When Eddie Van Halen burst onto the scene in the late-’70s, aspiring players and professional virtuosos alike were all lining up to watch him up-close.
Like Hendrix before him, the Eruption mastermind was changing the very fabric of guitar playing in real time. He needed to be seen to be believed.
But not everyone was swept up in the hysteria. The late Jeff Beck, for instance, was full of admiration for the virtuoso’s ability, but kept a level head about it – this not being his first brush with a generational guitar talent.
“I love it, I think it’s the greatest,” Beck said of Van Halen’s music in the January 1985 issue of Guitar World. “I've been there, y'know, but he lives and dies for that whereas I don't – I'm not really a heavy metal boy, through and through.
“I’d love to go and see him but I probably wouldn't stay for the whole concert: I’d just get a flash of brilliance and then I’d go, saying to myself, ‘That guy is really great.’”
At the time, Beck appeared to believe Van Halen – as has often become a criticism of the shred scene, though rarely EVH himself – was prioritizing technicality and showmanship. Beck was all about expression and storytelling. He didn’t get that from Van Halen.
“I wouldn’t want to get bored with it, which I could easily do with that style of music,” Beck continued. “I like rock concerts, concerts in general, to go through different moods, but there aren’t too many concerts like that now.
“I mean, those guys like Van Halen are so great, but they seem to be stuck in that kind of stuff. Still, he’s got the most amazing technique, you’ve got to take your hat off to him for that – the speed and the frantic element. I could do well to learn from him some of those tricks he pulls.”
It wasn’t the only time Beck praised Van Halen, even if he couldn’t see himself sitting through a whole show.
“He brought tapping to the forefront, and I still think he was one of the tastiest players doing it,” he gushed in Van Halen: A Visual History (via Van Halen News Desk) “It wasn’t his fault that all these other horrendous people tried to emulate him.
“I actually saw Eddie play some blues once and it was really beautiful. It would be great to hear him play more in that style.”
The two heroes certainly met in later years and were photographed together in 1987, albeit not in a show setting – and the respect was mutual.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2011, Van Halen noted, “I didn’t get into him until [1975’s jazz-fusion album] Blow By Blow. Just the instrumentalness of it. And [1976’s] Wired. Interesting stuff in there.
“I guess it was just the experimentation in there that I liked. Jeff Beck is definitely a standalone. You never know what the hell he’s gonna do.”
