I’m back in the studio again…
Well, I’m pretty much always there. At least that’s how it seems. But I’ve been laying down some tracks along with writing lots of lyrics. Seeing as how I’m digging through guitars and such to create some songs with co-writers I figured I needed to relive some guitar godliness from one of my influences.
Little Stevie Vai as he is referred to in a song on one of his CDs is what I would term as a player from Planet Guitar. There are those who think I’m a chord chemist but if you want a true chord chemist, or a plain ol’ string wizard, then you need look no further than Steve. Of course there are many guitar players who I could name that could equally conjure up images and sounds that invoke the god-dom of being from Planet Guitar. Today is not the day to talk about them.
I got my first dose of Steve Vai through a friend while attending music school. The very same music school Steve attended. Go figure. Anyway, let’s say that if you’re a guitar nut and into pushing boundaries on timing, sounds and general nuttiness in music it doesn’t get much more out there in genius than the likes of Frank Zappa. The man was a watershed of sound. Now, take a young buck of a guitar player looking to make a name for himself with the discipline of a zen master and add him to Frank and you get Steve Vai.
How real is the legend? Who knows. I think I heard that Steve was the one who transcribed what is known as “the black page” while he was at Berklee College of Music. The Black Page is a tune that has some many notes in it that the score seemed to have more black on it than the white of the page it was printed on. Steve was a fanatic about how he would tackle transcriptions or learning a particular technique on the guitar. It was that type of mastery that I went after as I was mastering my guitar. So I took a lot of cues from Steve’s nuggets of wisdom that I’d happen upon.
Needless to say even today Steve’s past recording still hold a certain flair that a lot of guitar players / instrumental writers seem to lack. He made what he did uniquely Steve and he embraced it.
Last year I got my second chance at meeting Steve. The first time it was a simple handshake in passing. Last year I got the opportunity to watch a rehearsal of Zappa does Zappa. I was sitting on the couch with my buddy George Leger III when Steve walked over and sat down while warming up on the guitar. He wondered who I was and who I was with, then we got to chatting a little. Spoke a little about a mutual friend and then it was time for the band to play. It was a real treat to watch them work on fine tuning the show. Not to mention Steve was quite personable and nice.
What can I say about today’s song… It’s the ultimate in guitar attitude. The kind of thing you create when you know that you OWN your instrument and the ability to play it. ‘Nuff said. Go buy it now if you don’t got it. You need more ‘Tude.