Tuesday
Oct062020
Farewell Eddie Van Halen
Tuesday, October 6, 2020 at 03:41PM
Eddie Van Halen, amazing guitar legend for Van Halen, has died of throat cancer. He was 65. I will have more on this later. For now, this story is just breaking. Here is the post his son, Wolfgang, posted to Twitter to break the news:
— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) October 6, 2020
Reader Comments (12)
The Thunder of the Gods just got a whole lot louder!
On a more positive note, the new AC/DC song is out and it's fantastic, what you'd expect but you dont want anything else from them.
Thankful I was front and center for the 1984 Tour and a few others. So many good memories.
Also thankful for the amazing music he left us with.
Life sucks. I just want to wake up from this horrible nightmare.
Cancer sucks. Getting old sucks. 2020 sucks.
RIP Eddie.
In the early 80's, Philadelphia Radio icon, Debbi Calton, hosted a Sunday night show on 94.1 WYSP (Howard Stern's future first syndicated station), entitled, "The Sunday Night Six Pack", where she would play 6 albums in their entirety back to back; uninterrupted, commercial-free. My older brother had a dual cassette boom box, which was capable of recording directly off of the radio (as opposed to 'old school', whereby I would have to hold up a tape recorder next to the radio's speaker- yes very old school).
One night, two albums that she played in her line-up were Van Halen I and II, which my brother recorded. My brother's room was next to mine and there was a heating/air conditioning wall vent separating our bedrooms. I could lay on the floor, put my ear up against that vent and here him in there talking with a friend, watching an R-rated movie on his television, communicating on his CB radio, etc... And then use this sh*t against him. I kid, maybe.
Over the next several days after Debbi Calton's show, I wasn't able to get any juicy dirt on my brother. Instead, I got the echoes of The Kink's song, "You Really Got Me". But hold up, this wasn't the version that I was familiar with. This was something completely different. I didn't know who (or what) it was, but I liked it. No, I loved it, Anyway, one day my brother was leaving the house to go hang out with his friends and instead of asking to tag along, I asked him if I could borrow that "got me" song. He agreed as long as #1 I took very good care of it and #2 I returned it to him. I obeyed commandment #1, but I still need to do penance for rule #2 as he never got it back permanently.
I took this cassette and immediately fast forwarded (as best I could, as my boom box was substandard to his and it didn't have a tracking/counting number that I could press to allow me to get back (or forward to) a specific song. Therefore, I would have to 'guesstimate' where 'You Really Got Me' would start and and would find the beginning of the song through trial and error.
Finally, I just gave up and would rewind the tape to the beginning and play Running with the Devil, then Eruption, followed by YRGT, over and over. A few times, I'd be so mesmerized by the first two songs and then dancing around my bedroom to YRGM, that I'd forget to stop the tape and some other song would start playing called, "Ain't talking 'bout love". Holy Sh*t. I wonder if other people knew about this songs. Or, any of these songs for that matter.
After several months of listening to these four (4) songs over and over again, I decided to let the tape play through. There just "had to be" other gems on this album...and there were!!! To this day, "Feel Your Love" remains one of my favorite Van Halen songs, and truth be told, I've done a lot of fcking (I mean love-making) to that song. Nah, I mean dirty sex fcking! Bon Jovi is for love-making. Anyway, back to pubescent fletch...
I would listen to the entire Van Halen I album over and over. I couldn't get enough of it. Several months later, Doomsday came a-knocking at my bedroom door. My brother wanted his tape cassette back. I pleaded with him to let me keep it, but he insisted. Reluctantly, I took the cassette out of my boom box and as I was begrudgingly handing it over him him, I noticed something on the cassette that I didn't know about. Side A was marked "Van Halen 1", but side B was marked "Van Halen 2". I asked my brother what was "side B" about. He then gave me a little history/education on Van Halen explaining that these albums came out in 1978 and 1979 respectively. They are a few year old and the Sunday Night Six pack show just decided to play these two albums as part of the line up. Oh, interesting I thought to myself....Cue an imaginary lightbulb over my head.
A few days later, by brother went out with his friends again. This time, I didn't ask. I didn't need to. I knew (heard) him and his friends reading Playboy magazines in his bedroom through my trusty air vent. I'm sneaking into his bedroom and finding taking that cassette (along with a Playboy magazine- screw him!) I would become a modern day Charles Magnussen. I kid, maybe.
Actually, in reality, I didn't need to ask. My brother enjoyed Van Halen somewhat, but truth be told, he wasn't a very big fan. Instead, he preferred Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, the Who, etc... I honestly don't think he missed the cassette which I took out of his room, but surely he heard me playing songs from Van Halen I and II out of my bedroom (that vent works both ways) and he never asked me for it back again. Ah, I was overjoyed! (See what I did there die-hards).
Anyway, 1983 rolled around and our cable company finally got Mtv and my attention started turning to several bands spotlighted on this channel. Here's the thing. I realized that I didn't know what "Van Halen" looked like. I never watched Friday night videos and by the time Mtv came on our channel lineup, Mtv had banned Van Halen's (Oh) Pretty Woman video due to it's sexualized material, as midgets were groping a restrained woman against her will. It stirred more controversy in the final sequence when the bound woman turned out to be a man dressed in drag.
Remember, the two albums I had in my possession were recoded off of the radio. I didn't have the actual albums in my hand to see what "Van Halen" actually looked like. I had an older sister who had a few tiger beat magazines, but she wasn't into hard rock. She liked (appreciated) bands such as Journey, Loverboy, and the Go-Go's but still wasn't much into the music scene. He heart instead belonged to the teen-flick, The Outsiders, and her bedroom had a collection of pin-ups of Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe and Matt Dillon. I digress.
Fast forward and 1984 rolls around. There was buzz on the radio and on Mtv that Van Halen were releasing their long awaited album corresponding to the year, as an homage to George Owell's classic novel. And, Van Halen were going to broadcast their [insert David Lee Roth voice] World Premier Video to support the album. I could hardly wait to see the video for two reasons. First, I wanted, (no I needed), new Van Halen material and second, I wanted, (no I needed), to know what my rock gods looked liked. Mtv premiered the video, 'Jump", and I was no longer blown away. I was hooked- Insert needle into arm kind of hooked. I knew that Van Halen "sounded" cool, but I didn't know that they "looked" cool, too. Who knew??? Scratch that. They were cool! I started asking for Van Halen's back catalog as birthday and Christmas presents and shall we say, the rest is history.
I was torn apart by the news yesterday. This one hurt, deeply. My heart shattered and I shed some tears. But, I want to thank Eddie Van Halen for his gift and his legacy that he left behind. I hope for peace and healing to his family, friends and other loved ones. I'm positive that he left an indelible mark on their lives, as he certainly did mine. Thank you EVH. Much love!
My own personal moment: several years after VH's debut, I found myself sitting down by a boat ramp with a motley assortment of young male and female miscreants (myself included). I fancied myself a fan of rock and metal. But, boy oh boy, was I a sheltered pup!
Suddenly, amidst pot smoke, cheap beer, and amorous overtures from those both front, left, and center, I hear . . . the start to "Ain't Talkin Bout Love" shooting out of the ridiculously large speakers sitting on the back of a Datsun 710 wagon!
That's it. I was hooked. Hooked on Roth, yes. But also hooked on that sound coming out of that man's guitar. To my untrained (then and now) ears, it made no sense in the most perfect way possible. Heresy uttered from my petulant lips, "Who is that?" The owner of the majestic car said: "What the ****? Who is that?!?!? That's Eddie ****in' Van Halen!!!" A (again) young pup who knew Sabbath, and Purple, and Zep was just taken down a peg. But I also was brought up a notch. Good time party rock never sounded as good or as great as when EVH was the guy playing the guitar. That isn't hyperbole. That is a fact of the best decades of my existence.
Times change. People too. My opinions about Van Halen have shifted. But I will never forget that night. NEVER. It's as etched into my consciousness as the wrinkles are on my face.
As Roth, never the best person to sum up EVH to those who knew or loved him, simply said: ""What a Long Great Trip It’s Been . . ." Couldn't agree more. RIP EVH.