Eruption

"Eruption" is an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo that leads into "You Really Got Me," Van Halen's first single. It started as a warm-up exercise Eddie used. The band's producer, Ted Templeman, thought it would make a great addition to the album, so they included it.

Eddie ran his guitar through a cheap echo unit called a Univox to get the low growl at the end. He put a different motor in the unit to give it a distinctive sound. Eddie often took apart his guitars and processing devices to create new effects.

Eddie Van Halen's work on this song marked a giant leap forward in the progression of rock guitar. "His playing, especially on the instrumental, 'Eruption,' upped the game for everyone," longtime Guitar Player editor Jas Obrecht explained in the book Shredders! "The technique of tapping the fingerboard had been around for decades, but it was sparsely practiced, and almost always as a novelty. Eddie brought finger tapping into mainstream rock'n'roll." "His impact was enormous," Obrecht added. "Within six months of the release of the first Van Halen album, young guitarists all across the country and in Europe - and especially Japan - were sporting copycat guitars and playing pale versions of 'Eruption.' But no one surpassed the original, because the real genius of Eddie Van Halen has always been in his hands and his imagination. I saw this myself one day in 1980, when Eddie showed me how he plays 'Eruption.' He did this with an unplugged Strat, and you know what? The whole song was there."