Happy Birthday EDDIE VAN HALEN (video)

#eddievanhalen #vanhalen #rockfileradio

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955 in Nijmegen) is a Dutch-born American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. He is ranked as one of the world's greatest guitarists, and one of the most influential rock guitarists of the 20th century. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Halen #8 in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. In 2012, he was voted in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll as the #1 of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" over Brian May of Queen (#2) and Alex Lifeson of Rush (#3).

The 1978 instrumental "Eruption" by Van Halen showcased a solo technique called tapping, using both left and right hands on the guitar neck. Although Van Halen popularized tapping, he did not, despite popular belief, invent the tapping technique. The tapping technique in blues and rock was picked up by various guitarists in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Dave Bunker of Bunker Guitar called it Touch Guitar and Jimmie Webster with Gretsch called it the Touch System. Duane Allman, Frank Zappa and Ace Frehley tapped with a pick in the early 1970s. Steve Hackett used tapping to play Bach-esque keyboard passages on the guitar in the early 1970s as the lead guitarist with Genesis. Hackett has been credited by MusicRadar as an influence on Van Halen as well as several other notable guitarists. Larry Carlton had a tapped note at the end of his solo on the song "Kid Charlemagne".

Queen's Brian May used the tapping technique, which he picked up in America in the early 1970s, on songs such as "It's Late" from the News of the World album. In a January 1983 Guitar Player interview, May said, "I stole it from a guy who said that he stole it from Billy Gibbons in ZZ Top".

George Lynch said in an interview that he and Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel tap at the Starwood in the 1970s. In a March 2009 Metal Den interview, Lynch said:

We both witnessed Harvey Mandel from Canned Heat do a neo-classic tapping thing at a club called the Starwood in West Hollywood back in the 1970s. Other people were doing it to a limited extent: Brian May from Queen dabbled ... George Van Eps was doing it in the 1950s.

Early Van Halen stage photographs, and demo and bootleg recordings from 1976 and before, do not indicate Van Halen using any tapping techniques. Comments about how he came across the tapping technique vary from interview to interview. In one review with Guitar World, he said:

I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his "Heartbreaker" solo back in 1971. He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought wait a minute, open string ... pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around? I just kind of took it and ran with it.

Van Halen also employs tapping harmonics. He holds the pick between his thumb and middle finger, which leaves his index finger free for tapping, and also makes for easy transitions between picking and tapping. In support of his two-handed tapping techniques, Van Halen also holds a patent for a flip-out support device that attaches to the rear of the electric guitar. This device enables the user to play the guitar in a manner similar to the piano by orienting the face of the guitar upward instead of forward.

source: wikipedia

\m/