Obituaries

[Marypoza]

(10-06-2020, 05:59 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: guitarist Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk Van Halen (Dutch: [ˈɛdvart ˈloːdəˌʋɛi̯k fɑn ˈɦaːlə(n)], /væn ˈheɪlɛn/ van HAY-len; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was a Dutch-American musician, songwriter, producer, and inventor. He was the main songwriter and lead guitarist of the American rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded in 1972 with his brother and drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Mark Stone, and singer David Lee Roth. He was best known for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard. In 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll for "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Born on January 26, 1955, in Amsterdam,[3] Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen (Dutch: [ˈɛdʋɑrt ˈloːdəʋɛjk vɑnˈhaːlə(n)]) was the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia van Halen (née van Beers). Jan was a Dutch clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, and Eugenia was an Indo (Eurasian) from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).[4][5] The family eventually resettled in Nijmegen.[6]

In February 1962, the Van Halen family moved from the Netherlands to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California.[5] Both Eddie and his older brother, Alex van Halen, were naturalized as U.S. citizens.[7] The brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six.[8][9] They commuted from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis.[10]

Quote:We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn't speak the language. Now look where we are. If that’s not the American dream, what is?[11]

Van Halen revealed in an interview that he had never been able to read music. Instead, he learned from watching and listening. During recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would improvise. From 1964 through 1967, he won first place in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College.[10] Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interesting interpretation of the classical piece. Van Halen's view was, "What? I thought I was playing it correctly!" However, according to one interview, playing the piano did not prove to be challenging or interesting to him.[12] Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit for himself; however, after Eddie heard Alex's performance of The Surfaris' drum solo in the song "Wipe Out", he decided to switch instruments and began learning how to play the electric guitar.[12] According to Eddie, as a teen, he would often practice while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked.[13][14]

Eddie and Alex formed their first band with three other boys, calling themselves The Broken Combs, performing at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena, where Eddie was in the fourth grade. Eddie would later say that this was when he first felt the desire to become a professional musician.[15]

Eddie described supergroup Cream's "I'm So Glad" on Goodbye to be "mind-blowing".[16] He once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton's solos in the band Cream "note for note. ... I've always said Eric Clapton was my main influence," Van Halen said, "but Jimmy Page was actually more the way I am, in a reckless-abandon kind of way."

The 1978 instrumental "Eruption" by Van Halen, which was voted No. 2 in Guitar World's readers poll of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos",[47][48] showcased a solo technique called tapping, using both left and right hands on the guitar neck. Although Van Halen popularized tapping, he did not invent the tapping technique, which had been used infrequently by various guitarists before then. Steve Hackett, lead guitarist with Genesis in the 1970s, is said by MusicRadar to be "widely credited with inventing two-handed tapping" and was an influence on Van Halen.[49] When asked about this, Hackett said, "Eddie and I have never spoken about it, but yes, he has credited me with tapping... Eddie is a fine player, of course, and he's the one who named the technique."[50]


George Lynch also said in an interview that he and Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel tap at the Starwood in the 1970s.[51] Van Halen also named Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin as an influence, saying in one interview with Guitar World:

Quote: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.[52]

Until it expired in 2005, Van Halen held a patent for a flip-out support device that attaches to the rear of the electric guitar.[53] This device enables the user to play the guitar in a manner similar to the piano by orienting the face of the guitar upward instead of forward.[54][55][56]

RlP Eddie