The very last word on Eddie Van Halen

Posted on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by Mike

It begins thusly:

This was a tough one.

It’s not an obit but a memoir. It’s by Tal Bachman. It’s full of unexpected twists and turns. It closes with a stunning gift. It’s absolutely terrific. And yes, you must read it all.

4 thoughts on “The very last word on Eddie Van Halen”

kennycan says:

October 12, 2020 at 7:01 pm

The whole band was fun.
I think Eddie suddenly found his new found guitar god status made him ‘Better’.
It happens all the time. Eddie thinks he and his brother are the heart of the band. Roth disagrees. They begin fighting. Roth believes he is the heart of the band and can also leave. He has some success. Eddie gets Hagar and also has some success.
Eventually both bands fail and they blame each other.
None of them are relevant again.
Isn’t that a microcosm of The Beatles compressed into 5 years?
1. Mike says:
  
  October 13, 2020 at 10:00 pm
  
  Brother, that’s a microcosm of just about every damned band I ever heard of, really. I always counted myself so fortunate to have had my brother, my cousin, and my lifelong best friend in the Playboys all those years. We’d get in the van laughing, and get out of it still laughing. Nothing but good times for almost thirty years, and that’s the honest truth. Road life is certainly a tough row in a lot of ways, and we surely dealt with our share of hassles and heartaches throughout, but relations between the four of us was never one of ’em.
  
  3
  1. kennycan says:
    
    October 15, 2020 at 10:26 am
    
    So you weren’t Ray and Dave Davies or those Oasis brothers?
    Glad to hear it. It certainly must have been more fun that way.
John Wilder says:

October 13, 2020 at 10:09 pm

Amen.

The first time I heard of Van Halen was seeing the VH logo on a piece of art in a high school classroom. It was a year later before I even heard a cassette of their work, and it was my brother’s well-worn copy of Women and Children First.

Wow.

I stole it. This? This is mine now.

Such talent.

1

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