What is Eddie Van Halen’s longest guitar solo?
The guitar may as well have been an extension of Eddie Van Halen himself—he was truly inseparable from it. It was his weapon of destruction, his vehicle of power, and his conduit for love, harnessing every inch of feeling across half a century of electrifying rock airwaves. As the driving force of Van Halen, he made the six-string more than just an instrument—it became a force of life.
Indeed, following his tragic death some five years ago now, it seems like a huge part of rock and roll legend has also slipped away with its leading guitarist, with only the memories and folklore stories to guide Van Halen’s protégés now the god is no longer here to carve the path himself. Searching through those archives, however, is where the stuff of legend can be found – from Van Halen’s palming off of Gene Simmons, who originally wanted to sign them, to his greatest on-stage moment, and everything in between.
Van Halen’s prolific nature as a musician, however, is what stands out above the rest in enshrining his seminal status, whether it was his pioneering techniques or sheer stamina for performance. In fact, on that latter point, a warbling solo was somewhat of a Van Halen speciality, and in turn, it subsequently begs the question of which song holds the golden record for his longest guitar solo ever.
Among a slew of contenders, ‘Eruption’, the second track from Van Halen’s 1978 self-titled album, nabs the crown for the guitar master’s most extensive solo, clocking in at one minute and 42 seconds. Admittedly, that’s because the entire song is instrumentation from his own fair hand, but nevertheless, its calibre went on to cement itself as a pillar of rock and roll greatness.
How did Eddie Van Halen create ‘Eruption’?
Although ‘Eruption’ was only fully committed to recording in 1978, the genesis of the song had existed for some years as part of Van Halen’s warm-up routine and as an interlude performed on stage. However, it was the addition of the maestro’s pioneering technique of tapping that was the secret sauce to the tune, the innovative and previously unheard approach which saw it sailing to the status of the single-handed greatest guitar solo of all time.
Using both hands on the fretboard, Van Halen fused elements of classical musicality and invigorated them to the rock masses, subsequently popularising the technique for other acts throughout the seminal period of the 1980s. Indeed, Van Halen’s ‘Eruption’ led to a shift in the tectonic plates of rock and truly turned the world on a new axis of electrification that no one else could have possibly created.
It was a testament to the Van Halen band dynamic that fellow members – brother Alex, David Lee Roth, and Michael Anthony – were more than happy to take a backseat and let their virtuoso frontman well and truly take the throne. ‘Eruption’ was, in many ways, the catalyst for building an empire – and one that every guitarist in rock since then has looked to as their North Star.
