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Reviewing a work by Steve Vai inevitably requires great attention in following all his artistic evolutions and the ability to give a judgment as objective as possible, beyond one's own legitimate musical preferences.
Just like his greatest masters, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix, Vai dedicated his immense talent to experimentation and the continuous search for new horizons to cross, almost as if to challenge himself, constantly questioning himself, never resting on canonical patterns, easily impactful virtuosity, predictable melodies, and immediate consumption.
And so, after a baptism of fire with Zappa, where in addition to being his most brilliant student, he also got to earn the title of "transcriber of impossible pieces", he began a career devoted to change and marked by a guitar without limits or boundaries, moving from "Flexable" to the encounter-clash with the great neoclassicism of Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz, from the glorious years with Diamond Dave Lee Roth to the collaboration with Whitesnake of Coverdale, and then returning to his beloved solo career, with the quintessential fusion masterpiece "Passion and Warfare" and many other works, including the fundamental contribution to Joe Satriani's G3 project.
In 1996, the album titled "Fire Garden" was released, which in reality can rightly be considered a double CD enclosed in one, with over 74 minutes of music, with a further double division into "phase 1" consisting of nine entirely instrumental tracks and "phase 2" with all vocal parts except for the eighteenth episode, "Warm Regards", which is entirely instrumental and one of the most intense and brilliant moments of the entire work.
It starts with a rather aggressive beginning, given by "There's a Fire In The House", which reaffirms in the title the presence of fire as the dominant natural element, and then moves to more meditative and introspective sounds; "The Crying Machine", "Dyin' Day" and "Hand On Heart" offer the listener, in a holistic perspective, the evolution that Steve Vai has matured over a long career and represent the most shining examples of how now the word "feeling" is in total symbiosis with the innate technical and virtuosic abilities, pervading and setting the soul and heart on fire with infinite velvety emotions.
But Steve's creative flair is great, as we know, and it often takes him very far, almost like a modern-day Ulysses on a journey to cross the "Pillars of Hercules," and the horizon of the "Fire Garden" magically moves to the deep East of "Bangkok", a fine sound carpet that introduces, to conclude the first phase, the powerful "Fire Garden Suite", a piece of absolute genius and nonconformity, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most ambitious of his entire musical journey. The second part of this work sees a Steve Vai also as a vocalist and, unlike many other guitarists, he shows a certain inclination to express his own songs even through his vocal cords; guitar and voice merge, giving life to songs of strong impact and pathos, like "Little Alligator" or even more "Brother" where Hendrixian reminiscences find their highest representation in an absolutely personal and modern interpretation, or the sweet and enticing, almost American-like "All About Eve", but "Warm Regards" is the real icing on the cake; we return to 4 minutes of masterfully interpreted guitar, a lesson of style and class in a crescendo of true and intense emotions, to listen, love, and perhaps dream a little: ladies and gentlemen, this is Steve Vai!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
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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