Hi guyz... I wrote a little something on Joe Satriani today on mouthshut.... posting it here too... Crystal Planet was the first song of Joe Satriani that I heard and God!!! It was unbelievable.... A song fast paced, with a real fast rhythm and a neo-modern melody line taking you through..... and there are these ultra fast leads and tappings in betweeen that are just unmatchable.... "Lights of heaven" again was another one there- fast rhythm, strange abstract title captivating right at the intro.... I remember reading about Joe- "If ever people were listening to rock even after like 500, 600 years, this is what it would all sound like..." Yea.... Such is the style of Joe. He derives inspiration from various things, often very abstract, and once inspired it all takes the form of an amazing song. Its like his guitar can do all the singing and weeping and wailing for him... You dont need lyrics to convey!! The song "cryin" from the albumn "the beautiful guitar" would show it all...!!! If one listens to "Saying Goodbye" from the same abumn, with his eyes closed and thinking about saying goodbye, oh!! And its not like he always goes wham wham with the guitar and effects...Gotto listen to "Tears in the rain" with just an acoustic and no other music instrument or effect.... or "always with me, always with you" for the simple sounding, cheerful music... As a little boy he went to his football coach one day and said, "I am qutting.. I want to be a guitarist" and what determination and passion must he have had, to rise up to levels like this, I wonder... His college roommate says- when he was goin out on the prom night, Joe lying on the bed tells him to lock the door and leave.... that he preferred staying there alone and playing... and this guy comes back at about 4 in the morning, opens the door to find Joe still lying on the bed and playing...!!! No wonder Metallica was able to get amazing riffs played by Kirk Hammet... Kirk had Joe as the teacher.. And so did Steve Vai and a lot others that we marvel at... He is a guitarist who has mastered the techniques and "understood" theories and the level mastery is at such levels that he can express it all spontaneously and fluently... And musicians can sit all day and analyse his music- the scales, the transitions, the modes, blah blah..... He tells that once he composed a song while talking to his bro over the phone... haha... Listen to this mastero!!
Good that you find the lives of musicians interesting. Every musician has an interesting story to tell. Tony Iommi cut his fingers while working at a metal shop, but he didn't give up playing. He had to put caps on his fingers and slacken the strings to be able to play. That was "dropped tuning" which is now the staple of metal guitar.
