Steve Vai - Appreciation and Album thread *

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Feb 4, 2020.

  1. Miles1968

    Miles1968 The years just pass like trains

    Location:
    Cardiff
    I get cross with those kind of comments too. Then I think 'what does Steve think about it ?' and I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less.
    Those who dislike Steve's music, for whatever reason, are the ones missing out.
     
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  2. Fonz

    Fonz Forum Resident

    My favourite piece of music.


    That’s it.
     
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  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    All that really needs to be said isn't it.

    Even if he had never recorded anything else, this piece of magnificence should have him on top of any list
     
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  4. peymei4ever

    peymei4ever Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    My goodness Mark! Are you a mind reader too?!:) You summed it up perfectly. I remember watching the video on MTV. I mean, speak of shell shock! My jaw was hitting the hardwood floor, I was probably in tears and had never before experienced such love for music and certainly not to that depth (to this day, I can count on the fingers of one hand who/where/when else I got struck by the music thunder anywhere around the magnitude of "For the Love of God"'s. There are tons of Steve's songs I have worshipped over the years but this has to be in my top 5 (possibly 3!:). I speak from a passionate and music loving place, not a guitar playing place. This is just sky parting and takes an incredible composer to come up with such blend of craft. This is is why Music is the Best.....thanks to all contributing to this thread. It's nice to hear and read from so many people and their personal experience. We probably were all around the same age (give or take a couple of years, right?) when P&W was released. We probably all made the same face when hearing it for the first time on so many different parts of the globe. We are gathering up together 30 years later and it still feels as vivid as it was before to me.
     
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  5. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    For The Love of God is one of Vai's defining moments as a guitarist, one of the best pieces of music he ever recorded.
     
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  6. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Isn't that from the Expo '92 in Sevilla? Love seeing Cozy Powell behind the drum kit.
     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I was 21/22
     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Audience Is Listening
    I think to me this track is one of the examples of why this album works so well as an instrumental album.
    We get a bit of Steve's humour, and it is well presented and in the theme of the songs being often based in dreams, I can hear it in this song.
    We get the teachers introduction, which is really well portrayed by Nancy Fagen. Jamie Firlotte plays young Steve, and the it all just comes together.
    We get some beautiful layering of guitars, and some great riffs. If we pay attention to the music side of things rather than the unfolding drama in the classroom, we also get a nice variety of stylistic movements, and textures.
    This track is really good fun, but it is also an excellent piece of music.
    Of those of us who followed the rock and roll dream, whether successes of failures (depending how we measure those terms) who hasn't thought about, dreamt about, getting up in front of a bunch of detractors from our youth and just blowing them away to the point where they either need to concede defeat or stay silent ... I don't know, perhaps I am a bad person, but I can really visualise this whole scenario.
    Great track in every way. Entertaining, coherent, and insistently musical across many themes and styles.

     
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  9. Miles1968

    Miles1968 The years just pass like trains

    Location:
    Cardiff
    A great fun song. "That sounds like noise Mister Vai and I want it stopped" makes me laugh every time I hear it :)
     
  10. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    The Expo was in 1992, the Guitar Legends concerts were in October 1991.
     
  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I Would Love To
    This has a very eighties sounding opening chord theme ... not sure why I am hearing that at the moment, but immediately it started it made me think of the eighties.
    Then we move into this excellent melody that has this moving centre and smoothly rolls through some different sections.
    To me I hear Vai trying to sing a complex melodic theme with his guitar as the vocal.
    There is a bit of a breakdown with some almost synth sounding chords, and then we move into a nice rhythmic stuff, with some nice drum fills and then into a nice melodic lead break that builds to a harmonised guitar crescendo.
    As with a few tracks on here, there is some spoken word stuff added. It works texturally and thematically, but I think you would probably need to read the book released about the album to fully know the theme.

    Did they ever release that book? I remember when this came out, we had the album and the tablature book, and there was talk of releasing a book written about the themes on here.... I never saw it though. Do you guys know if that happened?

     
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  15. Miles1968

    Miles1968 The years just pass like trains

    Location:
    Cardiff
    Another good song on this album. The video used to crack me up back then :)

    Steve Vai - I Would Love To (1990) (Enhanced)
     
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  16. Fonz

    Fonz Forum Resident

    TAIL

    Not my favourite. At the time I felt it was too much of a wannabe ‘Hot For Teacher’, and I’ve never been able to shake that initial impression. There are some great moments, and it’s fun in places, but...


    IWLT

    I’ve always loved this. It’s such a positive, optimistic track.
    I remember an interview where the interviewer asked whether it was a deliberate nod to ‘Blue Wind’, which took Steve aback somewhat, but I think he did acknowledge a passing similarity.
    I like the little vocal bits-throughout the album they provide a little bit of some sort of context, and I think Steve’s choices about them were very considered.
     
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  17. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    I Would Love To is all manner of brilliant! I can't get over how wonderful it is. It's got Steve's trademark heavenly atmosphere, a totally catchy and singable melody with a few nudges and winks along the way. One of the things that makes it so beautiful is how much emotion is packed into it even as it charges ever onward. The way the chords change under the melody makes it sound positive and uplifting one moment and turn to wistful and longing the next. Just another show of masterful composing and arranging by little Stevie Vai.

    You know... It's when they look you in the eyes and they say...
     
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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Blue Powder

    This was an advert/trial or something like that (sorry it's early and my head is cloudy) of Carvin amps.
    In spite of all that, this is a magnificent piece of music and guitar playing.
    We start off with this beautiful semi-blues thing, and then move into a series of wonderful and amazing changes, that build in intensity and structural technicality, until we crescendo and move bad down to a variation of the opening theme. We then go through this cycle again and there is a bass lead break that is quite sensational of its own accord, and move into some really interesting guitar parts.
    At the end we get a very mellow section, that reminds me a lot of some of the live coda's that Vai did in For The Love Of God ... it then builds into a fabulous explosion of guitar to finish the song.
    Great great track.

     
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  19. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Yeah, Blue Powder is another trip. When it starts you think you know what you're in for, but the music proves you wrong soon enough and takes you several different places in the space of, what... 4 or 5 minutes? What a gem.

    There's a very entertaining short feature on Vai's Astoria DVD with Billy Sheehan seeking advice in order to pull off the lead bass break on Blue Powder.
     
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  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Steve Vai - a rough history
    The JEM guitar
    Interview
    Talking about Zappa
    Some guitar techniques

    Stevie's Spanking with Zappa 1981


    May 1981 Zappa Tinseltown Rebellion
    Fine Girl
    Easy Meat
    For The Young Sophisticate
    Love Of My Life
    Ain't Got No Heart
    Panty rap, Tell me you love me, Now You See it now You don't, Dance Contest, Blue Light, Tinseltown Rebellion, Pick Me I'm clean
    Bamboozeld By Love, Brown Shoes Don't Make It, Peaches 3

    1981 - Shut Up And Play Yer guitar - Frank Zappa Guitar Book

    sept 1981 Zappa You Are What You Is

    Teenage Wind
    Harder Than Your Husband
    Doreen, Goblin Girl, Theme From the 3rd movement of sinister footwear
    Society Pages, I'm A beautiful Guy, Beauty Knows No Pain
    Charlies enormous mouth, Any Downers, Conehead, You Are What You Is
    You Are What You Is - video
    Mudd Club, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Dumb All Over
    Heavenly Bank Account, Suicide Chump, Jumbo Go Away, If Only She Woulda, Drafted Again

    NYC Palladium 1981 - with Zappa

    May 1982 Zappa Ship Arriving Too Late to Save A Drowning Witch
    No Not Now
    Valley Girl
    I Come From Nowhere
    Drowning Witch
    Envelopes
    Teenage Prostitute

    Mar 1983 Zappa Man From Utopia
    Cocaine Decisions
    The Dangerous Kitchen
    Tink Walks Amok
    The Radio Is Broken
    Moggio
    The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou
    Stick Together
    Sex
    Jazz Discharge Party Hats
    We Are Not Alone

    Jan 1984 Zappa Flex-able + leftovers
    Little Green Men
    Viv Woman
    Lovers Are Crazy
    Salamanders In The Sun
    Boy/Girl Song
    The Attitude Song
    Call It Sleep
    Junkie
    Bill's Private Parts
    Next Stop Earth
    There's Something Dead In Here
    Flex-able Leftovers
    You Didn't Break it
    Bledsoe Blvd
    The Beast Of Love
    Burnin' Down The Mountain
    So Happy
    Details At 10
    Little Pieces Of Seaweed
    Chronic Insomnia

    Oct 1984 Alcatrazz - Power Live dvd

    Oct 1984 Zappa - Them Or Us

    The Closer You Are
    In France
    Ya Hozna
    Sharleena
    Sinister Footwear II
    Truck Driver Divorce
    Stevie's Spanking - live Vai and Zappa jam
    Baby Take Your Teeth Out
    Marque-son's Chicken
    Planet Of My Dreams
    Be In My Video
    Them Or Us
    Frogs With Dirty Little Lips
    Whipping Post

    March 1985 Alcatrazz Disturbing The Peace
    God Blessed Video
    Mercy - actual song
    Will You Be Home Tonight
    Wire And Wood
    Desert Diamond
    Stripper
    Painted Lover
    A Lighter Shade Of Green
    Sons And Lovers
    Skyfire
    Breaking The Heart Of The City - live

    Vai Live at the Spirit Club 1985

    Nov 1985 Frank Zappa - Meets The Mothers Of Prevention
    We're Turning Again
    Alien Orifice
    Yo Cats
    What's New In Baltimore
    Little Beige Samb
    Porn Wars
    Aerobics In Bondage
    I Don't Even Care
    One Man One Vote
    HR2911

    Jan 1986 Public Image Limited (PIL) - Album
    FFF
    Rise
    Fishing
    Round
    Bags
    Home
    Ease

    Western Vacation

    July 86 Eat Em And Smile
    Yankee Rose
    Shy Boy
    I'm Easy
    Ladies Night In Buffalo - correction
    Goin Crazy
    Tobacco road (Spanish)
    Big Trouble
    Elephant Gun
    Big Trouble
    Bump And Grind
    That's Life

    Live In Detroit 86
    Live In Montreal 86

    1986 The Crossroads dual

    1988 Skyscraper
    Knucklebones
    Just Like Paradise
    Bottom Line
    Skyscraper
    Damn Good
    Hot Dog And A Shake
    Stand Up
    Hina
    Perfect Timing
    Two Fools Born A Minute

    Nov 1989 Whitesnake Slip Of The Tongue
    Slip Of The Tongue
    Cheap N Nasty
    Fool For Your Lovin'
    Now You're Gone
    Kittens Got Claws
    Wings Of The Storm
    Deeper The Love
    Judgement Day
    Slow Poke Music
    Sailing Ships
    b-side Sweet Lady Luck

    May 1990 Passion And Warfare
    Liberty
    Erotic Nightmares
    The Animal
    Answers
    The Riddle
    Ballerina 12/24
    For the Love Of God
    The Audience Is Listening
    I Would Love To
    Blue Powder

    For The Love Of God -live with the Metropole Orchestra
     
  21. Fonz

    Fonz Forum Resident

    Blue Powder is sublime, isn’t it?
    I never tire of it. I think you’re right that it was released as an advert for Carvin, as a ‘soundpage’ in Guitar Player.

    Folks who believe Vai to be a soulless fret w**ker need to listen to this one. The delicate run at 2:15 is one of my favourite moments on the record, but it has intense heavier moments too. The full palette of clean tones, to full-on rock!
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Greasy Kids Stuff
    We start with an odball tech rundown, and then we open with a rocking little track.
    I love that smooth melody line that he moves into. The sound of the guitar in those sections is like silk sheets.
    Here we get a small throwback to some Zappaesque melodies.
    To me this is the strong point of this album, we get a track like this, that really could be a throwaway, but it still has so much to offer, and delivers.
    Another excellent track.

     
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  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Alien Water Kiss
    This is like a pure experiment in sounds and layers. For what it may lack in melody it makes up for in interesting soundscapes. It seems almost like a tip of the hat to Hendrix Electric Ladyland.

     
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  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Sisters
    This is a beautiful piece of music. We have a lovely clean tone, and a really beautiful melodic guitar theme. The jem guitars were, in my opinion wonderful guitars, it was my favourite guitar I ever had. They had a beautiful feel, and the tones were great. Any guitar can sound good with effects, but a great clean tone is the base to work from.
    This track really emphasises how melodic and fluid Steve could be. We even get a few somewhat George Benson type things on here.
    Really great track.

     
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  25. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Sisters is another highlight on an album filled with highlights. Beautiful through and through.
     

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