The one guitarist Eddie Van Halen never cared for: “Too cluttered for my taste”
For better or worse, Eddie Van Halen was the embodiment of rock music in the 1980s. He was simultaneously a respectful disciple of all that came before him, able to reel off Eric Clapton’s solo in Crossroads note-perfectly at a moment’s notice and a vulgar disruptor at the same time. A man who took his forebears’ music and made it flashier, more commercial and even more self-involved than it was before. Put it this way, when Clapton formed a band, he named it Cream or Derek and the Dominoes. When Eddie formed a band, he named it after himself.
Credit where it is due, he wasn’t wrong to. His guitar playing is the musical equivalent of watching the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a technical achievement so astonishing it doesn’t really matter whether it has any soul or not. One is still witnessing something important in the development of an entire medium. So, to go back and read Eddie Van Halen’s first-ever interview with Guitar World magazine from January 1981 is an interesting contextualisation of the whole phenomenon.
At the time, Van Halen were arguably the most exciting band in the world. Graduating from the bar circuit to theatres and clubs within a year of forming. Their peak at the time of the interview was drawing 3000 people to a headline show of theirs before they’d even recorded anything. While Eddie is pretty effusive in his praise of Clapton and Hendrix, there’s precious little mention of any cosigns from the stars of yesteryear coming their way.
In fact, the only sign that anyone from the 1970s has any time for what Eddie and co. are doing is a mention of Kiss’ Gene Simmons paying for the recording sessions for their demos. A match made in heaven. Maybe this is because, for all of Van Halen’s fawning, he’s still 24 years old and prone to speaking his mind when he’d do well to shut up. It all comes from an innocent question about whether he’d ever like to play with another guitarist in the band, too, but it wouldn’t be an interview with a rockstar without a completely avoidable own goal, wouldn’t it?
He says, “I’ve never played with another guitarist because I make enough sound on my own.” You are off to a brilliant start there, Eddie. “What I loved about Cream is that everybody had to put out It was three people making all this noise and you could hear each person. The Allman Brothers’ feel is something I never got into. Duane was an excellent slide guitarist, but I never cared for Dickie Betts. I found their music too cluttered for my taste.”
The fact that Eddie Van Halen is criticising one of the most tasteful, graceful rock bands of the whole 1970s for being “cluttered” is absolutely wild. However, I feel this is like comparing a gymnast to a ballroom dancer. They might seem like they’re doing the same thing, but they’re two different mediums, let alone disciplines. Just because it has a few fewer flips, it’s no less beautiful.
Like it or not though, Eddie Van Halen was a sign of the times, Duane and Dickie’s weaving was out and Van Halen’s virtuosity was in. Maybe its best that today, decades after their commercial heyday, they can be viewed away from any idea of “cultural relevancy” and simply for what they are. Some of the best guitarists of their generation.
