Page 10
Satriani steps to the mike
Guitar wizard adds vocals to his music
by Rob Farnham
Collegian Staff Writer
Guitarists seem to think that
Joe Satriani can play a little. In a
recent reader's poll in one of the
metalhead magazines, he was
voted Best Overall and Best Rock
Guitarist, and his Grammy
nominated 1987 release. Surfing
with the Alien, came in second
only to Van Halcn's debut in the
voting for Best Guitar Album of
the Past Twenty Years.
He teaches too: On occasion,
Satriani has given lessons to
such illustrious chord-crunchers
as Metallica's Kirk Hammett and
Whitesnake's Steve Vai. Yes, Joe
knows guitar. But does he know
vocals? That's the question raised
by his new album, Flying in a
Blue Dream, on which he sings
lead for the first time in his solo
career.
Satriani has some previous
experience around microphones,
as he sang backup on Crowded
House's first album and played
several years with the Squares, a
Berkeley-based power-pop group,
before going solo as an
instrumentalist in 1986. But is
he sacrificing the strength of his
powerfully melodic compositions
by setting words to them?
Guitar purists can lake some
comfort in the fact that only six
of Flying's 18 tracks contain
vocals: Satriani is basing
cautiously into more
conventional song structures,
with varying, but generally
positive, results.
The first single, "Big Bad
Moon," runs on a hard-distortion
blues-rock riff and some squalling
slide guitar and harmonica leads
by Satriani. Think of it as CCR's
"Bad Moon Rising” on steroids.
Lyrically, Satriani sticks
mostly with standard hard-rock
Liner
(continued from page 8)
.iegin in early September. The
movie, scheduled for completion
by May 1991, will return
Sigourney Weaver to her leading
role.
• Pop icon David Bowie will Michelle Pfeiffer should figure
receive a star on the Hollywood prominently for the Best Actress
Walk of Fame on March 16. award.
• Wrestler Hulk Hogan has • Rumors abound that the
negotiated a deal with Disney to marriage between entrepreneur
appeaf Ift feature films. Before . Donald Trump and his wife of
you laugh, think about the 12 years Ivana is about to end.
possibilities* How about a film Ivana might be acting just a I
in thfi style of Who Frame little greedy, considering she Has
Roger Mabbit? in which Hogan ‘ r<sfi|sed a settlement which
takes Jjjffme seven dwarves in a would have entitled her 16 $25
cagcjmgh? -- ‘ * mil*' — and a C6nncCt(chit
• aC&RotUng Stones hope
to tdSßKgitiens director Ridley. Lowe's firstfihn smee
ScoWm* a f<l m about thci£. his summer videotape wawWvf'
Tour. Liilcrf
90 riQßjjk. piece will include' will open on March
and backstage 9. In other news,
intcrtjP«ftrwcl 1 as a graphic*,. } co-stars Demi MoSesST
presentation. James Belushi have expressed
• TrSjnominations for the interest in a sequel to ...About
62nd mmrtf Academy Awards If st Night.
topics. For instance, he twice
sings about driving fast, first in a
car ("Can’t Slow Down”) and
then on his motorcycle ("Ride").
"I Believe" is a statement of
humanistic faith ("I bclicvc/We
can change anything”), redeemed
from the saccharine sweetness of
its lyrics largely by the sincere
intensity in the chorus. He gets
away with some cliched imagery
in "Strange," thanks to a
stuttering funk-jazz guitar and
hesitation beat that provide an
appropriate sense of oddness.
The funniest lyrics are those
of "The Phone Call," a bizarrely
bitter breakup song featuring the
couplet, "Well, you look like a
yuppie and that's too bad/Yeah, it
used to be funny but now it's
sad," and a chorus which makes a
declaration of unapologetic
selfishness, "You know I don’t
want what you want/I want what
I want.”
Satriani's voice, while
unspectacular, is at least pleasant,
although he could benefit from
improvements in his phrasing.
His singing seems strongest
when he pushes himself a little,
as on the chorus of ”1 Believe."
Thankfully, though, he avoids
the ear-piercing upper-register
histrionics to which heavy-metal
vocalists often succumb.
Meanwhile, the best of the
twelve instrumentals, especially
the soaring title track and the
cryptically titled chordal-fuzz
workout of "The Mystical Potato
Head Groove Thing,” are as good
as anything on Surfing.
However, the nearly 65 minutes
of Flying do contain some filler,
such as "Day at the Beach (New
Rays from an Ancient Sun)" and
"The Forgotten (Part One)," both
essentially finger exercises with
echo, and "The Feeling," a
pointless 52-second banjo
Notes
should be announced today,
Look for the nominations to
focus around the films Born on
the Fourth of July and Driving
Miss Daisy. Tom Cruise should
anchor the competition for Best
Actor, while Jessica Tandy and
instrumental. The weakest cuts
lend to be the shortest, though.
Satriani is not an
overwhelmingly innovative
player, and there's no single
tcchiniquc he employs that hasn't
been heard elsewhere, but he is a
gifted synlhcsist. He borrows
from players in all genres,
combining styles from jazz,
funk, metal, classical, and blues
into his own imposing wall of
sound. He plays with intelligence
and in control, rarely slipping
into the trap of spccd-for its-own
sake in his solos, and usually
resisting the temptation to bury a
melody beneath the flash and
filigree of undirected technique.
While his lyrics aren't terribly
distinguished, he has incorporated
vocals into his new work better
than most guilar-slingers are able
to. If he ever becomes as
accomplished a songwriter as he
is a guitarist, he'll be quite
overwhelming.
For the moment. Flying in a
Blue Dream is a tremendous
success as a guitar album, and a
fairly auspicious introduction to
Satriani the singer. This
collection can be enjoyed both by
six-string wizards and those who
don’t know a frclboard from a
surfboard.
Tony has made appearances on many local
shows, with an original approach as well
as impersonating the like of Eddie Murphy
■»->rand Bill Cosby.
Thursday, February 22 v 1990
Bpm Reed Lecture Hall , v
Admittance - FREE
The Collegian Wednesday, February 14,1990
Roadhouse Theater
offers triple bill
(continued from page 9)
successful,
Another minor problem was
the way-too-exaggerated plot of
the soap opera. "African sleeping
sickness" and "mvstcrv fetus" are
perhaps distracting, and I felt
forccd-in only for the comic value
that has already been zapped from
such exaggerations by countless
sitcoms and comedians.
However, don't get me wrong.
This was a very strong play,
definitely the one worthy of the
top billing that "Buck Fever"
ultimilcly received. This middle
aged fear worked but was not
undercut by the comedy. The
lines were genuinely funny, but
the looks the actors gave each
other were the real script. I don't
want to set this up 100 big, but I
cannot imagine laughing any
harder at an innocuous line like:
"Do you want a doughnut."
McClelland really nailed the
liming and look.
This play was a fresh turn on
the pop vs. art motif and the mid
life crisis run away and dream
plot. Sid gets a note that a big
Hollywood director wants to talk
to him. She loves "Quest for
Eternity" and read a screen play
pwas 9 mis:
Comedian
TONY POWELL
that Sid wrote on a day he was
home sick.-The plot was all
commercial, and Sid hopes that
she left the message because she
wants to make it into a film.
This is where Ken gets
involved. We learn that this is
not the first wild scheme that Sid
has dragged him into. Sid wants
Ken to help him make the movie
script something more than
commercial (luff. The parallels
between what is going on in the
play and the actual play are
unavoidable. Is playwright Bill
Bozzone just writing plays like
"Buck Fever" and "Breakdown"
for entertainment, or is the
message enough to make the
plays important?
A few people left after the
second play, and that may have
been a good decision. The
director, Kim Me., should have
axed the third play, "Good Honest
Food,” for many reasons. It
didn't fit the theme of the first
two, it made the whole set of
plays run too long and it lacked
any social value at all. It was a
double poke, insulting both poor
and rich without the kind of
compassion that a play like that
needs.