All great art is built upon those who came before.
The old adage about geniuses being some of the greatest thieves in the busines sisn’t that far from the truth most of the time, and for as much as people like the idea of their favourite artists being completely original, even the likes of Jimi Hendrix spent hours listening to old blues licks until he found the fire in him to work on his own original tunes. But even by rock and roll standards, it doesn’t feel like there was any major reference point for where Eddie Van Halen was getting all of his ideas.
There were a few songs that borrowed from the same blues scales that everyone borrowed from back in the day, but compared to everyone else, the tapping techniques Eddie was doing practically came from another planet. And since most people didn’t have the videos to see what he was doing, it wasn’t out of the question to believe that the dude somehow sprouted four hands from his torso whenever he lit up one of his signature guitar licks.
However, whereas most people were interested in Eddie’s playing ability, it was always about him pushing the instrument forward. As far as he could tell, everyone had the capacity to push themselves, so why try working with something completely different when it came time to build a guitar?
The EVH models have become customary at this point, but the Frankenstein body is as signature in rock and roll as Angus Young’s Gibson SG or Brian May’s Red Special. Each of them had started trying to get the most out of their instruments, but even when it came to the studio, Eddie knew there was work to be done. He could simply record his tapping licks, but who said he couldn’t throw in the odd panning effect or harmonies that sounded like a hard rock version of The Beach Boys?
That kind of adventurousness always came from people keeping their ears open, but Eddie remembered everything originating from Les Paul. He already had the neck from one of Paul’s Gibson guitars on his own instrument, but when you look at the inventive recording techniques that he did with Mary Ford, Paul practically invented the idea of using multiple tracks to make every instrument leap out of the mix like it was supposed to.
While Paul was always incredibly humble about his mark on the world and even marvelled at what people like Eddie could do, the tapping maestro never hesitated to give the guitar genius his flowers, telling him, “I just wanna say one thing. I couldn’t do half the things that I can do now, like the echo stuff. We wouldn’t be able to make records like we do if you hadn’t invented multitrack recording.” But even if Paul laid the groundwork, that soil was about to become Eddie’s playground.
There were many chances for him to work with different echo effects whenever he played, but the great music only comes with people who know how to use those effects. A song like ‘Mean Street’ could have been an absolute disaster in anyone else’s hands, but for those brief few seconds, Eddie sounds like he’s trying to pull demons out of his guitar, hitting the neck in just the right way to make it sound like it’s crying out in pain half the time.
Les Paul and Eddie might not sound the same when putting their playing next to each other, but when looking at the tools they had to work with, they were both cut from the same cloth in many respects. They started off as kids who wanted to hear the sounds they heard in their head, and they were both willing to move the Earth if it meant them getting that exact piece on tape.
