Classical Composer Reaction & Analysis to Mean Street (Van Halen) | The Daily Doug (Episode 491) 

"What is Eddie doing on the guitar?" Pretty much describes what every other guitarist said when they first heard him.

A note about the Tuning/key - the reason it's in Ab is due to them tuning (the guitars) down 1/2 step...so to them, they're playing in "A" - easy open string goodness there! (not that EVH needs help to play in any key wants)

Sleazy and funky. What's not to love?

Saw a show on this tour at the Great Western Forum Los Angeles. Best hard rock show ever! Favorite Van Halen album.

His tuning technique was, at least the first couple of albums, was to guess at the low E string and then tune all the strings together. Then Michael Anthony would tune his bass guitar to Eddie. Interestingly, I’d you you pay attention to the tuning on the the first albums you’ll be able to tell which songs were recorded on the same days.

Nice reference to Mike Dawes. He supported Justin Hayward on his show here in Phoenix 2018.

Need to do the whole Debut Album: it's not only their Best album but one of the Best Debuts ever!

Yes they tuned down a half step all the time on pretty much all of the albums with Dave before 1984. (That album too possibly, I don't remember) I don't know why, but I suspect it was in order to make things easier on Dave's voice...might have also been because the guitar strings are looser and easier to play possibly...not that Eddie really needed that. Though I do recall him saying in an interview somewhere along the line that he liked the tonal differences you get with the guitar tuned down a half step, and this may have fallen in line with the idea that stratocasters might have been easier to keep in tune with heavy whammy bar use back in the 70's? This was a fun video to watch your reaction to!

Michael Anthony is such a great back up singer. Glad he's still going strong with Sammy.

If you watch the "Eruption Solo" video, he does this opening riff part during that solo. Interesting to watch.

Fair warning is my favorite VH album. Eddie really stretched his chops out on this record. All in their prime in the DLR era!

Eddie’s rhythm is his best playing. Amazing. Yeah, he can do fretboard acrobatics. But his rhythm groove is undeniable. Beast

You lost me with “I’ve never seen a big fan of David Lee Roth as a front man “. Mel Torme sings, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra sing but Dave is the unchallenged heavyweight champ of front men.

Ed’s tone on this song is monstrous and he plays the riff with such attitude.

Fair Warning has been my favorite Van Halen album for decades. It's so even and unified track to track it almost feels like a concept album. There's a seriousness about it. "Hear About it Later" from said album is probably my favorite VH song of their entire catalog.

This is my very favorite Van Halen album, really heavy. The playing and singing on this one are next-level from all four guys.

You got a great ear Doug, they tuned down a half step so A flat is played like the guitar is in standard tuning, ie he doesn't play an A flat he plays an A. This was a common musical device back then, easier on the vocalist and made the sound a little heavier especially live.

Michael Anthony's bass is amazing to me in this, always the right fill, climb, or run-down in the right spot.

This is their best DLR song in my opinion. It just has balls.

Playing VH opens your mind and expands your understanding of music, harmony, technique and creativity. Eddie's legacy of building lines, phrases and guitar riffs is even more impressive than his unrivaled solos. And it still has the dense and unique drumming of AVH, the precise bass and backing vocals of Michael Anthony and the incomparable David Lee Roth.

This is their best. Doesn't feel like a producer made it... the band did this.

Alex is such an amazing drummer

Every song on the first 4 VH albums are incredible

You nailed perhaps the most important part of Van Halen. Eddie was an absolute master at rhythm guitar.

A band at the absolute height of their power.

Can’t beat Eddie’s tone on this tune. As powerful as it was 41 years ago.

This song is a master class in right hand technique. The intro is stuff that may have been influenced by bass slapping but had never been done the way Eddie does it. Pinch harmonics, palm muting, whammy bar, etc - this is one of the more technical VH songs, especially for the right hand. Also the dynamics between stuff that no one had ever heard vs. the standard boogie. Space age is set in tension against the past. This is Eddie's playground.

An absolute powerhouse album opener. VH was never better.

The groove on this song is undeniable! No one has the tone that EVH produced, even in the old days, his sound is unmistakable...

Yes, EVH was an amazing rhythm player that could swing. The Fair Warning tour was my first VH concert. July '81. My aunt Julie treated me for my 15th B-day. I'd been playing guitar for two years at that time. EVH was one of my heroes. Saw the following Diver Down tour in the fall of '82. Then lastly with Sammy for the OU812 tour in '88. Fair Warning is my fav VH album. 🤘

This is my favorite Van Halen album. They really pushed their boundaries here.

WE MISS YOU, EDDIE V!!🎸

Crank the volume when songs fade out and you'll often hear some really interesting little treats.

The song "Mean Street" is taken from the album FAIR WARNING (1981). However, in my opinion, this album as well as the one titled VAN HALEN (1978) are the two most accomplished, original and authentically Van Halen. Thank you, Master Helvering.

Fair Warning is their darkest album and my personal favorite. Lord strike that poor boy down! With the exceptions of keyboard tunes, VH usually tuned down a half step.

Love this album. Eddie and Alex so phenomenal.

Maybe the greatest intro to a song ever! That sound is incredible and his guitar tone is just sick!!!

The mighty Van Halen in their prime. Eddie at the peak of his creativity. I saw Van Halen on this tour in Oakland Ca. certainly one of my top five concerts I’ve attend

Love how Ed's mind came up with some of the coolest riffage in HISTORY!

I highly recommend checking out Bill McClintock's mashup of this song and Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine" (appropriately titled Mean Machine, lol). It's seriously, UNBELIEVABLY catchy in a way you can't fully appreciate until you hear it. Bill just has a hell of an ear and a great sense of finding pieces of music that compliment each other extremely well; sometimes it's more absurd than anything, but it's ALWAYS impressive. Anyway, more specifically to this actual song... it's definitely one of my favorites from Van Halen, especially as a lesser-known track. To answer your question about whether they tune down their instruments or not, most VH music is down a half-step as far as I'm aware.

Glorious Van Halen masterpiece

Mean Streets album is awesome. Eddie is more than just a guitarist. He is a force of nature.. Sure there are many guitarists who can copy but Eddie created it. RIP Eddie .

A full up Marshall amp in the hands of the man who shook the world of rock music.

"Fair Warning" is far and away my favorite VH album...if I was stuck on a desert island , this would be one of the 10 albums I would HAVE to have !! The guitar work and the songs are just so much fun while still being a little "dark"...just AWESOME !!!!

I call Eddie the riff master. For his genre of music, I think he is the goat of rhythm guitar and it's not even close. You can make a case that there are better guitarists out there. But if you look at what other guitarist' were doing when Van Halen's debut album came out and how Eddie's style and technique changed the game, it just adds to his legend!

Now you nailed it, Eddie is one of the greatest rhythm guitar players ever!

You can really hear the swing in this album, absolutely fantastic. My favourite of theirs after the debut VH1.

when Eddie passed in 2020 I remember playing all of his albums back to back to back. When I discovered RU-vid premium and skipped commercials.

You can see Eddie doing that awesome tapping on a solo live performance called Eruption. About 15 mins of Eddie showing the world little bits and pieces of his legendary career. Priceless!

The intro after the initial slapping part always blows me away. It's such a massive sound. Eddie's ability to create a certain tone is unmatched. People are still using his amps and probably will for a long time.

This is Eddie's Best Guitar work if that's even possible to classify. I hope you can see his finger work for the Intro. 👍Link to Intro: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PCjlBPGs-6s.html

I think Doug would really appreciate I’m The One, for the swing (of course, my ever loving God THE SWING!!!!!) and the unconventional chord changes. It showcases a huge bit EVH’s techniques and did I mention THE SWING?!!!!! I think the word Mr H was looking for was VISCERAL. Van Halen is possibly the most visceral band ever that had this much melody and rhythmic prowess. When most other bands are playing songs of this nature, they sound kinda polished and rehearsed. Van Halen sounds free and terrifying.

Eddie is doing his more recognizable two hand tapping in the beginning, but he's also swelling the volume on the guitar and he's slapping like bass players, too giving it a more percussive sense.

If you watch Eddie’s solo that he plays in concert you can see how he plays the intro, as he plays it and expands upon it during that. It is on RU-vid misnamed as Eruption, but is the whole solo from the concert film Live Without A Net. I’ll edit this in a sec with a link and timestamp to find that part in particular. Edit: Here is that video. Skip to 8:12 to see that part in particular. This is called Eruption, but Eruption was the guitar solo on their first album. This concert solo actually does contain that solo, but also contains more than that. It also contains Spanish Fly, and the intro to Mean Street, and Cathedral, and what would eventually be recorded as a song called 316. As well as a bunch of improvisation and extending of those pieces. Anyway, yeah, skip to 8:12 to see how the Mean Street acrobatics took place. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L9r-NxuYszg.html

I personally prefer Eddie's rhythms over his lead work. His leads, while awesome in their speed, tend to be all over the place, whereas his rhythm writing is _SOOOOO_ good and controlled.(as is his execution). "Push Comes To Shove" off this same album is a great example of his awesome rhythms.(also has a bass heavy intro)

One of the reasons I was never much drawn to VH was because of David Lee Roth, great musicianship, but he was like a vaudeville/cabaret act and after he left the band he went full on bipity bipity bop.

Thank you for reacting to Van Halen. If you do more, I'll be here for it.

Scorpions - Sails of Charon. You won't be disappointed.

Dave is the epitome of rock n roll front man

Fair Warning is by far the best Van Halen album for complex cords and rhythm. I was so lucky to see Van Halen play The Fair warning tour at the Iconic 1981 Oakland Ca show. The show was totally electric… Pieces of the show are on You Tube. What a show… The Best. 😎🤘

King Edward: No musician in history has ever caused more people to point at their speakers and say “What in the world was that?”

Peak Van Halen right here. Fair Warning is a killer album.

Side 1 of “Women and Children First” please. That album was my intro to their work (aside from “jump” and “5150”). I was at a garage sale looking at the tapes, 8 or 10 years old. Late 80s. My mom came over and saw that one, scooped it up and said something like “You need this one.” She wasn’t kidding!!

Van Halen tuned down a half step, so you’re hearing an A flat in Mean Street for example but Eddie is playing an A. And Roth was the ultimate front man and lyricist too.

If you want to see Eddie perform the intro to this song watch the interview he did at the Smithsonian.

Eddie always tuned down a half step so his open a string would resonate and sound Ab. RIP the king 👑🎸🎸

That opening power chord has the greastest tone

In my opinion, the bands best work is Fair Warning.

David Lee Goth eh Roth, man what a super frontman have a toke listen 1st and 2 you'll have a power week👍🎶🎶🎶🎶👍

One of my favorite songs, on one of my favorite albums…

For all the songs they had and the absolute mastery that their first 4 albums were, this is my favorite song and it was always cool when he would play just a bit of the riff in his eruption solos - such a master class of creativity.

I've been blessed, to remember the 78 album of Van Halen!! Had thier poster up next to my Alice Cooper, Evel kneval & Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders posters!!!

Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix are on the guitarist Mount Rushmore not only for their solo work but for their rhythm playing. None were better than those two. The attitude they brought out in a song with their rhythm was just off the charts.

Manowar:"Heart of steel" or "The crown and the ring" (with orchestra or not)

Lol,your face at the start,he’s slapping the strings

Yes! Best Van Halen song, glad to see this one reviewed over some of the more overplayed classics.

Perfect pitch! You've really got a good ear Doug! You were saying Ab They tuned somewhere around a half step flat (I say, somewhere around bc many times Ed would just pick up the guitar and tune it to itself, then Michael would catch an A (string) and tune his bass from that. There have been ppl who have analyzed in minute detail VH tracks. Some songs are even a tad bit sharp of Eb lol.) So yes. Technically Ab is what it is when compared to standard A440, but it's played as if it's in A. That intro thing. There's videos of him doing it. I too have heard him describe it as a slapping technique like what bass players do. The 12 fret is an octave of the open E strings and yields natural harmonics when tapped. You mentioned Dorian I think, did you not? It probably was, but by accident lol. Ed had his own made up scales by simply going with "whatever sounds good." An interesting anecdote about Ed's musical acumen: He took piano lessons for I think it was 2 years. But he never learned to read music. He faked it by watching his instructors hands. He mimicked him. One day the teacher was playing a piece of sheet music and told Ed to "take it." He couldn't do it. He asked what's wrong. "I can't read it." Busted! Lol With Ed and "the rules" in music, I'm reminded of the times in the Pirates of the Caribbean when someone, taking about the rules among pirates, saying "they're more like guidelines anyway." That's how Ed thought viewed the rules. Lol Tell Ed something about the rules of music and he'd have told you, "If it sounds good it is good." It's ironic if you think about it. The guy who took the electric guitar further than anyone in history did so without even being able to read music, and he stood against "the rules", building his own guitar, not using "approved" scales, or even taking care to use a tuner in the studio. And if you watch him live, he's so at ease. He did what he did seemingly effortlessly. A true virtuoso! There's a great interview by the Smithsonian from a few years ago. You should check it out. It's been 2 years since we lost him I still can't believe he's Gone. Love what you do on your channel Doug. Keep up the good work!

This song reminds me of the song SHININ ON, by the band GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, just saying. Love your reveiws. VAN HALEN came on the scene at the right time when music was pretty much 💩

I was 14 in 1981. Had all the VH albums. Grew up in the hood near Downtown L.A. Walked to school through a handful of different gang turfs. Mean Street spoke to me on a personal level.

Van Halen played at my high school during lunch back in the 70's. They were still known as Mammoth then.

Fave VH album. This album is musically their best. Eddie was at the top of his game here and the songs....not one bad song on this album. I skip none of them. It tells a story from first to last.

Eddy tunes to his ear and the rest of the band tunes to him; therefore they are never in Proper Tuning but they are in tune with each other!

No disrespect to DLR, but Bill McClintock's mashup up of Michael Jackson singing over this riff takes the groove to a whole new level. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rs-QzDPyH8o.html

Eddie was tapping, hammer on/pull off on the strings at the opening, that section became a regular part of his extended solos during their concerts

You should check out Ediie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang Van Halen. His song and video for "Don't Back Down" Show that he plays every instrument and sings. He is a tremendous talent. His first hit (before that) was also good - a tribute to Ediie (his dad) passing away - called "Distance". His band goes under the name "Mammoth WVH".

My favorite song from Van Halen. So happy that you picked that song.

Disagree if you like, that's what a open discussion is about. But in my opinion, jimi hendrix, stevie ray Vaughn, and Eddie van halen are just as exceptional as rhythm players as they are at lead. Thanks for all you do Doug!

Every track on "Fair Warning" ... excellent. I love "Dirty Movies".

You should come back to this album at some time and check out Unchained or So This Is Love.

I can’t figure out why but this is my favorite Van Halen album. Just the sound maybe it’s the base I don’t know but I love it.

One of my favorite VH song.

I love this song, as well as the rest of this album. Thanks for the video, Doug!

Love this album! Eddie was a master & Roth's vocals were brutal!

They were never "metal" regardless of what anyone in the media calls them.

As a musician yourself you really should watch Eddie live, such as Eruption from Live Without a Net

Killer ear. Yes they tuned down a half step for Dave’s singing.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! I can understand not liking DLR as a singer. But not as a frontman????? I'm hoping that was a verbal typo. Yes, VH tuned down half a step.

Doug said it. Finally. Just keep it going Doug and play the whole album. It is their best............. Treat yourself and us.

You should do Girl Gone Bad from the 1984 album. This is one of their best tracks AND features some of the best interplay between Eddie's guitar and Alex's drums.

05:35 The PERFECT solo. Ever. In the known history 08:28 He' literally _strikes_ the guitar strings at specific points with the tip of his finger. Sometimes, the strings don't even touch the frets, while at other times, he deliberately strikes them at certain frets in other places, and combines these hits into melodies. He also does things like 'sliding down' (or actually, up in pitch, but sometimes he varies it backwards, so it's more like 'deepening') the sounds with his other hand by grasping the guitar neck, but sometimes he only does this on certain strings or their variations, creating a sliding effect up and down while simultaneously doing the aforementioned plucking. He developed these techniques himself, as well as many others. He revolutionized modern rock guitar playing. Without him, there wouldn't be, for example, Metallica - or at least, not as we know it. That's just one example, but his influence can be heard in almost every modern genre outside of jazz, even if people aren't generally aware of it.