Jump to content

RIP Eddie Van Halen

Patrick Bateman

By Patrick Bateman
in Music

 Share

Recommended Posts

TexasBeta

TexasBeta 1265

Posted
Posted

Anybody who came of age in the late 70s and dropped the needle on VH1; it just was wasn’t the same since especially for us guitar players. I was just blown away. Every summer a new VH album came out and my friends and I waited. VH1 - VH2 - Woman and children first - Fair Warning ... I loved them all.

Just a taste of the swing and rhythm of Eddie



  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dcar00

dcar00 14306

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

I remember seeing Van Halen about 2-3 times in one year in Dallas. Texxas Jam at the Cotton Bowl, 5150 and OU812, they also had a "make up" concert in Dallas as well. Best show was 1984 in Reunion Arena. Dave in his heyday was pretty awesome, wasn't a dude alive that didn't want to be him.

CHIEF

getting tickets for that 1984 show was nuts at the ticketmaster office near walnut hill.  cops/helicopters.  crazy shit.  If I remember it correctly, they finally had to take your name and address and then they sent you a raffle like ticket with a number on it to get back in line later in the week.

 they added the 3rd show due to demand.  we ended up scalping some floor seats from some dude in red oak for the 3rd show and sold our first show nosebleeds.

the opening with unchained will never be forgotten by me.  I can hear it, smell it and taste the gin now.

Happy Trails, EVH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mr. sunshine

mr. sunshine 2827

Posted
Posted

I grew up on VH, but saw them live only once - in '84 at the Erwin Center.  Dave had on the chaps, the huge styrofoam cowboy hat and rode around on the inflatable microphone.  When he offered to buy everyone a drink I just knew he was talking to me personally. Eddie was a fucking witch but everyone knew that already.

RIP Ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

The first album I ever owned was 1984.   Van Halen has always resonated with me, especially around good times with buddies and just plain ole indulgent guitar rock.

 

 This was written  for a friend who committed suicide, so the circumstances are certainly different; but the title is appropriate for today. RIP Eddie. 

 

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MC Fresh Breath

MC Fresh Breath 4074

Posted
Posted (edited)

Goddammit.  Fuck.  RIP.

I had to sneak Van Halen tapes into my religious household because Rock was Satan's music.  First cassettes I ever bought with my own money.  I love every single Roth-era VH album.  It was obsession to make the "VH" all over my spiral notebooks.  If there was a Hit Parade with them on the cover, I had to buy it.  Loved the movie "Better Off Dead" even more with the "everybody wants some" scene. 

Back when rock was just fucking fun, and Eddie was a big reason for that.  Thank you, EVH, RIP.

 

 

Edited by MC Fresh Breath
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MirrOlure

MirrOlure 14800

Posted
Posted

I posted in the other thread that was apparently not the "official one"....I was on a conference call when I got the news alert, and made an audible moan/gasp, that caught everyone's attention.....and then I literally shed a tear.

Saw them in their "MTV Era" prime at The Summit in 1984....3rd of 3 consecutive shows (and a few times in their "reunion" years)......

Such an awesome talent.......truly my first bona fide "Music Hero"

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Duke Silver

Duke Silver 191

Posted
Posted

1984 was the first cassette tape I bought with my own money.  My dad made me throw it away because of the smoking angel, but I fished it out later, sliced a hole in my mattress and there the cover stayed for 10 years.  Still have it.  My first defiance of authority was due to VH.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Underdog

Underdog 28742

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

I remember going to my buddy's house in Jr. High (1978) & he put VH1 on his stereo and said "listen to this".

Man. The way "Running with the Devil" starts (bass line... huge guitar riff) still takes me back to that moment. It was a game changer for Rock & Roll.

My favorite song of theirs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Moby Ric

Moby Ric 2058

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, MirrOlure said:

I posted in the other thread that was apparently not the "official one"....I was on a conference call when I got the news alert, and made an audible moan/gasp, that caught everyone's attention.....and then I literally shed a tear.

Saw them in their "MTV Era" prime at The Summit in 1984....3rd of 3 consecutive shows (and a few times in their "reunion" years)......

Such an awesome talent.......truly my first bona fide "Music Hero"

Yeah, the wife came home to pick up a monitor and she could tell I was off.  My voice cracked when I told her.  I'm a grown fucking man that deals with pressure daily.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45992

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

I'm going to rehash some old shit I've said, just because.  Move along if you don't want to hear me bloviate about my youth.

=====

I immediately became a giant fan of Van Halen the moment I heard their debut.  It blew the cobwebs out of my Midwestern brain, which up until then had been consumed with the album oriented rock of the day.  I wasn't really a guitar player then, but that record changed things.

When they announced their first headlining tour, I was not quite 16 years old.  For some reason, my parents and those of a few buddies agreed to let us go see the tour in St. Louis, a two hour drive from our quiet little Ozark town.  We pulled into the parking lot, and it was like a scene from "Dazed & Confused" writ large.  Just a sea of muscle cars: Camaros, Trans Ams, GTOs, any number of Chevy vans, whatever, and every fucking one of them had the radio blasting KSHE-FM, the iconic St. Louis rock station, which was of course playing Van Halen all night long.  The first tune I heard on this giant community stereo was of course "Eruption".  God damn it was glorious.

We had floor seats.  Row 28.  When Van Halen hit the stage, a massive number of less fortunate patrons poured down, and it soon became a sea of delirious rock fans back to about . . . Row 27.  We stood on our chairs and had a birds-eye view of the best fucking rock show ever.

David Lee Roth was a master showman.  I mean, the BEST of the best.  Giant fake joints, chaps, the stage talk, everything.  And he could sing, don't let anyone tell you he couldn't.

But Diamond Dave couldn't top Eddie.  Eddie ruled that world.  His talent was so fucking immense.  He was probably half high and fully drunk and it didn't matter one bit.  He blazed.  He was absolutely a musical titan, on par with Miles and Beethoven and Monk and Joplin and Bartok and you name it, he was in their league.  But the thing is, he wasn't just a musical genius, he was playful.  He reminded me of a more talented Joe Walsh.  "Oh yeah?  You thought that was good?  Watch THIS!"

Ultimately, music poured out of Eddie like water out of a glass.  He didn't even have to try.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he tried, but he didn't have to.  He just was.  He was the King.

  • Hook 'Em 10
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Macanudo

Macanudo 12997

Posted
Posted

I used to be able to name every song in order from the original DLR fronted Van Halen albums.   And each song's running time.  Van Halen is my favorite name by a long bit.  EVH might have been an asshole but I'm with anyone says he's a top 3 guitarist of all time and arguably the best.  

It took me a few minutes to let this sink in.  I knew his cancer was going to kill him young but that doesnt make this any easier.   I'm not a happy camper right now. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
deadshank

deadshank 24653

Posted
Posted

If first heard VH on KZEW 98 FM.  I was stupefied, enthralled, slack-jawed, gobsmacked and enchubbened.  What in the world has just met my 8th grade ears?  What is this witchcraft coming over the radio?

I bolt over to the local record store and slap my money down to get Van Halen on vinyl and fly back home to put it on my Panasonic turntable / receiver with the Panasonic Thruster speakers.   I crank it up all the way to listen to Running With The Devil only to be completely set free and listen in sheer awe when Eruption / You Really Got Me came on in sequence.  Instantly my hearing permanently went down to 50% in both ears and tinnitus in both ears.

My old man screams upstairs to me "turn that gotdam, mother fucking jungle music down!!!"  At that point I knew I was on to something really, REALLY good.

I get on the blower to Steve and Richie and say "get your sorry, pot-smoking, skank-banging asses over here....NOW! and check out what I have cued up on the rotator!"  They stagger over and are enraptured, as well, as we listen to the entire album at least 5 times in a row, begin to end, front to back with volume up wall to wall and tree top tall.  

A few months later we are at Dallas County Convention Center watching VH go through their entire first album plus You're No Good from Van Halen II as their set list and as Black Sabbath's opening act.

To this day I still crank up EVH and VH way too loud.

The great ones seem to die far too young.

RIP, EVH.  You cut a wide swath and will be missed.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
thunderlounge

thunderlounge 7872

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

2020 sure as fuck ain't done.  wish i still had my 1984 cassette.

RIP to a genius.  a legit fucking genius.


Only tapes I ever wore out so bad and had to get new ones....

Powerslave, Live After Death, Appetite for Destruction, and 1984. 
 

 

Ah, good times.

He was a natural musical genius. He also burned a lot of bridges, but the world is still better off from his influence. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sbbruin

Sbbruin 21864

Posted
Posted

Brutal.  Another soundtrack of my youth.  I've told this story on another thread, but 1981, me and 2 buddies were dropped off at the VH show at the Forum.  Fair Warning tour.  14 years old.  No adults, no cellphones, just "meet at this spot afterwards."  Intense show, my friend's dad was in the music biz so they were great seats, but pretty overwhelming for a kid.  But unforgettable.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GhostOfTomJoad

GhostOfTomJoad 9340

Posted
Posted

First REAL experience hearing Van Halen was in our next door neighbor Kurk Lee's --- actually, his older brother Paul's -- Chevy conversion van with shag carpet covering damn near every inch of the interior. Kurk had the 8 track of VH and grabbed, the keys to the van, his younger brother (Mark, my age) and several other neighborhood kids from our tiny little shit hole MN town & we drove down to the A&W blaring the shit out of it. I don't even know if Kurk had his drivers license. Not that it mattered, their dad was a mechanic & all 5 sons and 4 daughters were gear heads so they were all driving before they were teenagers. Paul ended up finding us at the A&W and beat the shit out of Kurk for taking his van without asking.  Not sure of the head end, but the speakers were definitely Kraco's.

RIP, EVH.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rimbo

Rimbo 25993

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

RIP. Damn

Man I bet 1978-1983 was a great time to be a teen. From the stories y’all are telling. 

hey, you aren't THAT much younger than I am and...

Yeah, I wish I'd been see to see them during the original DLR years.

At least I saw them when they reunited years later with Wolf on bass. Not the same thing, but it was enough.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nicole44

Nicole44 22068

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

hey, you aren't THAT much younger than I am and...

Yeah, I wish I'd been see to see them during the original DLR years.

At least I saw them when they reunited years later with Wolf on bass. Not the same thing, but it was enough.

Yeah I just meant to be like 16-18 years old then. Before my time. RIP Eddie! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...