Eddie Van Halen and The Impressionists

by Alberto D. Prieto

Just as with the impressionists, later arrived the “heavy-metals”. Taking the accessory by the base and inventing a new language. They knew they were venturing into uncharted territory. Heavy-metals and impressionists alike knew. And that they would be branded as weird, turned inside out, loud and noisy. The stain as the beginning of all, the frenzied pace, the atmosphere more important than the formal line, the distortion of the instrument ...How do you paint an eruption? What does fire sound like? Who said that they cared about being understood? It was enough just to have people follow them.  

Eddie Van Halen
(1957) since he was young listened to the great musicians who came before him and began it all and seemed old to him. His generation was weaned on blues before developing a background in rock'n'roll or swing, and when it was his turn to bear witness, he came and turned everything upside down, because what is assumed is disposable, especially if you are prepared to develop alternative potions and your buddies want a new poison.
 

Therefore, the day he grabbed a Gibson and began to research it and understood things others had never even suspected; he knew he could create atmospheric brushstrokes with his guitar. Strumming and plucking his guitar, the young Dutchman added pulses, imagining the piano keys his father had taught to play as a child, combined into a new formula. And thus without intending to, he managed to paint the most important heavy rock album in rock history. This way the LP “Van Halen” was named by specialized reviews in 1978, whose focus concentrated on the surname of the leading brothers, the group name, the title of the album,
and how the disc was the remedy for the anxieties of the 10 million estranged, who took to the streets to spend a few dollars for the work of the new furry that everyone was talking about.
 

And without knowing it, the strings of MusicMan of Eddie and the drumsticks of Alex Van Halen, interpreted by the throat of David Lee Roth, and the colour palette wielded by Michael Anthony on bass, in this beginning of the end of the century the boys came to the forefront of the avant-garde.
Van Halen had taken the accessory, the detail that had inspired the greats of past decades and had become their reason for creating a revolution, the soundtrack of boys who were not from the post-war era; to them, Elvis was forever fat and Queen, a mere sweetened imitation of truth.  

Thus, in the early works of combo born in Los Angeles, one can appreciate the sound of a powerful voice coupled with torn, distorted and powerful guitars. That sound put the cherry on top of the conceptual compositions of The Who, the research in the form of Zeppelin vinyl’s—
it formed the principles of the band of Eddie Van Halen and his brother Alex in the beginning of everything. And based on these strokes, they reaped millions in sales and looks from rivals.
  What, the noise was no longer enough? What is the reason for more? And why? What need was there that the frenzied pace was the starting point, rather than the climax of something? Who could endure that? Where are we going to stop? Never. Stop, never. It became clear very soon.  

Eddie Van Halen,
born Dutch (Nijmegen, 1957), just like another prop in the avant-garde art movement, Vincent Van Gogh (Zundert, 1853). And as far from Paris—the focus of the artistic revolution of the late Nineteenth Century—as Los Angeles, California, where in the late 70’s— a century later—a new movement began, casually as before, but causal as well as a consequence of the genius of their drivers and the need for a new expressive road. In 1978 they released 'Van Halen' and amongst their songs, stood out a hymn, 'Ain't Talking 'Bout Love', an exercise in madness that could have gone wrong: 'Eruption.' It was an instrumental piece that tried to paint tragedies with sounds. And, contrary to what logic dictates, it succeeded.
  That track—first conceived as an exercise in finger warming up— became like so many painting sketches from years before: an initial milestone. It was the consecration of a Stratocaster customized by Eddie himself, the 'Frankenstrat', and his technical magical artistry. A Marshall valve amp and the strings tuned halftone down did the rest.  

The creative talent of the producer, Ted Templeman, slipped in aptly a track on the album that was less “Van Halen style”, but it was the irreverence of the cover 'You Really got me' by the Kinks that was included on the album—
the reinterpretation of the classics and manipulation of the original sources— that ended up putting them on the “global map” and, above all, on the Billboard charts.
 

The following year, prodigious exercises provided the year of the unplugged guitar on 'Spanish Fly'. Along the back of a nylon-string Ovation,
Eddie showed virtuosity equivalent to the already known sound of the electrical guitar, generating a delicatessen whir of sound that crowned the second album of the group. A work that, much like those painters who are more interested in the creative process rather than outcome itself, also had no title. In this seventies fashion (already practiced by Led Zeppelin or Queen) they followed suit and called it 'Van Halen II'. In fact, hereinafter the band began to suffer the clash of egos of the lead singer and the spiritual, which the divine stage had began to spill his tank full of and desired to continue experimenting.
  Small bumps in sales and a cover album were a perfect excuse to delve into new genres (a little bit of funk, a foray in big band, pop synthesisers...) did not reduce the power of the band live and in concert—where they were unbeatable— rather they opened the door to Eddie to a collaboration with Michael Jackson, which labelled both as a 'traitor' by fans.  

This and the definitive industrialization of the music business through television in the 80’s finished the already breaking symbiotic relationship between David Lee Roth and the band, giving opportunity for Sammy Hagar to become the new soloist: a more elementary voice and with an image less specialized in groupies. The fact that the band managed to survive the trauma of changing the lead vocalist, that the product soared sky-high despite the fact that the new voice that led to the production of new discs was much more standardized than the past sounds of eighties rock, only serve as proof that the essence of Van Halen was always the art of pointillism of Eddie's guitar. And in the early 90s, for the first time in decade and a half, it was necessary to go back to the 'doping' method of a live album and a greatest hits, clear sign that the original formula no longer worked.  
  They came, lurching, Gary Cherone of Extreme, on the microphone; in full detox-addictive sessions; Eddie with other medical problems of his own and the collapse of the heavy metal music industry. Also the avant-garde crowd, despite its name, fell behind at some point. Although this only happened when society had at last arrived at the precise point in time, where these artists had wanted to take them for years.  

And no one had ever played the Fender in that way, nobody had ever thought to take advantage of the neck of the guitar with both hands like Eddie Van Halen, no one else before thought any Peavey, out there, could take more than strokes; however Eddie had the muses and Frankenstrat on his shoulders and, just like a century before in the Paris of dancing whores and other whoremonger artists knew to paint the sunset, the cold and weariness with their brushstrokes, so it was he who translated the tectonic force into music. Later they baptised it as “Eruption” and the technique of the plucked string, became known as tapping. But it just as well could have been called the inaugural work of the new Impressionism.
 

Legions of fans purchased tickets to museums and concerts.

Photogallery