Eddie Van Halen:Guitar Hero and Musical Innovator
...look at the guitar. Eddie Van Halen truly was an innovator proving so by hand making a majority of his guitars and using them to play solos that sounded like arcade game sound effects. Without Eddie, rock music would not be what it is today. The bands self-titled debut, which was produced by Ted Templeman, delivered a swift slap to the face to many late 1970’s acts. Acting as the “Lexington & Concord” of the guitar rock and metal revolutions, the album, spearheaded by the song “Eruption”, struck a chord with many teens. . The entire album was a testament to rock and roll, using many of his signature guitar tricks, but Eddie Van Halen pulled out all the stops for the now legendary “Eruption”. “Eruption” was just what its title says, an eruption of raw talent that had been oozing under the California rock scene much like magma underneath California’s tectonic plates. With multiple tapping runs, pinch harmonics, hammer-ons, tremolo picking, and “gut rumbling dive-bombs”, (Bosso 79) “Eruption” changed the way people viewed the guitar in just 1 minute and 42 seconds. Van Halen inspired 80’s metal band Winger’s guitarist Reb Beach, who was 13 at the time, to play the guitar. He described the feeling best by stating: “I couldn’t speak for day after hearing ‘Eruption.’ It made everything I was listening to, stuff like Ted Nug...