The guitarist Angus Young prefers to Eddie Van Halen: “He’s really just doing finger exercises”
Angus Young has always had his own way of doing things in AC/DC. When you’ve made one of the best-selling records of all time by playing nothing but straight-ahead rock and roll, would you want to mess with the formula all that much? Young had always been about balls-to-the-wall rock and roll, and while he did have competition from other guitar heroes, he didn’t exactly care for what he heard out of Eddie Van Halen.
Then again, anyone who ever calls Eddie a bad guitarist is liable to get their ears checked or be questioned whether they’ve lost their taste for good music. Throughout Van Halen’s glory years, Eddie revolutionised the game regarding what could be done on the guitar. He may have had blues scales that he relied on now and again, but some of his tapping licks are so indicative of his style that they may as well be musically trademarked.
That was never really what AC/DC was going for. Throughout every project they have released, the Australian rockers relied more on the backbeat for every song, usually keeping a swing rhythm and relying on ringing open chords to get most of their sound. That’s why even though a piece like ‘Highway to Hell’ has been played at far too many dive bars, it’s still a blast to play for anyone just picking up their instrument.
For all of the great leads Angus Young played, he said he was only as good as his brother, Malcolm. Since the entire AC/DC enterprise revolved around both, some of the best songs they ever made usually involved Malcolm’s right hand, keeping everything ringing from the back so Angus had a nice foundation to stand on.
According to Angus, he preferred Malcolm Young’s playing to Eddie’s playing any day of the week, telling Guitar World, “Although he lets me take all the lead breaks, Malcolm’s still a better guitarist than Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen certainly knows his scales, but I don’t enjoy listening to very technical guitarists who cram all the notes they know into one song. I mean, Van Halen can do what he does very well, but he’s really just doing finger exercises.”
And the saddest part is that Eddie would probably agree with Angus’s assessment. Anyone who gets love for their playing is going to appreciate it just a little bit, but Eddie was always drawn to the rhythm guitar before he had even considered tapping, usually digging in with his right hand to create the engine for every song.
Eddie also wasn’t much of a fan of what Angus was talking about. Sure, there were millions of guitar players who were trying their hand at playing tapping licks after him, but Eddie wasn’t really that fond of being influential. If anything, he was pissed off that people tried stealing his schtick and forgot about all the feel that came after it.
Still, that didn’t stop Eddie from being an avid fan of the band, eventually singling out some of their riffs and some of his all-time favourites. AC/DC and Van Halen may have come out around the same time, but the difference between Eddie and Angus’s approaches to the guitar often feels like night and day.
