Anyone ever heard of him? He is a guitar god in the guitar world. I just saw a clip of him in the movie Crossroads (no, not the abysmal Britney Spears movie). He was in a guitar duel and all I can say is Holy Jesus this man can play the guitar. If you ever hear his song "The riddle" he is playing 20 notes a second in certain parts....20 fucking notes a second...goddamn. He isn't a mainstream guitarist but he is well known. Anyone hear his stuff or a fan of him? The sad and amazing part is that he isn't even the fastest guitar player I have seen in action. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Steve Vai is a remarkably talented musician. If you want to check out some of his music I would sugguest "Alien Love Secrets". Its one of his best albums and his son makes a small apperance on "Ya-Yo Gakk" hehhe. If you like him then you also would probably like Joe Satriana. He is just as talented if not more than Steve Vai.
Fast player, for sure. I never liked his guitar tone-kind of a buzzy chorused/distorto buzzz and a knock off of Eddie Van Halen's sound. I saw him on a Les Paul tribute special, the stage was full of guitar players and when Via took his solo he was the only one that didnt sound good. Everyone else cut through the mix. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Rambling on about nothing Notes on Vai and 1980s/90s guitarists • Vai played behind David Lee Roth for a few years; he did some great work there. • Roth's solo bassist Billy Sheehan would eventually form a band with a technical instructor named Paul Gilbert, who was hailed by guitarists for his work; that band included longtime studio property Eric Martin, and was called Mr. Big. • Gilbert was part of a movement of guitarists, including names like Greg Howe, who got lost in the shuffle, much like a miniature grunge phenomenon. • A bunch of those guitarists went through Alcatrazz Records; the best-known Alcatrazz name is Yngwie J. Malmsteen • Vai is part of an echelon of guitarists that transcended all of that: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Eric Johnson. • Vai is the sore thumb on the G7 tour album • The fastest guitar performances I can think of other than Vai's "Riddle", and that don't include using a power drill, are Malmsteen's "I Am A Viking" (slightly slower) and The Great Kat's cut of "Flight of the Bumble-Bee" (at one point acknowledged as the fastest guitar solo in the world). I've never done enough research and downloading or buying of music to make a complete critical study out of that period, fans of 1980s and 90s guitarists should pay attention to the late Randy Rhodes (whose "Mr. Crowley" solo would be stolen almost outright by Kee Marcello and Europe ("The Final Countdown"), and also a couple of guys named Andy LaRocque and Pete Blakk, who played (and still play, I believe) behind King Diamond. (You have to get past the vocals.) Some folks recently voted "Sweet Child O'Mine" (GnR) the best guitar riff ever, but it was identified around '89 by a writer for GfTPM as a known Rennaisance-era arpeggio. Most likely, it's an accidental coincidence, so I'm just going to chuckle at how people went for the pop appeal. (Soundgarden's "Loud Love" is a better lead, as are others that did place in the poll. See BBC News online for an article and the top twenty.) At any rate, download some of the David Lee Roth songs ... "Living in Paradise," "Crazy From the Heat," and such. I think it's "Paradise" that has Vai doing a great "talking guitar" part that doesn't involve a vox-box. Also, note the lack of George Harrison songs from the poll result in the BBC article.
This has become a favorite of every advanced guitar player to practice. It isn't as hard as other solos because this one is mostly chromatic runs. Just a matter of time and effort. Hopefully he is. He thought Steve Vai how to play the guitar and Kirk Hamett.
As has been stated before, Steve Vai is an incredibly fast player, but it seems he has no real style, no soul to his playing. If just like to hear notes played fast and furious, then by all means Vai's your man. But if you want to hear something good, try someone who plays slower but better. Take Muddy Waters for instance, he doesn't play lightning fast solos, but his music speaks, it cries, it says something. Vai just kinda says "What you can't hear me? Well, let me turn it up." He's an excellent example of a fastidious player that is too good to become a true star. He's studio musician material. Crossroads was a killer movie, by the way. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. As Sarge said, it's not the one with Brittany Spears. I notice Sarge didn't say who the real star was, perhaps he's ashamed to have watched a Ralph Machio movie and enjoyed it? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The movie probably would have been better with someone beside Chachi, but even so, it's excellent. It's a variant of the Robert Johnson at the crossroads story. It's about Blind Dog Fulton, aka Willie Brown, a friend of Robert's mentioned in the song. "You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown." After Robert sold his soul for his amazing gift of guitar playing, Willie went down to the crossroads to learn to play harmonica of all things. Machio finds him in a nursing him years later, puzzles out his true identity, and talks him into teaching him the blues. All he has to do is break Willie out of the nursing home and get him back to the crossroads to try to get his soul back. Steve Vai is the devil's axe man. Needless to say Machio "Lightning Boy" kicks his ass. Obviously, I love this movie.
If you want lightning fast with no fuzzboxes foolishness mucking up the tone go for the Jimmy Bryant/Speedy West and Joe Maphis cd's that were recorded live in the studio in the early 1950's. Just Fender telecaster plugged into a tweed twin and jawdropping talent.
What are Steve's best work or one of his best? And Lard do you agree that Jason Becker is the fastest or do you someone else?
I disagree. His music is definetly on the weird side. His style is just different from what you prefer. His technique and style is different and something you may not like, but that does not take away fro mthe fact he can play and compose very well. Listen to "For the love of god" or "feathers" for more emotional, slower stuff. With that said he is kind of a show hog. I saw his video of him playing "Bad horsie" and man was he tricked out in cybernetic/punk gear with lasers on his fingers and a neon light tricked out guitar. Jimi Hendrix does that for me. I haven't seen the movie either. Just the duel. I didn't know who anyone was in the movie except Steve Vai. BTW is that Ralp Machio playing the guitar himself? I doubt an actor worked that hard for a role. I'll quote someone on another forums who had this to say about Jason Becker. "Jason Becker came down to Earth 4,000 years ago. He practiced for 3,999 years and in the last year he showed everyone off" He is unhuman. Yup. He showed up at Satriani's house at the age of 13 with guitar in one hand and strings in other and rest is history.
I agree. It's all relative. I must admit that I've not heard much from him either. I remember when "The audience is listening" came out in the late 80's. That and the crossroads action is probably about all I've really heard. I have heard that he did play the guitar for the movie, but I doubt if he played all of it. Supposedly he had been taking guitar lessons since he was a little kid, but some of the stuff he played seemed to intense to be really him. A lot of what he played you could tell was him, it wasn't all that great. Then they'd have Blind Dog come in with his harp and make it sound better. I think that I heard somewhere that Vai actually played the classical bit he did at the end. Don't have a clue where I heard this though. I probably looked it up on the web after watching the movie again one time. Me too, but Hendrix owes his stuf to Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy and the other old greats. Hendrix just cranked up the distortion. What's sad about Jimi is that when he finally started to differentiate into an original style the audience hated it. They boo'd him off the stage. Latter day hippies were brutal. I used to hate jazz and progressive styles of music until I started to learn the guitar. You realize just how much formula is involved in popular music. Spitting out the same old riffs over and over. As a musician you get bored. Speaking of breaking style and fast players, I think Frank Zappa has got to be included in the list. His playing was phenomenal. The thing that's hard to take about Zappa is that he's so good, he doesn't take his music seriously (that's not quite right, I'm sure he was serious, but in a playful manner). It's difficult to just sit and jam out to Zappa for any length of time.
No, that would be Yankee Rose! As for the rest of your post is there some sort of point? If so I've missed it... There is and has been so many good guitarists I think it's impossible to elevate just 1 person to the top.
