All Hail Van Halen

Producer John Boylan’s missive concerning the virtues of Linda Ronstadt while slamming Van Halen as a “band who influenced nobody” is laughably wrongheaded (Letters, Sept. 5).

Ronstadt is a wonderful country and country rock singer, but anybody remember the awful “Mad Love” album, where she tried to hop on the new wave bandwagon? That record sounded like a suburban housewife trying to be hip by affecting a punk sound and was largely laughed at by the local punk community.

However, Eddie Van Halen didn’t influence or impress anybody but thousands of guitarists all over the world. He helped raise the level of technical competence in rock to previously unheard-of heights.

GARY GARLAND

Yorba Linda

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We should have noted last week that Boylan produced several Ronstadt albums in the ‘70s.

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Electric guitar music and true rock ‘n’ roll are virtually synonymous, and to say that Edward Van Halen influenced nobody is to ignore an international legion of zealots whose sheer numbers would allow them to take over the world if they put down their bongs and got organized.

To put it hysterically, Eddie, in league with his bandmates, has had as much influence on rock music as Gutenberg and Steve Jobs have had on the dissemination of information.

KEVIN HALLORAN

Winnetka

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As delighted as I was to see my favorite poet-songwriter-singer-performer-actor-humanitarian Tom Waits included Aug. 22 in “Hotel California’s VIP List: Calendar Picks the Best of L.A. Rock,” I was chagrined to see him dismissed as a “wonderful, if obscure cult singer-songwriter-actor” in Boylan’s case for including Ronstadt on the list.

Waits’ long-awaited “Get Behind the Mule Tour” sold out three dates at the Wiltern in June in less than 30 minutes, and his were the hottest tickets in town for Austin’s South by Southwest festival. Obscure, my eye!

Just because Tom and his wonderful and creative wife, Kathleen Brennan, don’t dance to the tune of big record company money shouldn’t relegate his loyal fans to the status of “cult.” Tom and Co. continue to explore the heights and depths of human experience through creative poetry and innovative music, a process that would be impossible to continue were he worried about being a Top 40 hit.

CATHLEEN BEMIS

Hollywood