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RIP Eddie Van Halen


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I grew up in the '80s, and I think Van Halen probably makes up more of my musical DNA than any other music.  I haven't listened to them all that much in the last 20 years or more but it is undeniable that they are a massive presence in my life and in so many vivid memories of my past. I cant separate them from memories I have of so many childhood friends (and enemies). I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard as a 12 year old that they were becoming Van Hagar.  They were my first music purchase I made with my own money.  They are on the MTV Mount Rushmore.  They are my grade school graduation swim party. They are my high school cover band.   They are what the boys AND girls I knew thought was fun and awesome...which is a fucking revelation when you're 11 years old.

 

EVH is maybe the most influential person who ever lived.  At least when it comes to what matters.

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My sister was a big fan, so I remember listening to them a lot in the 70's --- must admit their music never grabbed me, though I always respected Eddie's guitar playing. I was in 6th or 7th grade when 1984 came out - it was huge at my grade school, for sure. My friend had an extra ticket to see them in 1992 (Southern Illinois Arena in Carbondale, IL) -  so I went to check out Eddie's playing. Again it didn't move me at all, but he was fun to watch. The production of the show was pretty good. I remember Michael Anthony being a highlight of the show. 

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I have a good Eddie Van Halen story that I was too upset & ill to share yesterday.  I had chemo yesterday morning & got home to hear the news of Eddie's passing. Not a good day. So let's hop in the time machine & head back to 1978. I was 17 & a junior in high school. At this point I am seriously getting into music which affected my life (good & bad) for decades to come. The first record came out in February of 1978. I was hanging out at my favorite record store & they said listen to this & put the record on as there was no radio play yet. Eruption comes on & it was like a bolt of lightning. My friends & I freaked out because there wasn't anything else out there that sounded like that. Bought the album immediately. A few months later they came to town as an opener for Black Sabbath on the Never Say Die tour. Van Halen absolutely destroyed them. Sabbath were not at their best & it turned out they fired Ozzy after the tour. They were so bad that we left the show early. Went to a party at a friend's place & I came up with the bright idea of heading down to the Edgewater to try & meet the band. The hotel was the stay of choice for bands. You could fish from the rooms & it was made famous by Frank Zappa song about mudsharks. So, we got there & bluffed our way into the cocktail lounge being underage & all. Turns out both bands were there & it was party time in the bar. We noticed Eddie was sitting at a table by himself in the corner so we wandered over to say hi. I think Eddie figured out we were there on the sly & told us to have seat saying he'd rather hang with fans than anyone else. We ended up getting quite a buzz on with him & he was very cool & nice to us. We met Ozzy, too. He was nice to us, too. On the other hand, David Lee already was really arrogant & aloof. 1 friend ended up spilling a really sloppy drink like a tequila sunrise on him by accident. He was not pleased! To cap it off, on the way back to the car I see a flash of green & dove on it. Turned out it was $40 which was a healthy amount of money in those days. What a night! I saw VH a bunch in the early days. I think they would've been an even bigger deal if Sammy Hagar was the singer from the beginning. DLR was entertaining but irritating & finally he was just insufferable. I saw them with Sammy a few times including a memorable show with Alice in Chains opening. Didn't catch any of the reunion shows. Now I kind of wish I had but I don't think it would've topped the early shows. RIP Eddie, you were 1 of a kind for sure!

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31 minutes ago, chuckrh said:

I have a good Eddie Van Halen story that I was too upset & ill to share yesterday.  I had chemo yesterday morning & got home to hear the news of Eddie's passing. Not a good day. So let's hop in the time machine & head back to 1978. I was 17 & a junior in high school. At this point I am seriously getting into music which affected my life (good & bad) for decades to come. The first record came out in February of 1978. I was hanging out at my favorite record store & they said listen to this & put the record on as there was no radio play yet. Eruption comes on & it was like a bolt of lightning. My friends & I freaked out because there wasn't anything else out there that sounded like that. Bought the album immediately. A few months later they came to town as an opener for Black Sabbath on the Never Say Die tour. Van Halen absolutely destroyed them. Sabbath were not at their best & it turned out they fired Ozzy after the tour. They were so bad that we left the show early. Went to a party at a friend's place & I came up with the bright idea of heading down to the Edgewater to try & meet the band. The hotel was the stay of choice for bands. You could fish from the rooms & it was made famous by Frank Zappa song about mudsharks. So, we got there & bluffed our way into the cocktail lounge being underage & all. Turns out both bands were there & it was party time in the bar. We noticed Eddie was sitting at a table by himself in the corner so we wandered over to say hi. I think Eddie figured out we were there on the sly & told us to have seat saying he'd rather hang with fans than anyone else. We ended up getting quite a buzz on with him & he was very cool & nice to us. We met Ozzy, too. He was nice to us, too. On the other hand, David Lee already was really arrogant & aloof. 1 friend ended up spilling a really sloppy drink like a tequila sunrise on him by accident. He was not pleased! To cap it off, on the way back to the car I see a flash of green & dove on it. Turned out it was $40 which was a healthy amount of money in those days. What a night! I saw VH a bunch in the early days. I think they would've been an even bigger deal if Sammy Hagar was the singer from the beginning. DLR was entertaining but irritating & finally he was just insufferable. I saw them with Sammy a few times including a memorable show with Alice in Chains opening. Didn't catch any of the reunion shows. Now I kind of wish I had but I don't think it would've topped the early shows. RIP Eddie, you were 1 of a kind for sure!

 

Cool story -- it would have been great if that $40 you found ended up to be Roth's --- must admit Roth was the main reason I never gotten into to Van Halen --- I do enjoy 5150 the most out of their output. I did dub a cassette of 5150 off a friend of mine.

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45 minutes ago, chuckrh said:

I have a good Eddie Van Halen story that I was too upset & ill to share yesterday.  I had chemo yesterday morning & got home to hear the news of Eddie's passing. Not a good day. So let's hop in the time machine & head back to 1978. I was 17 & a junior in high school. At this point I am seriously getting into music which affected my life (good & bad) for decades to come. The first record came out in February of 1978. I was hanging out at my favorite record store & they said listen to this & put the record on as there was no radio play yet. Eruption comes on & it was like a bolt of lightning. My friends & I freaked out because there wasn't anything else out there that sounded like that. Bought the album immediately. A few months later they came to town as an opener for Black Sabbath on the Never Say Die tour. Van Halen absolutely destroyed them. Sabbath were not at their best & it turned out they fired Ozzy after the tour. They were so bad that we left the show early. Went to a party at a friend's place & I came up with the bright idea of heading down to the Edgewater to try & meet the band. The hotel was the stay of choice for bands. You could fish from the rooms & it was made famous by Frank Zappa song about mudsharks. So, we got there & bluffed our way into the cocktail lounge being underage & all. Turns out both bands were there & it was party time in the bar. We noticed Eddie was sitting at a table by himself in the corner so we wandered over to say hi. I think Eddie figured out we were there on the sly & told us to have seat saying he'd rather hang with fans than anyone else. We ended up getting quite a buzz on with him & he was very cool & nice to us. We met Ozzy, too. He was nice to us, too. On the other hand, David Lee already was really arrogant & aloof. 1 friend ended up spilling a really sloppy drink like a tequila sunrise on him by accident. He was not pleased! To cap it off, on the way back to the car I see a flash of green & dove on it. Turned out it was $40 which was a healthy amount of money in those days. What a night! I saw VH a bunch in the early days. I think they would've been an even bigger deal if Sammy Hagar was the singer from the beginning. DLR was entertaining but irritating & finally he was just insufferable. I saw them with Sammy a few times including a memorable show with Alice in Chains opening. Didn't catch any of the reunion shows. Now I kind of wish I had but I don't think it would've topped the early shows. RIP Eddie, you were 1 of a kind for sure!

A great story. Positive vibes to you as you go through chemo! DLR Van Halen > Van Hagar, but DLR's personality leaves a lot to be desired. His interview on Maron was good, though. He comes from old Vaudevillians, IIRC. That makes a lot of sense.

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Dweezil Zappa has put out some kind words for EVH. I know they had a close relationship. Eddie showed up in person for Dweezil's talent show in HS, and lent him his guitar for the performance. Dweezil also says that Eddie was the first person to call him after FZ passed.

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3 hours ago, Winston Legthigh said:

 

Who else would be on your MTV Mount Rushmore?

 

 

We didn't have cable in my house, so I only got to see MTV when I'd visit my grandparents each summer, so my MTV experience might be different than others, but:

 

Michael Jackson, obviously.  The David Bowie China Girl video is a pretty massive one in my memory.  Maybe Duran Duran.

 

But Van Halen Hot for Teacher was a huge smash.  Probably a bigger deal than Thriller for me, which I only saw after it had been out a while. 

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VH was a huge part of the soundtrack of my youth (grade school -> jr. high) but their music never stuck with me beyond that.

 

That said, EVH always seemed to be enjoying the hell out of making music and that's as good of a legacy to leave as any.

 

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17 hours ago, jff said:

 

We didn't have cable in my house, so I only got to see MTV when I'd visit my grandparents each summer, so my MTV experience might be different than others, but:

 

Michael Jackson, obviously.  The David Bowie China Girl video is a pretty massive one in my memory.  Maybe Duran Duran.

 

But Van Halen Hot for Teacher was a huge smash.  Probably a bigger deal than Thriller for me, which I only saw after it had been out a while. 

 

My picks are not too far from that. I would also say Duran Duran, David Bowie, Hot for Teacher, and I'm Just a Gigolo - which is probably my #1 video of all time. 

 

I remember watching USA network's "Night Flight" on Friday night sleepovers - waiting for the "unedited" Girls on Film, or another one by Berlin (forget the song) that were too risque to show during daylight hours...

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3 hours ago, Winston Legthigh said:

 

My picks are not too far from that. I would also say Duran Duran, David Bowie, Hot for Teacher, and I'm Just a Gigolo - which is probably my #1 video of all time. 

 

I remember watching USA network's "Night Flight" on Friday night sleepovers - waiting for the "unedited" Girls on Film, or another one by Berlin (forget the song) that were too risque to show during daylight hours...

 

On further thought,  Ratt's Round and Round and The Cars Magic were probably bigger players in my limited MTV experience than Duran Duran.  Quite possibly also true for some Phil Collins songs.  I remember seeing You Can't Hurry Love many, many times.  I can remember more specific details about all of those videos than any Duran Duran video, which is just  remember as them poncing around on a yacht.

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2 hours ago, jff said:

 

 poncing around on a yacht.

 

Yeah, but compared to tripe like this - (budget, maybe $1,000?) the exotic locales of the Duran Duran videos were a godsend. 

 

Back to EVH - Hot for Teacher just couldn't be made today. You've got two different teachers/strippers gyrating in front of kids! Eddie's performance in that video makes me laugh - he couldn't get DLR's choreography down.

 

Today I learned that Phil Hartman supplied the voice for Waldo in that vid. 

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16 hours ago, Winston Legthigh said:

Back to EVH - Hot for Teacher just couldn't be made today. You've got two different teachers/strippers gyrating in front of kids! Eddie's performance in that video makes me laugh - he couldn't get DLR's choreography down.

 

I think Cardi B. could easily make a video playing a teacher.

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On 10/7/2020 at 12:51 PM, chuckrh said:

I have a good Eddie Van Halen story that I was too upset & ill to share yesterday.  I had chemo yesterday morning & got home to hear the news of Eddie's passing. Not a good day. So let's hop in the time machine & head back to 1978. I was 17 & a junior in high school. At this point I am seriously getting into music which affected my life (good & bad) for decades to come. The first record came out in February of 1978. I was hanging out at my favorite record store & they said listen to this & put the record on as there was no radio play yet. Eruption comes on & it was like a bolt of lightning. My friends & I freaked out because there wasn't anything else out there that sounded like that. Bought the album immediately. A few months later they came to town as an opener for Black Sabbath on the Never Say Die tour. Van Halen absolutely destroyed them. Sabbath were not at their best & it turned out they fired Ozzy after the tour. They were so bad that we left the show early. Went to a party at a friend's place & I came up with the bright idea of heading down to the Edgewater to try & meet the band. The hotel was the stay of choice for bands. You could fish from the rooms & it was made famous by Frank Zappa song about mudsharks. So, we got there & bluffed our way into the cocktail lounge being underage & all. Turns out both bands were there & it was party time in the bar. We noticed Eddie was sitting at a table by himself in the corner so we wandered over to say hi. I think Eddie figured out we were there on the sly & told us to have seat saying he'd rather hang with fans than anyone else. We ended up getting quite a buzz on with him & he was very cool & nice to us. We met Ozzy, too. He was nice to us, too. On the other hand, David Lee already was really arrogant & aloof. 1 friend ended up spilling a really sloppy drink like a tequila sunrise on him by accident. He was not pleased! To cap it off, on the way back to the car I see a flash of green & dove on it. Turned out it was $40 which was a healthy amount of money in those days. What a night! I saw VH a bunch in the early days. I think they would've been an even bigger deal if Sammy Hagar was the singer from the beginning. DLR was entertaining but irritating & finally he was just insufferable. I saw them with Sammy a few times including a memorable show with Alice in Chains opening. Didn't catch any of the reunion shows. Now I kind of wish I had but I don't think it would've topped the early shows. RIP Eddie, you were 1 of a kind for sure!

 

That's an amazing story.  What a great experience!  It serves DLR right to have a drink spilled on him if he's gonna be an arrogant bastard.

 

Best of luck with your chemo and recovery.  I'm pulling for you, as is everyone here.

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