Blackmore on Satriani

no, maybe they should have

 

Wakeman (although possessed of a wicked sense of humor), doesn't seem to often use that humor in his music or in his concert presentation, except when talking. I've met him and seen him play 5 times so I feel fairly comfortable saying that.

Vai, on the other hand, has humor laced all through his music, going all the way back to Little Green Men on Flex-a-ble. I truly believe that a sort of genius of his presentation is that he's constantly playing up the virtuoso angle while simultaneously making fun of it. The fans at front of stage are definitely part of that. The exaggerated facial stuff is, too. The craziness of some of the guitars is that as well. I haven't met Steve so I don't know this first hand, but that awareness of the absurdity of the guitar hero thing seems to be there from what I've read in interviews and heard from people who have worked with him.

 

So, he says he thought he'd heard Jessica before and didn't know who it was? But, was able to identify Tom Petty Even The Losers? He is 3 years younger than me and would've been 31 at the time of his critiques?

Oh well...........

 

Somebody here once posted the program for one of Beethoven's concerts, and I was a bit surprised to note that it included 20 minutes for free piano improvisation.

 

Indeed, and next to Yngwie's demolition of some of his peers (or rather, of other rock guitarists) in one of the links above Blackmore sounds positively encouraging.

 

You Is what you play.

You Is what you do.

 

Listen to James Taylor's "Someone" off One Man Dog. John not only wrote the song but plays an acoustic solo on it!

 

apparently Ritchie's and Yngwie's guitars are set up the same.

 

Me too. lol.

 

Precisely. The one thing Vai's serious about is his music, the rest is just for fun. Off stage he dresses like a regular guy and he's approachable and friendly, not aloof or anything like you'd expect from seeing him in music videos. On stage it's a performance and he's having a blast, putting on a show, not someone saying "look at me, I'm the greatest" (that's more the Yngwie angle, mwhaha). I guess it goes right over the heads of the sophisticated crowd.

Anyway, here's some more soulless crap for the fashion-conscious.

 

It feels like when this type of comment is made about Satriani, it's such a over-reaching, generalized statement, that "he plays perfect, no soul, wanking all the notes, blah blah blah" that it must be from someone who's heard maybe one track of him shredding and has never actually explored his catalog. The man has 16 albums, many of them such as his self titled and Engines Of Creation featured different styles and genre blending. I don't play guitar but I do hate this criticism of "it has no soul", I agree with another poster on this thread earlier, that's a fancier way of just saying you don't like the song or style of music.

It is baffling to see criticism that Satriani doesn't play with melody, the list of songs that have great melodies from him go on and on. At the end of the day, I only care about can you compose a song? To me, Satch easily writes songs, often the title of the song matches the feel of the music greatly such as Flying In A Blue Dream, Lights Of Heaven, Summer Song, Cool #9, etc. You don't make a 16 record career from just jerking off all over the guitar and not writing memorable songs that people can enjoy, even without lyrics. The no soul comment seems to imply no heart which then seems to imply the guitarist just slaps down any old nonsense shredding with no thought of songwriting skill or care for the musical art and I find that offensive for these guitarists that have been playing live and creating music for decades.

 

Sixteenth Century sunglasses, this one

 

Circa 1575.

 

Never thought Blackmore was anything special. The organ and drums were the real talent in Deep Purple (imo).

 

Blackmore never anything special ? ya ok.............................