"Eruption" is a guitar solo performed by Eddie Van Halen and the second track from

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...

's self-titled 1978 debut album. It is widely considered one of the greatest guitar solos of all time, having popularized

tapping Tapping is a playing technique that can be used on any stringed instrument, but which is most commonly used on guitar. The technique involves a string being fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion. This is in contrast to stand ...

. It segues into a cover of

the Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...

' "

You Really Got Me "You Really Got Me" is a song written by Ray Davies for English rock band the Kinks. The song, originally performed in a more blues-oriented style, was inspired by artists such as Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy. Two versions of the song were ...

", and the two songs are usually played together by radio stations and in concert. The song was later included as the B-side to the group's second single, "

Runnin' with the Devil "Runnin' with the Devil" is a song by the American hard rock band Van Halen. Released as the second single from the band's 1978 eponymous debut album. The song lyrics were inspired by the funk band Ohio Players 1974 song "Runnin' from the De ...

Composition and recording

"Eruption" starts with a short accompanied intro with

Alex Van Halen Alexander Arthur Van Halen (; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Van Halen. The band was formed in 1972 by Alex Van Halen, his younger brother Eddie, David Lee Roth, and Mark S ...

on drums and Michael Anthony on bass. The highlight of the solo is the use of two-handed

. "Eruption" was played on the

Frankenstrat The Frankenstrat, also known as "Frankie", is a guitar created by Eddie Van Halen. Its name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who created a monster by combining body parts of the recently deceased, and the Stratocaster, ...

, with an

MXR Phase 90 The MXR Phase 90 is a phaser effects pedal introduced in 1972 by MXR. History The Phase 90 was the first pedal sold by MXR and helped launch the company in 1974. The original model had a simple orange enclosure with a script style MXR logo. In ...

, an

Echoplex The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s—it is still regarded as "the standard by which everything else is measured." It was used by some of the ...

, a Univox echo unit and a 1968

Marshall 1959 The Marshall Super Lead Model 1959 is a guitar amplifier head made by Marshall. One of the famous Marshall Plexis, it was introduced in 1965 and with its associated 4×12″ cabinets gave rise to the "Marshall stack". History The 1959 (Marshall's i ...

Super Lead

tube amp A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that uses vacuum tubes to increase the amplitude or power of a signal. Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by sol ...

. The

Sunset Sound Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the sprin ...

studio reverb room was also used to add reverb. The Frankenstrat was tuned down a half-step. "Eruption" begins in the key of A flat and ends on an E flat note that is a twelfth fret, 6th string harmonic processed through a Univox EC-80

echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

unit.

Inspiration

The "Eruption" introduction is based on the "Let Me Swim" introduction by

Cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

. After the intro, an E-flat major quotation of the "Etude No. 2" by

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin S ...

is heard. The end section begins with a series of rapid two-handed tapping triads that have a classical like structure and eventually finishes with a repeated classical

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

followed by sound effects generated by a Univox EC-80 echo unit. The piece that would later be named "Eruption" had existed as part of Van Halen's stage act at least as far back as 1975, when it featured no tapping. Although one-handed tapping (hammer-ons and pull-offs) was standard guitar technique, "Eruption" introduced two-handed tapping to the mainstream popular rock audience, and it was a popular soloing option throughout the 1980s. Initially, "Eruption" was not considered as a track for the Van Halen album as it was just a guitar solo Eddie performed live in the clubs. But

Ted Templeman Edward John "Ted" Templeman (born October 24, 1942) is an American record producer. Among the acts he has a long relationship with are the rock bands Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers and the singer Van Morrison; he produced multiple criticall ...

overheard it in the studio as Eddie was rehearsing it for a club date at the

Whisky a Go Go The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed "the Whisky") is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boule ...

and decided to include it on the album. Eddie recalled, "I didn't even play it right. There's a mistake at the top end of it. To this day, whenever I hear it, I always think, 'Man, I could've played it better.'" "

Spanish Fly The Spanish fly (''Lytta vesicatoria'') is an aposematic emerald-green beetle in the blister beetle family (Meloidae). It is distributed across Eurasia. The species and others in its family were used in traditional apothecary preparatio ...

", an acoustic guitar solo on ''

Van Halen II ''Van Halen II'' is the second studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on March 23, 1979, it peaked at number six on the ''Billboard'' 200 and spawned the singles " Dance the Night Away" and " Beautiful Girls". As of 2004, it has s ...

'', can be viewed as a nylon-string version of "Eruption", expanding on similar techniques. Similarly, it was suggested by Templeman for inclusion on the album after he heard Eddie Van Halen playing a classical guitar. In March 2005, ''Q'' magazine placed "Eruption" at number 29 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. "Eruption" has been named the 2nd greatest guitar solo by ''Guitar World'' magazine. Chuck Klosterman of Vulture.com named it the best Van Halen song, noting "if you love Van Halen, this is what you love, and you can listen to it a thousand times without diminishing returns."

Personnel

* Eddie Van Halen – electric guitar * Michael Anthony – bass *

– drums

Accolades

References

External links