Virtuoso guitarist Eddie Van Halen, whose squealing, pealing guitar sound almost single-handedly recharged and reshaped heavy metal in the late 1970s has died. He was renowned for the remarkable rapidity of his playing, complex harmonics and innovative fingerings which led to his standing comparison with Jimi Hendrix and helped his band to become one of the bestselling acts in the history of rock.
His rock band was known for their flamboyant stage performances and their orgiastic, drug-taking, rock’n’roll wild men image.
Born 26 January 1955 1.05am Amsterdam, Netherlands to a musician father who played saxophone and clarinet, he started with his brother on classical piano at six. He died of throat cancer after a number of health worries in recent years including diverticulitis, tongue cancer and a hip replacement. He struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and had started smoking aged 12. Not a healthy lifestyle.
He had a Sun Aquarius near his IC sextile a high-energy Mars in Aries in his 6th. He also had a complex mix of lucky and tough influences. His influential, controlling 10th house Pluto opposed an Aquarius Moon and Mercury squaring Saturn in Scorpio exactly conjunct Black Moon), giving him a life of some hardship and depression despite his success – some of it self-destructive since he was obstinate to the nth degree. He also had a fortunate, adventurous Jupiter Uranus in Cancer trine Saturn and in a can-be fanatical square to musical Neptune on his Ascendant. His Neptune was also trine his Moon Mercury.
A crazy, chaotic life. But talented in his way – with a notable creative 5th harmonic, a leaving-a-legacy 17H; and a heavily aspected though stressed superstar 22H.
May have been a wild man, but according to his son, a wonderful father, that is the Dutch in him, many make great devoted Dads.
Mercury which rules the hands is so heavily aspected. EVH is known for his high-speed playing and distinctive ‘tapping’ guitar technique. Mercury forms a t-square with Saturn/ BLM and Pluto which is quite apt for hard rock music. Mercury trines Neptune, is in semi square to Mars and makes a quincunx to the Jupiter Uranus conjunction in Cancer – Mercury quincunx Jupiter is almost exact. EVH is described as the heir to Jimi Hendrix by the Guardian this week. Both EVH and Hendrix have a heavily aspected retrograde Jupiter exalted in Cancer at 23 and 24 degrees respectively – almost exactly the same placement.
My husband is a trained jazz guitarist with a soft spot for hard rock He told me he’d listen to Eddie’s short acoustic guitar solo “Spanish Fly” on repeat to learn in the 1980’s. He also tought me a lot about technicalities of playing (and he is great explainer, BTW), and I think you can hear “double Aquarius Libra rising” there. Airy, light touch that transferred to electric sound, too. A later influence
for his generation would have been Slash, who also is a very skilled acoustic flamenco style guitar player, but also has a heavier touch, as one would expect from someone whose known elements are a mix of Fire and Earth (with a Gemini Jupiter/Libra Mars and Pisces Saturn, try remarkably telling, too).