I used to love “virtuoso shredders,” but nowadays they bore me; it just seems so masturbatory.
Fingerstyle guitarists such as Mike Dawes are much more interesting to my ears.
I will admit that I have always enjoyed the David Lee Roth solo album “Eat 'Em and Smile.”
Zappa was a very complex person who composed very complex music. As a result, some of it is brilliant, some of it is garbage, and some of it is simply unlistenable.
Many books have been written about him and his music in an effort to “figure him out.” I don’t think any of them succeeded.
The last few months I have been playing MoI and Zappa music for our 14 year old son. He loves the stuff.
Man, you nailed this - except I do think Vai rose above himself for a moment and achieved something with, “For the Love of God”. A wonderful song I can just get lost in. There’s about 12 seconds of noodling near the very end that grates on me though, so I edited it out of my personal version. Still a fantastic song.
Love ScabPicker’s mention of Lonnie. I find myself often in agreement with so many of your musically-related posts. A little live Lonnie, performing one of my favorite songs by him.
SRV produced the studio version of this song. Famously a huge Lonnie fan, he was greatly influenced by him at a young age, and we probably owe Lonnie a debt for giving us Stevie in that form.
EDIT: God, do I hate a Flying-V. Ugly lump of wood that seems as comfortable as a cactus to play. Albert King knew his way around it though.
I love SOME of Zappa’s stuff…like “Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar”, “Joe’s Garage”, “Weasels Ripped My Flesh”, but yeah…some of it is just too out there for me. Lost in all this is the fact that Frank could really wail on the electric guitar when he really wanted to. Plus I’ve always admired his intellect, particularly the Senate hearing on the PMRC.
Here he is just fucking shit up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKQXpwc97uw
I think Vai’s solo music peaked with Passion And Warfare. I think the whole recording is great and a landmark of killer guitar playing. See, Vai would shred, some, but there’s so many intricate melodies, multi-multi-layered guitars and effects on that album that it’s awesome on headphones. I especially like picking out where he’s hitting the low “B” on the 7-string. Awesome.
Passion and Warfare was one of my first two CD’s. I was a late adopter. I wanted something that would sound awesome, and I wanted something that I knew I’d like, so I picked up Cosmo’s Factory at the same time to hedge my bets. Cosmo’s got plenty of play over the years, but I needn’t have worried that Vai’s work would disappoint. It’s my only album by him, but I love it.
I just looked this video up…it’s interesting to note, if you pay attention, how much of Zappa’s playing shows up in Steve’s future playing. This is a great video.
Ah, that song. It’s soooooo damn good. Thanks for reminding me. And also, this song PROVES that shredding is not what Vai is all about, thank you very much.
Along with DCnDC, I disagree. I think Vai’s album Flexable — the only solo one of his I’ve listened to much — includes several catchy, well-composed, fun songs, including “Lovers are Crazy,” “Little Green Men,” and “Viv Woman” (the last is an instrumental).
When a player isn’t my guy, but I like to check them out every now and then, I tend to have one or two go-to songs. For Steve Vai, it’s Bad Horsie: Steve Vai - "Bad Horsie" - YouTube
Amazing groove - very Metallica Sad But True-ish. (Although, in the Students of Satriani Shoot-out, Vai is humiliatingly better than Hammett). Love the metal slide he uses then (??) sticks to a magnet on the back of the headstock when not in use. Just a fun tasty song with his pyrotechnics put to good use.
My biggest issue with Vai: I never worry about his control. He is always in control. An amateur practices until he can get it right; a professional practices until he can’t get it wrong. Vai’s the consummate professional. But I need a bit of slop to connect to the emotions. David Gilmour pre-composes and rehearses the fuck out of his solos - yet I worry about his control; I hear emotions and slop as he hits peaks - no clue how he does it, but we all connect with it. So comparing Vai to a different type of control junkie, i hear a next level.
Hmm, another control junkie player is The Edge. He has to play precisely so his parts mesh with his delays and other effects - and it suits his nature as a player. But he has frickin Bono as his “humanizer” adding emotion and slop to the sound (obviously I mean slop in a good, organic feel way). Vai needs that - maybe why he should stick with DLR type frontmen.
You well described the cold, robotic flavor of Vai’s playing. As the psychology professor in Good Will Hunting said, flaws are the good stuff that you fall in love with.
It blew me away when I found out that Vai did both guitar solos at the end. They were so different from each other in content and style.
As I’ve noted many times in these biards:
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The public persona of Frank Zappa, in my opinion, was an asshole, a pompous prick. But he COULDN’T have been that guy 24/7. He commanded too much loyalty from too many talented people. There HAD to be a better side to him that I never got to see.
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I owe him some gratitude because, while I rarely like HIS music, he discovered and mentored many musicians I DO like. A stint with Zappa always made a musician better.
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I liked him better after seeing his appearance on the Steve Allen show, “playing” the bicycle. Underneath that sneering exterior, Zappa was an awkward, bashful doofus. MAYBE the prick he seemed to be was a mask he put on to be taken more seriously.
Years ago I bought a Steve Vai CD, based only on his reputation and hearing his performance on a DLR song. Man, was the songwriting not to my taste - I never did listen to that entire album, and couldn’t even tell you its name now. That doesn’t mean that I deny his stature as a brilliant sideman. He’s thoroughly mastered his instrument.
I tend to think that a musician can give a technically perfect rendition of a piece -
with no danger of slipping up - and still convey the emotion, given strong enough working material. Beethoven’s 7th kills me every time.
As does this performance of Zomby Woof. For all it’s seeming freewheelery, Vai could probably duplicate every nuance every damn time, and still blow me away:
.John Lydon, of all the people in the world, rates Steve Vai highly after he worked with him on PiL’s Album album, and listening to Ease you have to agree with him. Besides, where else are you going to hear Ryuichi Sakamoto, Johnny Rotten, Ginger Baker and Steve Vai in the same place?
Johnny’s tastes were the definition of “scabrous” when his statements were being listened to closely. He almost one-handedly re-invented musical taste as what you hate and not what you like. I didn’t buy that, but I bought his songs.
And there is no doubt that he hated everything Steve Vai stands for and sounds like, in toto, when he was great.
So I tend to call BS on Johnny nowadays even though I love him. Take a look at the collectors edition of his hand written lyrics and drawings. Is that you johnny? Are you out there? Please blink…
One of the things that I think is really cool about Vai is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I mean, he’s got a sense of humor about himself.
One of my favorite videos are of him (and himself again!) demonstrating his new at the time Jem distortion pedal that he designed with Ibanez. It’s really pretty funny, and the pedal does have some cool features.
Jem demo vid: Steve Vai - Jemini Distortion Pedal Demo (High Quality) - YouTube
Another is the cameo he has in Two Cellos cover of “Highway To Hell”, set in a Guitar Center where Vai is signing autographs, only to be abandoned when the Two Cellos guys start tearing it up. It’s really quite funny.
I remember getting “Passion & Warfare” when it came out and I really liked it, but I think his best work is his later stuff.
I could listen to this one all day, I think the entire band is ridiculously good:
I’m a big fan of U2 (although one has to make allowances for their messianic delusions), so don’t take this wrong. . .
I don’t really think of The Edge as a guitarist. He’s a fantastic musician and writer who happens to use a guitar to drive a whole pile of sound-producing devices. And what he does works so well for U2’s music. But it doesn’t really feel like guitar playing to me, even though I love the sound.
I have the same opinion of Thurston Moore. I know he knows how to play guitar, but his forte is using the guitar as a tool for making cool sounds. (And he does this very well, BTW.)