"Surfing With the Alien" appreciation thread

[Drew]

So, Satch's newest, "Super Collossal," seemed like kind of a letdown to me, so I dug out my copy of Surfing to try to put it into perspective. And, oh my fucking god... The production on this one'd always bothered me and sounded a little dated, but after a well-produced but uninspired Satriani album, the guitar performances and songwriting on this disc are positively jaw-dropping.

I will now ask everyone who owns a copy of this disc to go, give it a spin, come back here, and post about how truely brilliant it is.

Right now, I'm just wishing I had written "Echo."

 

[BCrowell]

YES YES! Praise to the RWTA album! GENIOUS! ....and I still can't play satch boogie to this day!

Time Machine was the first album I bought of his, and soon bought RWTA & The extremist... truely brilliant work, and thus the wall mural...

 

[Freddie]

Satch is the most amazing guitar player ever IMHO. The fact that he has gotten tired of doing the same thing over and over again and is now taking his music in a different direction should not be a reason to discredit him I think.

It is something that I've seen happen with countless artists: Vai, Dream Theater, Aerosmith, Stratovarius, Limp Bizkit, Michael Jackson and who knows how many others.... Most of the times I agree with the rest of the people: I DO prefer the older Satriani and Dream Theater albums cuz that's how I knew them and don't want them to start doing something different cuz that's not them TO ME. But hey, they are artists who constantly grow and need to change the way they interact with music so it's only natural for that to happen and we shouldn't judge too roughly.

That said, SWTA is an amazing album and probably the best guitar instrumental ever.

 

[jakeskylyr]

Indeed. Satriani is the frickin' man, and Surfing is among his best work ever. Probably my #1 favorite guitar album of all time. There are not enough adjectives....

 

[David]

He is one hairy guy, haha

I still haven't heard this album, but it's sparking me to just drive out and buy it this second.

 

[Digital Black]

SWTA was indeed excellent, but Flying In a Blue Dream was the first I ever heard and the album that pulled me in. Crystal Planet was the finest ever!

 

[Nik]

Good call- "Surfing With the Alien" is my fave Satch album, and if I had to compile a list of the 10 greatest rock albums ever I'd probably tack in there because Satch was such an innovator for his time and he greatly contributed to the art of modern guitar

 

[Nats]

Not only is Surfing a great album, it's great driving music too

 

[jacksonplayer]

SFTA literally changed my life, as I said in another thread. It instantly changed the way I wrote music, practiced, and thought about the guitar. I still have to be careful not to throw Satriani-isms into my playing even all these years later. What I love about SFTA is how well it works as music, not just as great guitar playing. I think that's why it caught on with the mainstream public, and not just guitarheads.

 

[Leon]

the first G3 disc was my first $15 into the world of Satch. from there, i bought up his entire catalogue, and have been grabbing his albums since. the new one is on it's way here.

so far, my personal favorite is his 1995 self-titled. If, Down Down Down, and Killer Bee Bop twist me into knots everytime i hear them.

 

[Shawn]

Great album. I love his solo in Crushing Day, it is mindblowing, Lords Of Karma is my favorite though, it's hard to choose the best song off this album.

I heard Flying In A Blue Dream before I heard this album though. So I didn't hear this album until late 1991 and still to this day, it amazes me how good Joe was, not that he still isn't but his new cd can't compare to this classic album. Shit, even his playing on Driving At Night off Not Of This Earth is mindblowing still to this day...

 

[FoxMustang]

One of my favorite live performance vids ever:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1296053052279916015&q=satriani

 

[Shawn]

One of my favorite live performance vids ever:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1296053052279916015&q=satriani

Nice, that's from Live in SF, great DVD.

 

[7stringninja]

This is easily one of the most influential albums of my guitar-filled life.


I remember my dad having this on Vinyl, infact he still does. And then I got it for cassette when I was WAAAY young.

I still listen to it almost weekly.

 

[Ken]

One of my favorite live performance vids ever:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1296053052279916015&q=satriani

X 18239749. Never seen that before. Damn! That was killer.

 

[Richardscuro]

I will now ask everyone who owns a copy of this disc to go, give it a spin, come back here, and post about how truely brilliant it is.

Right now, I'm just wishing I had written "Echo."

That is such an awesome idea Drew. You are the man.

I agree with you "Echo" is probably one of my favorites from that album.

"Clouds Race Across the Sky" is my all time favorite by him. The song is just so magical to me.

 

[Freddie]

Nice, that's from Live in SF, great DVD.

Mhhhh. That's not Live in SF. I have both the DVD and that file as an avi in my Mac and they don't look anything alike. they are both awesome though.

 

[Shannon]

SWTA is the quintessential Satch album. Although I've heard every CD, SWTA & G3 are the only ones that made it to my collection. That's the best of the best right there.

 

[eleven59]

Mhhhh. That's not Live in SF. I have both the DVD and that file as an avi in my Mac and they don't look anything alike. they are both awesome though.

Good call, that's definitely not Live in SF. I believe this one's from some European TV appearance or something. I used to have a video from this same show of "Satch Boogie".

 

[Toshiro]

\m/ Circles \m/