| Eddie Van Halen is the lead guitarist with a one of the | | | | popular with MTV audiences. On this highly theatrical |
| iconic seventies loud and uncouth metal bands. The | | | | number Eddie played Gibson Flying V, switching |
| personalities of the group's members have always | | | | pickups as the dynamics of the song changed. |
| been too individualistic to make for harmonious music, | | | | "Mean Street" is a showpiece for a Eddie Van Halen |
| and the world thanks them for that. The personnel | | | | riff. This track also contains drama as the volume of |
| changes in the group have always tended to | | | | the solo guitar, featuring Eddie simply showing off, |
| overshadow the music but in this article we will look at | | | | starts low and increases menacingly. The riff on "Mean |
| what is special about the guitar solos of Eddie Van | | | | Street" is a classic seventies riff that old men will still |
| Halen. Some of his most well-known solos are on the | | | | be humming fifty years from now. |
| tracks "Eruption", "Hot For Teacher", "Mean Street" and | | | | Michael Jackson got himself two Grammy Awards |
| on the Michael Jackson track, "Beat It". | | | | with the album "Thriller" featuring the song "Beat It". |
| "Eruption" is an instrumental track that features tapping | | | | Eddie Van Halen was asked to play the solo on this |
| on the guitar fretboard using both the left and right | | | | song by Quincy Jones, the co-producer of the album. |
| hands. This technique has always been surrounded by | | | | The lyrics feature violence between gangs and Eddie's |
| controversy because the fans of many guitar players | | | | guitar solo matched the theme perfectly. The simplicity |
| want guitar tapping to be attributed to their idol. Eddie | | | | of the song's main riff provides a stunning backdrop |
| Van Halen himself is credited by many people to be | | | | for Eddie's pyrotechnics. |
| the inventor of guitar tapping technique but Steve | | | | It is Eddie Van Halen's instinctive ability to contrast |
| Hackett from Genesis was using the technique in the | | | | virtuosity with simplicity that makes him a guitar genius. |
| early seventies and two handed guitar tapping can be | | | | His unerring use of tremolo in his picking and his |
| traced back to Jimmy Webster in the early nineteen | | | | penchant for guitar tapping have made him a legend. |
| fifties. Nevertheless the guitar tapping on "Eruption" | | | | Eddie used a cheap guitar body fitted with a |
| helped make Eddie Van Halen a guitar legend, and | | | | humbucker pickup, thus proving that the music is in the |
| Eddie himself says he simply got the idea from Jimmy | | | | guitar player, not the guitar. We need to also |
| Page's "Heartbreaker". | | | | acknowledge Floyd Rose's fulcrum vibrato that |
| "Hot For Teacher" opens with Alex and Eddie Van | | | | endowed electric guitar vibrato with a flexibility that the |
| Halen competing for our attention like little boys doing | | | | guitarists of the sixties would have envied and which |
| handstands for their parents. The video of this track | | | | has been a crucial element in Eddie Van Halen's |
| was a babefest directed by David Lee Roth, the | | | | playing style. |
| group's vocalist at the time, and was enormously | | | | |