Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth

[Ottmeister X]

Actually there are too many awesome guitarists out there it seems.I'm glad you have an open mind to what Abasi is laying down right now.I think as I explained in another post here is that Eddie has never progressed beyond VH.If there is a Shrapnel Records jam or some self released material by Eddie out there, I don't know about it.I think Chickenfoot (Hagar,Satriani,Anthony,)is in the same vein and a heckuva lot more fun in this party rock format.I'm not a big fan of Hagar either.In another context to some extent check out Guthrie Govan a guy who has appeared in different formats.My point is not to denegrate Eddie but hope newer VH releases and tours will put him in a position to show up at the Baked Potato or Yoshi's and cut a real guitar session.

Eddie has done some other stuff but fairly limited. Yes, it does appear that he has been entrenched with VH in his own little niche and I guess I never really thought of it that way. I'm sure we could find many examples of other great long-term guitarists who never ventured from their group. I do appreciate that Eddie's sound on this new album is enriching and not a casual decline in tone that we see out of many aging musicians.

You have to consider that him and Alex are pretty much best buds and it's always been VH for them, and that Eddie had a pretty crappy decade in the 2000's. Maybe he treats playing in a rock band more like a job and pursues other interests in his free time rather than making solo albums. Seeing him show up at a small joint and ripping out some instrumentals would be awesome but I'm not sure it will ever happen. The dude has a bit of an ego also so that might affect him collaborating with others besides his brother. Although, I am a little surprised he has never jointed with Allan Holdsworth in some project since Eddie always credits Holdsworth as a huge influence.

[Hiromi]

Actually this 2 handed technique was around before Eddie

I never said he invented it, however he is the one that made it famous in hard rock/metal and inspired quite a few other artists to incorporate it into their style. Claiming he didn't does nothing except call your knowledge of rock history into severe question.

but in the overall context of Van Halen ( the bands cheezy schlock) it hardly matters how good Eddie may be.

And frankly I don't see why I'm bothering to respond to your blatant trolling. However the point is that the guitarist you are casually(or loudly rather) dismissing most likely had a large impact on the one you're promoting.

Abasi's technique is couched in terms of a progressive context that employs metal/fusion and played on a guitar that is hardly a gimmick.The fact that you recognise none of this shows how ignorant you are.

And the fact that you posted in a thread about VH to do nothing but scream at the top of your lungs "stop liking what I don't like" reveals you as nothing but the absolute worst kind of music fan.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I thought I read before that Eddie saw Jimmy Page do it.

[Hiromi]

His story's changed from interview to interview, this is probably the quote you're thinking of(from wikipedia):
"I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his Heartbreaker solo back in 1971. He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought wait a minute, open string... pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around? I just kind of took it and ran with it."

[Ziggy Stardust]

Yeah, that's the one!

[Alton]

Eddie has done some other stuff but fairly limited. Yes, it does appear that he has been entrenched with VH in his own little niche and I guess I never really thought of it that way. I'm sure we could find many examples of other great long-term guitarists who never ventured from their group. I do appreciate that Eddie's sound on this new album is enriching and not a casual decline in tone that we see out of many aging musicians.

You have to consider that him and Alex are pretty much best buds and it's always been VH for them, and that Eddie had a pretty crappy decade in the 2000's. Maybe he treats playing in a rock band more like a job and pursues other interests in his free time rather than making solo albums. Seeing him show up at a small joint and ripping out some instrumentals would be awesome but I'm not sure it will ever happen. The dude has a bit of an ego also so that might affect him collaborating with others besides his brother. Although, I am a little surprised he has never jointed with Allan Holdsworth in some project since Eddie always credits Holdsworth as a huge influence.

Actually that is an interesting combination. I never would have thought of Holdsworth/VanHalen.I'm sure Eddie is aware of a whole skidload of great guitarists and it is too bad recent life hasn't put him in a position to do more work outside of his band (assuming he'd want to).I was trying to come up with some music I like you could have a good laugh over.Believe it or not I started getting into music through rock instrumentals from The Ventures and other surf rock era bands and I get a kick out of the more recent stuff by Dick Dale and the modern surf inflected bands like Los StraightJackets.Do they really wear those crazy Mexican wrestling masks on stage?Thanks for this thread. Sorry if I came down a little hard on Van Halen the band.I guess we like what we like and I'm outta here.

[Alton]

I never said he invented it, however he is the one that made it famous in hard rock/metal and inspired quite a few other artists to incorporate it into their style. Claiming he didn't does nothing except call your knowledge of rock history into severe question.
Actually you did think Eddie invented it as many VH fans do .You only corrected yourself when I brought it up.


And frankly I don't see why I'm bothering to respond to your blatant trolling. However the point is that the guitarist you are casually(or loudly rather) dismissing most likely had a large impact on the one you're promoting.

In fact Abasi has probably heard Van Halen and is more aware of Eddie than you are of guitarists like Abasi.The problem here is that everyone you disagree with is a troller.You wouldn't understand musical impact because you can't get over the fact that VH the band holds Eddie back because the bands musical context is commercial schlock.

And the fact that you posted in a thread about VH to do nothing but scream at the top of your lungs "stop liking what I don't like" reveals you as nothing but the absolute worst kind of music fan.

The worst kind of fan is the one who is mired in the commercial wasteland and can't see the broader musical perspective.Or the fact that commercial schlock isn't even Rock.

[ImpulseUCF]

Or the fact that commercial schlock isn't even Rock.

If you want to get technical, I don't think genuine rock and roll has been produced in any significant quantity since the 1960s.

[Alton]

If you want to get technical, I don't think genuine rock and roll has been produced in any significant quantity since the 1960s.

You're probably right here, and I'm the guy who started listening to a little AM station called WEBO who's playlist was Fifties/ early Sixties rockers and surf rock guitar well into the British invasion.

[Hiromi]

The worst kind of fan is the one who is mired in the commercial wasteland and can't see the broader musical perspective.Or the fact that commercial schlock isn't even Rock.

Considering that Van Halen pretty much defined Hard Rock in the late 70s/early 80s while Kiss descended into Disco experimentation, Aerosmith was busy imploding, and Zeppelin was done following Bonham's death you seem to be digging that lack of rock knowledge hole even deeper. While completely missing the point of the post you quoted. I listen to pretty much every sub genre of rock and metal sans black/death/ and other growly vocal styles, so yeah, my perspective's broad enough thank you.

Edit: Allow me to simplify it for you, you barged into a thread made specifically to talk about Van Halen's new album, instead of even attempting to discuss it in an intelligent manner, which would likely be impossible as I strongly doubt you've heard it at all, you instead started, in internet terms, screaming about how much the band and the entire style of music sucked and everyone should listen to artist X(and quite frankly that artists isn't anything new either, prog rock/metal is a fairly crowded field right now both in Europe and America with numerous highly talented artists). In essence, you're behaving like a 13 year old commenting on youtube.