Eruption
by Van Halen
- 186
- BPM
- Ab major
- Key
- 4B
- Camelot
- 23
- Danceability
- 47
- Acousticness
"Eruption" was never meant for the album. It was a guitar solo Eddie Van Halen played in the clubs. The piece had been part of Van Halen's stage act since at least 1975, when it had no tapping in it. Then Ted Templeman overheard Eddie rehearsing it in the studio for a date at the Whisky a Go Go and decided it belonged on the record. Eddie said later that he did not even play it right, and that whenever he hears it he thinks he could have played it better.
The introduction is based on the one from "Let Me Swim" by Cactus. After it, a quotation from Rodolphe Kreutzer's Etude No. 2 appears, and the closing section starts with a run of rapid two-handed tapping triads. Eddie played the Frankenstrat, tuned down a half-step, through an MXR Phase 90, an Echoplex, a Univox echo unit and a 1968 Marshall Super Lead amp, and the Sunset Sound reverb room added reverb. Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony play a short intro.
It is the second track on the 1978 debut and segues into the Kinks' "You Really Got Me". It also became the B-side to "Runnin' with the Devil".
Eruption runs at 186 BPM, the tempo of fast punk, speed metal and hardcore. In classical terms it sits in presto territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.29 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 323 ms. It is in Ab major, Camelot 4B, which shares its notes with F minor and mixes cleanly with Db major and Eb major.
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