rhoads v van halen

[Tim Hayes]

dunno why but this subject has been turning up just recently ,fortunately or unfortunately cos it means im old! i saw both guitarists live they are and always will be a huge inspiration ,but i remember a guitar player magazine interview (circa 1983) where eddie on being asked about randys playing said "oh yeah he did me to death"at the time not being too familiar with americanisms i took this to be  a compliment ie Eddie thought he was great .

It now seems on further reading that Eddie thought Randy ripped him off!

I remember at the time when Eddie broke everyone tapped me included ,so i learnt eruption ,spanish fly etc .but after a while ithought "this is just a gimmick "everyones doing it even guys that have been playing five minutes to the uneducated ear seem like some kind of guitar genius so i stopped .

Randy Rhoads even said in a interview that he included it in his playing  because it was what people were wanting to hear and that it was nothing more than a bit of 

flash ,maybe Eddie saw the interview and took it to heart but i thought Eddies critique so soon after Randys death was very disrespectful .

So in conclusion all im gonna say is if you were to take the finger tapping away from Eddie Van Halen youve got me and a million others ,if you take the tapping away from Randy you still have RandyRhoads .

God bless them both,

Tim Hayes.

[The Pinky]

I like a bit of sublety so Eddie is not really my cup of tea, although I guess some of his playing was quite clever.  I saw VH at a festival once and although as a band they were very tight and the sound was quite good then didn't really float my boat, Gary Moore was on the same bill (before his more bluesy days) and I enjoyed his set far more.  As for Randy Rhoads, I never saw him live and whilst at times his playing was quite flashy there were some more subtle things to come from his playing IMO.  I am by no means a proficient guitarist, however I was speaking to my neighbour.  The other day and he is quite into the finger tapping but is limited in other areas of his playing, I sort of get the feeling that he has learnt to play the guitar but doesn't really feel it if that makes sense.  Hats off to him and if he enjoys then that's great, but it's not for me.  I'll take Paul Kossoff any day!