What's the first sound that comes into your head when someone mentions Van Halen's 1984-era smash hit single Jump? For the vast majority of us, that'll be the late, great Eddie Van Halen's instantly-identifiable keyboard stabs, which run throughout the song, the Californian quartet's sole US number one single.
Given the song's iconic status, and its hallowed status among Van Halen fans, surely only an extremely brave or exceedingly foolish individual would choose to wipe most of EVH's keyboard parts from the song, which is exactly what YouTuber John Connor has done, for reasons best known to himself.
This hasn't exactly endeared the sonic saboteur to Van Halen loyalists.
One commenter writes: "Dude, this is their most popular song by far. I think most people loved the keyboard sound he had on Jump, along with his stellar playing. Removing his key playing is stupid as hell. Signed a 53 year old Eddie lifer."
Listen to the reworked, (largely) keyboard-free version of Jump below:
Earlier this week, former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar said that he has written a new song with the help of Eddie Van Halen, who he says appeared to him in a dream.
In conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock, the Hagar said, "About two months ago, I had this dream and Eddie came. We were in a room like this, [with] a bunch of people around. It was just like he’d been gone. It was not like he was passed, but he had just been out of my life and we hadn’t seen each other for a while. He’s going, 'Man, let’s write some music!' I said, 'Yeah, fuck it, man. Here, let’s go!'"
According to Hagar, the pair then "went over into a corner, in this room. He had a guitar and he played me this thing. It was like this lick – [just like] the last lick that Eddie Van Halen showed me, when I went back for the [2004] reunion tour and when he was a mess.
"I said, 'Eddie, show me your newest shit,' because every time I’d be around him I’d say, 'Show me your newest shit.' He’d say, 'Oh, check this out!'
Elaborating a little on what the song sounds like, the musician adds: "He did this harmonic thing and he slid it up to a chord, like a slide guitar. We wrote a song with that lick.
"I remembered it. I got up in the morning and I wrote the song. It’s called, Thank You. I used the fuckin’ lick that he showed me in the song. I told Jason, 'I just really don’t know what to say lyrically.' I’ve got goosebumps, head to toe, [talking about it]. So I wrote it [about that experience], and we’ll do that song someday."
