Joe Satriani... I don't get it....

Howie nailed it exactly. Grab Crystal Planet and Engines of Creation, in that order.

I have a lot of respect for Steve Vai, but it seems with each passing album he loses the desire to write a good song. Satriani may not always do it for me, but he hits closer to the mark a lot more frequently.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
also, the guy you should really be listening to is Jeff Beck. especially the albums "Who Else?!", "Jeff", and "You Had It Coming".
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Man, how awesome is it that Jeff Beck came back at the age of 175 with three of the most vital albums he's ever done. I've seen him three times in the last decade and he's knocked my doors off every fucking time.

As for Vai, if you pull the plug on his onstage fan, he sucks. All his rock power is in that fan.

I also think every rock guitarist should be able to at least stumble through a 12-bar blues and actually play blues. Vai fails at this, Satriani doesn't.
 
I really enjoyed "Surfing with the alien" when it came out..it just seemed to sum up that whole shred era really well, and had some actual tunes on it as Mark mentioned. I certainly preferred it to "Passion and Warfare" which I thought was a load of all toss. I haven't really enjoyed anything by Satriani since though. Vai, I think is an amazing player when he is in a band..especially when he's out of his comfort zone, like in PIL. That's my favourite Vai stuff..actually some of my favourite guitar stuff of all. He's brilliant on that PIL album.

Jeff Beck rules.

:embarrassed:
 
Mark Wein said:
Satriani had instrumental rock tunes that they could play on the radio when shred was in season. He had some stuff that people could hum. Vai, not so much.
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You can put a Satriani disk on and your family (who don't play guitar) will tolerate the whole thing and really like at least a couple songs
Put a Vai disk on and they will tell you to turn that god awful racket off in two songs. Guitarists like Vai....everyone else? not so much.
 
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ok... i just ordered Crystal Planet off of Amazon... I shall keep you posted.

For the record, Passion and Warfare is an awesome album... I still listen to it.
 
For solo work, I prefer Satch to Vai.

Good point above made about band situations though, Vai is a lot better when there is someone to keep him in check.
 
Check out Satch's oft-overlooked self-titled album from the mid-90's. Recorded live in a room with a band, produced by Andy Johns. Much different guitar tones -- and playing -- from him.
 
Psychotronic said:
Check out Satch's oft-overlooked self-titled album from the mid-90's. Recorded live in a room with a band, produced by Andy Johns. Much different guitar tones -- and playing -- from him.
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It's a bit - dare I say - 'funkier' than his average album too. I'm not saying it is funk by any means, but it has a certain groove to it.


Joe writes a pretty good Coldplay song, too :tongue:

 
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I agree with several of the above comments - including the ones about Jeff Beck. Blows them all away.

I have never been a huge fan of Satriani but I have preferred his albums to anything I have heard from Vai's solo stuff. Vai has a boatload of talent - I just don't think he is that good of a songwriter. I saw Satch live about 5 years ago and I gotta admit that the man brings it live. It was a great show and the love he has for playing guitar really comes through. He had a huge grin on his face the entire show and was obviously having a blast.
 
mystixboi1 said:
ok... i just ordered Crystal Planet off of Amazon... I shall keep you posted.

For the record, Passion and Warfare is an awesome album... I still listen to it.
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IMO, Surfing with the Alien and Flying in a Blue Dream are Joe's best albums.


I like each of the G3 guys for different reasons. Vai was the first I was into back during Flexable, Leftovers and once he started playing for DLR. He blew my mind but sometimes got a bit odd (Ultrazone was almost unlistenable to me, but Sex and Religion was lightyears ahead of it's time). First time I heard Satch (Not of this Earth) I was blown away by the tight funk grooves and singable melodies. Best way to listen to Satch is to pop the CD in your car, and go driving at night.

Eric Johnson was a big influence on me with Tones and Ah Via Musicom with great melodies, chops, and solid vocals.

When I saw the three on stage during the first G3 tour, it was a religious experience.


Since then, I'm listening to many different kinds of music, but I still revisit the "Holy Trinity" now and then. :helper:
 
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