The iconic guitarist that left Eddie Van Halen disappointed: “I was expecting something more powerful”
There are only a few bands which you know, from the very first note, that they will be remembered. You might not like them, they might even make your skin crawl, but you can be sure that decades from now, their icon status will be as solid as the golden statues that will litter their career. Van Halen were one such band.
They turned the rock sound of the 1970s and supercharged it. As bands became more decadent or inspired by the hard thrash of punk music, Van Halen put both experiences in a cocktail mixer, shook hard, and served their finger-tapping brilliance over ice. On record, they proved to be dynamite, but their live shows blew the heads off the audience.
Any good rock and roll band will know how to make the most of the live experience. Even though it’s easy to get lost in the studio whenever sitting down to make a record, there’s something about being able to rip out one classic tune after another while thriving off the energy from a paying audience. Although Eddie Van Halen made sure to turn every one of his concerts into a spectacle, he admitted that one of his favourite bands disappointed him when he saw them perform for the first time.
When putting together his first bands with his brother Alex, though, Eddie would have happily gone to any concert playing at The Forum in California. Even though Eddie would most likely be going to hear the music, he also ended up learning his trade from seeing his favourite acts live, getting the idea to tap on the fretboard thanks to seeing Jimmy Page play with Led Zeppelin.
Funnily enough, though Eddie would commend Page with inspiring him to tap away, Page would confess that he could never be as fast on the fretboard as Van Halen. He said: “I am extremely aware of him, actually, and I take my hat off to him for working out that technique [referring to Van Halen’s pioneering of the hammer-on technique]. You know, you talk about what I’ve done on the guitar and that’s what he’s done on the guitar. As far as it goes, it’s an incredible technique for what he does. I must say that. I can’t do it. I can’t smile like him either. It’s a really good technique but as I said I can’t play like that. That’s what we were talking about earlier: we’re talking about extremes now. That’s what’s so good about guitar players.”
Of all the great guitar players from England, though, Eddie thought no one could have competed with Eric Clapton. After graduating from The Yardbirds, ‘Slowhand’ would turn in one classic after another for the rest of his career, from forming the first supergroup Cream to making new and exciting strides in his solo career with tracks like ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Wonderful Tonight’.
Right before he decided to fly alone, Clapton had the idea of putting one more supergroup together. After becoming lovesick over George Harrison’s wife Pattie, Clapton poured his soul into Layla (And Other Assorted Love Songs) under the moniker Derek and the Dominoes. Even though Clapton would showcase his best playing on tracks like ‘Bell Bottom Blues’, it was the arrival of lead guitarist Duane Allman that changed the game, creating a tapestry of guitar sounds that were ripped straight out of Clapton’s broken heart.
While Eddie may have loved the sounds he heard on the record, he remembered being underwhelmed when hearing the band in concert for the first time. Despite the songs ingrained in his psyche, Eddie thought that the group didn’t have themselves together sonically when checking them out.
Then again, Eddie claimed that his disappointment had more to do with how the musicians played off each other onstage, telling Guitar World, “To be honest with you, I was expecting something more powerful. If I would’ve seen Cream, I probably would’ve been blown away, because that’s the era of Clapton that I really loved. The show was more of a Doobie Brothers Kind of thing — there was like this tambourine and bongo player. The power wasn’t there”.
Even though Clapton lacked the punch that Eddie expected out of him, it didn’t take for the budding guitar player to make his brand of heaviness. Inspired by the cacophonous sounds of Cream, Eddie would form the foundation of Van Halen centred around sounding heavier, crafting amazing riffs across songs like ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’ and ‘Mean Street’. Clapton may have been mellowing out with age, but Eddie was happy to continue the tradition of taking the blues into wild and eccentric directions.
