10 Mistakes Purposefully Left In Classic Rock Songs
3. Cathedral - Van Halen
It's no surprise to hear that Eddie Van Halen was a god amongst guitar players. Whether it was at the tail end of the '70s or in hair metal's glory years, almost every single VH release showed Eddie bringing something new to the table, even devoting entire tracks to it like Eruption or Spanish Fly. However, if there's one that really stands out as something special, it would have to be Cathedral.
Recorded during the much maligned album sessions for Diver Down, this echoing swell is all done through Eddie's electric guitar filtered through a chorus effect. While those extensions already sound huge, the real magic comes in when he starts fiddling with the volume knobs, which make each chord sound like disembodied notes being pulled out of thin air. On the other hand, one guitar can only take so much.
Though Eddie is cruising up and down the guitar neck for most of the song, he admits that something went a little haywire towards the end. As the last few guitar passages are fading from the headphones, Eddie had said that the volume knob broke at that point, leaving whatever he played afterward to sound sort of warped. Given how much guitar fireworks he normally added on every other song, this kind of casual trail-off is one of the few VH cases where less is in fact more.