When Eddie Van Halen died on October 6th of this year we lost an amazing guitar player. I grew up with Van Halen. I liked them when I was younger and then after High School I gave up listening to them for a while, but I would often revisit their early albums and be in awe of Eddie Van Halen's guitar licks. After seeing the band live in 1984 and then again for their previous album 5150 I was ready to see them again. I told myself that this tour was going to be my last. There is only so much Van Halen I could see. If he did a solo tour, I would see it, but the band was showing off too much for me and turned me off. I think it was good that I needed a break because I wanted to explore other guitar players.
When I picked up OU812 I was ready for the same formula, but this time they took their fans on a new adventure. They made new fans and old the old ones still shook their heads at the amazing solos by Eddie Van Halen. The songs that came out of OU812 added to their legacy. Also this was the second album an album was longer then the short thirty-three minutes long like 1984. OU812 was the longest in their discography and for me the first I ever bought. I actually got a copy on LP for Christmas. I really thought I was not going to get it all so I bought a copy myself.
When I picked OU812 up I was already digging the first single. "Black and Blue" seemed like any other 80's song, but this time the solo of Eddie Van Halen made this song not sound like previous singles, but more like a beautiful outtake that can fit on any album of theirs. It was a song at fifteen I really dug. It had everything a great Van Halen song had and more. It loved it. It was the second single "When It's Love" that was the song I heard over and over again. It was the song that was on repeat on MTV. I liked it and I hated it. It was the 8o's so it was that power ballad that we knew that this was going to be at every dance and every party I would be a part of. I hated it because of that fact. I liked it because Eddie Van Halen makes the solo look easy. It was the third single that made my head spin. It was not anything else they recorded. The finger picking of Eddie Van Halen really showed how great of a guitar player he was. "Finish What Ya Started" is a simple song with a Southern style finger picking of another great guitarist that came to mind Albert Lee.
It took me all this time to realize the impact of Van Halen in my musical learnings. I mean I liked the music but their Top 40 songs were always a big turn off. Hearing these songs on Classic Rock radio was way too much for me. Hearing "
Jump" like 10 times in one week was too much and annoying. I understand that we all need to hear the "Classics," but this is too much. Even after
OU812 they got even bigger. I saw them twice after. Once for the next album and the reunion tour with David Lee Roth. When hearing these songs at the concerts I got kinda bored, but the musicianship of Eddie Val Halen was what wowed not only myself but the rest of the crowd.
Eddie Van Halen was a unique but awesome guitar player. I might have dismissed his playing for showing off, but he was amazing and his showing off was a mix of ego and his amazing guitar playing.
OU812 is an good album by a great guitar player. It was an album that kept my interest and after their fanfare wanting to hear more amazing solos. In 1996 they put together a greatest hits collection and one of the three new songs "
Humans Being" not only showed us Eddie's chops but showed us he really knows that the guitar is his BFF. the middle solo is amazing and does it without fanfare or showing off.
OU812 maybe get better with age or my age for that matter, but for me it was all of Van Halen's music that showed me he was a master of his craft and that is what was important to me. RIP Eddie Van Halen and thanks for your guitar playing. I only wish we had an album of awesome guitar solos to make all our jaws drop to the floor.
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