Klosterman's piece made me dive into the Van Halen* catalog more and really it's all down to that guitar. Nothing sounds like it before or since. The other bits of the band are good, especially Diamond Dave who is the Platonic ideal of a rock frontman, and Alex Van Halen is a great drummer and Michael Anthony is a far better bassist than I knew, but it's really that guitar.
*as a Dutch learner I knew the Van Halen brothers were born in NL, but I'd never heard them speak Dutch (which they do, and pretty well considering they emigrated as kids). I'm struggling not to call the band Vunhalé, which is actually how you say their surname in Dutch. They seem to make jokes about this a lot when they're interviewed in Dutch.
*as a Dutch learner I knew the Van Halen brothers were born in NL, but I'd never heard them speak Dutch (which they do, and pretty well considering they emigrated as kids). I'm struggling not to call the band Vunhalé, which is actually how you say their surname in Dutch. They seem to make jokes about this a lot when they're interviewed in Dutch.
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