walking upstream…
Van Halen
Formed by brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen in early-1970s Pasadena, California, Van Halen fused blues-rooted hard rock with a virtuosic, showman's approach to the electric guitar that Eddie Van Halen redefined almost overnight with 1978's "Eruption." Behind David Lee Roth's party-rock swagger (and later Sammy Hagar's arena-rock polish), the band became the dominant American hard rock act of its era by grafting radio-ready hooks onto Eddie's two-handed tapping, whammy-bar dives, and a guitar vocabulary he'd built by absorbing a handful of blues and hard-rock guitar heroes as a teenager.
the sound in question
1978
Runnin' with the DevilVan Halen
walk the tributaries ↓
Cream1960s · Blues rock / Psychedelic rock
Eddie Van Halen named Eric Clapton — specifically his Cream years — as far and away his single biggest guitar influence: "Clapton is basically the only guitar player that influenced me," he told Rolling Stone, adding that by age 14 he'd learned Cream's live version of "Crossroads" note for note off Wheels of Fire. That blues-rooted vocabulary of wide vibrato, call-and-response phrasing, and a guitar plugged straight into a Marshall is the foundation Eddie built his more radical technique on top of.
listen: upstream & here
1968
Crossroads (Live)Cream
1978
Ice Cream ManVan Halen
listen forCue up Clapton's live "Crossroads" solo and then Van Halen's own blues excursion "Ice Cream Man" — the same call-and-response blues licks and bent, ringing vibrato, just sped up and reframed around Eddie's own attack.
Led Zeppelin1970s · Hard rock / Blues rock
Van Halen credited Jimmy Page's hammer-on-heavy playing as the direct spark for his signature technique: "that's what made me think of doing hammer-ons," he said, describing how he took Page's idea and kept adding a second, tapping hand until it became the two-handed cascade of "Eruption."
listen: upstream & here
1969
HeartbreakerLed Zeppelin
1978
EruptionVan Halen
listen forListen to the rapid hammer-on run in the middle of Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" next to the tapped arpeggios of "Eruption" — Page plays the idea one-handed; Eddie takes the same hammer-on concept and adds a tapping right hand to double the speed and range.
Allan Holdsworth1970s–80s · Jazz fusion / Progressive rock / Instrumental rock
Long after his own style was set, Van Halen kept singling out Allan Holdsworth as the one player who still moved him: "I think the last guitarist who moved me was Holdsworth... so damned good that I can't cop anything," he told Guitar World — an admission that Holdsworth's liquid, non-blues legato pushed Eddie to think about smoother, more melodic phrasing beyond his pentatonic roots.
listen: upstream & heresource: MusicRadar — "How Allan Holdsworth blew Eddie Van Halen's mind" ↗
1975
Hazard Profile, Pt. 1Allan Holdsworth
1979
Spanish FlyVan Halen
listen forHoldsworth's flowing, horn-like legato runs on Soft Machine's "Hazard Profile" sit a world away from blues-rock phrasing; hear that same pursuit of smooth, non-pentatonic melodic lines (rather than pure speed) in Van Halen's acoustic showcase "Spanish Fly."