My Editor’s Note from our February, 2020 issue touched upon the passing of drummer Neil Peart, of the band Rush. Well, here we are at the penultimate installment of MMR for this calendar year and, once again, I find myself compelled to eulogize a player of undeniable – nearly unfathomable – skill who impacted many, including MI dealers who seriously benefitted from the interest he generated amongst players (On a related note: enough already, 2020. Seriously).
Not many hard rock/pop-metal guitarists can lay claim to knowingly have copped methods pioneered by the likes of Lenny Breau (finger-tapping), but then again not many rockers were raised by professional jazz clarinetists – as the late Eddie Van Halen was. He said of his father, Jan, “I knew what music was really about ever since my earliest memory of hearing my dad downstairs in his music room, holding just one note on his clarinet for as long as he could… He was a real soulful guy. He played sax and clarinet like a mother$@!%!”
Such ability – and then some – was passed from father to son(s) and, with Eddie’s death on October 6 of this year (after a long struggle with cancer), the expected tributes began. Amongst the many sweet, reverential, or funny memories shared by members of the rock community were also a sizable number of comments that referenced the “non-rock” elements within EVH’s playing and/or how Eddie – like Neil – served as an entry-point to a wider musical world: “Wanna sound like Eddie? Better start digging Artie Shaw,” observed fellow guitar hero Paul Gilbert; “[Eddie was] a pioneer,” declared Lenny Kravitz. “He is an original and just as people like Jimi Hendrix made their mark on the electric guitar, Eddie Van Halen did the same”; Al Di Meola said, “I always regarded Eddie as someone who completely revolutionized a way of playing in a new style that inspired a generation of guitar players”; Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready stated, “Eddie was like Mozart for guitar. Changed everything and he played with soul”; “I could’ve never gotten into the likes of such giants of jazz fusion as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell without being mesmerized by the way Eddie’s fingers danced across the fretboard on ‘Eruption’ or the guitar solo from ‘Dreams,’ offered former New York Observer editor Ron Hart; Kelly Clarkson, who hosted the October 14 broadcast of the “Billboard Music Awards” shared, “Just a few days ago, a true giant was taken from us: Eddie Van Halen. He was a legendary guitarist, an amazing musician and an incredible songwriter”; “When I heard Van Halen’s version of ‘You Really Got Me’ I immediately became a BIG fan of the one and only Eddie Van Halen. RIP,” said Kurt Rosenwinkel; “He changed guitar playing,” remembered Slash. “We used to listen to that first Van Halen record, and it was just insane. I was like, ‘What the [expletive]?”; “Eddie was a pioneer, a genius, and a friend… The world has lost a legend, and a true original,” Tweeted Joan Jett; “[Eddie] scared the hell out of a million guitarists because he was so damn good,” said fellow guitar legend Joe Satriani.
In the past few decades, fretted instrument dealers periodically – scratch that, often! – bemoan the lack of contemporary “guitar heroes.” Sure, there have been moments where bands or movements drove guitar sales (The Beatles, The Stones, ‘70s hard rock, Nirvana,
late ‘90s/early ‘00s garage revival, et cetera) and there have also been a handful of legit six-string legends who have done the same (Hendrix, Page, Angus, Slash, Zakk, Jack White, and so on). However, when you hear an MI retailer wishing aloud for the next guitar hero, more often than not – particularly if they’ve been in business for a while – what that person is really not-so-patiently waiting for is “the next Eddie Van Halen.”
My guess is, it’ll be a long wait.
RIP, Edward.
