y ago
  Does anyone else find it strange that Van is actually a middle name, thus rendering his name as HALEN EDWARD VAN
  - guidedlight 6y ago
    “Van” is part of the surname. It means “of” or “from” in Dutch. It’s similar to “De” prefixed to Spanish surnames.
    - ThePadawan 6y ago
      Yes, but the patent application lists his name as "Halen Edward L Van". So apparently this was misfiled (under the last name "Halen") or filed correctly, just displayed weirdly on patents.google.com (since it appears correctly on the linked uspto.gov [0]). [0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&s1=4656917.PN http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H....
    - ghostpepper 6y ago
      So is the rendering on the patent application correct or incorrect?
  - mc32 6y ago
    His middle name was ‘Lodewijk’, ‘Van’ is just part of a compound last name like Von Richthofen or Fitz Patrick, O’Leary, Di Chirico, etc.
    - mcv 6y ago
      I'd heard before they were Dutch born, but still, to hear that Eddie Van Halen was actually called Edward Lodewijk van Halen makes him sound way more Dutch. And here I was thinking that Jan Akkerman was the best Dutch guitar player ever.
    - ghostpepper 6y ago
      So in that case, why does it make sense to split up a compound name?
- chaostheory 6y ago
  yeah he sells guitars that he's designed https://www.evhgear.com/ https://www.evhgear.com/
sali0 6y ago
2020 strikes again.
- khazhoux 6y ago
  You're being downvoted, but who can deny that this has been a harsh year? Normal life has disappeared, many of us can't even go outside for nearly two months due to fires, medical ignorance in the US is running rampant, the upcoming vote is already being tampered with... and as a reward, we get to see icons of our youth taken away.
- andrewinardeer 6y ago
  Just wait until you see what 2021 has in store.
jakeva 6y ago
Only 65. I grew up listening to Van Halen and spent a crazy amount of time trying to play guitar like Eddie. I think their first album was released when he was only 22. What a legend. What a life. Taken too soon. :(
- seattletech 6y ago
  Two bouts of cancer, tongue and then now throat...
ripeddie 6y ago
Thank god the covid assholes didn't blame his cancer on covid. So done with those fascist psychopaths.
murat124 6y ago
He was a GOAT guitarist and a nice fella. RIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8
ckastner 6y ago
The man was an absolute God with the guitar. The skill he demonstrated in this solo should be evident to anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9r-NxuYszg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9r-NxuYszg
- lsllc 6y ago
  The start of this, 3/16 is one of Eddie's most poignant pieces, it was named for the birth of his son Wolfgang: https://www.vhnd.com/2019/03/16/story-behind-van-halens-most-personal-song-316/ https://www.vhnd.com/2019/03/16/story-behind-van-halens-most...
vr46 6y ago
Ah man, their debut album stands out sonically to this day, it just blew a hole in the scene. RIP Eddie.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
i was never much of a fan of EVH, but i am a huge fan of a bunch of guitarists who would either not have existed (as guitarists) or who would have sounded very different if EVH had not done his thing. so thanks for that, EVH.
deleted 6y ago
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brtkdotse 6y ago
This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished. It also reminds me that Death just dragged another bead on his abacus and before long my bead will be up. Also, while I respect and admire what Eddie has done to further the art of playing electric guitar, I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  > This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished Then you need to stop wading in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world. In terms of just music alone, there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. Two generations or more of musical education where none really existed before, plus an entire generation that saw making a living as a musician as a possibility (whether or not that was true) has led to a situation where almost every town of 50k people or more has musicians in it who are as almost as good or better than any who ever lived. I am fairly confident that the same thing is true of writing, painting, photography, dance: the pool of talent is out there. If you're as old as you semi-suggest, it gets harder and harder to encounter it. I'm 57 and I have to work quite hard to ensure that I keep exposing myself to new artists and creatives - the natural tendency is to just look back on all the people I discovered between 17 and 27 and then lament them dying. Don't do it! YouTube is a miracle in this respect. There's so much incredible talent and invention out there. Every generation has people in it for you to respect, and they too will die and become the "legends of old". [* edited "wallowing" => "wading"; did not mean to sound so harsh ]
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    Then you need to stop wallowing in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world. Don't be a jerk. A guy is dead. He's mourning the loss. Let him.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
pupdogg 6y ago
So sad to hear! For what it's worth, the Van Halen cassette scene in "Back to Future" was my first introduction to this legend: https://youtu.be/BaYADHcpdng?t=17 https://youtu.be/BaYADHcpdng?t=17 RIP
- lmedinas 6y ago
  iconic scene... this piece was never popular it seems it was used for another score at the time[1]. I guess for me was also my introduction to Eddie Van Halen excellent guitar playing and style. 1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU
- major505 6y ago
  Yup. I also love the scene in Mission To Mars where they play Dance the Nigth Away in the space ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZCmgYITgQ&ab_channel=BeezarinoStudios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZCmgYITgQ&ab_channel=Beeza...
sgt101 6y ago
Don’t waste your time, Leuconoé, living in fear and hope of the imprevisable future; forget the horoscope. Accept whatever happens. Whether the gods allow us fifty winters more or drop us at this one now which flings the high Tyrrhenian waves on the stone piers, decant your wine: the days are more fun than the years which pass us by while we discuss them. Act with zest one day at a time, and never mind the rest. –Derek Mahon, The Hunt by Night (1982)
- golemotron 6y ago
  > On 1 October 2020, Mahon died in Cork after a short illness, aged 78 - wikipedia Poignant. Thank you.
- crocktucker 6y ago
  Ask not ('tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years, Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers. Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past, Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our last; This, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend their strength against the shore. Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is short; should hope be more? In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb'd away. Seize the present; trust tomorrow e'en as little as you may. Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0025%3Abook%3D1%3Apoem%3D11 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...] (Wikipedia: It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus in 17 BC.)
artur_makly 6y ago
The fact that his isnt the #1 post.. breaks my heart. Rock in Peace Eddie!!
Cheyana 6y ago
I wondered what was up a few months ago when I heard he was selling off his car collection. That and the news he had been flying back and forth between the US and Germany for treatment had me concerned. After I heard the first Van Halen album my Kiss records went in the closet, and I got more serious about music. Never did anything with it, but it was a fun journey, listening to him along the way, wondering what he would do next. A true rock guitar hacker.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  If you look at any of EVH's interviews on Youtube in the past decade, he was in rough shape - either dementia, alcoholism, poor health, or all 3. Looked like he lived hard and his time was up - very rock and roll! Most of the classic guitar gods will be gone in the next 5 years, so buy your oldies tickets. There's a nice crop of upcomers, including Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi.
lmedinas 6y ago
RIP Eddie Huge talent and very innovative guitar player. Known for his guitar playing style, dive bombs, tapping, usage of Floyd Rose, custom guitars (Frankenstrat), brown sound, solos, instrumentals, heavy sound and huge music hits. I cannot think of many influential Rock guitar players as Eddie.
- golemiprague 6y ago
  I don't know, I have never cared so much about the technique but more about the outcome. For me he was just another generic rock guitarist with good technique. I prefer people like Johny Marr from the Smiths who created a new unique overall sound. I guess there is a place for both.
woodpanel 6y ago
Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael and Quincy left it in.
- anonAndOn 6y ago
  IIRC, the solo is also completely improvised and totally off-script.
  - woodpanel 6y ago
    Yes! And he was neither credited nor payed for it!
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  He wanted no credit for it - he didn't want other Van Halen members to know about it because they agreed to never do side projects. He wanted no payment for it except a case of beer and Michael teaching him to dance "sometime".
  - woodpanel 6y ago
    And according to VH, he may in the end have bought the six pack of beer himself [1] [1] http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-his-collaboration-on-beat-it/ http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-...
  - anthonygore 6y ago
    I find that weird, his style is so distinct any fan would immediately recognize it
- AdmiralAsshat 6y ago
  Wikipedia disputes this story, although it does not cite any sources on the "real" story: > Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guitar_solo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guit... So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative. I also enjoyed this tidbit: >The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[26]
swamy_g 6y ago
The Beat it solo is one of the most unique solos out there.
rgomezp 6y ago
2020 is relentless
smitty1e 6y ago
Lives on in the hearts of millions.
clairity 6y ago
why should eddie van halen be discussed and memorialized here when kobe bryant’s death was relentlessly flagged and censored from discussion?
- Lol_80005 6y ago
  Nerds don't like sportball, but programming nerds like abstract creators. Eddie was a mind bending genere pushing creative force. His impact was bigger than sportball. Often other obituaries are noted here. Sportsball not so much, unless it's statistical sportsball. Van Halen is probably a stretch tbh, so I don't want to defend it too much either. This site is still better than twitter.
  - clairity 6y ago
    so no value judgment there, huh? nerds who like sports are just not the right kind, right? certain creativity like plucking strings in various patterns is just inherently better than others? and how was his impact greater? how is one kind of entertainer better than another? startup founders could learn a lot from kobe, from focus and discipline to creativity and tenacity. he also invested in startups.
  - leptons 6y ago
    I often do a "Van Halen day" where I put on my headphones, crank it to 11, and play all the important Van Halen albums for about 5 or 6 hours (basically all of them up to 1984) - and I get shit done. It's amazing what switching from electronic "beats" to Van Halen for a day does for my programming.
- psim1 6y ago
  Van Halen was a musical pioneer, an inventor, and as you can see from other comments, part of HN constituents' culture.
  - clairity 6y ago
    somehow that makes it all ok to censor rather than just leave it be and focus on other threads? jimi hendrix was a pioneer. van halen was another rock-n-roller.
xbar 6y ago
Rest in peace, Eddie.
quda 6y ago
RIP, Eddie!
neurotech1 6y ago
Eddie Van Halen's famous rider(contract) has a useful lesson for tech companies.[0][1] "It's one of those rock 'n' roll legends that turns out to be true: In the 1980s, the party-rock superstars in Van Halen demanded, via a clause embedded in their tour rider, that no brown-colored M&Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts."[0] The reason was that if they included brown M&Ms, it was a strong indication they hadn't read the contract, which included intricate but important technical details. [0] https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/the-truth-about-van-halen-and-those-brown-m-ms https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/... [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contrac...
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
His music wasn't really my style, but I remember the Heavy Metal effect pedal from Boss that my cousin owned had a booklet in it with the setups of various professional musicians - to show off how they used Boss pedals in different combinations. Everybody had complicated setups with multiple pedals. Van Hallen's "setup" went something like this: Heavy Metal --> cable --> jack --> amp
- fratajcz 6y ago
  I think that was just a way of the manual showing you how to have a sound "inspired by" Van Halen, since he famously got his distortion sound not from a pedal, but from a Marshall amp that he ran at a low voltage using a variac (as an aside, the boss heavy metal was famously used by Swedish death metal bands turning all the dials up, not really a Van Halen sound). He also used multiple pedals, such as the Echoplex, MXR phase 90 (Eruption), flanger (Unchained) and wah pedal. He later started his own signature EVH range of pedals in a partnership with MXR.
  - scns 6y ago
    The phaser is an essential part of the main riff from unchained
  - YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
    Well, you seem to know this better than I do. I was always more into the kind of music you got out of turning all the dials up, like you say. My (older) cousin fancied himself a more sophisticated rocker. The booklet stuck in my mind because Van Halen was the only musician in there that was anywhere near a Metal musician. The others were all people I had never heard from bands I didn't know that probably played jazz or pop or stuff. Van Halen's simple setup, inaccurate as it may have been, somehow served to justify and enforce my preference for the simple, uncomplicated, no-fuss kind of pleasures I always looked for -and found- in Metal.
skee0083 6y ago
I know this has nothing to do with eddie dying. rip. but i just wanted to say. i think Hagar was the better singer. I just prefer the 80s synth rock sound. Not to say roth wasn't good. he was great. i just prefer hagar.
TrackerFF 6y ago
One of the greats, that completely re-defined guitar, and spawned a new class of guitar players, as well as gear. I remember having played guitar for probably a year, when a friend of mine (who had been playing for the same time) threw on Van Halen 1 on a cassette, and we listened to Eruption. It sounded out of this world, like nothing else I had heard. After listening to Eddie play guitar (on/off) for decades, I've come to love his dynamics and touch, as well as his rhythm playing. He mastered the the technique of blending lead and rhythm into one, in a tight yet loose-feeling way. There are, and have been, many much more advanced guitar players since Eddie started - but few are as fun to listen to as Eddie, and most of them (in hard-rock and metal) stand on the shoulders of greats like Eddie, either through his playing and style, or gear used. He made 80's superstrats what they are today, he made hot-rodded/modified Marshalls what the are today, hell, he even made the Peavey 5150 what it is today - which in turn spawned a whole slew of metal amps. It's been a tough year so far, as far as my heroes dying goes. I've been lucky enough to not have lost too many idols in the past, but with the passing of Neil Peart and Eddie - two of my top 5 musicians and music idols of all time, it's been a real blow. It's been no secret that Eddie has suffered from cancer for years now, but still, you kind of forget about that, until the day comes.
- mc32 6y ago
  I think maybe Randy Rhoads, had he lived longer could have been as much a trailblazer. He was a consummate and eager learner who apparently in his spare time took lessons from varied styles of guitar players.
  - Timpy 6y ago
    I studied classical guitar in university, Randy Rhoads was a favorite amongst the metal guys who turned classical because he played classical guitar too. The Van Halen brothers are both multi instrumentalists, both of them took piano lessons from a young age.
    - luma 6y ago
      Eddie and Alex’s father Jan Van Halen was a hell of a clarinetist and was featured on the dixeland track Big Bad Bill from VH’s Diver Down album. Give it a listen, it’s a treat: https://youtu.be/9RPx6A3gKiA https://youtu.be/9RPx6A3gKiA
mixmastamyk 6y ago
(Trying to think of something new to add to this discussion, not already mentioned.) Well, one of the requirements of being a popular hard rock band of the day was to have a triumphant logo, and VH had one of the best. I even drew it once or twice in drafting class. :-) `8888888888888888, `88888888888888888'\ ,888888'\ ,88888888888888888' 8888888888888888, `888888888888888' ,888888' / ,88888888888888888 \ `888, \________,888' ,888'\__\/ ,888' / `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' \ `888, ,888' ,888' / ,888' / `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' `88888888888888888, ,888' ,88888888888888888888888888888' \____________`888, ,888' ,888888888888888'\ __________/ `888.888' ,888' / ,888' / `88888' ,888' / ,888' / `888' ,888' / ,888' / `8' ,888' / ,888' / \ ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / `88' / ,888' / `' / ,888' / `/ ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / `88' / `' / `/
- butterisgood 6y ago
  lots of 8s... OU812 is a pretty good album :-)
batt4good 6y ago
Probably because he smoked a metric ton of cigarettes / did lots of coke. RIP
temporallobe 6y ago
I never really got into Van Halen until I was an adult. As a teen in the early 90s a lot of the kids in my circle would make fun of anyone who listened to them because it wasn’t “cool” any more, especially when grunge became popular. Later in my adult years I began to really appreciate EVH’s technique and spent endless hours trying to replicate his style (and mostly failing, as I could never get my stubby fingers to move that fast). A few things I did learn and absolutely loved was his use of pinch harmonics and other right-hand techniques like palm muting and tapping — he of course didn’t invent those things but he elevated to a new level. I also don’t hear this often from fellow fans, but he had a unique “swing” that so many guitarists just didn’t have. Cool story: I read somewhere that when EVH first started performing in public, he would often play with his back to the audience, as he didn’t want to people to see his techniques and possibly steal them! RIP Eddie - may you enjoy your time in heaven among the guitar gods. Or is it supposed to be hell? After all you did run with the devil.
electrondood 6y ago
I used to go to sleep when I was 12 listening to Eruption, Mean Streets, Take Your Whiskey Home, etc. fantasizing about being the guy playing those riffs and solos. They should re-issue those "Who the f*ck is Eddive Van Halen?" shirts right about now.
nemo44x 6y ago
His style was so far ahead of its time. He was playing this way over 45 years ago! Zep was just hitting their peak. The Beatles had only released Sgt Pepper 7 years before. The original shredder (who played a nice rhythm too).
anta40 6y ago
RIP Eddie. I used to listen to him a lot, during sleepless days at campus lab while working on my undergraduate thesis. Previously we missed Neil Peart and Rocco Prestia. Now EVH. Not an exciting year for music world :(
disparate_dan 6y ago
VH1 was the first rock album I ever bought, back in 1979, and I’ve spend 41 years loving it. I know the band has had their ups and downs but I think that Eddie’s playing on their last album was just as fresh, vibrant and exciting as it ever was. Impossible to overstate the impact this man had on my life, as well as the entire music genre. RIP.
KingFelix 6y ago
I don't fully understand hacker news I think, I am curious as to why this is still on the front page but the Nobel prize that was announced today has been on page 2 all day (unless I missed its original front page landing) also, RIP Eddie!
- lsllc 6y ago
  EVH was a classically trained, incredibly talented and highly creative musician. He was also a founding member of an amazingly successful band that was very popular right around the time many of your average HN readers were growing up. His death is impactful to a lot of these people -- events like this just seem to have resonance. Sorry, that's the best explanation I can come up with.
  - cosmiccatnap 6y ago
    ...but again not a nobel metal recipient because he spent a lot of his life past his career being an amp salesman after breaking up his band. I think his point stands as valid, Hacker News just kind of wings it with what to gatekeep and what not to.
  - KingFelix 6y ago
    Thank you, I have only recently been on HN and I love it. Its amazing, I have been on reddit forever and was just curious as to how it was on the front page for awhile. This is a pretty good explanation, I don't know why I got down voted, honestly curious about the Hacker news process of what makes it to the front page vs other things. I was stoked to hear about Penrose winning the Nobel and shocked it was on the second page vs this story. And now an article Penrose has co-authored is on the top spot! Thanks for the solid response! And RIP to EVH too, I saw VH with my pops years ago, he saw VH open for Black Sabbath back in the day and said they destroyed Black Sabbath! Madness!
- ofrzeta 6y ago
  Eddie van Halen was a guitar hacker. Not only did he "hack" the playing technique he also hacked the guitar hardware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstrat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstrat
wmij 6y ago
One aspect of Eddie's playing that rarely gets mentioned was his rhythm and chord playing. His chordal phrasings and how he could make a song sound huge for just a single guitarist was amazing. AND The first few early albums were mixed with the main guitar track panned hard left.
valusr 6y ago
He's the most famous alumnus from my high school. RIP Eddie.
- tkgally 6y ago
  We were cross-town rivals, then. David Lee Roth attended my high school (John Muir, also in Pasadena) three years ahead of me. Here's my Van Halen story. In my last year of high school, one of my friends was a budding rock guitarist. He often talked about the local band Van Halen and what a great guitarist Eddie was. Van Halen was scheduled to play a show in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 25, 1975—thank you for the date, Wikipedia [0]—and my friend and I went together to the Berry & Grassmueck music store on Colorado Boulevard to buy tickets. At the counter, my friend said something like "I’m really psyched! We're going to get to see Van Halen! He’s great!,” and a fellow standing nearby perked up. After we left the store, my friend told me, “That was Eddie Van Halen!” Just hanging out in the local music store, apparently. My main recollection of the show is that it was extremely loud: several stacks of Marshall amps in a concrete-lined exhibition hall and only a couple hundred people scattered around the floor to absorb the sound. I wore earplugs, but my ears still rang afterwards. I see now that the next day was Eddie's twentieth birthday [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Van_Halen_concert_tours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Van_Halen_concert_tours [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen
  - valusr 6y ago
    Yup. And Eddie was, at least back then, surprisingly shy in a one-on-one setting.
jariel 6y ago
Never a huge fan of 'Stadium Rock' I saw him live with Van Halen on free tickets and it was just immense. Only then did I understand what 'Stadium Rock' even meant. All talent, zero gimmicks, just raw genius filling up an entire stadium.
J0_k3r 6y ago
who?
newswasboring 6y ago
I have no real knowledge or affinity towards him or his band but I do realize he is a member of a dying breed of rock stars. People who could pack a whole stadium and control the crowd with one gesture. Am I just out of touch or one of the side effects of balkanization of entertainment into small fandoms is death of the rock start?
- kace91 6y ago
  Beyonce filled a stadium with capacity for 100k people a couple of years ago. Not sure if you'll count that or you refer specifically to rock as a genre; if it's the second I'd say it's natural for the mainstream popularity of particular genres to rise and fall, but there still a mainstream for sure.
zw123456 6y ago
When I was a Sophomore in college (1978) me and some buddies got tickets to see Black Sabbath with Van Halen opening. We were driving up the freeway to go see the show and had 4 of us in our buddy's Mom's Datsun Station wagon he borrowed from her. We were smoking weed to get ready for the concert and had the windows rolled down part way to try to keep from reeking out the car. An ember flew into the back of the wagon and we didn't notice it but the car just kept getting more and more smoky so we kept rolling the windows down more and more which just fanned the flames. The next thing you know the car was in flames in the back. We pulled over and stood by the side of the freeway and watched our buddy's Mom's car burn up. The cops and fire department came and put it out eventually. The Cop asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride or to call someone. We told him we were going to see Black Sabbath and Van Halen and he said oh wow, you can't miss that I will drive you there. Our buddy said OK he could call his Mom when we got there and arrange rides for after the show. When we got there our high was blown so we toked out more. When I got in there and the show started, I will never forget Eddie sliding out on the stage on his knees hammering out Eruption. I don't know if it was the weed or the music or both but I swear I had an out of body experience. I had never heard it like that, live was just a whole 'nother level.
colanderman 6y ago
Fun tidbit for fans of music theory: EVH tuned the B string on his guitar slightly flat, to form a just-intoned interval with the G string. This allowed him to play distorted major chords without the associated discordant beating. [1] [1] https://www.petersontuners.com/inTune/Eddie-van-Halen https://www.petersontuners.com/inTune/Eddie-van-Halen

612 points by psim1 6y ago

vondur 6y ago

Sad news, he was one of the best rock guitar players of all time. So many good songs covering 4 decades. RIP.

matchbok 6y ago
You mean, people who understand science? What is the point of your comment?

MrMetlHed 6y ago

I saw on Twitter he has a patent for a guitar... "support device" that includes the greatest patent image I've ever seen: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656917A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656917A/en

gumby 6y ago
> "thus allowing the player to create new techniques and sounds previously unknown to any player" Not including players of the pedal steel. But that's the patent system for you. In any case it's all about what you do with it.
- oxymoran 6y ago
  That’s like comparing a turn table used for DJ’ing to a record player used to just listen to records. Completely different application, accessories, and technique.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    Perhaps, but modern decks have lots of features that record players don't have like effects and EQ. In this case the patented device is basically played in the same way (or can be) just in a different place. It's intended to be for tapping but that's a common pedal steel technique
    - caseyohara 6y ago
      This is really pedantic, but even in a modern DJ setup the effects and EQ are part of the mixer, not the turntable. The mixer is separate from the turntables, it's the thing with the knobs and faders usually between two turntables. Even modern DJ turntables are still very, very basic: https://www.technics.com/us/products/dj-series/direct-drive-turntable-system-sl-1200mk7.html https://www.technics.com/us/products/dj-series/direct-drive-... They are just more rugged than your everyday home listening record player.
      - vict00ms 6y ago
        Your pedantry is outdated: there are Serato-compatible decks that have MIDI pads built into them, not everything is trying to mimic the SL-1200s aesthetic these days.
    - lilSebastian 6y ago
      Decks have neither of the examples you claim. Are you confusing an deck with a mixer, sometimes referred to as a mixing desk (though incorrectly)?
      - mhh__ 6y ago
        https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-gb/product/controller/ddj-400/black/overview/ https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-gb/product/controller/ddj-400/b...
        caseyohara 6y ago
        That's not a record player though, that's a DJ controller. Very different.
        mhh__ 6y ago
        The parent comment was comparing DJ equipment to a record player (to this patent), which I feel is a poor example because modern DJ equipment almost always has different equipment too rather even if you could technically do it with a fader and some record players (as in at a gig, I'm aware people still mix on vinyl - pretentious as it can be). The patented guitar thing is literally played the same way but in a different place, which I think should really be considered prior art unless the fashion aspect is considered rather than purely functionality.
  - jjulius 6y ago
    Not really. The patent just takes the guitar and stabilizes it in a horizontal position, instead of a vertical position, allowing you to do something different with the same instrument. Nothing about the guitar itself changes whatsoever, but the orientation provides for the guitar to be used differently. The better analogy would be, say, if you took an SL-1200 (a turntable manufactured for DJ'ing) and it rotated it "battle style" - same instrument, same accessories, but a different orientation resulting in a fundamentally different use of the device.
    - crmd 6y ago
      I’m not a fan of battle style but is it really fundamentally different? Eddie’s patent is more like rotating the deck about the z axis and holding it like a guitar. Which would be pretty cool and ridiculous come to think of it :-)
      - munificent 6y ago
        > I’m not a fan of battle style but is it really fundamentally different? It gets the tone arm out of the way, which is what makes scratching a lot more feasible.
        jjulius 6y ago
        That, and the footprint of a setup is reduced when decks are placed battle style. This is important because turntablism requires a lot of very quick manipulation of both decks and mixer, and it's easier to do this if everything is a lot more compact. That's also why you typically see turntablists using a simple, small two-channel mixer while other DJs tend to employ wider, bulkier 4+-channel mixers. To OP's point I could've maybe dropped the word "fundamentally" in my post because at the end of the day the fundamentals remain the same, as do the fundamentals of the guitar in the patent vs regular use.
      - paljasma 6y ago
        It is possible to scratch the sl-1200/sl-1210 at 90 degree angle and at 180 degree angle, by Dj Marky: https://youtu.be/wA5b_AOjrI8 https://youtu.be/wA5b_AOjrI8 https://youtu.be/6z63irhX6Qs https://youtu.be/6z63irhX6Qs
  - leptons 6y ago
    The analogy does not hold up. There are quite a lot of differences between a "pedal steel" guitar, and an electric guitar. First, electric guitars do not have pedals. Pedal steel guitars do not have a resonating wood body. They produce very different sounds in very different ways.
    - gumby 6y ago
      Of course they do but the description described "techniques"; he's talking about a horizontal guitar play style. As my comment said I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the patent itself (and really the claims are the thing) just saying that that part of the description is probably wrong. And that the patent system doesn't care. FWIW all the pedal steel guitars I've ever seen are in fact electric guitars... but I know what you meant.
      - hanklazard 6y ago
        From the image, it looks like it’s intended to be used specifically for two-handed tapping, which was made famous by Van Halen and not commonly used (or at all) in pedal steel playing. Not sure if that would be unique enough to qualify for patent or not. https://youtu.be/z_lwocmL9dQ https://youtu.be/z_lwocmL9dQ
        Exmoor 6y ago
        To my knowledge, steel guitars typically don't even have frets, so it would be essentially impossible.
      - sheriff 6y ago
        I play both guitar and pedal steel. The tapping techniques that would be used on a horizontal 6-string guitar would be impractical on a steel guitar (lap or pedal) because the action is too high and there are no frets.
  - sneak 6y ago
    I don’t think that’s true at all. The standard DJ turntable (SL-1200/1210) has no specific features for DJing. I use the exact same ones for “just listen[ing] to records”. Can’t speak to guitars or pedal steel, though.
- uberdru 6y ago
  That would be Junior Brown's patent. . .
- sosborn 6y ago
  To be pedantic, Pedal Steels are supported by legs like a table. You are probably thinking of lap steels. When played standing up, they are usually supported just by repositioning the strap.
  - gumby 6y ago
    An even better example I don't know why I spaced on it. Not that I'm complaining he was given a patent.
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  Or you can just sit in a chair and stick a regular guitar in your lap, like lots of people have done. For example, Jeff Healey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgOUzodS6E&t=2m25s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgOUzodS6E&t=2m25s (Not trying to turn this into a competition, by the way. His style definitely seems like it was influenced by Van Halen.)
  - WalterSear 6y ago
    Or you could just play a stick. https://stick.com https://stick.com Fwiw, I would be surprised if Eddie Van Halen was not aware of the instrument, since they were invented in Southern California ~8 years before the release of "Van Halen".
    - tsimionescu 6y ago
      Unfortunately that site is using TLS 1.0/1.1 and won't open in modern Firefox...
- beaugunderson 6y ago
  Eddie was a tapper, which is why this is innovative (not having to use your thumb to stabilize the neck opens up greater range of motion for tapping with the fingers). Very different method than pedal steel, which is always barred.
- siltpotato 6y ago
  To be fair, pedal steels typically have their actions raised so high (deliberately) that tapping isn't possible.
major505 6y ago
very neat. Kind of turn the guitar into an a Pedal Steel guitar
klodolph 6y ago
The shoes Michael Jackson used for Smooth Criminal were patented as well. (And if we’re gonna talk about cool patents by entertainers, nothing’s gonna beat Hedy Lamarr’s work on spread spectrum communications.)
rodolphoarruda 6y ago
What strikes me: the one who draw the guitarist could have done it adding a neutral facial expression (e.g. a jazz musician) but, hell no!, the choice was for a shredding-guitar-solo rock expression. Nice.
- deleted 6y ago
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  - deleted 6y ago
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- tomcam 6y ago
  A twist on that is that when Eddie played he had a beatific smile, and never the twisted-face shredder guitar look.
- m463 6y ago
  he could have made the 142 line ... different too.
Uehreka 6y ago
Also a great example of “Patent Hands”: https://5by5.tv/hypercritical/68 https://5by5.tv/hypercritical/68 (I’d link to the Flickr album with similar patent drawings involving hands, but it appears to be down)
ghostpepper 6y ago
Does anyone else find it strange that Van is actually a middle name, thus rendering his name as HALEN EDWARD VAN
- guidedlight 6y ago
  “Van” is part of the surname. It means “of” or “from” in Dutch. It’s similar to “De” prefixed to Spanish surnames.
  - ThePadawan 6y ago
    Yes, but the patent application lists his name as "Halen Edward L Van". So apparently this was misfiled (under the last name "Halen") or filed correctly, just displayed weirdly on patents.google.com (since it appears correctly on the linked uspto.gov [0]). [0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&s1=4656917.PN http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H....
  - ghostpepper 6y ago
    So is the rendering on the patent application correct or incorrect?
- mc32 6y ago
  His middle name was ‘Lodewijk’, ‘Van’ is just part of a compound last name like Von Richthofen or Fitz Patrick, O’Leary, Di Chirico, etc.
  - mcv 6y ago
    I'd heard before they were Dutch born, but still, to hear that Eddie Van Halen was actually called Edward Lodewijk van Halen makes him sound way more Dutch. And here I was thinking that Jan Akkerman was the best Dutch guitar player ever.
  - ghostpepper 6y ago
    So in that case, why does it make sense to split up a compound name?
chaostheory 6y ago
yeah he sells guitars that he's designed https://www.evhgear.com/ https://www.evhgear.com/

sali0 6y ago

2020 strikes again.

khazhoux 6y ago
You're being downvoted, but who can deny that this has been a harsh year? Normal life has disappeared, many of us can't even go outside for nearly two months due to fires, medical ignorance in the US is running rampant, the upcoming vote is already being tampered with... and as a reward, we get to see icons of our youth taken away.
andrewinardeer 6y ago
Just wait until you see what 2021 has in store.

jakeva 6y ago

Only 65. I grew up listening to Van Halen and spent a crazy amount of time trying to play guitar like Eddie. I think their first album was released when he was only 22. What a legend. What a life. Taken too soon. :(

seattletech 6y ago
Two bouts of cancer, tongue and then now throat...

ripeddie 6y ago

Thank god the covid assholes didn't blame his cancer on covid. So done with those fascist psychopaths.

murat124 6y ago

He was a GOAT guitarist and a nice fella. RIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8

ckastner 6y ago

The man was an absolute God with the guitar. The skill he demonstrated in this solo should be evident to anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9r-NxuYszg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9r-NxuYszg

lsllc 6y ago
The start of this, 3/16 is one of Eddie's most poignant pieces, it was named for the birth of his son Wolfgang: https://www.vhnd.com/2019/03/16/story-behind-van-halens-most-personal-song-316/ https://www.vhnd.com/2019/03/16/story-behind-van-halens-most...

vr46 6y ago

Ah man, their debut album stands out sonically to this day, it just blew a hole in the scene. RIP Eddie.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

i was never much of a fan of EVH, but i am a huge fan of a bunch of guitarists who would either not have existed (as guitarists) or who would have sounded very different if EVH had not done his thing. so thanks for that, EVH.

deleted 6y ago

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brtkdotse 6y ago

This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished. It also reminds me that Death just dragged another bead on his abacus and before long my bead will be up. Also, while I respect and admire what Eddie has done to further the art of playing electric guitar, I must confess I much more enjoy Eddie The Songwriter rather than Eddie The Guitarist.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
> This deeply saddens me, the pool of people I admire is draining faster than it’s replenished Then you need to stop wading in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world. In terms of just music alone, there's more talent out there now than there ever was before. Two generations or more of musical education where none really existed before, plus an entire generation that saw making a living as a musician as a possibility (whether or not that was true) has led to a situation where almost every town of 50k people or more has musicians in it who are as almost as good or better than any who ever lived. I am fairly confident that the same thing is true of writing, painting, photography, dance: the pool of talent is out there. If you're as old as you semi-suggest, it gets harder and harder to encounter it. I'm 57 and I have to work quite hard to ensure that I keep exposing myself to new artists and creatives - the natural tendency is to just look back on all the people I discovered between 17 and 27 and then lament them dying. Don't do it! YouTube is a miracle in this respect. There's so much incredible talent and invention out there. Every generation has people in it for you to respect, and they too will die and become the "legends of old". [* edited "wallowing" => "wading"; did not mean to sound so harsh ]
- reaperducer 6y ago
  Then you need to stop wallowing in the shallows of the people you admire and get out in the insane expanse that is the rest of the creative world. Don't be a jerk. A guy is dead. He's mourning the loss. Let him.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

pupdogg 6y ago

So sad to hear! For what it's worth, the Van Halen cassette scene in "Back to Future" was my first introduction to this legend: https://youtu.be/BaYADHcpdng?t=17 https://youtu.be/BaYADHcpdng?t=17 RIP

lmedinas 6y ago
iconic scene... this piece was never popular it seems it was used for another score at the time[1]. I guess for me was also my introduction to Eddie Van Halen excellent guitar playing and style. 1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU
major505 6y ago
Yup. I also love the scene in Mission To Mars where they play Dance the Nigth Away in the space ship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZCmgYITgQ&ab_channel=BeezarinoStudios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZCmgYITgQ&ab_channel=Beeza...

sgt101 6y ago

Don’t waste your time, Leuconoé, living in fear and hope of the imprevisable future; forget the horoscope. Accept whatever happens. Whether the gods allow us fifty winters more or drop us at this one now which flings the high Tyrrhenian waves on the stone piers, decant your wine: the days are more fun than the years which pass us by while we discuss them. Act with zest one day at a time, and never mind the rest. –Derek Mahon, The Hunt by Night (1982)

golemotron 6y ago
> On 1 October 2020, Mahon died in Cork after a short illness, aged 78 - wikipedia Poignant. Thank you.
crocktucker 6y ago
Ask not ('tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years, Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers. Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past, Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our last; This, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend their strength against the shore. Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is short; should hope be more? In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb'd away. Seize the present; trust tomorrow e'en as little as you may. Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0025%3Abook%3D1%3Apoem%3D11 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...] (Wikipedia: It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus in 17 BC.)

artur_makly 6y ago

The fact that his isnt the #1 post.. breaks my heart. Rock in Peace Eddie!!

Cheyana 6y ago

I wondered what was up a few months ago when I heard he was selling off his car collection. That and the news he had been flying back and forth between the US and Germany for treatment had me concerned. After I heard the first Van Halen album my Kiss records went in the closet, and I got more serious about music. Never did anything with it, but it was a fun journey, listening to him along the way, wondering what he would do next. A true rock guitar hacker.

redis_mlc 6y ago
If you look at any of EVH's interviews on Youtube in the past decade, he was in rough shape - either dementia, alcoholism, poor health, or all 3. Looked like he lived hard and his time was up - very rock and roll! Most of the classic guitar gods will be gone in the next 5 years, so buy your oldies tickets. There's a nice crop of upcomers, including Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi.

lmedinas 6y ago

RIP Eddie Huge talent and very innovative guitar player. Known for his guitar playing style, dive bombs, tapping, usage of Floyd Rose, custom guitars (Frankenstrat), brown sound, solos, instrumentals, heavy sound and huge music hits. I cannot think of many influential Rock guitar players as Eddie.

golemiprague 6y ago
I don't know, I have never cared so much about the technique but more about the outcome. For me he was just another generic rock guitarist with good technique. I prefer people like Johny Marr from the Smiths who created a new unique overall sound. I guess there is a place for both.

woodpanel 6y ago

Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael and Quincy left it in.

anonAndOn 6y ago
IIRC, the solo is also completely improvised and totally off-script.
- woodpanel 6y ago
  Yes! And he was neither credited nor payed for it!
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
He wanted no credit for it - he didn't want other Van Halen members to know about it because they agreed to never do side projects. He wanted no payment for it except a case of beer and Michael teaching him to dance "sometime".
- woodpanel 6y ago
  And according to VH, he may in the end have bought the six pack of beer himself [1] [1] http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-his-collaboration-on-beat-it/ http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-...
- anthonygore 6y ago
  I find that weird, his style is so distinct any fan would immediately recognize it
AdmiralAsshat 6y ago
Wikipedia disputes this story, although it does not cite any sources on the "real" story: > Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guitar_solo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guit... So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative. I also enjoyed this tidbit: >The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[26]

swamy_g 6y ago

The Beat it solo is one of the most unique solos out there.

rgomezp 6y ago

2020 is relentless

smitty1e 6y ago

Lives on in the hearts of millions.

clairity 6y ago

why should eddie van halen be discussed and memorialized here when kobe bryant’s death was relentlessly flagged and censored from discussion?

Lol_80005 6y ago
Nerds don't like sportball, but programming nerds like abstract creators. Eddie was a mind bending genere pushing creative force. His impact was bigger than sportball. Often other obituaries are noted here. Sportsball not so much, unless it's statistical sportsball. Van Halen is probably a stretch tbh, so I don't want to defend it too much either. This site is still better than twitter.
- clairity 6y ago
  so no value judgment there, huh? nerds who like sports are just not the right kind, right? certain creativity like plucking strings in various patterns is just inherently better than others? and how was his impact greater? how is one kind of entertainer better than another? startup founders could learn a lot from kobe, from focus and discipline to creativity and tenacity. he also invested in startups.
- leptons 6y ago
  I often do a "Van Halen day" where I put on my headphones, crank it to 11, and play all the important Van Halen albums for about 5 or 6 hours (basically all of them up to 1984) - and I get shit done. It's amazing what switching from electronic "beats" to Van Halen for a day does for my programming.
psim1 6y ago
Van Halen was a musical pioneer, an inventor, and as you can see from other comments, part of HN constituents' culture.
- clairity 6y ago
  somehow that makes it all ok to censor rather than just leave it be and focus on other threads? jimi hendrix was a pioneer. van halen was another rock-n-roller.

xbar 6y ago

Rest in peace, Eddie.

quda 6y ago

RIP, Eddie!

neurotech1 6y ago

Eddie Van Halen's famous rider(contract) has a useful lesson for tech companies.[0][1] "It's one of those rock 'n' roll legends that turns out to be true: In the 1980s, the party-rock superstars in Van Halen demanded, via a clause embedded in their tour rider, that no brown-colored M&Ms be allowed backstage at their concerts."[0] The reason was that if they included brown M&Ms, it was a strong indication they hadn't read the contract, which included intricate but important technical details. [0] https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/the-truth-about-van-halen-and-those-brown-m-ms https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/... [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contrac...

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

His music wasn't really my style, but I remember the Heavy Metal effect pedal from Boss that my cousin owned had a booklet in it with the setups of various professional musicians - to show off how they used Boss pedals in different combinations. Everybody had complicated setups with multiple pedals. Van Hallen's "setup" went something like this: Heavy Metal --> cable --> jack --> amp

fratajcz 6y ago
I think that was just a way of the manual showing you how to have a sound "inspired by" Van Halen, since he famously got his distortion sound not from a pedal, but from a Marshall amp that he ran at a low voltage using a variac (as an aside, the boss heavy metal was famously used by Swedish death metal bands turning all the dials up, not really a Van Halen sound). He also used multiple pedals, such as the Echoplex, MXR phase 90 (Eruption), flanger (Unchained) and wah pedal. He later started his own signature EVH range of pedals in a partnership with MXR.
- scns 6y ago
  The phaser is an essential part of the main riff from unchained
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  Well, you seem to know this better than I do. I was always more into the kind of music you got out of turning all the dials up, like you say. My (older) cousin fancied himself a more sophisticated rocker. The booklet stuck in my mind because Van Halen was the only musician in there that was anywhere near a Metal musician. The others were all people I had never heard from bands I didn't know that probably played jazz or pop or stuff. Van Halen's simple setup, inaccurate as it may have been, somehow served to justify and enforce my preference for the simple, uncomplicated, no-fuss kind of pleasures I always looked for -and found- in Metal.

skee0083 6y ago

I know this has nothing to do with eddie dying. rip. but i just wanted to say. i think Hagar was the better singer. I just prefer the 80s synth rock sound. Not to say roth wasn't good. he was great. i just prefer hagar.

TrackerFF 6y ago

One of the greats, that completely re-defined guitar, and spawned a new class of guitar players, as well as gear. I remember having played guitar for probably a year, when a friend of mine (who had been playing for the same time) threw on Van Halen 1 on a cassette, and we listened to Eruption. It sounded out of this world, like nothing else I had heard. After listening to Eddie play guitar (on/off) for decades, I've come to love his dynamics and touch, as well as his rhythm playing. He mastered the the technique of blending lead and rhythm into one, in a tight yet loose-feeling way. There are, and have been, many much more advanced guitar players since Eddie started - but few are as fun to listen to as Eddie, and most of them (in hard-rock and metal) stand on the shoulders of greats like Eddie, either through his playing and style, or gear used. He made 80's superstrats what they are today, he made hot-rodded/modified Marshalls what the are today, hell, he even made the Peavey 5150 what it is today - which in turn spawned a whole slew of metal amps. It's been a tough year so far, as far as my heroes dying goes. I've been lucky enough to not have lost too many idols in the past, but with the passing of Neil Peart and Eddie - two of my top 5 musicians and music idols of all time, it's been a real blow. It's been no secret that Eddie has suffered from cancer for years now, but still, you kind of forget about that, until the day comes.

mc32 6y ago
I think maybe Randy Rhoads, had he lived longer could have been as much a trailblazer. He was a consummate and eager learner who apparently in his spare time took lessons from varied styles of guitar players.
- Timpy 6y ago
  I studied classical guitar in university, Randy Rhoads was a favorite amongst the metal guys who turned classical because he played classical guitar too. The Van Halen brothers are both multi instrumentalists, both of them took piano lessons from a young age.
  - luma 6y ago
    Eddie and Alex’s father Jan Van Halen was a hell of a clarinetist and was featured on the dixeland track Big Bad Bill from VH’s Diver Down album. Give it a listen, it’s a treat: https://youtu.be/9RPx6A3gKiA https://youtu.be/9RPx6A3gKiA

mixmastamyk 6y ago

(Trying to think of something new to add to this discussion, not already mentioned.) Well, one of the requirements of being a popular hard rock band of the day was to have a triumphant logo, and VH had one of the best. I even drew it once or twice in drafting class. :-) `8888888888888888, `88888888888888888'\ ,888888'\ ,88888888888888888' 8888888888888888, `888888888888888' ,888888' / ,88888888888888888 \ `888, \________,888' ,888'\__\/ ,888' / `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' \ `888, ,888' ,888' / ,888' / `88888888888888888, ,888' ,888' / ,88888888888888888' `88888888888888888, ,888' ,88888888888888888888888888888' \____________`888, ,888' ,888888888888888'\ __________/ `888.888' ,888' / ,888' / `88888' ,888' / ,888' / `888' ,888' / ,888' / `8' ,888' / ,888' / \ ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / `88' / ,888' / `' / ,888' / `/ ,888' / ,888' / ,888' / `88' / `' / `/

butterisgood 6y ago
lots of 8s... OU812 is a pretty good album :-)

batt4good 6y ago

Probably because he smoked a metric ton of cigarettes / did lots of coke. RIP

temporallobe 6y ago

I never really got into Van Halen until I was an adult. As a teen in the early 90s a lot of the kids in my circle would make fun of anyone who listened to them because it wasn’t “cool” any more, especially when grunge became popular. Later in my adult years I began to really appreciate EVH’s technique and spent endless hours trying to replicate his style (and mostly failing, as I could never get my stubby fingers to move that fast). A few things I did learn and absolutely loved was his use of pinch harmonics and other right-hand techniques like palm muting and tapping — he of course didn’t invent those things but he elevated to a new level. I also don’t hear this often from fellow fans, but he had a unique “swing” that so many guitarists just didn’t have. Cool story: I read somewhere that when EVH first started performing in public, he would often play with his back to the audience, as he didn’t want to people to see his techniques and possibly steal them! RIP Eddie - may you enjoy your time in heaven among the guitar gods. Or is it supposed to be hell? After all you did run with the devil.

electrondood 6y ago

I used to go to sleep when I was 12 listening to Eruption, Mean Streets, Take Your Whiskey Home, etc. fantasizing about being the guy playing those riffs and solos. They should re-issue those "Who the f*ck is Eddive Van Halen?" shirts right about now.

nemo44x 6y ago

His style was so far ahead of its time. He was playing this way over 45 years ago! Zep was just hitting their peak. The Beatles had only released Sgt Pepper 7 years before. The original shredder (who played a nice rhythm too).

anta40 6y ago

RIP Eddie. I used to listen to him a lot, during sleepless days at campus lab while working on my undergraduate thesis. Previously we missed Neil Peart and Rocco Prestia. Now EVH. Not an exciting year for music world :(

disparate_dan 6y ago

VH1 was the first rock album I ever bought, back in 1979, and I’ve spend 41 years loving it. I know the band has had their ups and downs but I think that Eddie’s playing on their last album was just as fresh, vibrant and exciting as it ever was. Impossible to overstate the impact this man had on my life, as well as the entire music genre. RIP.

KingFelix 6y ago

I don't fully understand hacker news I think, I am curious as to why this is still on the front page but the Nobel prize that was announced today has been on page 2 all day (unless I missed its original front page landing) also, RIP Eddie!

lsllc 6y ago
EVH was a classically trained, incredibly talented and highly creative musician. He was also a founding member of an amazingly successful band that was very popular right around the time many of your average HN readers were growing up. His death is impactful to a lot of these people -- events like this just seem to have resonance. Sorry, that's the best explanation I can come up with.
- cosmiccatnap 6y ago
  ...but again not a nobel metal recipient because he spent a lot of his life past his career being an amp salesman after breaking up his band. I think his point stands as valid, Hacker News just kind of wings it with what to gatekeep and what not to.
- KingFelix 6y ago
  Thank you, I have only recently been on HN and I love it. Its amazing, I have been on reddit forever and was just curious as to how it was on the front page for awhile. This is a pretty good explanation, I don't know why I got down voted, honestly curious about the Hacker news process of what makes it to the front page vs other things. I was stoked to hear about Penrose winning the Nobel and shocked it was on the second page vs this story. And now an article Penrose has co-authored is on the top spot! Thanks for the solid response! And RIP to EVH too, I saw VH with my pops years ago, he saw VH open for Black Sabbath back in the day and said they destroyed Black Sabbath! Madness!
ofrzeta 6y ago
Eddie van Halen was a guitar hacker. Not only did he "hack" the playing technique he also hacked the guitar hardware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstrat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstrat

wmij 6y ago

One aspect of Eddie's playing that rarely gets mentioned was his rhythm and chord playing. His chordal phrasings and how he could make a song sound huge for just a single guitarist was amazing. AND The first few early albums were mixed with the main guitar track panned hard left.

valusr 6y ago

He's the most famous alumnus from my high school. RIP Eddie.

tkgally 6y ago
We were cross-town rivals, then. David Lee Roth attended my high school (John Muir, also in Pasadena) three years ahead of me. Here's my Van Halen story. In my last year of high school, one of my friends was a budding rock guitarist. He often talked about the local band Van Halen and what a great guitarist Eddie was. Van Halen was scheduled to play a show in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 25, 1975—thank you for the date, Wikipedia [0]—and my friend and I went together to the Berry & Grassmueck music store on Colorado Boulevard to buy tickets. At the counter, my friend said something like "I’m really psyched! We're going to get to see Van Halen! He’s great!,” and a fellow standing nearby perked up. After we left the store, my friend told me, “That was Eddie Van Halen!” Just hanging out in the local music store, apparently. My main recollection of the show is that it was extremely loud: several stacks of Marshall amps in a concrete-lined exhibition hall and only a couple hundred people scattered around the floor to absorb the sound. I wore earplugs, but my ears still rang afterwards. I see now that the next day was Eddie's twentieth birthday [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Van_Halen_concert_tours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Van_Halen_concert_tours [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen
- valusr 6y ago
  Yup. And Eddie was, at least back then, surprisingly shy in a one-on-one setting.

jariel 6y ago

Never a huge fan of 'Stadium Rock' I saw him live with Van Halen on free tickets and it was just immense. Only then did I understand what 'Stadium Rock' even meant. All talent, zero gimmicks, just raw genius filling up an entire stadium.

J0_k3r 6y ago

who?

newswasboring 6y ago

I have no real knowledge or affinity towards him or his band but I do realize he is a member of a dying breed of rock stars. People who could pack a whole stadium and control the crowd with one gesture. Am I just out of touch or one of the side effects of balkanization of entertainment into small fandoms is death of the rock start?

kace91 6y ago
Beyonce filled a stadium with capacity for 100k people a couple of years ago. Not sure if you'll count that or you refer specifically to rock as a genre; if it's the second I'd say it's natural for the mainstream popularity of particular genres to rise and fall, but there still a mainstream for sure.

zw123456 6y ago

When I was a Sophomore in college (1978) me and some buddies got tickets to see Black Sabbath with Van Halen opening. We were driving up the freeway to go see the show and had 4 of us in our buddy's Mom's Datsun Station wagon he borrowed from her. We were smoking weed to get ready for the concert and had the windows rolled down part way to try to keep from reeking out the car. An ember flew into the back of the wagon and we didn't notice it but the car just kept getting more and more smoky so we kept rolling the windows down more and more which just fanned the flames. The next thing you know the car was in flames in the back. We pulled over and stood by the side of the freeway and watched our buddy's Mom's car burn up. The cops and fire department came and put it out eventually. The Cop asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride or to call someone. We told him we were going to see Black Sabbath and Van Halen and he said oh wow, you can't miss that I will drive you there. Our buddy said OK he could call his Mom when we got there and arrange rides for after the show. When we got there our high was blown so we toked out more. When I got in there and the show started, I will never forget Eddie sliding out on the stage on his knees hammering out Eruption. I don't know if it was the weed or the music or both but I swear I had an out of body experience. I had never heard it like that, live was just a whole 'nother level.

colanderman 6y ago

Fun tidbit for fans of music theory: EVH tuned the B string on his guitar slightly flat, to form a just-intoned interval with the G string. This allowed him to play distorted major chords without the associated discordant beating. [1] [1] https://www.petersontuners.com/inTune/Eddie-van-Halen https://www.petersontuners.com/inTune/Eddie-van-Halen