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The Hidden Accident in a Classic Van Halen Song
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The Hidden Accident in a Classic Van Halen Song

Some of the greatest musicians of all time get to the point where they don’t even feel human anymore. As much as people love the idea that anyone could pick up a guitar and write a classic, surely there must be a god speaking through some of the best artists, telling them what to bring into the world. Although the jury is still out on whether or not Eddie Van Halen was actually a guitar wizard, he admitted that he wasn’t prone to a few mistakes on the recording of this track.

Then again, Eddie was already a legend before the 1980s even began. While any band should be considered to have unwittingly birthed the hair metal band concept, there was no chance that imitators like Poison or Mötley Crüe ever managed to do what Eddie did so naturally, whether it was executing his signature licks or dropping enough of them. take the stage for David Lee Roth’s signature schtick.

But the stage was nothing compared to the damage he caused in the studio. Throughout the 1980s, Eddie continued to try to push his sound in strange directions, and re-listening to songs like ‘Spanish fly‘, he was just as capable of showing off his work on an acoustic guitar as he was on an electric guitar.

The first two albums may have been fun, but Eddie knew he wanted to get a lot heavier. Women and children first. There had been a handful of heavy moments on the last few albums, but listening to the beat of “And the Cradle Will Rock” or the upping of the tempo on “Loss of Control” told everyone that they weren’t weren’t going to suddenly turn around. into a pop group on a whim.

Of all the songs on the record, however, “Fools” is one of the strangest tracks. As one of the longest pieces of the Roth era, Eddie takes a while to spread out over the course of his solo, but sometimes this kind of experimentation leads to solos that aren’t always the most linear of the start to finish.

Although Eddie prided himself on keeping everything live, he admitted that one piece of the solo had a glaring mistake right in the middle, adage“It’s just weird stuff. On “Fools,” I accidentally made this weird noise, and to my ears it sounded like I was sliding off the fretboard. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not, but now I love it.

Much of that ramshackle spirit only enhances the rest of the album. Even when the band starts messing around with the acoustics of “Could This Be Magic,” it sounds like the strange twists and turns you hear on a late-period Zeppelin album, especially when they start making tracks like “In a Simple Rhyme”. to close the file.

But Eddie’s ability to let in a few mistakes while still sounding impeccable is the mark of any great artist. They may not claim to be perfect, but they have mastered their craft so well that even their mistakes have become part of their musical vocabulary.

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