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When you think ofEddie Van Halen, what sound do you hear?
The echoing start-stop riff splashing through the mix in Panama, like high tide spraying a rocky beach?
The lightning-fast blues lick from Hot for Teacher?
The blunt-force chug of Unchained?
Good guitar playing is alchemy.
He made complexity look and sound joyful and easy.
As the band gained its sea legs, it got showier and more intriguing.
Downing and Glenn Tipton eased off of turbo to take in the scenery sometimes.
Anyone who demolishes a hotel room ordrafts a preposterous band rideris following trails Van Halen blazed.
Van Halen music has been flipped in rap songs for decades.
Tone Locs Wild Thing borrows drums from Jamies Cryin.
Drake once rapped over a loop of the piano intro to Right Now.
Young Thug tackled Aint Talkin Bout Love.
(The keyboard part that ended up on Jump was created during sessions for an earlier album and rejected.
Resurrected for1984, the song became the bands first and only No.
1 on the Billboard 200 chart.)
Van Halens gone, but the seeds he planted are thriving.
The sounds he made are timeless.
