Randy Rhoads vs. Eddie Van Halen

[Digital Jams]

Ok Bill, time for a mega shoot-out since Steve brought into the mix the man himself Paul Gilbert.

Since you are the one that started these threads you have to figure out who can be thrown into the octagon with Gilbert and not get the shit kicked out of him in 20 seconds

 

[Rogue]

.....It was odd that these two great players could be so polarizing to a community of young guitarists (and fans).....)

I know the internets wasn't around back then and my access was more to people that listened to music rather than guitar players, but I was never aware there was a controversy. Even the handful of guitarists I knew there was no controversy that I was aware of.

I am surprised, because I never saw it, but I know I certainly SHOULD NOT be surprised.

 

[rupe]

Ok Bill, time for a mega shoot-out since Steve brought into the mix the man himself Paul Gilbert.

Since you are the one that started these threads you have to figure out who can be thrown into the octagon with Gilbert and not get the shit kicked out of him in 20 seconds

Dammit...that's a tough one! Let's start with these fighters...who should be first in the ring?

 

[Anonymous]

Clearly we view it differently. I can make up a lick that is damn near impossible to play yet really doesn't have anything going on harmonically or melodically...I wouldn't consider that to be technical as mush as simply difficult for the sake of difficulty. Also, I would say that your example of "I can compose you something right now that is harmonically complex and is really easy to play as well" would qualify as a technical composition no matter what level of skill it takes to reproduce it.

I don't really get what you are saying. Technical is about technique. Something is either easy to play or hard to play. We're not talking about harmonic complexity, we are talking about technique. You'd have a better argument that Randy's compositions are more harmonically complex.

Upon watching it, I think the difficulty has more to do with stamina than chops...that's like saying its technically difficult to run a marathon. I've never learned that piece but as I watched Gilbert it appeared to be based more heavily on patterns and chromatics than anything else. Sounds cool, no doubt its a bitch to play, yet that doesn't qualify as technical...in my world

Stamina is part of chops and the more efficient your technique and the more accurate you are, the easier something is going to be to play. To me technique is physical and not subjective. If it is a bitch to play as you say, then it requires technique and is technical. You're mixing two things here, saying Randy is more technical because he perhaps writes in a more harmonically complex way, but that is not technique. It's all this "Randy can play Eddie, but Eddie could never play Randy stuff" that I'm getting at, because that would have nothing to do with the harmonic complexity of either of their material. It is either physically hard to play or it isn't...

Understood...its all very subjective. Perhaps I would have been more accurate by referring to Randy as "compositionally deeper" than Ed...or that could set off yet another discussion

For sure, but it is a much more justifiable argument to me...

Steve

 

[Rogue]

Winner by KO!

 

[Rogue]

I'll throw this in the ring...

Not a single weedly weedly and we likely wouldn't be having this nice discussion with him.

 

[Digital Jams]

I knew Govan would be thrown in there

I say lets put him against someone that has been in the game for around the same time period like VH vs RR.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

Randy sadly was only in that game for what, about 18 months?

 

[Chubtone]

Hey! What did I do??????? We've been on the same side through this whole thread Rupe! Though I do think this is funny as hell, did you have to use me as your comic relief in that comparison?

Yikes.... tough crowd

 

[Digital Jams]

Damn Curt that vid has 78,000 views

 

[rupe]

Hey! What did I do??????? We've been on the same side through this whole thread Rupe! Though I do think this is funny as hell, did you have to use me as your comic relief in that comparison?

Yikes.... tough crowd

I thought it would be an honor for you to meet Gilbert in the octagon!

 

[Chubtone]

I thought it would be an honor for you to meet Gilbert in the octagon!

An honor to meet Gilbert in the octagon? That would be as close of a match as if I met Anderson Silva in the octagon. Maybe you meant I should meet Gilbert Godfried in the octagon? I think I could smoke that guy.

Damn Curt that vid has 78,000 views

My mom has watched it 77,000 of those

 

[Motorpud]

Ok Bill, time for a mega shoot-out since Steve brought into the mix the man himself Paul Gilbert.

Since you are the one that started these threads you have to figure out who can be thrown into the octagon with Gilbert and not get the shit kicked out of him in 20 seconds

Marty Friedman could hang all day long. From what I've seen, they do a lot of stuff together over in Japan on TV shows, magazines, etc. The air starts to get very thin when you're talking about players of that caliber.

 

[Les Zombie]

I like evh but i gotta go with RR!!

 

[Haljon]

RR for me.

 

[ejecta]

Playing styles aside......IMHO Ed definitely had the better tone. RR's tone got on my nerves.

 

[Brad737]

I certainly enjoy Randy's playing. But I have to admit, I love Eddie's playing 10 times more. Technically, I don't think anyone can deny Randy was technically more proficient. But I just LOVE Eddie's early tone, and his fearless approach to playing. Soooo inspiring.

 

[yankeebulldog]

I dig both of them a lot but I'd have to go with EVH. Randy's work on the 2 Ozzy albums was awesome but I never liked any of the Quiet Riot stuff which I assume he had a lot to do with writing. Ed's body of work pre 1985 was awesome as far as his tone and rhythm playing. If you combined Ed's rhythm and tone with Randy's structured leads...you'd basically have well Vito Bratta.

 

[Bob Savage]

I certainly enjoy Randy's playing. But I have to admit, I love Eddie's playing 10 times more. Technically, I don't think anyone can deny Randy was technically more proficient. But I just LOVE Eddie's early tone, and his fearless approach to playing. Soooo inspiring.

Are you sure you don't love Eddie's playing 11 times more? I don't understand how so many people like one thing over another exactly 10 times as much. It seems arbitrary and contrived.

 

[gbsmusic]

Love Randy so much but EVH is king