y 1978 there had been a number of pivotal feats of solo guitar work, notably Jimi Hendrix’s brutal, dive-bomb/feedback-heavy assault on at Woodstock in ’69. Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi had all pushed the instrument into new realms. But then Eddie Van Halen came along and shifted the paradigm for lead guitarists in rock, metal, pop – hell,, and guitar playing after it.
