“Nobody played like that”: The jaw-dropping guitarist Gene Simmons compared to Jimi Hendrix
People move genres of music along in various ways. What we know today as modern rock music has been shaped by a number of different artists, each of whom has contributed to the sound of the genre, the way that the rock star should act, and how people identify with that style of music. It’s interesting to look at artists who have severely impacted rock music and how it resonates.
One artist who is often praised as a game-changer in rock music is Eric Clapton. This is because he was one of the first mainstream artists to merge the styles of music that would culminate to form the foundation of rock. Steve Van Zandt spoke about his influence on the genre. He said, “Eric Clapton is the most important and influential guitar player that has ever lived, is still living or ever will live. Do yourself a favour, and don’t debate me on this.”
Van Zandt continued: “Before Clapton, rock guitar was the Chuck Berry method, modernised by Keith Richards, and the rockabilly sound – Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins, Cliff Gallup – popularised by George Harrison. Clapton absorbed that, then introduced the essence of black electric blues… to create an attack that defined the fundamentals of rock and roll lead guitar.”
Of course, while Clapton might have cemented the original sound that would go towards making rock and roll, many other guitarists would build on that sound. Jeff Beck made the guitarist more eccentric, Hendrix showed the power of improvisation in rock sounds, and Eddie Van Halen introduced a new way of playing that took over the genre.
Eddie’s tapping technique was brand new. It meant that he could play solos a lot quicker, making sounds that were totally alien. He used this technique in his solos and also when writing riffs. The speed at which he played hadn’t been heard before, and lovers of rock music were blown away by it.
“When Eddie came along, nobody played like that,” recalled Gene Simmons when talking about Van Halen’s huge impact. “I’m not even talking about the quality of the songs or Dave completely taking the frontman to the nth level,” he said, “I mean, at that time, Dave was the king. There’s nobody. If Jagger stood next to him, it would be like, you know, a sixth grader. He really took it all the way, the whole band, the musicianship, the songwriting.”
Simmons proceeded to talk specifically about Eddie’s guitar playing, “When Edward would get in front of that stage and start tapping and stuff, which I’d never seen before – apparently, it had been done by jazz musicians and everything – but your jaw drops. Clearly, no one since Hendrix had that kind of impact.”
Eddie Van Halen’s influence can still be heard throughout all of music and is now a prominent factor in rock, used frequently by guitarists to stun audiences.
