How's this for a solo??

[jhale667]

Originally posted by eddie78
Personally, i think Lynch is nowhere the player he was back in the mid to late 80's.

All the current youtube stuff sort of shows a guy who lost his focus & is just noodling aimlessly on the fretboard.
And he seems much sloppier than he was.

The same could be said of some of the current VH YouTubes floating around, but agreed.
So nights Ed is (near)ON (he kicked ass at the Staples Center show I saw),
some footage I've seen looks like "a guy who lost his focus & is just noodling aimlessly on the fretboard" to quote you...

Yngwie.....(sigh).....
Obviously, i don't enjoy the guy on a musical level, but i will agree his technical ability has not diminished (no pun, intended).

Angus also sounds great to this day.

But Ed has been plagued by alcoholism & personal issues for so long now, and all of that make it nearly impossible for him to maintain consistency.
Guys like Angus & Clapton are clean & clear headed.

Nice to see you finally admit it. And you really need help with your Yngwie issue.
Watch Pantera's "Vulgar Video" where they're chasing him around with a box of donuts, you'll feel better...:p

Originally posted by diamondjimi

If Ed were to pass away tomorrow his feats of ground breaking accomplishments would far outweigh his shortcomings.....

That is also true. But certain guitarists of that age group and era are still playing up to par,
(Ed obviously still can when he WANTS to) others are still progressing. Fuck, Doug Aldrich (though only a few years younger than those guys) is STILL ripping people's faces off....

That Fresno '78 footage is still the fucking Holy Grail, though... Nevermind how well he's playing, his amps sound like they're on the verge of total meltdown....

[TongueNGroove]

That solo isn't all that great. He plays a lot better there than he does now, but still, it was just as much about making noise as music,

Watch the solo spot on the Live Without Net Video if you want to see some baddass Eddie.

This is the Eddie I know and love. He was never better than this. Plus he just seemed really happy then, which made him seem even cooler. He seems pissed off now days.

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[VanHalener]

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[78/84 guy]

That 78 solo is 100% killer !!!!!!

[Jurak]

Originally posted by eddie78
Fuck, Ed wrote the damn book in 1978.

Who gives a shit if he can't recapture the spontanaeity & chops of his 23 year old self. I doubt any of us could.

Why do we keep judging his ability at 53?

He's a legend.

eggsaclee.. dude, you got it! :D

[78/84 guy]

Ed has been fine on this tour more than he has sucked !! (solo not included) He still shows some speed. And alot of the old licks I still can't play after 1000 times of trying !!! THIS JUST IN, ED IS STILL PRETTY GOOD !!! I still wish he would go old school will his setup. But sadly it's not going to happen. I would go see them again too watch Ed.

[jhale667]

Originally posted by VanHalener
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Notice whoever chose the photos for this seemingly INTENTIONALLY AVOIDED pics of Eddie with the dreaded Wolfgang body-syle guitars?
I think I only saw one or two, the rest were Charvel Strat pics...somebody's got the right idea...:D

[Diamondjimi]

Originally posted by VanHalener
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October 15 1977. Live @ the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

A great soundboard sourced CVH boot. One of the fiercest solos I've heard him do.

[jhale667]

Originally posted by diamondjimi
October 15 1977. Live @ the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

A great soundboard sourced CVH boot. One of the fiercest solos I've heard him do.

Is that what it's from? The one where Dave's like "I've been waiting a long time to say this....THIS ONE'S OFF OUR FIRST ALBUM!!"
I still have a cassette (!) of that show a girl gave me in 1990...found it the other day...I want to pull it (among other gems) on to my hard drive, but where the **** do you find a cassette player these days? Figured I'd just look for it on Limewire or somewhere....

There was a time when there was nothing like him on earth, much like when Hendrix first appeared, I imagine..
Rhoads was like that for an all-too-brief second too...
(Speaking of Rhoads, in the same box of tapes found another cassette from my old answering machine that has a particularly obscene and hilarious message from Kevin Dubrow....double )

But look at somebody like Jeff Beck..still regularly killing in his what, 60s?
Sure, he takes a few years off here and there (but unlike Ed, has never had an "I'm over being a guitar hero" period - He just IS one)...
I'd like to see EVH, like Beck, come back every time and raise the bar, as it were (pun intended).
Not to say there aren't still moments of brilliance...

[hideyoursheep]

IF......


The Ed would have taken care of himself, it wouldn't be an issue of
whether or not he still has "it".

It's either a sign of his stubbornness not to admit he's lost a couple steps, or he's rushing out to do 1 more for all of us cause he realizes he's on the clock now.


Regardless of when or how he finally checks out, he reached legend status long ago.




Unfortunately, Keith Richards will probably be at the wake.


There was no real scientific evidence as to how mass quantities of blow can effect the aging process, since many didn't last that long, or quit.

It seems to me it's really accelerated the inability of those era of guys
in a fucked up way-even once they quit. It's like there motor skills and memory deteriorate faster than normal. Different people different ways, I guess. It's a real crap shoot.




"Cocaine's a helluva drug!"

[eddie78]

Originally posted by jhale667
The same could be said of some of the current VH YouTubes floating around, but agreed.
So nights Ed is (near)ON (he kicked ass at the Staples Center show I saw),
some footage I've seen looks like "a guy who lost his focus & is just noodling aimlessly on the fretboard" to quote you...



Nice to see you finally admit it. And you really need help with your Yngwie issue.
Watch Pantera's "Vulgar Video" where they're chasing him around with a box of donuts, you'll feel better...:p



That is also true. But certain guitarists of that age group and era are still playing up to par,
(Ed obviously still can when he WANTS to) others are still progressing. Fuck, Doug Aldrich (though only a few years younger than those guys) is STILL ripping people's faces off....

That Fresno '78 footage is still the fucking Holy Grail, though... Nevermind how well he's playing, his amps sound like they're on the verge of total meltdown....

Excellent point regarding Aldrich.
Doug just seems to get better & better, if that's possible, and he retains that hunger.
You can tell he's clean & a functional human being, as well, so he's not chasing the demon's Ed has.

And very true about the 78 Fresno footage.
I think from 78 through 81, Ed was untouchable.
He held all the cards as a player, but by "Hide your sheep" there were small cracks, so to speak, in his playing.
I think he was losing focus & partying a bit more.

[jztbcz]

I'd love to have that dvd for my collection. Nice

[Terry]

I can understand and appreciate how getting older could diminish a player physically. Add alcohol to the mix for a long period of time and it's gonna exacerbate the natural ravages of time.

But with what I saw of Ed during his solo spot recently, he was able to get close to nailing the two-handed tapping passage of Eruption up to speed and whatnot. It's just that it came after seven minutes of uninspired noodling...it's clear the man can still play, although he just wasn't playing as well as one would expect him to. And it wasn't just during the solo spot that this became evident; it was during the tunes, as well. If this is a physical problem that he can't overcome, or something going on in his head...who knows?

I can't speculate what's going on with the man or how he's approaching his playing; maybe he has lost interest in that old-style, speed demon, fastest-licks-in-the-west mentality. And that's fine.

But what's the point of Ed going out and doing a live solo spot at a Van Halen reunion show with Roth fronting the band if he's not gonna blaze with some fast licks? I'd rather he just skipped the spot altogether and the band threw in another couple of tunes instead, you know?

Why are people coming to the shows? To recapture that old CVH vibe. Who made Eddie Van Halen what he is? A bunch of non-celebrity nobodies who. if they're lucky, might have the caption "who is this" written next to a picture in a family album...you know, the fans who paid to see the band...who bought their records. And at 90 bucks a pop, Eddie Van Halen owes (yes, OWES) the fans the best he's got.

And if the best he's got isn't up to snuff for whatever reason, he can always stay off the road and hang out in the home studio that the proceeds from said nobody fans bought for him.

It ain't some kind of heresy to call it like one sees it. Yes, Ed was a legendary guitarist, but you're only as good as your next trick. If he isn't what he used to be now, the fact that he was the bomb thirty years ago doesn't give him a pass for what he's doing out on the road today.

[DlocRoth]

Originally posted by TongueNGroove
That solo isn't all that great. He plays a lot better there than he does now, but still, it was just as much about making noise as music,

Watch the solo spot on the Live Without Net Video if you want to see some baddass Eddie.

This is the Eddie I know and love. He was never better than this. Plus he just seemed really happy then, which made him seem even cooler. He seems pissed off now days.

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He wasa angry with Dave.