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| July 16, 2015 at 12:58 pm Quote #47173 | |
 ron (11778) | Van Halen Doug Fox – Daily Herald Guitarist extraordinaire Eddie Van Halen has often described his style of soloing as falling down the stairs and landing on his feet. I think it is best defined, however, by saying he slides down the banister with thrill-a-second dexterity before somersaulting off the rail and totally sticking the landing. Whatever your preferred point of reference, there is no denying that the now 60-year-old axeman literally changed the face of electric guitar since taking a flame thrower to contemporary players when he and his band debuted on the scene in 1978. Utah rock fans will have the rare opportunity to witness the truly transcendent guitarist — as well as the band that bears his last name — as Van Halen performs in concert on Saturday at USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City. The show marks the first time the band — also including Alex and Wolf Van Halen — has appeared with frontman David Lee Roth in Utah since 1984. In honor of Saturday’s rare Van Halen visit to the Beehive State, I thought it would be worthwhile — and challenging — to put together a list of Eddie’s top guitar solos. I always have to laugh a little whenever seeing lists that set out to detail the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos” or some such nonsense because they always try to spread the wealth around among a bevy of worthy contenders. But the truth is, as I see it anyway, such lists could legitimately contain at least a dozen Van Halen solos without straining credibility. Great Van Halen solos come in myriad iterations. They can be found in the middle of songs, of course, but they also show up at the beginning, at the end or they can even encompass the entire tune itself. There are no rules: If it sounds good, it is good. Most VH best-of lists stop at 10. But when he was honored by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in February as part of its “What it means to be American” program, Van Halen, referring to his penchant for pushing the musical envelope, said, “When Spinal Tap was going to 11, I was going to 15.” With that in mind, I’m pushing this greatest Van Halen guitar solos lists to the same limit. No list can be truly definitive or satisfy everyone. But these are my own favorites of those recorded during the Roth album years. Tapping into Van Halen’s 15 greatest guitar solos: The countdown [click the link above to check out the countdown] ronQuote |
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