Day 204, October 6, 2020
5150
Tonight's soundtrack: Van Halen, New Haven, CT, 1986
When I was a freshman in high school, I made the adamant plea to my parents that I needed to go see Van Halen because he was the most phenomenal guitarist in the world and that all phenomenal guitarists die young. I hadn't quite perfected the skills of persuasion... and yet somehow they let me go. I was a pretty bullheaded young kid, so it is possible that it may have been impossible to not let me go, regardless of if they realized there would be marijuana drifting through the aisles and that bass player Michael Anthony would spray about half of his bottle of Jack Daniels into the audience.
Eddie didn't die as young as I feared, but 65 is not old and still feels too young. It is amazing to see his youthful exuberance of that era, the invincibility of sucking on a cigarette stuck in the end of his Steinberger guitar and blowing smoke rings. For all of his challenges, he always gave off the public persona of being the epitome of good natured fun, unbridled joy. And he could rip it up on guitar.
It was a different era, where men wore spandex or parachute pants on stage, and high school infatuation was the pinnacle of manhood. There is so much hugging and affection on stage, it is kind of wonderful to see. The 5150 tour was the era of Sammy Hagar, which didn't have the resonance that David Lee Roth had, but it was the time that I got to see them, so it is fun to return to that era, which was mostly a showcase for the various musicians talents after riding on a train of big hits.
But Eddie was always the star. A whole era of musicians fawned over the secrets of his gear, from his original Marshall tones, affectionately called the Brown Sound, reportedly from a modified Marshall head running through a variac that reduced the voltage running through the amp slightly, to his customized parts guitars. The guitar tone on his early recordings continue to be one of the defining tones of rock and roll and engendered a whole industry of EVH branded guitars, amplifiers, and effects. Who would not want to to sound like Eddie?
It was Eddie who brought tapping to the forefront of popular music along with the harmonic squeals. Not to mention the acrobatic jumps and splits that were as a part of his brand as his red, black, and white striped guitar.
Despite his corny antics, he seemed to be someone who was always refining his sense of tone and constantly experimenting with different ways to find what he wanted to come out of the guitar. It took some time for Eddie to mature a bit, and for the world to catch up and get more serious about tone, and now bedroom rockers the world over try to emulate his signal path in miniature.
As with most people we idolize, it seems like his personal life may have been more challenging than people would know. His fun loving stage persona apparently hid a more temperamental side. I suppose that's probably predictable, one must have quite the ego to front a band that big for so long. But there was an innocence to all of that back then before social media, before online forums, when there was only the radio, guitar magazines, and Rolling Stone.
Watching him all these years later, one realizes how much he smoked on stage, how masterful he was with using the volume knob to create dynamics in his playing, how he (particularly in Eddie's solo portion of the evening) integrated sounds from classical to jazz to psychedelia into his sound. It makes me yearn to play with a whammy bar again.
RIP EVH,
Leo
 |
| June Bug looking nonplussed. |
From Our Friends:
From UMass Amherst:
From Inside Higher Ed:
Rhetoric alone about equity, diversity and inclusion won't get the job done in higher education, say the authors of a new book.
From 4SC:
Free virtual film screening & discussion: I’m Not Racist...Am I?
Monday, October 19 at 6:30PM
The 90-minute movie can only be viewed through community screenings like this.
Hosted by The Communities That Care Coalition's Racial Justice Workgroup. Co-sponsored by CTC, Mesa Verde, GCTV, Greenfield Savings Bank, and GCC.
The next issue of this newsletter will include details for joining!
From Mass Humanities:
October 13: Mill Girls and the Suffrage Moment in Lowell
|
|
|
From the Pioneer Valley Symphony:
Individual tickets for both the PVS Presents and Discovery Series events are $15. There are also discounted passes available. See our ticket page for more information and ticket package options.
 |
| The asparagus reminds me of miniature willow trees. |
Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From the Online Learning Consortium:
Recap and Resources for OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM
The OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM eventmarked an important milestone in the development of the OLC STEM community, bringing together educators committed to collaboratively driving our work forward.
From Inside Higher Ed:
Transforming Teaching & Learning Faculty Confidence in Online Learning Grows Survey finds significant increases in professors' confidence in virtual learning and their sense of support from their colleges� -- but continuing concerns about equity for underrepresented students. » |
Comments
Post a Comment