Who saved rock and roll?

DudleySmith

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2020
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Back in 1978, rock and roll was about to implode.

After more than a decade of literally anything you could possibly think of, rock music seemed to be blowing away: punk rock was leading a back-to-basics movement, lots of self-made artists were making music off the beaten track, early glam bands (who had risen to prominence in early 70s) put away feather boas and platform boots, and plenty of different styles showed a different way of being successful - disco, reggae, new wave.

Old-fashioned rock and roll did appear to be…Well, old.

To make things even worse, rock acts seemed to have been taken over by skinny ties and, generally speaking, dressing up like God-knows-what was not so cool anymore.

Basically, maintaining a foothold and a reputation as a guitar-driven rock band required a whole bunch of determination. The staunch theorem that had been applied for years by tons of rock acts (bass-drums-flashy guitar-aggressive voice) and taken to its limit looked used, abused, and belonging to the past. Some huge names were simply in distress back in 1978:

    • Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Rolling Stones, the archetypal rock bands, were struggling with personal and creative issues;
    • Deep Purple had disbanded two years before, following a string of very unsuccessful gigs and a subtle change of music styles;
In particular, guitar heroes seemed to be outdated: solos, technicality, expressivity, and all that could be identified with a typical guitar god was frowned upon. What you really needed was anger and a loud means of expressing it. Whether or not a guitar solo was to be involved would not be necessary anymore.

Then Eddie Van Halen appeared. Thankfully so.

In the LA club scene, in 1978 you would see a rock band from Pasadena that sounded like nothing else. They were young, ferocious, had a frontman (David Lee Roth) who could be labelled as outrageous, and their guitar player was showcasing something unseen or unheard of before. Eddie Van Halen, who passed away about one year ago, used to say in interviews that he could not play like some people (his guitar heroes), and that is when and where his personal guitar style developed: he had to do something different.

So, what was the big deal about Van Halen, then? In spite of their seemingly bad timing, their offer of straightforward rock and roll was headlined by a true guitar innovator: in other words, they could count on two frontmen (as if a killer singer were not enough!). Moreover, you could infer from Eruption, the second track of their debut album, that something had changed forever in guitar playing: a warm-up instrumental masterpiece that displayed Van Halen’s two-handed tapping on guitar fretboard.


Anybody buy this? If I were to try and find semi-accurate record sales and concert ticket sales of those years would Van Halen be the monster act of the 80's? OR would I find bands like the Stones and Pink Floyd doing as well or better? I never owned anything by Van Halen or even remember much about them other than I think one of them married a hot chick who played on a sitcom once, and I can't even remember her name now either.
 
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*****CHUCKLE*****



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