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 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 with David Lee Roth - Big Trouble The Crossroads dual For The Love Of God -live with the Metropole Orchestra
Little Pieces Of Seawood This is a bizarre freeform poem by Larry Kutcher, that has Vai adding a musical backdrop for it. Bizarre is about all I can think to call it. It was a blast when I was blasted out of my brain.... These days ... hmm I don't know really. Not something I would generally bother with.
Chronic Insomnia This was pretty much an experiment with reverse guitars. I used to know what he did here.... but I seem to remember Steve saying something about being really deprived of sleep and this being the result of it. If nothing else they layered guitars in reverse, so well synced is a really cool and intriguing sound
Those last two epitomise why ‘Leftovers’ is a tricky album; full of interesting nuggets, but not exactly loads of great music. The ‘98 disc has a reasonable amount of background info in the liner notes which shed light on the bizarro tracks. I could happily listen to loads more of them because they give us an insight into his weird and wonderful process, but I guess I would listen to them often, if that makes sense.
Yea, it makes perfect sense. We will be getting around to the '98 disc. I have listened to it way too few times, due to time constraints, since getting it. I used to always have the original album and the 10 inch vinyl, and the 98 cd with the extra tracks only made it to my place a couple of years ago.
Another Alcatrazz fave - great guitar work that foreshadows much of what was to come on Skyscraper. The 80s is littered with great hard rock/metal albums that for reasons of a highly crowded market, poor marketing or sheer bad luck never got the attention, audience and sales they deserved. Whilst very different musically, I love Lighter Shade Of Green I the way I love Bron-Yr-Aur on Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. An exercise in melody and restraint as opposed to the Eruption shredding sho Love the anthemtic chorus. In another reality, this would have been as good a crowd singalong at Donington as Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City was for Vai/Whitesnake in 1990. Ah, what could have been! Not my favourite on the album but a great rocker nonetheless. An absolute killer final track and illustrates just where DTP differed from the good time party/Sunset Strip bands, the burgeoning thrash bands and the NWOBHM bands. The programmed drums with the guitars, vocals etc layered on top is close to a Kashmir with 80s tech and production. Given the commercial failure of DTP (it didn’t crop up on my musical radar until 4 years after release) and the difficulty of any replacement for Steve being able to reproduce his parts, I understand why the band went in a much softer, more mainstream direction with Dangerous Games. That album is is beyond the scope of this thread but still has its moments and is worth checking out for the curious. Despite searching high and low at the time, I never managed to get hold of Flex-Able Leftovers. The closest I got was a CD version of Flex-Able with 4 of the Leftover tracks on as bonuses; So Happy, Bledsoe, Burnin’ and Chronic Insomnia. Will have to take the time to track down a full copy on CD as Bledsoe and Burnin’ at least are terrific and could easily have been on the parent album. Love this track! The strange melody, made even stranger and more enigmatic with the Zappa-esque time changes and fills. One to file under ‘WTF?!’. It feels as though the skit that fronts The Audience Is Listening stretched out to track length with some oddball guitar underpinning it all. When Steve states in the liner notes that this wasn’t music intended for commercial consumption, he wasn’t kidding. I do like it though, but not too often, and its the Flex-Able era’s very lack of a commercial edge that makes it so interesting and engaging musically.
Album/Cassette/Compact Disc Studio album by Public Image Ltd Released 27 January 1986[1] Recorded 1985 Studio Electric Lady Studios, New York City The Power Station, New York City Quadrasonic Sound Studios, New York City RPM Sound Studios, New York City, New York, United States Genre Alternative rock hard rock Length 40:55 Label Virgin Elektra Producer John Lydon Bill Laswell Album (also known as Compact Disc or Cassette depending on the format) is the fifth album by the English rock band Public Image Ltd, released on 27 January 1986. In a departure from their previous releases, John Lydon was advised by trusted music producer Bill Laswell to take on an all-star cast of session and trusted musicians, including Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tony Williams and Ginger Baker. The resulting album gave PiL one of its highest charting songs, "Rise". John Lydon – lead vocals Bernard Fowler – backing vocals Nicky Skopelitis – guitar (1-4, 6) Steve Vai – guitar Ryuichi Sakamoto – Fairlight CMI (2, 3, 5, 7) Bernie Worrell – organ (1, 4, 6) Yamaha DX7 (3) Jonas Hellborg – bass (4) Tony Williams – drums (1, 2, 6) Ginger Baker – drums (3-5, 7) Bill Laswell - bass (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), producer Additional personnel Shankar – electric violin on 2,4 Malachi Favors – acoustic bass on 3,5,7 Steve Turre – didgeridoo on 7 Aïyb Dieng – chatan pot drums on 4 1. "F.F.F." John Lydon, Bill Laswell 5:32 2. "Rise" Lydon, Laswell 6:04 3. "Fishing" Lydon, Jebin Bruni, Mark Schulz 5:20 4. "Round" Lydon, Schulz 4:24 5. "Bags" Lydon, Bruni, Schulz 5:28 6. "Home" Lydon, Laswell 5:49 7. "Ease" Lydon, Bruni 8:09 ------------------------------------------------------- Lead guitarist Steve Vai: "Bill Laswell, the producer, called and I flew in and out of New York from Alcatrazz shows to cut the parts. I did basically all the guitar parts in two days. Bill Laswell took a very interesting approach to the production of this disc. Some of the material I'd never heard and just went in and started playing on it. At the end, Johnny Lydon came in and liked it [...] There was the consideration of putting a band together — him, myself, Bill Laswell on bass and Ginger Baker on drums. Would have been quite a band.” “I went in a day and did everything, then I flew back out on tour. And then I went in for another half-day, and Lydon came in on the second day. He's just like ultracool and it's the first time he's heard any of my parts and he goes 'This is ****ing great, man, how did you ****ing know I wanted it like that?' [...] We were thinking about turning it into a band — me, him, Bill Laswell and Ginger Baker, but well, I was doing some other things, you know? It would have been cool. To this day that's one of the projects I'm most proud of.” “John Lydon came in when I was done, they were playing a track back, and he made a grimace and said 'Fookin' great man!' in that way of his. So that was funny. I'd obviously done okay.” I have a few PIL albums, but this is by far my favourite. John Lydon (Rotten) is an interesting fellow, and sometimes it is hard to tell if he is being serious or not. I did hear a couple of times that he was unhappy with this album, but if he was, it was more likely because in some quarters it wouldn't have been seen as cool, because it isn't as avant garde as some of his other work. For me this album is great, and easily the best thing Lydon ever did, yes I include the Sex Pistols in that. It is great and in no small part to the musicians on here, and particularly Vai, who makes some of these tracks, particularly Ease, something very special. This album is almost a subversive attempt by Laswell to make Lydon a musician, and there are couple of sections where Vai slips things in that are really very subtle, but just perfect, but we'll get to that when we hit the songs. So, What do you guys reckon about this album? Please give us your then and now opinions on this, or anything else that comes to mind, and we'll hit the first track tomorrow. Cheers Mark
Before we get into the track-by-track I have to say this isn’t an album I listen to much. Love NMTB Pistols, and the first PiL album has its moments. I got ‘album’ for the Vai action, and it was fairly underwhelming, until the last track... then it was like...WTF! We’ll get there in good time. Until then, I’ll enjoy revisiting the rest of it!
There's an interesting little bit in Rise, that everybody I ask seems to miss. Some folks say I'm wrong too, but I know my riffs but we'll get there
I've never been a Zappa fan but I'm pretty sure I was already aware of Steve Vail from Flex-Able. I wasn't a guitar player myself but I was pretty serious about bass at this time and a lot of my friends were guitar players, plus I read all the magazines and all that to keep up on guitar stuff etc. And that record made some waves in guitar circles. Of course Vai also got a lot of attention from Crossroads but that was a bit after this. Although I can't say for certain which I saw/heard first. Anyhow, I think I knew who he was but what made me want to get this is hearing he was joining the Roth band. I was already well aware of who Billy Sheehan was because I had seen Talas live and had a couple of their albums. Who knows why. They were hardly famous.(or all that good if we're honest) But again, I followed guitar stuff. So, Sheehan I knew, but Vai I wanted to know more about because I was a huge VH fan bummed over their breakup and needed to know what Roth was up to. I had read him in some interview talking about how killer his new band was etc. At least that's the way I remember it. I guess I could have read some reviews that intrigued me.. Long time ago. All that useless preamble aside. I love this record. I think it had a big impact on my listening habits, or thoughts about music. Because looking back, I had pretty mainstream tastes and this was really one of the first "weird" records I had. Or at least one of the first ones I really got into. I guess I had tried with some other stuff. As mentioned upthread a bit there really isn't that much crazy guitar on here until the end. But that's okay because everything else is great. So yeah, I love this album. Can't think of what else to say except Saw PiL a bunch of years back (was going to say a few but realized it' eight years ago. wtf) and they did Rise which was awesome.
FFF Farewell Fair Weather Friend. This is a great driving rock song, with Lydon's particular twist on things. If one doesn't mind, or actually likes Lydon's vocal delivery, this is an excellent opener. This track grinds out nicely, and we get some nice percussive muted string grinding. Also we get some really nice Vai-isms on the guitar that add just a nice little flash of colour. Proving yet again, how good Vai was at doing what was required for the song, and again knocking the mindless shredder tag out of the picture. Listening to this at the moment, it reminds me how long it is since I listened to it, and how much I actually like this. There are some really nice little additions here from Vai. There isn't anything particularly flashy, just lots of nice little textural things that really add to the track.
Rise This is the song that got me to buy this album. It has a nice breezy kind of feel, a really tight sound. Again for the most part the guitars are just really nice textural devices that just make the picture nice to look at. I also like the fact that for Lydon, it is quite a positive lyric. I love the bass on here also. The verse guitars have a really nice jangly kind of feel that suits the song really well. There are a lot of subtle little guitar sections also. Vai is colouring it in beautifully. Please note: go to 2:31 and listen for Vai's nice little quote of Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. I really enjoyed this song, and it surprised me that I did, because John had left me feeling he was a bit of a DH ...
My second favourite song on this album (favourite to come later ). It's not an album I play much as I'm not very fond of John's vocal style. I bought it solely beacause of Mr Vai's involvement.
Fishing We open with some big eighties drums, and then the guitars come in with a nice little counter from the keys. It is a long time time since I listened to this album, and things have been a little hectic, so I didn't get my normal pre-listen to acclimatise to this.... At first I wasn't remembering this track, but when we get to the "Crawl Back In..." section I was reminded. On the whole this track is a little monotone for me, but it does have a seriously present attitude, that works in its favour. I imagine Vai would have had fun with this. It isn't a guitar fest, but there are some really nice textural things going on, and then we get a nice slow paced melodic lead that has nice impact to put some extra melody in here, and it also has a sort of tortured effect that suits the songs attitude. The instrumental bridge also works really well to inject some melody, and the keys and guitar work really well together. We get some nice flash at the end of the song too.
Round We start with a nice percussion based intro, that kind of gives me a fleeting reminder of Lennon's Give Peace a chance.... just in the sound of it. This has a more reserved into, and again for me, the music works well to kind of give us something solid to lay on, in the face of Lydon's somewhat monotone delivery ... I'm not criticising Lydon there, that is just his style, and I wouldn't have bought the album if I didn't like him enough to listen. The guitar section is really nice. We get some layered melodic stuff, and then some very Vai lead, that again just adds some really nice texture to a more basic kind of alt/pop/rock song. I like this track, and the textures help lift it up nicely.
Bags I don't think it can be underestimated how important Laswell was to this album. I think he dragged Lydon into a zone that was slightly uncomfortable for him, but I will give John credit that he marched into that zone and handled it well. This is an interesting song in many respects, but probably my least favourite on here. I think of all the songs on here it may have aged the worst. We have a bit of a wall of sound and it seems somewhat smothered. I think the chorus is a little too monotonous also. We get Vai again adding his little bits and pieces and we are shown once again, how well Vai could play in support, adding just what's needed, and not moving into guitar hero mode. His ability to add colour to stuff like this, that is really quite different to his natural space, shows a very good musician, not just a good guitarist.
Home I enjoy this song a lot. Like I say, I hadn't listened to this in the longest time, but as soon as this came on it reminded me that I like this a lot. This is very John Lydon, and yet it has a really nice musical construction, and John isn't afraid to put a melody in here. The production gives this a lot of power. The arrangement gives it a nice melodic movement and again we get Vai doing just what he needs to to give this the flavour and colour required to lift it up.
Ease I really love this track on every level, but of course we know what the highlight on here is. The somewhat atmospheric intro with the layered keyboards, kind of setting up a sort of tension works really well. Then we punch in beautifully. A nice drum pattern leads us in and some slamming power chords, that move into a somewhat jangly open chord thing. The vocal comes in and we have a sliding open chord arrangement on the guitar, and when done well I love that. I have probably overused that in some of my writing. Again we get Lydon moving into a more melody vocal delivery. Lyrically this is quite vague, and I have no idea what he is singing about, but the sound of it works. I love great lyrics, but at the end of the day a vocal that sounds right, and works with the music is all I require, and on that level this works for me. We move into a sort of ominous sounding bridge, and again it works really well. "Susan And Norman, you're so normal" I also like the little choral sitar in there, I think it works well. It also works as another tension builder prior to the explosion. When Vai's lead break begins, it is apparent immediately that he is in the zone. We get melodic, we get Bent note Vai-isms, we get shredding that is also melodic, we get excellent and musical use of the vibrato bar .... it is a showcase of lead guitar. Over the consistent groove of the song it is really a "replay that" moment.
This is a very good PIL album, certainly my favourite that I have heard. I have Flowers Of Romance and This Is What You Want, the second of which I bought almost exclusively for "The Order Of Death" which is an instrumental that really captured my imagination after I heard it in some movie in the late eighties... early nineties ... It was about some evil robot, or cyborg or something ... can't remember the name of it.... but anyway. This is a very good PIL album, but for us the focus is on Steve Vai here, and here again Vai shows an uncanny ability to add to the songs, he doesn't try to overplay, he doesn't try to overwhelm the song, he adds beautiful textures that fit in with the music of the artist he is playing for perfectly. We get little glimpses of Vai - guitar hero, but never in a sense that he is doing anything but adding textures to the songs. then at the end of the album, as directed, Vai rips off one of the finest lead breaks possibly ever recorded, and according to all reports John Lydon was over the moon with the results, and I am not surprised, as what is essentially a fairly simplistic song with a nice feel and melody is turned into an absolute barn burner of a classic.
