POLL: Is Eddie Van Halen The Greatest Rock guitarist to ever live?

[scolfax]

What current guitar players who are STILL writing good songs were markedly influenced by him?

 

Probably way more than you know. Possibly every recording guitarist with a Floyd Rose and a humbucker.

[dlxrev]

Probably way more than you know. Possibly every recording guitarist with a Floyd Rose and a humbucker.

 

While I agree EVH was/is influential, his influence is nowhere near as widespread as Hendrix or even Clapton or Beck. Floyd Rose and a humbucker is pretty much limited to a hard rock/metal category. So is his influence still felt there? Possibly. Is Hendrix' influence felt on just about anybody who has picked up an electric guitar since 1967? Probably.

[genesis3]

Damn it, Grandpa! Haven't we told you to stay off the Internet?

 

....That dood obviously is forgetting that time , nearly in any capacity, is almost irrelevant when your talking about music...If there were any sort of time limits on influence, relevancy,etc,etc , then you wouldn't have classical musicians playing and studying 200+ year old Bach, Beethove, Mozart, Brahms, etc music pieces as they do today nor jazzers still covering and studying Bird, Coltrane, Monk, etc,etc,et al....If it has any kind of merit at all, whatever it may be, it will live on long past it creation date.

[Dave_Mc_2]

While I agree EVH was/is influential, his influence is nowhere near as widespread as Hendrix or even Clapton or Beck. Floyd Rose and a humbucker is pretty much limited to a hard rock/metal category. So is his influence still felt there? Possibly. Is Hendrix' influence felt on just about anybody who has picked up an electric guitar since 1967? Probably.

 

to be fair, clapton probably has influenced a lot of people. anyone who started off awesome and then went boring was probably influenced by him.

 

kidding, i love clapton too. I guess you could level that same accusation at most people. I mean, as much as love hendrix, he didn't live long enough () to go off the boil. Maybe he was awesome enough to be awesome forever, I dunno.

[soapbladder]

Probably way more than you know. Possibly every recording guitarist with a Floyd Rose and a humbucker.

 

Name one then. Someone that gets airplay and isn't just a nostalgia act.

 

I hear Hendrix in Fruciante and Prince (both well past their creative prime). I hear Page in the Black Keys and White Stripes (hardly newbies) Not hearing a whole lot of two handed tapping or EVH style riffing.

 

It still might be fun to play/listen to EVH songs. Heck, its still fun to play Django songs. Doesn't make him relevant as anything other than self-promotional marketing machine. He can sell signature items at jacked up prices to boomers who are still waiting for a good new EVH album to drop. It won't.

 

Sailed ship has sailed.

 

The only place where guitar driven music is still mainstream is Nashville.

 

VH belongs in a museum, with other worthy relics.

 

SB

[Dave_Mc_2]

is frusciante even still in the chilis?

 

not sure that's a fair comparison there... frusciante joined the chilis, when, 1989? I mean hair metal was still mainstream back then.

 

prince was in teh 80s, too.

 

Nice try.

 

FWIW i hear plenty of lead guitar and van halenisms in a fair bit of hard rock and metal at the moment. Hardly mainstream, but it gets on kerrang and scuzz tv channels here. As you say, it's not like either hendrix- or van halen-style lead guitar really gets into the charts, i don't think you can claim either is any better in that respect.

[Meowy]

One premise I think that has not been established... What does "Influenced by" mean? It could mean

 

a) I decided to play guitar after I heard Hendrix | EVH | Clapton |Cobain | whoever

b) Songwriting style

c) Technique

d) genre

e) Choice of equipment

 

any or all of the above in any combination

[soapbladder]

is frusciante even still in the chilis? not sure that's a fair comparison there... frusciante joined the chilis, when, 1989? I mean hair metal was still mainstream back then. prince was in teh 80s, too. Nice try. FWIW i hear plenty of lead guitar and van halenisms in a fair bit of hard rock and metal at the moment. Hardly mainstream, but it gets on kerrang and scuzz tv channels here. As you say, it's not like either hendrix- or van halen-style lead guitar really gets into the charts, i don't think you can claim either is any better in that respect.

 

Can you read? I said that price and J.F. are way past their creative prime in my post.

 

Guitar based rock is in it's death throes and it is on its way to big band type status as a niche product for a niche audience.

 

Van Halen Style Rock is beyond dead. Heck EVH started the self-embalming process years ago.

 

SB

[tedmich]

hey wasn't he DLR's backup in Dave's first band?

 

"of all time" scotches it; he was quite good before giving it all to Mamma EtOH

[mosiddiqi]

No but he's in my personal top 5

 

+1

[Dave_Mc_2]

Can you read? I said that price and J.F. are way past their creative prime in my post. Guitar based rock is in it's death throes and it is on its way to big band type status as a niche product for a niche audience. Van Halen Style Rock is beyond dead. Heck EVH started the self-embalming process years ago. SB

 

yes i can read.

 

"beyond their prime" is not the same as "being current". when they were in their prime they were no more (or little more) current than van halen was/is.

 

So i don't see the point in bringing them up. If they're the two most recent hendrix-influenced players you can think of then hendrix has no more influence than van halen has.

 

You said van halen didn't influence any modern players, and then proceeded to name two non-modern players to try to claim that hendrix had more of an influence. which is being intellectually dishonest, frankly.

 

yes, ok, so the white stripes and black keys are a bit more current, but i don't hear much page in the white stripes (not familiar with the black keys, maybe they're different). Plus certainly the white stripes are no newer than either the darkness or steel panther, and they both have plenty of van halenisms going on. Ok, so maybe they're parody bands/maybe not, but they still sell records. And I'm not sure how much of a parody those types of bands can really be, when it takes a fair bit of effort to play like that. If you really disliked it you just wouldn't bother, kind of thing.

[scolfax]

Van Halen Style Rock is beyond dead. Heck EVH started the self-embalming process years ago.

 

Don't feed the troll.

[cbh5150]

 

No, but he's up there

[Dave_Mc_2]

Don't feed the troll.

 

good point

[EvilMinstrel]

to be fair, clapton probably has influenced a lot of people. anyone who started off awesome and then went boring was probably influenced by him.

 

This makes perfect sense considering Eddie always said he was one of his main influences. Clapton was interesting for a longer period of time though. Almost a decade even. EVH gets 77- to about 1982. Clapton wins that one.

[EvilMinstrel]

yes i can read. "beyond their prime" is not the same as "being current". when they were in their prime they were no more (or little more) current than van halen was/is. So i don't see the point in bringing them up. If they're the two most recent hendrix-influenced players you can think of then hendrix has no more influence than van halen has. You said van halen didn't influence any modern players, and then proceeded to name two non-modern players to try to claim that hendrix had more of an influence. which is being intellectually dishonest, frankly. yes, ok, so the white stripes and black keys are a bit more current, but i don't hear much page in the white stripes (not familiar with the black keys, maybe they're different). Plus certainly the white stripes are no newer than either the darkness or steel panther, and they both have plenty of van halenisms going on. Ok, so maybe they're parody bands/maybe not, but they still sell records. And I'm not sure how much of a parody those types of bands can really be, when it takes a fair bit of effort to play like that. If you really disliked it you just wouldn't bother, kind of thing.

 

Not gonna knock your points at all, but those are both obvious parody bands. C'mon, man. Also, if you can't hear Page's influence on the White Stripes, who have done Zeppelin covers and obvious homages to Zeppelin than I'm not sure you should be pointing out the influences of artists on other artists.

[Meowy]

This makes perfect sense considering Eddie always said he was one of his main influences. Clapton was interesting for a longer period of time though. Almost a decade even. EVH gets 77- to about 1982. Clapton wins that one.

 

That is not fair at aface value. You've got to consider their eras. When Clapton was at his peak there were a fraction of the number of mainstream bands then there were at VHs peak. And in the late 60s the whole guitar god thing was brand new. There were a few dozen guitar heros (sorry) by the time Ed came along and the novelty of a guitar virtuoso was not a new concept

[EvilMinstrel]

That is not fair at aface value. You've got to consider their eras. When Clapton was at his peak there were a fraction of the number of mainstream bands then there were at VHs peak. And in the late 60s the whole guitar god thing was brand new. There were a few dozen guitar heros (sorry) by the time Ed came along and the novelty of a guitar virtuoso was not a new concept

 

Irrelevant. What was going on around of them has no influence on their abilities to be interesting, or to lose focus.

[Inspector 71]

Sarntarna

[Dave_Mc_2]

Irrelevant. What was going on around of them has no influence on their abilities to be interesting, or to lose focus.

 

i agree- however it might and probably will affect how much influence they have on later bands.

[Canadian Jeff]

I saw Steel Panther last week. Anybody who doubts Satchel needs to get their head checked. That dude's the real deal and a nice guy (met him before the show).

[Meowy]

Irrelevant. What was going on around of them has no influence on their abilities to be interesting, or to lose focus.

 

Really? when I was growing up in the 70s we had 3 TV stations: CBS, NBC and ABC, (ok, 4 with PBS if you were a nerd or Sesame Street fan). Each one got "about" 1/3 of the viewership. Now there are a bazillion stations.

 

It has nothing to do with holding interest, it has to do with an audience having other viable options available.

 

In terms of musical interest around 1970, you would look for your inspiration from Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, Page, Keef, Townshend, and a *handful* of others (please don't shoot me if I left 3 or 4 off the list) **

 

** EDIT: I was only referrring to 60s influences obviously there was the whole 1950s birth of rock and roll (Chuck, Buddy Holly, and so on)

 

By the late 70s hundreds and hundreds of bands came and went, some stayed on the scene. This was when Eddie had only arrived along with countless other 2nd / 3rd generation influences after the 60s wave

[EvilMinstrel]

Really? when I was growing up in the 70s we had 3 TV stations: CBS, NBC and ABC, (ok, 4 with PBS if you were a nerd or Sesame Street fan). Each one got "about" 1/3 of the viewership. Now there are a bazillion stations. It has nothing to do with holding interest, it has to do with an audience having other viable options available. In terms of musical interest around 1970, you would look for your inspiration from Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, Page, Keef, Townshend, and a *handful* of others (please don't shoot me if I left 3 or 4 off the list) By the late 70s hundreds and hundreds of bands came and went, some stayed on the scene. This was when Eddie had only arrived along with countless other 2nd / 3rd generation influences after the 60s wave

 

I don't disagree with any of that, but it has nothing to do with what I said.

[EvilMinstrel]

(a) steel panther- yep, sure, though i think satchel was in a VH tribute band before SP, so how much of a parody it actually is, I don't know. As i said, to get that good at playing involves effort, and pretty much means you have to like it. It's entirely possible (maybe even probable) that they want to play that music and get paid for it, and they figured that the only way to manage that was to set themselves up as an obvious parody band. At very least, it's a parody from a place of liking that music, if that makes sense. i'm not sure you can say the darkness is a parody as such. they were always pretty ambiguous on that front. hedging their bets to get as many fans as possible, I guess. (b) in my defence, I'm not exactly a gigantic white stripes fan. Really don't like them, to tell the truth. But in the singles i've heard by them, they don't sound too much like led zep. At very least, led zep is way better IMO (i do like led zep, a lot). I'd give him 'till 84, probably. And regarding clapton... i only really like his cream days. that's not to say I don't like several of his later songs too (layla, say), but they're more one-offs. I'd say his consistently good period (and again, i'm not the most well-listened clapton fan, I don't have all his albums or anything like that, so this is "in my opinion and as far as i'm aware") was cream. And maybe the bluesbreakers. So what's that, 5 years at most? that's similar to what you're giving eddie i agree- however it might and probably will affect how much influence they have on later bands.

 

Two things; 1) You're ignoring the fact that Clapton started in a group called The Yardbirds, and 2) Parody doesn't mean dislike, or degrade, it just means parody.... and yes, before the band was called Steel Panther they were called Metal Skool, and before that some where in Atomic Punks.

[billybilly]

Hendrix played a different eruption every time he picked up the guitar.