Calling Steve Vai fans - help needed!

mudslide73

P&W is still the standard I compare all his stuff to. It's never got old for me in any way - although at the time I preferred Skyscraper and Eat 'Em. He's a super clever bloke to boot - I can watch him do interviews all day on YT. Him and Satch are like the Zen masters of guitar imo.

ICBM

not_the_dj said:

axisus said:

Personally I would NEVER buy an anthology or greatest hits of any artist that I thought I would buy other records from. It kind of spoils every other album if you have creamed off the best tracks and also played them a lot by the time you go for other CDs.

I agree with this. There's enough free ways to get an idea of what an artist is like to know if they're for you or not (youtube etc).

I'm not sure about that - sometimes you don't get to hear a wide enough range and think you don't like something. If you get an Anthology-type album there is usually more of a selection. I very often buy best-of albums out of curiosity and then replace them with the individual albums if I like the artist.

I'll be honest - I came to this thinking I didn't like Vai. I've never been keen on 'shreddy' guitar at all, and I'd never been interested enough to listen beyond the few tracks I had heard in passing. So when I was in a charity shop one day and found the Anthology for £2, I took a deep breath and decided to give him a try in the interests of keeping an open mind… fully expecting to file under 'good, but not for me' and return the week after.

I was wrong - although I'm still not really that keen on the more shreddy stuff, I really like his more melodic, interesting-sounding 'not a million miles an hour' side. If I have a favourite it's probably the Fire Garden Suite. I later got Passion & Warfare, and although I can see why it's the definitive album if you like the 'shreddy Vai', I don't think I'd want to listen to it all repeatedly - it's not varied enough.

LightB4sound

Another one for Passion and Warfare, it is probably the best place to start and still (I would argue) his masterpiece. Also as mentioned above check out Ladies Nite in Buffalo....some of the finest tasteful and slinkiest playing ever. Not bad for what was basically a scratch track which they ended up leaving!

I’d give Flexible a while though and until you have been through some more of the catalogue

AlexC

Much bigger response to this than I was hoping for. Thanks all. I've ordered The Anthology Compilation and Passion And Warfare. I'm not sure how I'm going to get on with Vai TBH, but I'm always on the lookout for music - particularly guitar based stuff and, of course, he's one of those 'touchstone' players often mentioned and much admired.

Vibetronic

Passion and Warfare is obviously the most famous one, but I think Eat 'em and Smile is definitely on a par for the ground-breaking guitar playing it was at the time. Having said that, when I first heard P&W, I'd only just started listening to Van Halen, and the stuff I was hearing on P&W seemed utterly impossible to play compared to VH (which sounded tricky enough!). My definite favourite is Sex and Religion though; it's one of my favourite albums ever. I love his tone on it, and I love vocal songs with clever guitar in them. And the drums on it are awesome too.

viz

Vibetronic said:

Passion and Warfare is obviously the most famous one, but I think Eat 'em and Smile is definitely on a par for the ground-breaking guitar playing it was at the time. Having said that, when I first heard P&W, I'd only just started listening to Van Halen, and the stuff I was hearing on P&W seemed utterly impossible to play compared to VH (which sounded tricky enough!). My definite favourite is Sex and Religion though; it's one of my favourite albums ever. I love his tone on it, and I love vocal songs with clever guitar in them. And the drums on it are awesome too.

Yes it’s amazing. I just got it on vinyl at last and it’s even better! I LOVE pig!!

viz

And dirty black hole and deep down into the pain. Amazing album. 

hollywoodrox

I really really love his playing on SkyScraper it’s a great album one of my fave albums ever 

fastonebaz

The G3 album with Vai, Satriani and Malmsteen has some really splendid Vai playing live as a starter.   Especially Whispering a Prayer.  PAW deffo.  Alien Love secrets and Anthology set.  

viz

@AlexC - how did you get on?

digitalkettle

stratman3142 said:

You mention his work with DLR. I think his playing on Eat 'Em and Smile is ground breaking. The solo to Big Trouble is a masterpiece and IMHO one of the greatest solos ever.

This was always the correct answer!

(what was the question?)