The album that Eddie Van Halen was blown away by: “Amazes me every time I hear it”
Half of Van Halen’s catalogue usually comes down to what major guitar pyrotechnics Eddie Van Halen would get up to next. For all of the great charisma that everyone else brought to the stage, there was a damn good reason why there was an entire section of the show devoted to nothing but Eddie playing his heart out and playing songs that made most other artists wonder how the hell he came up with everything.
No one likes to think that they’ve completely mastered their instrument, though, and Eddie said that listening to One of a Kind by Bill Bruford completely turned his head around.
Granted, it makes sense that one of the only genres Eddie would appreciate is progressive music. After all, artists who were looking to do nothing else but play intricate lines for hours on end were clearly speaking his language, so it didn’t take long for him to translate those licks from his brain to his fingers.
However, the beginnings of progressive music were a lot different. Pink Floyd still fit squarely into the psychedelic movement when they began, but once acts like King Crimson and Yes started rearing their heads, all bets were off where everything could go. This was now a sophisticated take on music, and the rest of the world would either follow in their footsteps or go in the opposite direction.
For all of the great music that prog’s golden age spit out, it wasn’t always conducive to stable lineups. Unless you’re a band like Rush, who continued on for what seemed like forever, acts like Yes and Genesis went through several shakeups trying to get themselves back on course, the former of which included drummer Bruford stepping out for a little while.
No one can tell a prog musician to stop progressing their craft, though, and Bruford found his secret weapon on One of a Kind when teaming up with guitarist Allan Holdsworth. After hearing the subtle acoustic and electric playing of Steve Howe for the past few years, Holdsworth seemed to take his cues from jazz in terms of harmony and his ability to leave people dumbfounded when they heard him.
While Eddie was knee-deep into putting Van Halen together in the late 1970s, he could still appreciate where Holdsworth was going on that record, saying, “I loved Allan Holdsworth. His playing on Bill Bruford’s One of a Kind still amazes me every time I hear it. That fucker was good. His band, UK, opened for us in Reno, and I couldn’t believe how good they were. Those guys were playing their asses off even though people weren’t very preceptive of them.”
Then again, it’s not hard to see why the UK wouldn’t be embraced with open arms. Say what you will about the technical prowess of Eddie, but at least David Lee Roth’s good-time spirit helped even things out a little bit. When you take away the lightheartedness and just see a band going for broke, it tends to feel like looking into the sun.
Regardless of their lack of attention, Holdsworth remained a major source of inspiration for Eddie throughout his career. It’s definitely subtle, but if you listen to how Eddie uses chords on songs like ‘Hear About It Later’, it’s clear that he’s spent some time with that Bruford record to hear where every note was coming from.
