Junkie, along with Call It Sleep are two of my preferred tracks from Flexable. Bob Harris is a great singer and I love all different sections of this tune. Even though it was a self produced, Indy album recorded over 35 years ago, the sound is fine throughout save a bit of muddiness on Viv Woman which may be intentional. By contrast I tried listening to Passion & Warfare yesterday and I couldn't take the sound and production. And musically speaking there are only a few tunes that resonate with me. But Flexable still sounds attractive to my ears. And the material is quite strong throughout.
Warfare has a crappy drum sound. Too much reverb, and the CD is very bright. But I like the opener, Liberty, and another very catchy tune, I Would Love To which sounds like a top 40 instrumental hit.
Skyscraper was probably my real starting point ... Just Like Paradise was probably my first track, and to be honest when I first heard it, I thought the lead break was strange, and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not lol We will definitely be covering PIL - album/cd ... whatever we want to refer to it as .... I sat in a green haze blown away by that many many times ... and there is a nice little surprise in Rise too
I think the drum sound is more of a product of the era than anything else. Passion And Warfare is by far one of the all-time greatest guitar albums.
I agree. I wish I enjoyed the material more but much of it is not to my taste. Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom was released the same year and I listened to that one a lot more. I was getting heavily into Zappa as well. And Allan Holdsworth. I was amazed when I saw Vai's transcription of Devil Take The Hindmost in GP Magazine. I learned to play the first part but after so many bars it was way beyond my capabilities.
Long time admirer of Mr. Vai and always keep an ear on what he's doing, but the last album I really listened to was alien love secrets. I wish I had hands like him.
Bill's Private Parts sleeve notes - a piece writen for Billy James to get his sticks off on This is a super short percussion explosion.
Next Stop Earth Sleeve Notes - Part of a huge space opera I was working on called "Alien Love Story" Essentially this is part of the development of the talking guitar routine that would show up in other places. Probably particularly the David Lee Roth album.
Another one of Vai's characteristics: from day one he's been very upfront and open about his music, his techniques, how he does things... Very inclined to share and always encouraging to other players. A generous soul.
There's Something Dead In Here Sleeve notes - When I was building this little 8-track studio in Sylmar where I recorded this stuff, something crawled into my studio. Before my Boa Constrictor could eat it, it managed to crawl in the wall and die and i never could find it. So this song is a representation of what that placed smelled like for two and a half weeks. This isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, and it closes out the original album. These days when I hear this, I hear King Crimson more than Zappa. This is a multi layered series of sections, that have strange harmonies, and and interesting structure. As strange as it is, it does have an impact, and a way to draw someone in that likes some of Fripp's more oddball pieces. I love the way it resolves at the end with the beautiful chord, and the somewhat ambient fade out.
So Flex-able ends up being a wholly unique album. It has a lot of influences that stand out, but it has its own personality. The variety of tracks is quite remarkable, and although this is a compilation of studio tinkering, while Vai was getting accustomed to his home studio, and he never really intended to release it, it ends up having a strange coherence, and for those of us who discovered it at the time at least, it was great. We'll have a look at Flex-able Leftovers in the order of the chronological timeline, 1998.
Frank Zappa Tinseltown Rebellion Live album by Frank Zappa Released May 17, 1981 Recorded October 1978 – December 1980 Venue Berkeley Community Theatre; in Carbondale, Illinois; at the NYC Palladium; Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and Odeon Hammersmith, London Genre Art rock comedy rock hard rock progressive rock Length 67:19 Label Barking Pumpkin Producer Frank Zappa Tinsel Town Rebellion is a double live album released by Frank Zappa in May 1981. The album was conceived by Zappa after he scrapped the planned albums Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, and contains tracks that were intended for those albums. Musicians Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals Arthur Barrow – bass & vocals Vinnie Colaiuta – drums Warren Cuccurullo – rhythm guitar & vocals Bob Harris – keyboards, trumpet & high vocals David Logeman – drums on "Fine Girl" and first half of "Easy Meat" Ed Mann – percussion Tommy Mars – keyboards & vocals Patrick O'Hearn – bass on "Dance Contest" Steve Vai – rhythm guitar & vocals Denny Walley – slide guitar & vocals Ray White – rhythm guitar & vocals Ike Willis – rhythm guitar & vocals Peter Wolf – keyboards Production staff Frank Zappa – arranger, producer Joe Chiccarelli – engineer George Douglas – engineer Tommy Fly – engineer Jo Hansch – mastering Thomas Nordegg – everything remote Mark Pinske – chief engineer Cal Schenkel – cover art Allen Sides – engineer Bob Stone – remixing, remastering, digital remastering (1990 edition) Spencer Chrislu - digital remastering (1996 edition) John Williams – graphics 1. "Fine Girl" 3:31 2. "Easy Meat" 9:19 3. "For the Young Sophisticate" 2:48 4. "Love of My Life" 2:15 5. "I Ain't Got No Heart" 1:59 6. "Panty Rap" 4:35 7. "Tell Me You Love Me" 2:07 8. "Now You See It - Now You Don't" 4:54 9. "Dance Contest" 2:58 10. "The Blue Light" 5:27 11. "Tinsel Town Rebellion" 4:35 12. "Pick Me, I'm Clean" 5:07 13. "Bamboozled by Love" 5:46 14. "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" 7:14 15. "Peaches III" 5:01 ---------------------------------------------- So this is the album the Vai makes his debut on. To be honest, it isn't a favourite Zappa album of mine, but it certainly does have some good tracks on it. I won't be going track by track here, because Steve only plays a fairly minor roll in this album, and his contributions to later albums by Zappa are much more obvious. Zappa was a wonderful guy to have as a tutor/mentor or what have you, and lead Vai into the world of recording, and I think of this album, almost like Vai's apprenticeship.
Talking about the Zappa stuff will be interesting to me - I've never investigated his catalogue, mainly because I didn't know where to begin
hey Mark! Thanks for doing this. Vai is right up there for me, and an excuse to be a bit forensic with his work is very welcome. I hope you cover the PIL Album too. The playing on ‘Ease’ for example... Like you, I’m a player, and have owned a couple of JEMs. I still have a original floral, which was my dream guitar after seeing the Skyscraper promotional stuff-it took a divorce to be able to go out and buy it, but when I took it out of the case it was like getting my hands on a religious relic. A good moment. I had a DNA(54) from 2000 until about 18 months ago. Incredible guitar, unique etc but I couldn’t justify keeping it-it wasn’t a ‘player’, just something I kept in the basement. I got good money when I sold it to an equally obsessive collector. Lucky for me. The basement flooded a couple of weeks after. The guitar could have been ruined. I met Steve on one of the meet and greet things. I was the only guy there. I got to talk to him for about 40 minutes. As others have said, he’s gentle, thoughtful, and very animated when talking about music, Zappa, his family etc I’m going to follow the thread and chime in if I have something to say. Let’s go for it!
Ha! I’ve just seen this post. I posted a similar request, downstream. ‘Ease’ is just...wild. I chatted with Steve about how the solo came into existence. I’ll expand on that if ‘Ease’ gets discussed later.
when I met him I took this book to get signed. When his assistant saw this picture she said something like “Wow! You’ve got fire in your eyes!” She was, of course, referring to Steve’s son, Fire, who I think would have been a similar age to Steve in the photo. The resemblance must be quite strong.
Ease will definitely be getting looked at I'm pleased to read it is so popular. It's one of those tracks you sometimes feel, you might be the only one that loves it so much Now I know I'm not alone