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Rating: A few years ago, when I started taking guitar lessons, the first video my instructor showed me was "Tender surrender" by a certain Steve Vai.
I wasn’t an expert on the six strings or familiar with many other guitarists to even make comparisons, not that I gave a damn about making comparisons anyway, as an expert on "pilu" I immediately understood that the guy with the arms and hands was completely making love to the object with the neck and strings.
After the lesson, I headed to the nearest record store and desperately searched for the Steve Vai CD containing "Tender surrender." Good evening, do you have any albums by Steve Vai? ...try the second shelf at the bottom right of the hard/rock section.
I search, search, search, damn there it is... but only one album! "Fire garden" priced at 5 euros, "Tender surrender" isn’t in the tracklist, but the cover is so nice, never mind, I'll buy it anyway.
I get back in the car and realize after only 60 seconds that I really like this kind of music.
Steve is very fast in execution, but in this album, he does not play much on this skill. He focuses a lot on creating atmospheres and environments, choosing to tease the listener with real instrumental games as in the case of "Bangkok." His solo style is characterized by an impressive mastery of legato and the whammy bar, recognized as the world's best at the latter technique, which he uses to tweak the notes. The musical world of Frank Zappa has decisively influenced Vai's guitar characteristics and his conception of dissonances and altered scales.
What distinguishes a professional work from a genius's work of art lies in passion, the ability to get involved, and the enthusiasm with which it is realized, characteristics confirmed by masterpieces like: "Warm Regards", "Brother", and "Dyin' Day".
The album in question showcases Steve's great expressive will vocally as well. In fact, the work, which contains 18 tracks, is divided into a first exclusively instrumental part and in a second part that embraces the last 8 tracks except "Warm Regards" where for the first time is proposed the voice of a man who usually prefers to let the guitar sing instead of himself.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
12 All About Eve (04:38)
And ohh the sun goes down
the fever you adore is burning in your breast
Helpless in the fall from paradise into your bed
For here it is sown, in time we forget what is man
Don't let your body cry
This game of love is war
And I'm already dead
You say- Hold me down and wash away
This hunger from my flesh
And make me reborn in sweet innocence
Come on and make me live
It's voodoo that you possess
(Your heaven is danger)
Deny your dark side, I know
All about your secret life
Oh Eve
And so the moon is high
I see that love is blind
To the fire in your eyes
As our garden fiercely burns
We have no place to hide
Naked and cold running from the wind
Now wrapped in skin
It's voodoo that you possess
(Your heaven is danger)
Deny your dark side, I know
All about your secret life
It's voodoo that you possess
(Your heaven is danger)
Behind those lucid eyes
The shadow of the serpent lies
Oh Eve
All about Eve
And though the sun goes down
The mortals never know
13 Aching Hunger (04:45)
When I look down into my soul
I can see you bleeding
It’s so tragic that I can’t control
These wreckless feelings
I’d stand naked in the freezing wind
To your glory and honor
But how can I win this war
When I can’t even face the battle
And here in my Garden Of Eden
There’s a coming thunder
Well maybe if it tears me to pieces it will
Kill this aching hunger
And it hurts
You know it hurts so good
Oh it hurts
I said
Maybe in time peace will reign
And end this insanity
Maybe the meek shall inherit the earth
But I pray you inherit me
But now my Garden Of Eden
Is a barren tundra
If you could cut into my heart
You would touch my aching hunger
And it hurts
You know it hurts so good
Oh God it hurts
It hurts
Ya, and I let it burn
Because I like it
I don’t mind the infection
Now it’s comin’ down
It’s comin’ down hard
It’s crashin’ on me
It’s in a twinkle
It’s in a breeze
And it passes
So subtle and elusively
Try to grab it
But it’s gone and the rage that it fires up
Is like a blow torch in your face
And it hurts
Oh it hurts
Yeah, you know it hurts so good
Oh it hurts
14 Brother (05:04)
Brother, I'm in need of a friend
for I am drowning in disarray
And brother, it is on you I depend
to pull me out of this misery
Like a hero I've always seen you
even though I would never say
And through the years
the laughter and the tears
it's you who were strong
in the right and the wrong
a tribute to the world that
blood is thicker than water
I'm tryin' to say that I love you
I'm tryin to say that I need you,
Brother
And father, I'm in need of your hand
so I can face the world bravely
and father, do you understand
what it is you mean to me
Like a warrior you always conquered
every battle you had to face
And through the hard times
when life was a bitter fight
it's you who would give
so unselfish you lived
A tribute to the world that blood
Is thicker than water
I'm tryin' to say that I love you
I'm tryin' to say that I miss you
Oh, father
15 Damn You (04:31)
Suddenly the guilt is written on your face
God only knows how down deep it goes
Nothin left to say in this pitiful state
I'm takin' the shame out on a song
I need to settle down maybe
Take some pity on myself
Damn you, I said damn
My mind is better off dead
Damn you, I said damn
Who are these voices in my head
Someone poured cold cement in your soul
And now all the beautiful colors are turning to gray
I notice you're happy only when you're miserable
(like some other people I know)
You love to eat your heart out just for the taste
We bleed so preciously, baby
Hopeless refugees of war
Damn you, I said damn
My mind is better off dead
Damn you, I said damn
Oh, God, I feel like I'm shot in the head
Into the air and into the lungs
And then down under the skin
Sweetly feeding the blood becoming
Part of the flesh part of the bone
Becoming the brain & blackening the soul
Hip hip hip boom boom way to go
I got a brand new me I don't even know
Before I get a little sick or a
Little cold, there's just one thing that you should know
We scream so desperately, baby
Choking on the words as they fall
Damn you I said damn
My mind is better off dead
Damn you I said
I can't stop these feelings
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By jettojet
Steve Vai dedicated his immense talent to experimentation and the continuous search for new horizons to cross.
"Warm Regards" is the real icing on the cake; a lesson of style and class in a crescendo of true and intense emotions.
