In AC/DC, Angus Young has always operated in his own unique manner. Would you really want to mess with the formula too much when all you’ve done is play straight-ahead rock and roll and created one of the best-selling records of all time? Although he had competition from other guitar heroes, Young had always been all about balls-to-the-wall rock & roll, and he wasn’t too fond of what he heard from Eddie Van Halen.
However, accusing Eddie of being a bad guitarist warrants a hearing examination or a test of one’s music taste. During the heyday of Van Halen, Eddie transformed the guitar playing landscape with his innovations. He occasionally used blues scales. Some of his tapping licks possess such distinctiveness that they could qualify as a musical trademark.
That was never really the intention of AC/DC. The Australian rockers have primarily relied on the backbeat for every song on every album they have released. They typically maintain a swing rhythm and rely mostly on ringing open chords to produce their sound. For this reason, even if a song like “Highway to Hell” has been played at far too many dive bars, it’s still a lot of fun to perform for someone who is just starting to play an instrument.
Angus Young claimed that despite playing many outstanding leads, he was never better than his brother Malcolm. Malcolm’s right hand was often the focal point of some of the best AC/DC songs because the entire band’s existence depended on him, providing Angus with a solid base to work from.
“Even though he lets me take all the lead breaks, Malcolm’s still a better guitarist than Eddie Van Halen“. Angus told Guitar World, praising Malcolm Young’s skill over Eddie’s any day of the week. Though I don’t like listening to extremely technical guitarists who jam every note they know into a single song, Van Halen is undoubtedly a master of scales. I mean, Van Halen can do what he does very well, but he’s really just doing finger exercises.”
The worst thing is that Eddie would most likely concur with Angus’s evaluation. Before even considering tapping, Eddie always gravitated towards rhythm guitar. He usually digged in with his right hand to create the engine for every song. Anyone who gets love for their playing is going to appreciate it just a little bit.
Eddie didn’t particularly enjoy the topics that Angus Young was discussing either. Eddie, despite sparking widespread interest in tapping, didn’t cherish his influence over aspiring guitarists. He was, if anything, enraged that people attempted to appropriate his schtick and disregarded the sentiment that followed.
Despite this, Eddie remained a devoted fan of the group and eventually picked out some of their songs that he loved the most. Van Halen and AC/DC were released around the same time. However, Eddie and Angus’s guitar approaches often appear poles apart.
