This has absolutely nothing to do with anything except a trip down my own personal memory lane. I'm sure others have similar tales ... feel free to join with your own.
I was a teenager; junior in HS to be exact. I was in Peeples Music shop on Ingersol (the original location) for my weekly album buy (vinyl of course, what's a CD ?). Mr "Long Haired Hippy" himself, Ned Rood, was working the desk. He was playing some really cool stuff over the speakers. I stopped my browsing and just stood there to listen; it was that good. To Ned I said, "Who is that?" He replied "It's some new band from California, just got it in today. It's really good." Me, "Damn, I'll say ... is the whole album like this?" Him, "Yep, been listening to it over and over all afternoon".
I bought a copy and headed home. A couple of hours later I called my best friend and fellow music aficionado Mike L. "Mike", I said, "you have just got to go get this album. It's incredible !". He said, "Who is it?". Me, "Its some new band that nobody's heard of ... just go get it !!!". So he did, got in the store right as they were closing up shop for the day and without even hearing it, he bought the very last copy.
On the very day it was released, my best friend and I both got copies of the original "Van Halen" debut album.
Way, way, way too many years to think of later ... it is still awesome. And they are still trying to reproduce it. OK, not trying to ... Yahoo had an article today about this 14 year old girl who does so, she plays Eruption pretty much note-for-note, it's pretty awesome. Seeing her play that, just brought back the memories; sorry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6Sm...layer_embedded
I still remember the discussions back then with my buddies (over orange juice and vodka stolen from Mike's parents liquor cabinet) over whether that was a REAL guitar solo. Was it dubbed? Was it a synthesizer? We'd never head anyone play a guitar like that before. And just who is this Eddie Van Halen guy anyway? Of course, he would come to be considered one of the best guitar players in the world for many years. That album would go on to sell over 10 million copies and Eruption is considered one of the best guitar solos of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen_(album)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_(instrumental)
And now this stuff is being played by a 14 year old kid. Wonder if she will turn out like a another child prodigy, Bonamassa? He turned out alright ...
To my best friend Mike: may you rest in peace.