I listened to Van Halen 1 on the way to work this morning. I was feeling it after writing about the first time I saw Edward in 1978. If you can't tell, I get immersed in it, I know it's over the top, but I don't care, it's fun, and it brings back those memories so vividly when I get in the zone writing about it.
Even after all these years, I never get tired of that record.
It's one of those rare albums that I can listen to from top to bottom without skipping a song.
I have my favorite songs, but the whole record is killer.
Many guitar players laid the groundwork for Metal guitar, from the old blues guys to Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, Page, Blackmore, and Iommi. There were others too, but those are the main guys.
It's good to know your electric guitar history, I even teach a class on it, but we are talking specifically about Metal guitar here, in case you are just tuning in.
Maybe I'll make a PowerPoint out of this. (Can you say "fuck" on a PowerPoint?)
Metal is guitars. Just like there is no light without stars, there is no Metal without guitars.
Those other dudes helped create the Metal guitar sound, but Edward Van Halen perfected it.
Many guys like me wanted to cop that Eddie vibe; it spawned a whole new generation of guitars and amplifiers.
There's never been anything else like it. He started an absolute craze.
His shit was so dialed in, it was uncanny. Even if you grabbed the latest Kramer or Charvel guitar and Marshall amp, it was still hard to get that sound.
It's easier to cop that sound these days, but back then, it was a profound mystery. Information was scarce, and Ed's first few interviews in guitar magazines didn't help. There was talk about a variac and tubes melting; there was a "don't try this at home" disclaimer in the Guitar World article; Also, ninety percent of it was in his hands, so it was a challenge.
It was a treasure hunt that many a young guitar slinger embarked on, though, because the bar had been raised, and we didn't wanna be left behind.
******
I went to Port-O-Call the next day to buy the album after work.
I was beginning to think that the concert must have been a dream or something; this shit couldn't be real. I needed proof.
I flailed through the V's in the album bin, then asked the guy...
They didn't fucking have it. Sold out.
FUCK!
I went to Zayre and a couple of other places that sold records back then...nothing.
I remember calling around or asking people between classes if anybody had the record yet.
Nada.
Finally, a few days later, my boy Joey came through. He found out that our friend Kelvin had a copy, and we could go over to his house after school to smoke down and listen. Kelvin's mom was out of town...perfect.
I called Bobby, my boss, and told him we had a test at school or some bullshit so that I could skip work, then Joey, Kelvin, and I hopped in the Darvon after third period and headed to jam.
I don't know if it was the weed back then, or if my tolerance was just low, but when I first started getting high, the buzz was so goddamn good, it made listening to music a spiritual experience.
We had just finished a fat joint, and all found a comfortable place to sit and listen.
Kelvin said, "Get ready, boys, it's a rollercoaster!"
He dropped the needle on Van Halen 1.
The concert was not a dream; the fucking album sounded exactly like Van Halen did live. All three of us were so into it! I watched Joey, who is a drummer, kicked back in a recliner playing air guitar for the next forty minutes.
Kelvin kept yelling, "Here it comes!" before one of Eddie's badass solos. He would jump up and move around, making his best Dave impression.
Joey kept saying, "Gyaaad Damn!" over and over.
I just sat back and let it flow over me, savoring every note, every lick, every power chord.
It was even better than I remembered from the show.
Eddie's guitar sounded so fucking killer, so full and rich, with this nice curve to it, I had never heard an electric guitar sound so good.
His leads flowed out of the speakers and sparked your senses. It was not only technical and intricate but full of fire and emotion too. Both hands were working together as one musical dynamo. His right-hand palm muting was sublime.
The finger tapping shit was ridiculous!
Every song was a winner.
I didn't know anything about record production then, but I could tell that this album had the same kind of feel as my favorite records, which were all live records.
The shit jumped off the vinyl.
Kelvin passed me the album cover, holy fucking shit it was awesome.
That album cover had the same effect on me that KISS Alive! did a few years earlier, but I wasn't a kid anymore. The KISS cover seemed like a comic book now, but this shit wasn't kid's stuff.
So it seemed that Edward and Alex were brothers...that was cool...my brother was a drummer too.
Fucking Kelvin wouldn't let me borrow the album, but I couldn't blame him.
I finally got my copy of the record, and I proceeded to wear it out.
I remember my dad coming in one day while Eruption was playing loud as hell, on our killer new stereo in the den; he said, "That sounds like ELP, who is that keyboard player?"
I said, "Dad, that's Eddie Van Halen, that's a guitar."
"Bullshit," he snorted, "That's not a guitar, that's a synthesizer."
"No, Dad, I saw him do it live! He's playing all of that on a guitar." I replied.
He made me play it again.
"No way," he said matter of factly, "It's a synthesizer, they probably had one hidden or something. It's some kind of gimmick."
I just shook my head and smiled. I understood why he thought that and it was kind of cool that my dude was so fucking killer, everybody thought it was a magic trick, dad wasn't the only one. Too bad, there was no YouTube so I could whip out my phone and prove it.
Van Halen became a worldwide phenomenon...they exploded!
In a time when Punk and Disco were ruling the airwaves, the boys from Pasadena arrived to hand them their asses.
I had been playing for about two years then, and I was getting better at playing lead, but my main strength was still my rhythm playing. I was fortunate to start early playing with outstanding drummers, my best friend Joey, and my brother Paulie. That was the best thing that could have ever happened to my playing. It gave me a strong foundation in time and feeling the groove. Granted, I always wanted to push that groove and be on top of it, but that's just what us skinny ass guitar players like to do.
As amazing as Eddie Van Halen's lead playing was, the motherfucker was a rhythm guitar playing fiend! His shit was so well put together and tight. I locked onto those grooves right away and started to figure out songs off the first album.
Ain't Talking 'Bout Love, and Runnin' with the Devil were not super hard to get down. I was also able to cop the rhythm groove on Feel Your Love Tonight after hours of picking up the needle and going back and forth.
I didn't attempt much more than that at the time, my favorite songs like I'm The One and Atomic Punk seemed too daunting a task, plus I had way more fun listening to them than trying to figure them out.
I did pick up on finger tapping, though, after watching Eddie play Eruption, I was able to cop a crude version of the fugue part, then I took that and ran with it, making up my own tapping patterns.
I got pretty good at it.
I practiced all the time.
I had my Apogee bong now, was working, and keeping a stock of weed.
I would do bong hits, and practice my ass off with my little cassette recorder, recording myself, and playing over the playback.
I would take my new skills and show them off at school in the hallways between classes on the J45. I put electric guitar strings on it so I could play leads easier.
I was still an insecure kid, but the guitar began building my self-esteem. Girls started to notice me more...that shit was awesome.
I took advantage of it.
******
1979/1980 was my senior year of high school.
I only had two classes and then would go to work.
Whenever I wasn't working, I was jamming with Joey and my new guitar buddy, Rick.
Rick was so fucking talented. He had an uncle, Phil, who was a professional guitarist and a sweet guy; we would sit in a circle in Phil's apartment and jam on electrics for hours.
I learned a lot about feel from playing with those guys.
My playing had come a long way in a short time thanks to Edward and then jamming with Rick and Phil. My practice regime didn't hurt either, if anyone needed to find me; all they had to do was knock on my bedroom door.
Before I talk about the next phase of Van Halen, let me give you a little picture of what else was going on in the Simmons house at that time.
I'll preface this next little bit by saying, Van Halen, and Edward in particular, are always top of the list, A#1, from here until the end of time, just to be precise.
(You should know this about me.)
In addition to the Halen, here's the shit that was keeping my parents up at night:
First off, there is Rush, our favorite Canadians. They will get their chapter here at some point, goddamn...it will be a long one too.
Ever since I heard 2112, I was sold on those guys.
I learned more about chords and song structure from Alex Lifeson than anyone. Also, his solo in LaVilla Strangiato was another major template for my playing.
Fucking Neil and Geddy...are you kidding me? They were the baddest.
There was Pat Travers Go For What You Know live with Pat Thrall on the second guitar, and Tommy Aldridge on drums...sheeeeeit! Puttin' it Straight and Heat in the Street were in regular rotation too.
UFO Strangers in the Night live, one of the best live albums ever recorded. Michael Shenker was on fire on that record.
Gamma, with Ronnie Montrose, was another band in heavy rotation. I loved the whammy bar shit that Ronnie did on the Gamma record with the sharks swimming through the grass.
Scorpions Tokyo Tapes with Uli John Roth on his Strat, holy fuck! This is, by far, my favorite Scorpions era.
I have to give it up for Lynyrd Skynyrd One More From The Road as well. Allen Collins holds a special place in my heart. Steve Gaines and Gary Rossington too! Those dudes were a guitar army. I loved Ronnie Van Zant probably more than the guitars; the plane crash crushed me. (I could even argue that Skynyrd was Metal, but lets table that for now.)
Of course, my beloved Ritchie with the Purple and Rainbow records rounded out the guitar palette.
This was the stuff that was filling my head and my heart in the late 70s, forming my little guitar brian. I'm so grateful I was coming of age in a time of such killer music, maybe everybody thinks that about the music they grow up with, but this was fertile soil for a young guitar wannabe.
Randy Rhoads had not hit the scene yet, and Yngwie Malmsteen was still in Sweden working on his chops. Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East had only just been released in late 1979, so its badassery had not entered my world yet either.
I had a steady stream of killer Metal guitar teachers here at my fingertips; I was soaking it all in and applying what I was learning to my riffs and grooves. I was never great at copying a player note for note, but I was taking what I could grasp and applying it to my little songs.
Van Halen 2 was another kick-ass slice of vinyl. It was a great balance of cool amped-up covers, radio-friendly songs, and killer metallic rockers like Light Up The Sky, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Outta Love, and DOA. There was also the fantastic Spanish Fly, which was like Eruption, except the bastard played it on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar.
I got to work.
Figuring out Somebody Get Me ADoctor was a triumph. That is such a fun riff to play. When you play that rhythm part right, you feel like Chuck Norris on the guitar. Suddenly your posture is straighter, your chest sticks out, and you feel like a man. The lead is a bitch, so I just cheesed it, it was going to take me a while to get that shit.
We never had a bass player back then, so it was hard to flesh out songs like a real band, but we did the best we could with guitar and drums.
I was super bummed that Van Halen didn't come to Nashville on their first headlining tour for Van Halen 2. In those days, concerts were the only way you could see your favorite bands unless you were lucky enough for them to appear on the rare television show like In Concert or Midnight Special.
That hunger to see our heroes set the stage for the best concert I've ever seen in my life, rivaled only by what I witnessed on that sweet November night.
Don't believe me? Just wait.
1979 gave way to 1980. The 80s were the golden age of Metal, my friends, the greatest era in the history of man.
In March of 1980, Van Halen released Women and Children First.
That album and tour was the kick-off for the decade of Metal, and they were coming to Nashville that summer...
Shit was about to get real.
(To be continued.)
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