Eddie Van Halen RIP

[Fairwrning]

Listening to a lot of Sirius27...how long is this lasting? Alex's sound is so damn solid and iconic as well..

[Terry]

By lyrics you mean a vocal melody and lyrics.

It would have to have been pretty out there - look what he did with "Ripley" making that into "Blood and Fire". Roth is a genius at converting music into a song, its maybe his key superpower!

To be sure, but who knows what the rest of the stuff on Ed's home recordings sounds like or consists of?

Are the home recordings chock full of song ideas along the lines of Ripley, stuff that is worked out and structured, or is it hours upon hours of Ed noodling...where one would have to sit and listen for ages to ferret out some errant cool riffs or (from Roth's perspective) workable song ideas that are buried among hours of Ed fiddling around and making elephant noises with his Trans-Trem Sustainer?

[Terry]

You know how they say you go through different stages of emotions during the grieving process? Well, my devastation and sadness over this death, will never subside. But, now I feel some anger seeping in. There's the obvious anger of Ed not taking care of himself. But hey, he was a rock star. I'd probably have been just as bad, or worse. Only I wouldn't have smoked. But what I really find myself angry over, is the same thing I've been so angry with this band about, for years. The time wasting. Yes, it's great he made up with Mike and even Clichegar. Yes, it was great he wanted to put the original band back together for one last hurrah. But he wasted so much time, it ended up being too late. I always thought, but never wanted to believe, this is what would happen. It would be too late.

I was working on the dune buggy last night in the garage, and I put on the US Festival show. I know, from a performance perspective, it wasn't the greatest show ever. But it was Van fucking Halen tearing it up in front of 300,000 (according to Dave) people. It gave me goosebumps. It put me back at the shows I saw. I would have loved to have seen that one more time. I really hope that Wolf, Al, or whomever, will at the very least realize how much it would mean to fans like us here, to have a high quality version of any of those shows, to enjoy anytime we want, as much as we want.

After that was over, I was searching YouTube and I came across some garage band show from 1996 hosted by Paul Schaeffer. It had a bunch of different musicians playing at the same time. Doing cover songs. Ed was on lead guitar. I had never watched it before. It was awesome. Ed looked like he was having such a great time.

Man, I'm still having trouble believing he's gone....

I've had similar feelings about the time wasting over the last two decades.

I sort of rationalized it along the lines of it being unrealistic for me to expect the band to churn up the output at the pace they had in the 6 pack era, or even the Hagar era where it was an album and tour every few years instead of every year. Mostly because the band were older, had all the success and there probably wasn't that sense of urgency to keep up the grind. Put Ed's health issues in the mix at it didn't seem as unreasonable that Van Halen wouldn't be hurling along at a breakneck pace.

My hope when Roth first rejoined in late 2006 is that we'd get some new material and some steady touring. We got a few tours, a studio album and a live album. By the time early 2019 rolled around and nothing had been leaked out in terms of the band booking any venues, even before Dave announced his then upcoming Vegas solo stint I figured the band was done. Once those pics of Ed visibly ailing surfaced a year or so ago, I sort of steeled myself to the thought that Van Halen probably wasn't going to perform again. Not that I had any foresight or particular insight, but by all appearances and indications Van Halen the band was over. And in a lot of ways the band for me had been over for a long time. Really, since 2000, in terms of my thinking there was ever gonna be a full restoration of the band to their heyday. By 2000, the members of CVH just weren't the same people they were 20 years prior, and the circumstances and conditions weren't the same anymore.

I was kind of perturbed myself when Roth rejoined in late 2006, in that it felt like 1996 had been even more of a blown opportunity than it was in terms of having CVH reunite with all the members participating and in condition in terms of ability. The years between 1996 and 2006 weren't good ones for Ed. I was also a bit pissed off when 2019 rolled around and the realization hit that those three tours with Dave and the ADKOT album (and the Tokyo Dome release) was all we were gonna get for ten years of Dave working with the band.

But...

I'm not angry with Ed in terms of the smoking or how he took (or didn't take) care of himself. Not anything along the lines of "he smoked, so fuck him, he got what he deserved" either. Assumedly, he lived his life the way he wanted to. Despite his health issues, on the whole I'd imagine Ed had a better life than most. Any sadness I feel over his death is overshadowed by relief that he isn't hurting anymore.

I'm not angry with all the time the band wasted over the last twenty years, either. Not anymore. All of that is overshadowed by the music they left behind, and particularly the stuff from 1978 to 1984. I'm more happy than sad, if that makes any sense. Happy that Ed, Al, Mike and Dave created all that fantastic material that continues to resonate. However the band ended up post-1985, what they achieved prior to that transcends the largely mundane output of the Hagar years, the misfires of the Cherone period and the sporadic post-2000 output.

I'm happy for what we got, because listening to it still brings me as much pleasure as it ever did. Would more have been good? Sure. Didn't happen, but ADKOT was a decent coda, and there were points on those three 2000's Roth tours where the band conjured up the old magic. With Van Halen...Van Fucking Halen with Diamond Dave at the helm...it's all positive. Ed's passing shouldn't change that.

[FORD]

Eddie's "10 years worth of material" probably consists of raw riffs which might have turned into songs, given the proper process, but now that's not going to happen, for obvious reasons. The VDIII album was evidence that Ed needed a partner who did more than just write lyrics, he needed to help Eddie shape the riffs into an actual song structure. Cherone couldn't or wouldn't do this, at least not on that record. I don't know enough about Extreme to know what the songwriting process was between him & Nuno, so I can't speculate as to whether or not the songs on that second aborted Van Danniels record would have had a more coherent structure.

DLR was able to turn Eddie's riffs into masterpieces. Hagar was able to turn them into.... well, at least they were properly constructed songs, even if many of them were drowned in Velveeta.

So while Eddie's "10 years of riffs" might be interesting to listen to, as a fan, should they ever leak out, I doubt very much that they're in any sort of actual song structures. And therefore, it's nothing like the huge backlog of complete or nearly completed material that Hendrix or Prince had stashed away. Which actually sucks, because it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have "new" Van Halen records released up to 2060 - assuming any human life still exists on Earth by then.

[So this is love]

I don't think Eddie wanted these tapes or whatever he did in his studio to be out, otherwise he would have released them, ADKOT. Probably not worth releasing imo... I am still surprised they released that live shit sounding show in Japan.

I was listening to Sirius EVH tribute all week and its' incredible how many songs I didn't know from the Hagar era and other LL Cool J. I mean the guitar work is amazing on some of these pieces, I am discovering many songs for the first time, I never thought existed due to my lack of interest to the Van Hagar era. I am not sure what the song is called, I think (but not sure) its don't tell me what love can do and the first phrasing of Eddies solo is identical to Ozzys' Crazy train or I don't know solo. Anyway, I am still shaken by is death, even though I never personally knew the guy, but VH music has always been a part of the highs and lows of my life, since 1980...RIP EVH .........I am currently watching the Cafe Wha!

[WARF]

[Diamondjimi]

Yes, my very dear friend...not only Dave but band employees have completely confirmed that the band had a film crew following them for a few dates on the WACF tour and at least a few shows were filmed/recorded. I think there might be a pic or two out there confirming a show or two with film cameras visible on-stage. They filmed on-stage AND off-stage antics of this amazing band at an early peak, on the road in America and living the rock 'n' roll life in their mid-20s. If they somehow found this footage and proper multi-tracks, it would be the holy grail...possibly even more-so than the Oakland '81 footage. But who knows if it still exists? .

I distinctly remember seeing a camera man onstage and circling the band members shooting footage at Maple Leaf Gardens (Toronto) on the W.A.C.F.
tour. How much exists is anyone's bet..
I remember how much heat Wolfie took joining the band. But as time and details surfaced about him, he actually turned out to be a blessing in many ways.
He convinced Ed & Al to do the right thing and get Dave back. Plus he was responsible for the set lists and digging out the rarely played classics...
Wolf definitely has the advantage of a fans perspective. I'm sure there will be some great stuff come out. Just hope uncle Al doesn't kibosh anything and give him full reign..

[So this is love]

Kudos to the new countdown clock....lol so funny

[WARF]

My bands EVH hot for teacher tribute....

btw... happy birthday to David Lee Roth turned 66...

[ZahZoo]

A not so flattering article on Ed's excesses and life...

https://pagesix.com/article/eddie-van-halen-valerie-bertinelli/?_ga=2.41439781.689868780.1602415394-1982936599.1596457979

[Kristy]

Try to make a decent suggestion and slave SESH clearly demonstrates what a sexist he is

[Baby's On Fire]

Try to make a decent suggestion and slave SESH clearly demonstrates what a sexist he is

How can Sesh be a sexist when all of you liberal fucking idiots don't believe in gender?

Where I come from, there's boys and girls. Men and women. And a handful of cast off freaks.

End of fucking discussion.

[Seshmeister]

Kristy always gets' sexy and sexist mixed up.

[Seshmeister]

I was listening to Sirius EVH tribute all week and its' incredible how many songs I didn't know from the Hagar era and other LL Cool J. I mean the guitar work is amazing on some of these pieces, I am discovering many songs for the first time, I never thought existed due to my lack of interest to the Van Hagar era.

You may be on to something. I would buy a boxset of the Van Hagar era if they removed the vocals.

[twonabomber]

Sirius tribute channel played the Roger Waters/EVH track. Haven't heard the Thomas Dolby stuff yet.