I like dat piece Eruption
N Tru diz alzo a highly entrrtainin podazt
I switched to 1978, and this pretty much sums up my thoughts. The music really isn’t much to speak about, in my opinion either - it’s the guitar playing you remember. Funny actually, it’s usually the vocals which has center stage with these bands but Roth almost has a supporting role here.
He knew where the talent was. He was a very good judge of guitarist (also had Steve Vai and Jason Becker play for him).
I just went back and listened to this classic:
It sucks what happened to him, but at least he’s still able to write music.
Hehe, this does what Van Halen never dared - simply stop pretending the vocals or the music has any meaning and just give the guitar the space it needs.
Really, I like this better. It’s maybe in poor taste, but what you only got in drops with Van Halen is done in full spades here. Also a suspicious amount of both Bach and Czerny/Hanon in this. From what I’ve heard tonight both Becker and Van Halen really must have studied classical music - at least tangentially - and went to the bottom with the technical aspects of their instrument in the same systematic way Czerny did with the piano.
Van Halen was apparently a very good classical pianist as a child/teen. He even won some local competitions in Pasadena. Becker also had an interest in classical music, which you can definitely hear in that album.
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