VAN HALEN NEWS DESK

Happy Birthday, Eddie

January 26, 2010 79 Comments

Today, January 26, 2010, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen celebrates his 55th birthday. We thank him and the band for all the wonderful music they’ve given us (over 100 songs!) and for touring the world no less than 14 times to play it for us.

Here’s a soundboard recording of Eddie, Alex & Michael jamming. This was probably recorded during a full-stage rehearsal for Van Halen’s massive 1984 tour. (This full 10 minute clip hasn’t been on YouTube until now).

Here’s a two part soundboard recording of Eddie Van Halen jamming alone. This was probably recorded during a full-stage rehearsal for the 1984 tour. Never on YouTube until now!

Filed Under: Eddie Van Halen, Van Halen

eddybottom

See you at the Download festival
Top Jimmy

Nice try KTC5150… NO WAY that bass playing could be Wolfgang which means it’s not from this past year. That’s 100% Mike. Besides you can tell by Ed’s tone that it’s from that era. That’s still when he had authentic “brown sound”.
Fair Warning

Top Eddie- he’s the king!
Steve

Edward rules!!!! And will release new music with Roth.
BIG AL OZ

From down under to the hollywood hills or VAN HALEN LAND, a happy birthday to you Eddie!! God, King, the greatest of all time, these words that are far to easily thrown around these days but for Eddie Van Halen he is a God, Why? Because God himself can’t play guitar like Eddie!!!
John

Rehearsal jam part 1 @5:44 am I hearing “Can’t get this stuff no more” ?
bill1521

Congrats Eddie. Now the news. The jam was actually from the US ’83 Festival when EVH and AVH jammed Girl Gone Bad for the first time live. Find it during Somebody Get Me a Doctor. Can tell by the the bad sound from a very underrehearsed band.
Mark Sachs

Happy Birthday Eddie and Thanks for the Memories!!!!!!!!!
phil

eddie i can still remember that summer night back in 1981 when my dad took me to my first concert ever. my dad introduced me to van halen and my eyes have been open ever since! happy birthday eddie, my dad is rocking out to van halen in heaven!!!
Kurt

Wishing you many more birthdays Eddie, thanks for the music!
mjc

bill1521,i own the bootleg and the ggb jam is my favorite part of that show.
Big J

yeah this can’t be from 1984 cause Al is way off during Girl Gone Bad, and that’s cause they were still working out the song, no way he would be off this bad in 1984, he’s too good for that
http://news@vhnd.com TubbyTuba

Happy Birthday Edward! Keep on keepin on.
http://vhnd.com Robert D

Agree, this is pre US festival, they were way tighter on Girl at that epic show!
Keith

I dunno … it was cool to hear but not that awesome
gadal595

Happy birthday Eddie. You look
This jam is definitely from spring 83 or even before. As mentionned by Bill and MJC they jammed “Girl gone bad” at the US festival in May 83 (nobody else knew this song yet) and it sounded already much more rehearsed than this jam. You can tell it’s a new riff he’s developping. The Genius at work is looking for the “exit” to make this riff sound great. Songwriters will understand. Inspiration and ideas come in little pieces that you have to “stitch” together. That’s actually the hardest part of songwriting, IMOO.
House of pain was a song Eddie had back in the 70′s. He plays it shortly then tries to explore something new again.
Anyway it’s great to hear that. Thank you all for sharing this and be cool with THE MAN. He deserves better than all the bad comments we read on VHND.
JCN

Janie VH looks kinda like Shania Twain. Which of course is a good thing.
Pete

Here’s a bold statement, but I think Eddie would be flattered by the way I play guitar. Why? I didn’t do the copying thing that so many people did in the 80′s, but you can hear his influence in a very subtle way when I play unplugged-style, and the occassional obvious reference here and there in how I play electrically.

It kind of pissed Ed off a little when everyone started to cop his tricks. He often challenged people to take what he did a little further, just like he did with his influences.

Anyway, in this particular application, I don’t think that copying is necessarily the highest form of flattery. But incorporating some of what you’ve learned from the King of Strings, I think, would be welcome nod to one of the greatest ever.

So with this in mind Ed, I’m going to have a few beer tonight, jam with my buddies, and to the very best of my limited abilities I will use what I learned from you to play some good ol’ rock ‘n roll.

Happy Birthday to the King…
http://www.bellapop.com Bran Halen

It was cool to hear the intro to “Top of the World” in the 1984 rehersal part 2 around the 2 minute mark.

I can listen to this all day! Thank you.
Phil

Holy crap! Seems like it was his bday this time last year too. I got to see him play on his bday in ’08 in Dallas. Suhweet.
http://none Dirty Duck

Phil:

How was “that” concert man?
BoSox

Wow these are awesome! Killer clips.
Mario

Happy B-Day, you’re still my inspiration, please come back with another album!
BoSox

The last one is the best!
Phil

It was veruh nyyce.
http://www.vhnd.com Pat G

Wow!!!! What a gem of a find!!! I can hear traces of “top of the world” and “house of pain”. I wonder how many of the classics they recorded were floating around in the beginning. Keep them coming, or what the hell, release them in a box set!!!!!!
RickieVanWhalen

Pete

I am glad that you think he would be flattered. Here’s another bold statement: EVH doesn’t give two shits how you or I play guitar.

Yeah that is bold of me.
Panama Red

I’m grateful to whomever is responsible for uncovering these and letting them be available for us to listen to. Hearing “Girl Gone Bad” in the making was really cool. One of the most awesome Van Halen songs.
What this is for guitarists and Van Halen fans is like the equivalent of scientists coming across early papers/documents of Nikola Tesla’s experiments.
Thanks for the awesomeness.
The only thing that could make it cooler would be if there was also video of this to go along with the audio. But there is no need to get greedy, this is awesome in itself.
JCN

At 3:10 on Girl Gone Bad above Eddie starts to play the Wild Life movie intro. Which is super cool.

Us true VH fans can detect stuff like that.

It’s the little ditty thing he does after the kid blows up something (i forget).