Satch and/or Vai
(photo: guitarworld.com)
The latest issue of Guitar World hits the stands today with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on the cover, revealing something that I never fully comprehended: These are two different guys. I don’t mean that their seemingly congruent styles - which Guitar World credits with launching the shred boom twenty years ago - are actually quite distinct. I mean that they are not, in fact, the same person. This is a Clark Kent/Superman type of realization.
Ok, I knew . . . but just barely. It wasn’t a fully-formed differentiation. Like when Billy Joel released Piano Man; I was still too young to appreciate the distinction between the artist and his creation. Was Billy Joel the Piano Man in real life? Was it a nickname? And which one has his face on the album cover?!
Truth is, I just never got into guitar instrumentalists, even of the Satch/Vai calibur. I had heard Satriani’s Surfing with the Alien somewhere along the way, and had been duly impressed. But I was a singer before a guitarist, and always a tad bored waiting for the lyrics to begin.
Condemn my ignorance if you must, but GW documents the duo’s Doppelgangerosity: “Vai and Satriani’s careers have been closely intertwined from the beginning. They grew up together . . . Satriani was Vai’s guitar teacher and mentor.” Vai, the younger by only a few years, was Satriani’s frequent touring partner. (Let’s face it: Satch probably went chrome dome just so fans could tell them apart.)
The October 2007 issue of Guitar World: on newsstands and paying tribute to the “separate but equally brilliant careers” of Satch & Vai.
Next they’ll tell me that Yngwie Malmsteen exists.
Sphere: Related Contentguitarblog @ July 31, 2007
Sorry so late responding here. This is funny stuff! Those guys are like tweedle dee and tweedle dum, building their empires together. Vai has taken Favored Nations into the Cinema now with “Crazy”, the Hank Garland bio.
Although their phrasing and approaches are similar (I know their bio), Satch always had a much fatter tone, and Vai’s borders on anemic to my taste, unless he’s using octave-harmonizer. At least they can play well together and won’t cancel each other out.
How many Guitar World covers have they made? Only to be rivaled by Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston on People Magazine covers.
Maybe if GW were a weekly rag…