From GuitarPlayer.com:

By Jude Gold.

MANY GUITARISTS WHO WERE ACTIVE IN the late ’70s remember exactly where they were standing when they first heard Van Halen. Like film footage of an erupting volcano, the band’s eponymous 1978 debut captured in real time a stunningly explosive and organic spectacle—four hard-rocking, hard-partying adrenaline junkies whose sound was so powerful and unified, it fueled one of the most spectacular ascents in rock and roll history. After becoming kings of the suburban L.A. backyard keg party scene, Van Halen rose to playing clubs on the Sunset Strip to selling over 3,000 tickets at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium— without an album or management— to getting signed by Warner Bros. to selling over 50 million albums in the U.S. alone. And at every turn, the band’s sound launched from an astounding re-imagining of the guitar’s role in hard rock courtesy of Dutch-born musical wunderkind Edward Lodewijk…