EVH’s Two and a Half Men Riff, Extended Version
Did you see Edward Van Halen on the Two and a Half Men TV show last week? Naturally they left him until the last part of the show, but for Ed fans the wait was worth it – because Ed had a guitar in his hands and proceeded to whip off 10 or so seconds of smokin’ riffage, bum thumb and all.
I don’t know what I expected, but judging from my reaction it was something slower. Easier, maybe. Why, I don’t know. Whatever the case, I re-played the riff about 8x with the TiVo, grabbed one of the guitar lyings around (literally!) the living room and tried to figure some of it out.
It’s a cool riff, but to get an appreciation of just how cool it is you need to go back a few years – six, to be exact. A couple of the EVH sleuths at the MetroAmp forum remembered that riff from a semi-obscure series of videos titled “Ed behaving badly” at the 2003 NAMM show.
I watched/listened to those vids years ago, and forgot about that particular riff until I was reminded. Even though Ed seems a little “odd” (booze?) in those vids, his playing as usual is killer and that “wicked F-ing boogie,” as he calls it, (the Two and a Half Men riff) is sweet!
In the vid you can see how his strange pick grip works for him, and how rhythm means everything to him. You’ll see what I mean.
Could use of that riff on Two and a Half Men mean Ed has it teed up for Dave? Hope so!
(You may notice that in the Two and a Half Men skit, Ed is using his D2H tailpiece to drop the low E down to an even-lower A, I believe.)
The Two and a Half Men riff
Extended version of same riff (first 1:18), NAMM 2003
Category: Edward Van Halen
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He also plays the riff on this cnn clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6LYRqFYewc
JB
Damn, I watch alot of that show and somehow missed the one with Eddie! Well now I've seen the best part so it's all good
Hopefully this'll be on the new album!!
meanwhile Chickenfoot is doing album #2…
get with it VH before we all fade away and die…