Randy Rhoads vs. Eddie Van Halen

[Georgy Zhukov]

Discuss.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Georgy Zhukov

[Broskirose]

Anyone who votes EVH should be banned.

[MEXzilla]

I vote for Van Halen, so ban me.

Edited March 15, 2014 by MEXzilla

[GUNSNROSES513]

Coming from a guitar players view (not that that means anything), EVH changed rock and roll for the good and bad. He is as innovative as Hendrix, all day any day, (not saying i like him more)... But he came up with a sound and style that never existed and many have tried to emulate but nobody has, except maybe Nuno Bettencourt.

[Cosmo]

Van Halen

[Georgy Zhukov]

Coming from a guitar players view (not that that means anything), EVH changed rock and roll for the good and bad. He is as innovative as Hendrix, all day any day, (not saying i like him more)... But he came up with a sound and style that never existed and many have tried to emulate but nobody has, except maybe Nuno Bettencourt.

But Randy is a better guitarist. He played the guitar like a maestro violin player.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Georgy Zhukov

[bran]

randy by far. he could play anything and everything and could play everything and anything at the highest level.

[Rovim]

Eddie, and it's not even close. Way more influential, unique, and his body of work as a musician is more substantial while still being of high quality for the most part.

Randy is still one of the best ever to pick up a guitar though.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Rovim

[Broskirose]

EVH is just a shred-douche that inspired the worst fucking type of music on the planet. Randy accomplished more in his two albums with Ozzy than Eddie will in his entire life.

[Rovim]

EVH is just a shred-douche that inspired the worst fucking type of music on the planet. Randy accomplished more in his two albums with Ozzy than Eddie will in his entire life.

No he isn't. When you're reducing Eddie's abilities as a guitarist to "shred" I can't take you seriously. He maybe a douche, but there aren't many guitarists who were more influential or important to the way the instrument is played today. (regardless of what you think of his music)

Your second point about Randy's accomplishments simply comes to a matter of taste, but I think Eddie's body of work speaks for itself. It will influence people for years to come. Eruption alone is more of an accomplishment compared to everything Randy did in his entire life imo. At least it was more influential and original.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Rovim

[Broskirose]

Well yeah, of course it is. Considering the fact that he died before he could do anything else, and the only recorded work he did previously were the first two Quiet Riot albums that were only released in Japan.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Rhoads' influences are far and wide. If he lived longer he would only have gotten better. And he was already better than a lot of the guys who were on the scene.

[DR DOOM]

I'm a huge fan of Randy/ The Blizzard Of Ozz (band) but I had to vote EVH.

While I must confess I don't like any VH song as much as any song off the 2 albums Randy did with Ozzy (except No Bone Movies perhaps)

edit: RR's solo spot in live shows basically contained Eruption

Edited March 16, 2014 by DR DOOM

[Georgy Zhukov]

Eruption is a sloppy mess compared to Mr. Crowley.

[OmarBradley]

Randy had soul to his playing. Eddie did too... but not as much. So what that Eddie will be more influential? EVH will probably be more influential than Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, and Marty Friedman.....but does that make him better? Not to me. Georgy's question was a simple "vs." While I guess you can include long term influence as a factor, I don't think that factor alone should determine the "winner" of the "vs."

Edited March 16, 2014 by OmarBradley

[Georgy Zhukov]

Eddie had more influence, I am sure even Randy was influenced by him. But I rate guitarists on skills. So I picked Randy.

[DR DOOM]

No doubt Randy was influenced by EVH (and Mick Ronson)...

[Georgy Zhukov]

(and Mick Ronson)...

According to wikipedia he is.

[OmarBradley]

No doubt Randy was influenced by EVH (and Mick Ronson)...

Probably a little bit. But VH I came out in 1978, Blizzard of Oz came out in 1980. Randy started taking classical guitar lessons in 1963, so from 1963ish-1980 he was honing his style - I highly doubt that upon hearing VH I he thought to himself, "wow...I gotta play more like that." If you take a listen to the QR stuff (which I haven't), I'd guess that Randy's playing is already fairly developed, and those albums came out in 1975 and 1978.

[Georgy Zhukov]

No doubt Randy was influenced by EVH (and Mick Ronson)...

Probably a little bit. But VH I came out in 1978, Blizzard of Oz came out in 1980. Randy started taking classical guitar lessons in 1963, so from 1963ish-1980 he was honing his style - I highly doubt that upon hearing VH I he thought to himself, "wow...I gotta play more like that." If you take a listen to the QR stuff (which I haven't), I'd guess that Randy's playing is already fairly developed, and those albums came out in 1975 and 1978.

Oh that's right, he was classically trained and he brought that style to the electric guitar.

Maybe he was influenced by the showmanship and not the playing. Ronson may have influenced him when he was younger but he played the guitar like a violnist. It was perfect.

[DR DOOM]

I've heard the 2 QR albums, and you are pretty right there (bits of songs ended up being used in the Blizzard Of Ozz stuff)

Apparently RR told his family if anything ever happened to him not to let those albums be released outside Japan (Bob Daisley's book)...Bob also mentions that Randy was a big Mick Ronson fan.

Edited March 16, 2014 by DR DOOM

[Georgy Zhukov]

Laughing Gas is amazing. You do hear quite a bit of stuff he ended up using for Blizzard of Ozz. He even did a cover of Eruption but better . Eddie died before he got a chance to make his greatest works. All we are left with is Dee, Crowley, Goodbye to Romance, Crazy Train and others we have been privilaged to hear.

I heard he was experimenting with jazz. That would have been great.

[MEXzilla]

I'm not that big of a fan of either of them but EVH was in a group that did a lot of fun songs, good songs while Rhoads was just a technical guitar player in a bad band. Obviously this is an opinion and not a fact but yeah EVH has better songs and that's how I rate guitarist and musicians as a whole.

For instance Kim Thayil which according to everyone is clearly inferior to EVH but to me he has created way more interesting work and better work(sounding) than EVH. Still I know that technically EVH(skill wise) is better but he hasn't made anything remotely amazing to me to put him in the conversation of my favorite guitar players, in essence he has everything going for him but never accomplish his potential.

So yeah EVH is better than Rhoads because he manage to make better music with his set of skills while Rhoads is just nothing to me.

[Sixes]

I went with Pino Palladino

[DR DOOM]

I don't know how you could call The Blizzard Of Ozz a bad band...Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley ( who is a lousy enough bassist to play with Rainbow, Gary Moore and Yngwie amongst others) and Lee Kerslake on drums... Ozzy could sing back then even.

I mean, Diary Of A Madman is definitely considered a terrible album