Eddie Van Halen’s favourite guitar riffs of all time
The incredible talent of Eddie Van Halen may be lost, but his music and magnificence will always be there to cherish. There is no greater mark of just how impressive a figure he is in the world of guitar that the musician is routinely admired but rarely replicated.
With an artist as mercurial as Eddie, a figure who re-invented the wheel when it came to guitar-playing, riffs and solos were always the first thing that came to mind. Eddie delivered perhaps the most succinct vision of legendary guitar playingthe world has ever known.
With the band’s debut album in 1978, they announced themselves emphatically and did things on their terms. Together, they didn’t care about the derision that their sound was met with from some quarters; instead, they came up with even more killer riffs. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar skills made them the legendary band they ultimately became, he had a certain edge to him which set the band apart from their contemporaries and he was a maestro in every sense of the word.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello said of Van Halen after his passing, “Eddie Van Halen was one of the greatest, most inventive, truly visionary musicians of all time. He was an unparalleled titan in the annals of rock & roll. And on the Mount Rushmore of guitarists, he is neck-and-neck for the pole position.” If you’re sitting there and wondering if Morello truly believes Van Halen to be one of the best, then you only need to reflect on the five isolated tracks to get to know his brilliance.
For a figure such as Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello to speak so highly of Eddie, the world is all you need to know about his masterful guitar playing. Unfortunately for Morello, he didn’t make the cut when Van Halen was asked to name his favourite guitar riffs to Billboard back in 2015 but he did pick four absolute stone-cold classic riffs that are undeniably spectacular.
“There are millions of riffs,” Van Halen admitted as he tried to bide time to decipher what riffs to pick. “I wrack my brain, trying to think. Obviously, I can’t mention any of my own, right?” he jokingly adds.
His first pick comes from fellow riff master general Tony Iommi and his legendary effort on Black Sabbath’s ‘Into The Void’ taken from their 1971 record Masters of Reality. The next effort came from another icon of rock ‘n’ roll, Eric Clapton, referencing his monstrous riff ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ from Cream’s 1967 album Disraeli Gears.
Eric Clapton once revealed to Rolling Stone that ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, “He [Hendrix] played this gig that was blinding,” the former Cream man said. “I don’t think Jack [Bruce] had really taken him in before. And when he did see it that night, after the gig he went home and came up with the riff. It was strictly a dedication to Jimi. After that, we wrote a song on top of it.”
Van Halen’s third pick comes courtesy of Deep Purple with their track ‘Burn’ which was the title track from the Ritchie Blackmore-led Deep Purple’s first album with singer David Coverdale in 1974. For his fourth and final choice, Eddie opts to go for 1978’s ‘Down Payment Blues’ taken from AC/DC’s Powerage which Van Halen says that Malcolm Young’s performance on the track makes it “one of my all-time favourites.”
Eddie Van Halen was a true genius and a real rockstar who was one of the defining figures of his generation. His guitar playing can still be heard in modern music today, and although it offers little surprise to see which fellow guitarists he looked for inspiration from, it’s heartwarming to see Eddie, who grew up on a diet solely of classic rock, admiring the likes of Iommi and Clapton, whom he found himself in the same conversation as when it came to all-time greats.
Riffs might not be the first thing you think of when considering the impact of Eddie Van Halen. His solos and finger-tapping are usually what emerge when conjuring up the image of the noodling master. But his picks show a deep appreciation for riff-making. In fact, it provides a crystalline image of a true lover of guitar-playing.
Eddie Van Halen’s favourite guitarists:
- Tony Iommi
- Eric Clapton
- Ritchie Blackmore
- Malcolm Young
