The Impact of 5150

Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6, 2020.
I was one of many guitarists who started playing the guitar after seeing Van Halen.
I was so sad that I bought an EVH5150 guitar from Fender this year.
The first Van Halen song I heard was "Why Can't This Be Love", a video of Sammy Hagar playing guitar, and singing and Eddie playing the keyboard, which later became the official promotional video. Anyway, I fell in love with Sammy who moved around and sang while playing the guitar.

At the end of the interview, my friends and I imitated the four members walking away side by side at the same intervals.
Immediately I rented the 5150 album from a rental shop, carefully recorded it on the best metal cassette tape, and listened to it so much the tape stretched.
The 1st song on A side of the cassette was Sammy screaming, Good Enough starting with a roaring guitar sound. The 2nd was a pop song Why Can't This Be Love. The 3rd was a harder song Get Up filled with the Steinberger tremolo. The 4th song, Dreams with the beautiful keyboard melody, followed by Summer Nights using Steinberger tuning. The 1st song on B side was the Medium tempo rock song, Best Of Both Worlds. The 2nd song was the ballad, Love Walks In, followed by the 3rd song, the title track, 5150. And the last song was the experimental song, Inside. The song order is also perfect.
I like all the songs, but especially 5150 is so cool that I get goosebumps when they return to the intro after the guitar solo.
I found the medium tempo rockers, Summer Nights and Best Of Both Worlds, which I had never heard before, to be cool.
Before 5150, I liked 80s pop bands like A-ha and Duran Duran. But after 5150, I was suddenly awoken to guitar rock and hard rock.
I think it was very easy to get into the 5150 album because it has rock guitar riffs mixed in with pop songs and I think it's an easy-to-listen to, cool album.

I am really happy my introduction to rock was 5150.
Going back to the first piece from the album, I am actually overwhelmed more by the amazing guitar playing.
In an interview I read in a guitar magazine, Eddie Van Halen said he especially liked Eric Clapton in the Cream era and had copied him. I immediately listened to some live Cream, but which part first affected Eddie? I couldn't find anything in common.
Gradually, I started to understand that the triplet phrase played by Clapton seems to be similar to the tapping rhythm, albeit only a little.
It's very interesting because this retrogression triggered me to reach the three major guitarists.
I didn't suddenly like rock, but it seems that I started to like rock more than pop after 5150.
Shortly after that, the live video, Live Without a Net, came out.
That was when I saw Eddie Van Halen playing the guitar for the first time.
I watched this video so much the tape stretched.
It was cool beyond reason.
I may have become obsessed with the guitar from here.

What's more amazing is that making an album with precision makes it less powerful and realistic than a live performance, but Van Halen have a powerful, realistic and live feeling in studio albums as well.
The band’s live groove is reproduced on the albums, and I am impressed by this. After Sammy, they've been making albums with a particular precision, but it's amazing that the band's groove is also still there.
I was looking forward to their next album, but I won’t be able to listen to new Van Halen songs anymore and I'm very sad.
However, since there are loads of songs already, I can get energy and power again.
It's also thanks to Van Halen that I was able to meet the guitar.
The EVH5150 guitar is also very easy to play and is a good guitar.
It's always difficult to copy a VAN HALEN song, but I want to practice at my own pace and enjoy my freedom.