In honor of Eddie Van Halen’s passing, my good friend and fellow music fanatic Jonathan Glass wrote today’s Mental Jukebox thoughts, featuring one of my favorite Van Halen songs of all time.

In the same way that Jimmy Hendrix reinvented guitar playing, Eddie Van Halen ushered in a style with such virtuosity. To me the opening of “Hot For Teacher” where Eddie’s guitar seems to literally talk responding to David Lee Roth’s open dialogue, is the perfect example of a musician expanding what can be done with an instrument. What follows is a rip roaring jam that seemed effortless in Eddie’s repertoire of guitar hooks. I remember being in sleep away camp in the eighties and it seemed like counselors and fellow camp mates all tried to be cool by cranking up this tune and everything from 1984 while doing their best air guitar.

“I think of all the education that I missed. But then my homework was never quite like this.”