(Number 4 from my Top 5 guitar instrumental albums)
No list of this sort could possibly be complete without an entry from Joe Satriani! I've always felt a sense of "coming-home" in Satriani's work when he breaks into a blues-esque section: from watching live shows and other material you can tell that he has had an affinity with the genre since he began playing, especially the raw blues stylings of John-Lee Hooker and others. So it is rather curious that his first real release (Not On This Earth, 1986) turned out to be a neoclassical experiment which almost inevitably sounds extremely uncomfortable. I level the same argument at his much-loved Surfin' With The Alien which suffers additionally from extremely robotic production.
However, it was in Satriani's rather eclectic Flying In A Blue Dream (1989) which proved to be the starting block for a progressive move (back? :)) towards the blues genre. Ignoring the obvious duds (such as I Believe!), Flying... is an extremely diverse album which does an admirable job of blending Satriani's now-signature harmonic patterns of Surfin'... with the much more solid base of the blues genre. Satriani then waits three years before releasing The Extremist. Although I cannot find much evidence beyond an interview with producer John Cuniberti, Joe was having great difficulty with the recording process: he knew something different altogether was required for this album. My personal theory for this—which also tries to explain the 'backwards' shift in genre and the relatively long gap from his previous release—attributes much of the blame on Joe's former school-buddy Steve Vai and his 1990 magnum opus, Passion & Warfare. Although almost pure conjecture, this phenomenal release must have hit Satriani (as well as others!) with somewhat of a "how can we match that?" attitude which then led to a major rethink in what and how he wanted to record.
Anyway, for whatever reason, Joe hired the now infamous Bissonette brothers (drummer Greg and bassist Matt) and what we are left with is a refreshingly raw, blues-tinged, album which is still undeniably Satriani.
The opening track, Friends, sets the tone for the rest of the album: heavy drums, Nashville-strung distorted backing guitars, strong melody...loose parallels could be drawn the also major-key opening of Passion... here. The next tracks—the title track and War*—are driving yet disappointing and predictable, whilst *Cryin' with it's jazzy open chords and crunchy lead tone is an interesting listen but definately a relic of the Old Satriani.
However, it is the songs from Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness onwards that are the real gems: the infamous Summer Song and Tears in the Rain are still treats even after such overexposure, Why is a seriously groovy messabout with a Digitech harmoniser, and Motorcycle Driver has all the punch of the opening tracks but without the monotony.
Although The Extremist was not the album that rocketed him to stardom nor his most flashy, its extremely natural feel puts it way above the rest. He also doesn't sing on it either, which is always a warning sign in an instrumental album.
Satriani's next album continued to experiment in the same genre: Joe Satriani (1995) has an even rawer blues sound which some may enjoy more, but lacks the sparkle, the cutting edge, and perhaps some of the originality of The Extremist.
The Extremist? That is an interesting choice and of all of his releases, not one that I would put at the top of the best of JS list.
I am a ‘Flying in a blue dream’ kind of guy. Was ‘I believe’ really a dud? I always see it as a beautiful, lilting ballad with a gorgeous solo (listen how he breaths in the first note – my favourite note in guitar history and I stand alone regarding his voice – it was the antithesis of the screaming histrobollox that permeated every HM band of that time. I loved it).
I was intrigued by your comments regarding the first two JS releases. JS first hit our shores, it was with his second album, Surfing with the Alien. It was quite a ‘Beatles’ moment for guitarists at the time. Nobody played, sounded or looked like him. He was an iconoclast at best and a breath of fresh air at worst. However, the material was prosaic and often uninspiring. Everybody was sucked into the whole ‘he taught Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet’ thing, rather than what he produced himself. But nestled amongst the mediocre were some outstanding tracks: Surfing with the Alien; Midnight (nobody had played like this before); Rubina (you don’t have to rake 3 octave arpeggios to show that you could play) and the Enigmatic which used the scala enigmatica no less; and several more. I once had a bootleg of a performance in Paris, with Stuart Hamm and that drummer from Marillion. If only I had it now – you haven’t heard anything until you heard what JS and co sounded like in those days.
I look forward to your next instalment.
Regards
Rohan
p.s. did you know that prior to joining Dave Lee Roth, the mentioned, Gregg Bissonet was bald as a babies bum… and then all of a sudden – he had a full head of hair. The things I know…
rohan leach