Satch of This Earth

I've got a very hairy chest....

Around 1986 or '87 I became aware of a young man named Joe Satriani. There was a write-up about his debut album, Not of this Earth, in one of the guitar magazines. He was hailed as some sort of wunderkind on the guitar, but was such a newcomer to the recording industry that hardly a soul knew who the heck he was. It wasn't until '87, when his sophomore album Surfing With the Alien dropped, that I finally got to hear what Satriani was all about.

And wow - mind-blowing guitar playing like I'd never heard before! Not only was Satch prodigious on the instrument, but he had a solid handle on songwriting and studio production. Not only was he technically jaw-dropping, but his all-instrumental pieces worked beautifully as hum-able, radio-friendly music - despite the fact that there were no vocals and the guitar pyrotechnics frequently soared into the stratosphere - often very off-putting for non-musician folks. 

But Satriani immediately caught the ears of every hard rock and metal fan and musician on this Earth. He became a guitar god virtually overnight... though I'm sure years of wood-shedding got him to that point. And the eye-catching album cover of Surfing, showing a colourful image of Marvel Comics' character Silver Surfer, certainly gave this disc an edge over more staid artwork on other new releases on store shelves. Now that Satriani had established himself within the music world, fans sought out his first and more elusive album Not of this Earth. I was fortunate enough to find it first on cassette, and then a bit later on CD. 

When I got to see Satch in a 1990 concert, he was touring on the heels of his latest effort Flying in a Blue Dream. While this disc offered yet another stunning display of guitar wizardry, it was slightly marred by Satriani's attempts at singing. Weak in the vocal department, to say the least. Those songs, had they been instrumentals, would have stood up quite nicely on their own merit, but for some reason, somebody thought singing was a good idea. But no matter, the meat of the album is highly entertaining. Highlights are the title track, Back to Shalla-Bal, The Forgotten, and The Bells of Lal.

In concert, Satriani covered key tracks from each of his albums, ensuring a pleased audience. He delighted us with several songs off the Surfing album, which to this day, remains his most powerful and masterful recording. Satch's live show was electric.... it was still hard to believe he could play that way, even while watching his fingers fly over the fretboard. It was a basic trio, just him, a bassist and a drummer, so he had to rely on some electronic trickery to fill in some of the guitar rhythms while he played more complex passages over top. Still, he is just one guy.And I think that another guitarist onstage might have felt weird. 

We are not worthy.....