1/22/2024:

"Edward Van Halen"

Transcript
Panel 1. The World On A String Presents "Lives Of The Great Guitarists." The World On A String Number 10. Edward Van Halen. 1/22/2024. CC BY-SA 2024 Ken Alleman. TheWorldOnAStringNeocities.Org. Edward Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands on January 26, 1955 to Jan and Eugenia van Halen. He and his older brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, founded the rock band that would become Van Halen in 1972.

Panel 2. "I've always been around music all my life, so I’ve kind of got an ear to pick up things pretty easy." Edward Van Halen. Edward's father Jan was a professional jazz musician. Edward and Alex's earliest formative musical experiences started at birth, surrounded by jazz music and jazz musicians. This is undoubtledly the source of the rhythmic swing that permeates the music of Van Halen. "Eddie van Halen: The Complete 1978 Interviews." n.d. https://web.archive.org/web/20111022020333/http://jasobrecht.com/eddie-van-halen-complete-1978-interviews.

Panel 3. Edward's mother Eugenia was of Dutch-Indo ethnicity and was treated as a second-class citizen in the Netherlands. The family emigrated to the United States in 1962, when Edward was seven. He and Alex attended a segregated elementary school, where they were bullied by white students for their Eurasian ethnicity and their inability to speak English.

Panel 4. "When Ed picked [the guitar] up, he just connected with it instantly; it was as if it was meant to be there all along." Alex Van Halen. Edward and Alex abandoned their childhood classical piano studies when they discovered rock and roll as preteens. Edward acquired a drum set and Alex a guitar, but the two soon switched instruments. For Edward, the guitar quickly became his source of personal expression and self-esteem. "Alex Van Halen on Hagar and Roth, the Magic of Eddie, and Finding Balance with Bruce Fairbairn." Earofnewt.Com. April 18, 2023. https://earofnewt.com/2014/05/30/alex-van-halen-on-hagar-and-roth-the-magic-of-eddie-and-finding-balance-with-bruce-fairbairn/.

Panel 5. Edward and Alex formed the band Mammoth in 1972, which changed its name to Van Halen in 1973 at the suggestion of new vocalist David Lee Roth. It was under Roth's direction that the band broke out of the insular southern California heavy metal scene and brought their talents to a wider audience, a relationship not unlike the Beatles and Brian Epstein.

Panel 6. Van Halen were discovered in 1977 by producer Ted Templeman and executive Mo Ostin. In 1978, Van Halen embarked on a successful recording and touring career, with Edward himself quickly identified as the guitar hero of his generation. Having officially released 12 studio albums, two live albums, and two greatest hits packages, the band played their final show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on October 4, 2015.

Panel 7. Edward Van Halen passed away from a stroke on October 6, 2020 after a decades-long battle with cancer. His musical achievements include multiple platimum and diamond selling albums with Van Halen, plus innumerable awards in recognition of his artistry. His son, Wolfgang Van Halen, is now a Grammy-nominated solo artist.

Panel 8. Edward was a supporter of the educational foundation Mr. Holland's Opus, which provides musical instruments to under-served schools in the United States. He made financial contributions, donated 75 guitars from his personal collection, and left a sizable portion of his estate to them in his will.

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