Viv Woman Sleeve Notes - This used to be called Hollywood Movie Studios and had lyrics. But at the time of recording no singers where available. So it's a Dance Tune (I guess) and is dedicated to Vivian Carley, a good friend of ours. And if you put yourself in the groove this tune lays out, you would know a bit of the way Viv is. I have always loved the way the rhythms play against each other here. Whether it is some kind of dance song or not is very debatable, but the layered guitars are dancing. The drums work nicely with the rhythm, and the bass may be for the most part fairly simple, but just what the track needs. Bob Harris pops in to lay down the really nice trumpet layers in the transition. and Pia Maiocco, the reasonably soon to be Mrs Vai gives us "Just Go For It", which although a simple drop in edit, is just the perfect thing at that point in the track. Then we get a nice lead break that bends and twists and grooves with the music behind it, and comes to a good, if not slightly sudden finish. To a certain degree, I think Vai rewrote this a little for David Lee Roth's Hina, off the Skyscraper album .. it is different, but it has a very similar rhythmic feel in the verse section. I'm looking forward to revisiting that Roth album down the track here.
I was actually listening to the two DLR 80s solo albums just a few days ago. Fun songs, great playing (Billy Sheehan, oh my god), and tons of personality. Left the contemporary Van Halen albums in the dust, as far as I'm concerned.
I think Eat Em And Smile and Skyscraper are classic albums. I generally assume folks don't take them too seriously because it's Roth, but they are great albums none the less. When I first heard the Sheehan/Vai parts in Shy Boy I was pretty stunned
An excellent guitarist but the truth has to be said, Tender Surrender is a plagiarism from Villanova Junction.
There is plenty of soul in Steve's playing and in a number of his recordings. Yes, he possesses technical prowess, but there is also a lot of passion and emotion in his playing. He also has a unique approach, with a lot of Zappa influence in his work (instrumentally and vocally), even though he is frequently lumped in with other technical shredders like Buckethead, Yngwie Malmsteen, Greg Howe, etc. I always found his playing to be centered between those types of players and someone technical and melodic like Joe Satriani.
@mark winstanley Are you planning on doing the track by track thing for just for Steve's solo works or for the bands/albums he was part of as well (namely Alcatrazz, DLR & Whitesnake)? Skyscraper in particular has some amazing playing, arrangements and production, as you say, usually overlooked with Diamond Dave doing his party thing over the top. Hina & Skycraper itself in particular are far from the usual DLR party fare like Paradise and Two Fools.
Yeah, when I first heard Tender Surrender circa 1995, I was taken aback by his use of Villanova Junction.
Yea, and he was taken aback by that to a small degree, because it was one of those times that this song comes flowing out of you, and quite a while later, the truth hits. I believe he only realised when he heard Prince playing Villanova Junction, and thought it was cool that he was covering one of his tracks. Then the realisation sunk in and he was embarrassed about it .... I think that's how the story on that goes anyhow. I remember when I was a young songwriter, I wrote this thing with a cool little acoustic guitar thing. Years later I heard Led Zep's Friends, and it was almost identical.... I had never heard the song prior. Funny how these things go.
I'm probably going to go through most of it to be honest. I hadn't really thought about doing it as an album thread (incorporating his Zappa, DLR, Alcatraz and Whitesnake stuff, among others) but I think that's how it is going to go.
Forgive me for this indulgence, but I may never find a better place to tell this little story than this here thread on this here website, so here goes. I am a decade and a half or so younger than Steve Vai, but I too grew up on Long Island and played guitar, and eventually went to Berklee for a bit also. I was a Zappa fan by age 12 so the Vai album I really devoured was Flex-Able when I was that age. While that album is so unique in its way that I don't know how lasting an influence it ever was to me, it definitely inspired me greatly when it came to recording my own crazy stuff at home as a teenager. I don't want to dismiss anything he did after that in any way, but Flex-Able will always be special to me for that reason. Years later I was working at CBS in Los Angeles, and a crew was going out to interview Steve Vai, because he was up for a Grammy (which CBS was going to broadcast.) Respectfully, the crew that was going out there to interview him was not at all familiar with him or his work, and the approach and questions they were planning were, to my more knowledgable, relatable ears, pretty off the mark. Some persuasive words from me, and next thing I know, I was recruited to not only come up with the interview questions, but to take the ride to his house and interview him myself. I would not be on camera - haha, I am not an on-camera personality - so my questions/conversation starters were always planned to be edited out of the final product. But I was super excited. The team and I drove out to Vai's wonderful house in the Hollywood Hills. I met him and we chatted about a number of things before we began - I think or at least hope it was helpful that I was also a musician with a relatively similar background. We talked about Flex-Able, and when I noticed a copy of the Lather CD set (the cow cover version), he mentioned he was in the process of learning the tunes he needed to learn before joining the Zappa Plays Zappa tour. Someone more informed than me can date this by that I suppose, but it was sometime between 2005-2008. When the time came to run the interview, he was awesome. Friendly, open, professional. The team also wanted him on camera playing some guitar (nothing requiring copyright, so just some rough improvised bits), which seemed a bit awkward an ask to me, but he graciously complied anyway, and ripped out some great guitar work on a nearby acoustic. I am thankful I had that time there with him, because as an early fan, it was everything I could have hoped for. I was able to find a clip from a finished piece on YouTube and placed it below. As you can see, we were in his home studio. I am glad I did not have to be awkwardly on camera, but I smile now to know that I happen to be the guy he's talking to there, in such a casual open way. There was a lot more than this one edited clip produced, and somewhere I have all the clips stored as files from back then, but out of respect for the man, I'll keep those to myself for now.
I consider Vai my all-time favorite guitarist. I don't listen to his later releases much but just on the strength of Passion and Warfare alone I can never think of someone else who would unseat him as my favorite. Guthrie Govan has come close with his work on Steven Wilson's material. I'm still a huge fan of Petrucci but his style wouldn't exist had he not borrowed some of it from Vai. Vai is the epitome of a player who can blend feel and emotion with otherworldly technique. I'm still not entirely sure he isn't an alien.
So how this is going to roll I guess ... I'm going to go through Flex-able and Leftovers. Then we'll hit the Zappa stuff. Then it will be Alcatrazz and David Lee Roth crossing over each other, followed by Whitesnake and then we get to Passion and Warfare and beyond
That's brilliant, thank you for sharing. Flex-able is a pretty unique album in so many ways. It really isn't what one would expect from a guitar hero type, and I think that's what is so special about it. Share whatever you feel comfortable to share, at any time you feel comfortable to do so. I don't expect any of those clips, I mean more just your views and whatever else comes to mind. Cheers
Lovers Are Crazy It's a slow rainy day, so I'm going to roll out another ... This is a pretty straight song, with a nice instrumental section. We have a kind of tongue in cheek look at the whole idea of love and relationships, that is a little macabre in a way. Steve gives us his debut vocal I believe, and the backing vocals are by Rantin' and Ravin'. Bob Harris adds trumpet and Greg Degler adds sax. This is a laid back goofy track, that works almost like a moderate tempo pop song of sorts until we get to the instrumental bridge. The instrumental bridge is a really nice horn arrangement that changes the texture a lot and is obviously influenced in style by Zappa. On the whole when listening to these tracks, you can hear that Steve was just messing about and experimenting with some different things in the studio. In the end, we get this quirky group of songs that fit together strangely enough, but are all very different in style and texture to each other.
He's a little too "note salad" and other wizardry (harmonics, whammy bar, etc.) for me, but I do love the two Roth albums he played on, especially the first one. So both tours, of course he did great on the VH songs as well.
Steve Vai - a rough history The JEM guitar Interview Talking about Zappa Some guitar techniques Stevie's Spanking with Zappa 1981 1984 Flex-able + leftovers Little Green Men Viv Woman Lovers Are Crazy Salamanders In The Sun The Attitude Song Call It Sleep with David Lee Roth - Big Trouble For The Love Of God -live with the Metropole Orchestra
The Boy/Girl Song As uncool as it may be, I love this song. It has a quirky upbeat tempo, and is really a borderline pop song. I really like Rantin' and Ravin's contributions to this album. I really like the harmonies, and the fact that this is just such an odd tune to put on a guitar hero's debut album. We get another really cool horn break (notice there isn't any lead guitar) The back and forth between the male and the female especially when the vocals are layered so well, is really appealing. I really love some of the harmony vocal choices. Then we get a really cool horn passage as an outro. great track
Mark, many thanks for starting this thread. I'm looking forward to going through the Vai back catalogue Steve has been a favourite guitarist of mine since 'Skyscraper'. One question, will you include 'album' by PiL when we get there ? - 'Ease' includes one of my favourite Vai guitar freakouts
Junkie Sleeve notes - Aren't we all Junkies though? We start with a delicate melodic arpeggio. Bob Harris sings the main vocal. To some degree the lyrics are from a much younger persons perspective, which isn't to say they are bad. The song section works really well, and then we move into an instrumental section, that is solo guitar, with Larry Crane on bells and vibes in the background. Vai squeezes the notes out of his guitar with a refrained fury, that somewhat follows the feel of the lyrical picture being drawn. Just when many may feel, "ok this is just going to be a big solo guitar thing", we move into a slow groove and move into a really cool melodic section, accented by the drums beautifully. Then we get another change with the rhodes adding some dimension, and that moves us into the guitar singing the bridge section. We also get an excellent coda, and on the whole for me, this is an excellent track that has a little bit of everything. Again, as with most of this material, the Zappa influences can be heard, but I don't think they overwhelm, or override Vai's own personality as such.
