I don't know why I'm so upset that Eddie Van Halen died. Obviously, part of it is the normal sad feeling when anyone you care about dies. I've never met him, never would have, but loved his music and what he represents. Also, I'm sad because I know his loss hurts a lot of people in a very meaningful way. But then again, Eddie was likely done making music - seemingly happy these last five years, even when he was healthy, do live his life away from the spotlight rather than tour again. Eddie has made a lasting impact that will never be forgotten. But in that lies the reason - I wanted to make sure that impact never gets forgotten. Judging by the outpouring of love, emotion, tributes and honor towards his way, it is clear it never will.
Van Halen was not the most popular band ever. They haven't had the staying power either in the tangible (touring, recording songs) or the intangible (lasting impact on the music world). Largely this was their own doing, a complete resistance to stability in their make-up and multiple periods of darkness - generally driven by Eddie's alternating substance issues or medical concerns.
That said, they will always matter in the legacy of music because Eddie matters in that legacy. I was wondering how much that would bubble up to the surface in the event of his death. We got to see it first hand, and while it is recognizing a truly sad moment, the loss of someone so gifted, so legendary, the outpouring was instant and impressive.
It came from other rockstars, be it his contemporaries, his imitators, or even the people that came before him, acknowledging this brash youngster was every bit their equal or greater (see the tributes from Pete Townsend or Jimmy Page even). There were tributes from pop stars, country music stars, R&B stars. Everyone always noting not just the music and their singular popularity throughout the 1980s, but his singular impact and meaning on the music landscape.
You can count on one hand the number of guitarists that have so profoundly changed the game. The throughline probably goes some pre-hsitoric (in music terms) people that invented the instrument, through to a Chuck Berry type, through to Jimi Hendrix, with Eddie next. That's not to say there weren't better players in teh interim. I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough nor care enough to engage in that debate. But I don't think anyone since Hendrix had Eddie's level of impact.
It's not just the tapping - which Eddie himself will admit he didn't 'invent' but took to just a different level. It's also the brown sound - a perfect guitar sound that was built off of a decade of tinkering and mechanics that was nuanced enough for Popular Mechanics to do a long profile about it (one of the many old EVH interviews that were brought out to light yesterday). It's was his peerless ability to blend technical brilliance with an old-school ability to craft bluesy riffs. It was his musical writing ability. Eddie was a muscial genius as much as a great guitarist - and that is why the word 'Genius' kept coming up.
I'm sure there is a technical definition of what makes a genius, but the best way for me to explain was once watching Eddie to a 55-min sitdown interview at the Smithsonian. At multiple points the interviewer asked him a question that led him to a technical point (the tapping, his 'Frankenstrat' guitar build), and Eddie at a loss for words just picked up the guitar and showed us. He communicates, speaks, and thinks music through that instruent. He was truly the 'mozart of guitar.'
To talk about my connection to Van Halen for a second - obviously I was much too young to know their glory at the time. That said, they were the first rock band I ever loved. Not sure what the entry point was, but much like kids in the late 70s, I too was slack-jawed the first time I heard Eruption, not understanding how (a) that was a guitar and (b) that was only one guitar. Just like most people, I loved Van Halen because I loved listening to Eddie Van Halen play guitar.
Their music toes the line so perfectly between radio/arena rock - namely better versions of the imitators they spawned (hair metal) and the blues and musically brilliant base of a Led Zep or Sabbath. They were perfect. Those first six, and more acutely first four, albums in the DLR era are about as perfect a run a rock band can have. The musicianship, spearheaded by Eddie but let's throw Alex a bone on drums, was so exquisite but tightly packed into these shorter songs. The longest Van Halen song in the DLR era was 'Fools', a 5:56 track that also sounds as close as they would get to a Led Zep type vibe, but they packed enough theatrics, riffs and beauty into the short songs anyway.
Still I think Van Halen would be the one band I would pick if you told me I could only listen to one group for the rest of my life. The Beatles, and only because of sheer volume, would close, but what they were able to do is still incredible, and Eddie was the large driving force.
He was also the equalizer, the reason Van Halen commanded and ensured respect. For people who turned their nose at 'arena' or 'glam' rock - well, they still had Eddie. For the punk lovers, well VH still had Eddie (notably we got glowing tributes from people like Tom Morello and the remaining members of Alice in Chains). For the true metal-heads, well they have Eddie - see Metallica's tribute, or even them covering "Running With the Devil" at one of their recent shows. For damn Michael Jackson fans, well they have the guy who played the perfect solo on Beat It. Eddie was everything.
I'm still somewhat emotional more out of shock, and that there is a finality to this. There will be no more tours. No more last fling album. No tour with both Dave and Sammy. Most of that was probably never in the cards anyway - especially the last one - but man was hope nice.
That said, somehow I got to see them twice. The first time was in 2007, when they toured with David Lee Roth for the first time since 1984. Maybe even a year prior to that, it seemed like that would never come. In the end there were three tours with Roth, and an album that gets better with age. The final tour in 2015 I went to. They played at an outdoor venue in New Jersey that I'd been to dozens of times and never found it so packed, with an audience more enthralled, than we were that day.
Eddie was a luminary, a genius, a person so dedicated to the craft (even to his detriment). He was a star, he was a musician at heart, someone who loved making, innovating, practicing and toying around in a way that will never leave us. He was my music hero, someone who literally made me thing "How?" so many times when listening to his music. His memory will never fade. Eddie's legacy is more alive today than it was before, and hopefully that lasts a long, long tine.
