What we wanted for Xmas 1976

[Sean]

VH's arrival in 78 sparked the same worldwide change of pace that other artists did, like Dylan with Highway 61 revistied, Zep with 1, Pearl Jam with 10

Utter nonsense. Van Halen did absolutely nothing new.

so sez you, I will have to stick with the more conventional (and accepted) wisdom

But then again, guitar based rock rules in the US and the UK (of old), as well as most of europe. This is why you wont find much agreement with guitarists. (check berry, jimi, eddie, and curt are considered the 4 pioneering guiatarist)

They are? By who exactly?
The only names which belong anywhere near that are Berry and possibly Hendrix. Guitarists in the late '60s/early '70s were much more likely to have been influenced by Clapton than Hendrix. By "Curt" I assume you mean Kurt Cobain. That's a joke! Nirvana may have been influential to the Grunge genre but Cobain is only considered to be a great guitarist by Nirvana fanboys. EVH? If he was so pioneering and influential we would be hearing an awful lot more guitarists using the modes he used rather than pentatonic scales. But we don't so he wasn't.

A closer to reality list would have names like Clapton, Robert Johnson, Link Wray & Hubert Sumlin (who sadly passed away almost unnoticed a week ago ).

[Gob]

But you cannot deny that check berry was one of the greats!

The fucking moron hasn't a clue has he?

[dales]

Check Berry?

Chubby Checker?

Fats Domino?

Fats Waller?

Excuse while I kiss the sky..............

[Jarlaxle]

I suspect that Hannah Montana is more your speed, Bosco.

[Lord Jim]

Dale hasn't been the same since the Big Band Era ended....

[quaddriver]

Utter nonsense. Van Halen did absolutely nothing new.

Again, players disagree with you:

It's circa 1978. The editor of Guitar Player magazine receives an advance copy of the first Van Halen album. While listening to the tapping sequence in 'Eruption', a columnist walks by, looks in, asks “who's playing the keyboards”? He answers, “it's a guitar”. With a look of disbelief, the writer says, “wow, this changes everything”. Huge understatement. Van Halen took guitar techniques into the stratosphere. Word is he didn't invent tapping (a technique that involves hammering a pick hand finger directly onto the fretboard, then pulling off to another note), but he might as well have. Without him, Floyd Rose (inventor of a bridge system that allows the whammy bar to move both ways without going out of tune), would still be knocking on doors trying to sell his product. His rhythm and soloing are so unpredictable, it always sounds like he is about to crash and burn. It's that slippery. As a guitarist, I can usually watch a player and know what scales, chords, tricks, etc, they are incorporating. After all these years, Van Halen still scares me. One drawback to the Van Halen era: he caused players to become too technical, which leads to my last choice:

I dunno, pick up the instrument and learn?

[quaddriver]

By "Curt" I assume you mean Kurt Cobain. That's a joke! Nirvana may have been influential to the Grunge genre but Cobain is only considered to be a great guitarist by Nirvana fanboys. EVH? If he was so pioneering and influential we would be hearing an awful lot more guitarists using the modes he used rather than pentatonic scales. But we don't so he wasn't.

).

Yes, in the heat of the moment I mispelled it.

In the 90's, Nirvana single handedly dismantled the Hair Band era. Performing with bargain basement instruments, Cobain's playing was basic and sloppy. The antithesis of technical. The songs were not merely vehicles for guitar solos. His lyrics were brilliant, and like Hendrix, his playing was an extension of the words. After 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', record labels flocked to Seattle to sign any act they could. The genre they pioneered even had a name: Seattle Grunge. His simplistic solo style can still be heard in all forms of popular music today.

Now I slightly disagree with that, I think Vedder, McCready and Gossard of PEarl Jam did more so with 10 as forementioned.

Seriously I recommend that you and Gob, pick up the instrument and learn and most importantly READ.

You do not have to be the BEST to 'change everything' for that period. Although Eddie is #8 on the all time rank (which means he could be 6 or 10) he changed everything.

Clapton is oft considered the best or close to is (#2 and 4 on 2 different rankings) and is considered the most influential of all times over his BODY OF WORK. There is no single piece he put out that 'changed everything', like the 4 aforementioned albums which I told you were not a complete listing. I only placed the VH album in the time period being discussed and showed its peers.

Like I said, I dont expect you to understand, you mostly dont listen to them, you dont have the albums, you dont play the instrument, you dont sit/sat in a band.

[quaddriver]

Let's see your evidence for them as a band of change and originality then.

I'm not saying the were a bad band, quite the opposite, I loved their stuff. But they were no influence and came up with no major changes to music.

But I see your moving the goalposts again. No one has any doubt Eddie was great, one of the great, rock guitarists, he just wasn’t particularly innovative. Even his tapping, though skilful, was not original.

The general public was introduced to Van Halen via the first single off their debut, a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me." A few years ago, I attended a Seattle panel of local rock musicians and critics, each sharing the one song that changed everything for them. Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks chose Van Halen's "You Really Got Me." "That guitar," he said, "it was like nothing I'd ever heard." Indeed it was like nothing anyone had ever heard, except for the hundreds of Southern California teenagers who had been with Van Halen ever since the band was playing backyard parties in Pasadena.

Eddie Van Halen hit the late '70s L.A. rock scene like an atom bomb. No guitarist since Jimi Hendrix had set the community back on its heels like this half-Dutch, half-Indonesian American kid did. Scores of musicians report seeing Van Halen play for the first time and just being utterly shamed by his complete mastery of the instrument. In the space of five records, Van Halen (1978), Van Halen II (1979), Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), Diver Down (1982), and 1984 (duh), Van Halen redefined hard rock, and established heavy metal as a huge moneymaking machine for the various bloodsucking lawyers who ran the record industry.

Please, I implore you, try at least a little to be right for a change.

Earlier, I stated the fact as I know and have studied them for over 30 years - with this ONE BAND. Now Im using google and everyone is going to restate what we already know to be true.

[Jarlaxle]

The 70s were great!

The Neville Brothers started performing together. Reggae reached its peak. Little Feat recorded their best records. Bob Dylan recorded some of his best, The Rolling Stones recorded their last meaningful records. A lot of the flowering which is usually credited to the 60s happened: Marvin Gaye and the Temptations broke out of the 3 1/2 minute pop song mould with much better and more interesting recordings.

Some of the best funk ever was recorded "Flashlight".

Disco was a blast. Only an-hedonics who can't dance and can't stand the fact that other people are having a good time while they are boring assholes were ever against it.

yrs,
rubato

Someone has gotten into the holiday cheer...

Screw disco, I just want a Super Duty 455 Firebird. Make it a crank-window base-model Formula, no stripes, no hood bird, no graphics (except the standard "SD-455" on the shaker), steel wheels, no options except the Super Duty, cruise control, 3.08 limited slip, fast-ratio steering, and dealer-installed A/C.

[quaddriver]

But you cannot deny that check berry was one of the greats!

The fucking moron hasn't a clue has he?

From the country in which you currently live, from a book by the lead guitarist of a local band to you:

AC/DC played on a bill with Van Halen back in 1978 or 1979 for a Bill Graham Day on the Green show. I didn’t know much about Van Halen then except that I remember seeing film clips of them, especially the one of Eddie playing the solo piece, “Eruption,” and I was very impressed. I didn’t meet Eddie until years later when there was a Monsters of Rock open-air festival in England. I was shocked to hear he liked my playing, because I’ve never rated myself as a guitarist.

Eddie is an innovator. When I grew up we had a lot of guys from England who were great players, like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. And then, of course, when Jimi Hendrix came along, he changed the game. I’d put Eddie in that category of being an innovator like Hendrix. He changed the game for his style of playing. When Eddie came along he spawned so many imitators. Like Hendrix, suddenly you started to see people wanting to buy the same guitars he played and also play his licks. He turned the rule book upside down in terms of his approach. There was a lot of experimentation to his playing. Eddie also crosses into that avant-garde thing, which puts him in the same category as Hendrix.

“Eruption” is a favorite track. He’s got everything characteristic of his playing in that song–there’s a bit of everything.

When Jimi Hendrix came along it was like, “Where did this guy come from?” and I think that was the same feeling with Eddie. When Eddie appeared on the scene, every guitarist I ran into said, “You’ve gotta hear this guy!”

Do I need go on? Do I need to quote more players and more writers for the enre (rock music) to show what is obvious: I know more about this subject than you and most importanly since you derailed the thread: My statements are correct.

[quaddriver]

From Paul Gilbert of Mr Big:

IC: Who were your influences when you were starting out? Have they changed over the years?


Paul in LA in 1987
PG: My parents had a lot of Beatles and Stones records, plus a lot of classical stuff. My uncle turned me on to Hendrix and Bowie when I was really young. And I liked the music on TV, which at that time was the Osmond Brothers and The Jackson 5. Soon after that, I started getting into heavier bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, and Ted Nugent. Then Van Halen came out and changed everything!

[quaddriver]

Even the Chicks agree, from Katrina Johansson:

When did you start to gain interest in music and guitar playing in particular?
KJ: “I always loved music, even as a small child. I would spend hours listening to the radio and singing along. We always had classical music playing on the stereo, when I was growing up. I became interested in the guitar as a child and hearing Eddie van Halen changed everything!!”

So lets see, without even trying hard I find players and writers older than I, younger than I, Male and female that use the EXACT SAME WORDS about the EXACT SAME ALBUM.

Coincidence?

[Joe Guy]

This is AMAZING!!!

quad has actually, for the first time EVER, found something on the internet to support his point of view. This could be an important historical moment.

For once, he didn't say that he is righter than everyone else and that the proof 'is out there' for others to find.

Notice how he keeps finding more and more stuff to cut & paste? It's never happened before and he's enjoying it because it is new to him.

On (current) topic; the truth is that Van Halen did have an influence on the music of the era of the time. But did he have more influence on popular music than Snoop Doggy Dog and other early rappers did years later?

Probably not.

The point is, in a discussion like this, it all boils down to personal taste. If someone wants to play guitar like Van Halen and call him a guitar god, there's nothing wrong with that.

And if other rock stars and rock writers liked Van Halen, then he must be a god, right?

And if quad has all of Van Halen's albums and very likely cried when the group broke up, he is entitled to call himself an expert on that subject.

Good job, quad!

[Lord Jim]

Rube's a disco fan?

Figures....

[rubato]

Going out dancing was a blast.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H40VDzSYaLI&feature=fvsr


slipped my disco ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIHrdLwa_y8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe1ScoeP ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3svW8PM ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IdEhvuN ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfteiP1qaaE


It was the same era I learned to love live African Music




yrs,
rubato

[dales]

I suspect that Hannah Montana is more your speed, Bosco.

Blow it out your backside, Jarl.

[dales]

Dale hasn't been the same since the Big Band Era ended....

When "Magic 61" KFRC - 610 Khz ended their format, I did shed a quiet tear.

[dales]

Rube's a disco fan?

Figures....

Yes, there is NO accounting for musical tastes, is there.

[loCAtek]

Dale hasn't been the same since the Big Band Era ended....

When "Magic 61" KFRC - 610 Khz ended their format, I did shed a quiet tear.

How about the dance styles Dales, you gonna take me Jitter-bugging some time?

[dales]

Fox-trot is more my speed.

Believe it or don't....when I was in Grad school, my school chums and I (mostly women) would occasionaly host a "trance-dance" shindig in Oakland or SF. It was great fun and I got to "move around" without really knowing how to dance.

btw: No drugs.