Eddie Van Halen, Richie Sambora - All Star Garage Band

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Well, and this might seem to some as blaspheme, especially from me as an admitted Ed fanatic, but I don't think that Ed has ever really been that good at "jamming", or improvising, whatever the term....

I've seen a dozen or so clips of him playing alongside non-Van Halen musicians, and he plays the same 'ol 3 or 4 riffs, mostly tapping...

Now give him the opportunity to arrange a song, that's a different story....

[sadaist]

I wish I knew why Ed is seemingly unable/unwilling to reel in his playing at times for the sake of a song.

Ego out of control?

Usually lead guitarists have to have some ego. If they didn't they would be rhythm guitar players standing in the shadows. Anyhow, he did seem to play along with the songs well. Just towards the end added a bit of EVH flavor. But if he didn't, why even bother having him play it...or anyone like that in an "All-Star" lineup? Might as well just have session musicians. You bring in the unique talents to add their own flair to a song. I mean, Sambora did get to add his bone smuggling, marriage busting, not quite as good as Jon Bon Jovi voice to it.

[sadaist]

Well, and this might seem to some as blaspheme, especially from me as an admitted Ed fanatic, but I don't think that Ed has ever really been that good at "jamming", or improvising, whatever the term....

I've seen a dozen or so clips of him playing alongside non-Van Halen musicians, and he plays the same 'ol 3 or 4 riffs, mostly tapping...

Now give him the opportunity to arrange a song, that's a different story....

I agree with you. Ed seems more like a mad scientist. Sits in his dark lab creating genius work. But off the cuff never has a ton to go with. Like the ideas just come a bit slower to him. Every concert solo I've ever seen him do is very formulaic. Although, the 07-08 tour there were a few times he did a shtick with Dave mimicking Daves vocals as a motorcycle sound & the likes. Had never really seen him do that type of thing and it was awesomely cool.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Yeah, and that's gonna be a key thing that I'm going to be watching for this upcoming tour....

He's GOT to shake up the solo, GOT to....

[davehagarfan]

His style doesn't automatically lend itself to certain tunes...the only time he really knocked cover tunes out of the park was when Dave was in the band. "Knocked out" meaning a throwing a great performance or twist on the original, and making it his own to a degree.

As a contrast, Van Hagar's LZ "Rock and Roll" cover was functional, but nothing about it ever made me think it was as good as or better than the original. Whereas CVH's version of "You Really Got Me" is a cover I actually prefer to the original.

It's not like the bar was set real high by The Kinks......compared to Zeppelin



Doing something like this isn't to "make it your own" it's about giving and taking as a musician but primarily giving because you're playing with so many other people.......honestly to me...it says alot about Ed's musicianship or lack there of if he can't even sit back and "hang" on a tune like Gloria without playing out of context on the song and being a show boat.....

[darkknight]

I have an interview from Musician magazine from around '92. Ed was somewhere playing with Steve Morse and James Burton. Obviously, you can't hear what they're playing from the interview but the writer says during the jam, they broke into a country romp with Steve and James ripping it up. He said Ed looked completely lost and did his elephant call. I think when Ed got the Floyd Rose, that's when his playing started going downhill. From the club days, he could obviously rip it up on covers. He tore it up on Nicolette Larson's tune, too. Now he's relegated to elephant calls, horse calls and divebombs. That damn FR ruined him, if you ask me.

[ELVIS]

C'mon Everybody was pretty good...

[steve]

I Fought the Law:

<a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=40510 91">Meshell Ndegeocello & Eddie Van Halen on the same stage</a><br/><object width="425px" height="360px" ><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=4051091,t=1,mt=video"/><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=4051091,t=1,mt=video" width="425" height="360" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>

[DavidLeeNatra]

bryan adams might be a lousy guitar player compared to EVH but he swings...so does sambora...ed doesn't...there are no elephants in blues...