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Eddie Van Halen, RIP


OrdinaryNimda

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1 hour ago, kidblast said:

and think about this Ian,, Keith Richards.........  Still Alive!!!!!  LOL!

So are all the members of Aerosmith. Steven and Joe put enough junk in their arms to kill 100 elephants.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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Truly a Master.  Whenever I get down about no bars to play in or nothing else going on or no recordings to do I watch Edward for a while, and I think of the couple times I saw them, and the one time I got to talk to him for a while down there at the President Marina.  Nobody, and I really mean nobody, ever played as fully physically involved while having as much fun as possible as he did.  Nobody.  I don't knock him off exactly, I never tapped real well but I do if we are doing their things, I can get the harmonics and stuff but not nearly as consistently as him, and I don't ever have the volume and other helps he had to do that stuff.  But I try to play every song as fully physically involved as I can, and have as much fun as I can.  Whenever that Who Would You Want To Play With thread comes up there are so many, but man, he is always first for me.  We would have had a ball.

We'll massacre a couple of theirs tonight and it will be fun.

rct

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6 hours ago, kidblast said:

Eddie was the only guy whom upon my first listen I thought, "Well, crap! what's the point... May as well try something else, maybe a  hammer dulcimer ..."   

Seriously that first album blew my brains out.   "How the F--- is he doing this???"

 

I couldn't have said this better..

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I was playing in a band (late high school) when I heard the first album. The other guitar player called me up and said hey I have this new album I'll bring to the lake (weekend trip). You gotta hear this guy. We were constantly b!tching about disco which we played a lot of because that was popular.  Listening to something new and not Lynryd Skynard or Molly Catsh!t  was pretty damn exciting.  We had a portable record player and he said listen to this (Eruption). We were both speechless (and clueless). Thus began an era.

It's been very sad to think about his death not only because it was him, an icon guitar player, but also selfishly because it means the passing of another era associated with my youth. RIP Eddy

Edited by Tman
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We did a few o theirs last night and it was good.

What I was trying to say up there is that Edward was always winking at the guitar players.  He'd go through some crazy tappageddon thing and that look of sheer joy and total surprise that he actually got through it and then that glance at us like, "sh1t that was sweet wudden it?"  Sheer joy, oh man I can't believe I just did that, can you?  

I only saw Dance The Night Away live once, from the side of the stage, not too far from Edward.  That middle part it tricky as fux, So he was right out as far as he could get on our side and he harmonic'd it up.  And when he was done his face just said "I KNOW RIGHT??!!??".  Awesome.

I only got three of four last night, third was an epic fail but I kept going.  But if he was there he would have said "I know man that sh1t is hard" or "I only get half of them most of the time" or something like that.

rct

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I was walking around outside last night playing my Ibanez and attempted "Ain't Talkin Bout Love", I struggled through to the end then realized I didn't have a tremolo to finish with and said sorry Eddie  you will be missed..

He still leaves me dumbfounded....

Edited by mihcmac
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On 10/8/2020 at 1:04 PM, Retired said:

I noticed he did  the solo on Beat It for Michael Jackson too.  Sad, I heard about it first from the wife that he passed. 

 

And Beat It was on Thriller, one of the best records of that time.  Michael Jackson would go into the studio with fully formed songs in his head.  That song was in response to Quincy urging Jackson to do some Rock, and he came in with that song done.  As the legend goes, like with quite a few others, Michael stood at a keyboard and played and sang the whole thing front to back.  That became the basic track for the song, and Eddie put the solo on some rough draft not long after.  Free Of Charge.  What a friggin guy, never took a dime for one of the biggest selling records in history.  

The vocal is only second or third time through the song, literally one take front to back.

The stuff on that record is brilliant, stunning, in the headphones.  Good times.

rct

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11 minutes ago, ghost_of_fl said:

Honestly, as far as the mix and overall quality of Thriller, I can't think of too many albums up to the current day that come close.   Some tracks are crazy because you can tell there is just layer after layer of instrument tracks, but you can pick each one out with your ear.  The mix is as perfect as it gets.   

There was all kinds of great personnel on that album.  "Beat It" in particular is kind of a super-group track. You have Steve Lukather and Jeff and Steve Picaro from Toto, Eddie Van Halen, and MJ on vocals.  That's a badass lineup.  I always thought it was kind of ironic that what I consider to be one of Eddie's best guitar solos was on a Michael Jackson track. 

 

That record really is a thing of beauty, the song Thriller...well, still thrils me to this day.  Another one he came in with the bass line, stood there and left handed it on the keys and sang the whole thing straight through.  So the final sounds, the layers, the space and mix, the clarity is all there, on top of just unbelievable writing and arranging.

Not many do(did) things that way.  Him, Bowie, and Van Morisson come to mind, fully formed song guys saying "this is what we are doing" and then blowing through an entire song, sometimes the rough demo being the baseline for the entire recording.  Man what i wouldn't give to work with people like that.

The last song and my favoritest favorite on the Layla record is Thorn Tree In The Garden, a song Whitlock had fully formed and done in his head.  He played it for the band and asked Eric if he wanted it on the record and him and the rest said yes, Dowd got the room set up while they went over each others parts.  They all went in and sat down, Gordon tapping on one of the scads of Martins laying around, and what is on that record was one take front to back of a fully formed song explained to the band about ten minutes before hand, no rehearsal.  Tom Dowd said it was the best stereo recording of his entire life.

rct

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23 hours ago, rct said:

 

And Beat It was on Thriller, one of the best records of that time.  Michael Jackson would go into the studio with fully formed songs in his head.  That song was in response to Quincy urging Jackson to do some Rock, and he came in with that song done.  As the legend goes, like with quite a few others, Michael stood at a keyboard and played and sang the whole thing front to back.  That became the basic track for the song, and Eddie put the solo on some rough draft not long after.  Free Of Charge.  What a friggin guy, never took a dime for one of the biggest selling records in history.  

The vocal is only second or third time through the song, literally one take front to back.

The stuff on that record is brilliant, stunning, in the headphones.  Good times.

rct

I still think Thriller is tops. There will never be another Michael, He was very talented. I was also impressed with Daryl Hall's House, the way they could all seem to come in the room together without practice and Jam together. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, ghost_of_fl said:

At first I was crushed when they started selling off Walter Becker's gear but I'm at peace with it now.   People should be playing and admiring those pieces. 

They had to sell some of Walter's gear cause he had it all and some gigging players need it.

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