VAI STEVE, PASSION & WARFARE. GUITAR TABLATURE
LIBRO DI MUSICA, SPARTITI PER CHITARRA. ACCORDI, PENTAGRAMMA E TABLATURE
Series: Guitar Recorded Version
From one of the world's truly great guitarists, this book is a matching folio to his acclaimed solo album - all edited by Steve himself! Complete with color photos and an introduction by Steve. Includes 14 songs. Also includes complete drum transcriptions for 'Liberty' and 'Answers.' A must for any Vai fan!
Alien Water Kiss
The Animal
Answers - PARTITURA DI OGNI STRUMENTO
The Audience Is Listening
Ballerina 12/24
Blue Powder
Erotic Nightmares
For The Love Of God
Greasy Kids Stuff
I Would Love To
Liberty - PARTITURA DI OGNI STRUMENTO
Love Secrets
The Riddle
Sisters
224 pages
PASSION AND WARFARE
they would handle my product well.
I'm not at liberty to discuss certain dealings between myself and
. other entities in the music industry, so I can't tell you who paid the
. money back to the Tecord company. I signed a standard recording
artist deal with Capitol Records. It would be an instrumental solo
album. The deal was signed although I didn't have to get to the record
until I decided to leave Roth, and that I did promptly following the
Skyscraper tour.
Then, the Whitesnake offer came in, Now, I knew at this time that I
was going to record Passion and Warfare, and I wasn't going to let
anything stop me. The Whitesnake gig was a perfect opportunity for
me to make a great rock record with some of the finest rock players
in the biz and get out on tour and be a wild man again. I would be
exposed to an audience that may have never heard of me otherwise.
The timing seemed perfect.
I went to Capitol Records and had a meeting with Joe Smith. I
explained to him how beneficial the Whitesnake situation could be for
Passion and Warfare and my career. He was very understanding of the
delays I kept getting myself into, but he wanted me to put a rock hand
together and make a commercial album. He agreed to release my
instrumental album, although he thought it would probably sell about
30-40 thousand units. On a later date, I told this story to the drummer
for Whitesnake. He said he thought that if I didn't join Wh1tesnake my
solo album probably would have sold .30 thousand units. Oh, well, I'm
sure there are people who feel the same could have happened to
Whitesnake if I didn't join them. Both are probably wrong.
I'm not fond of competition. It's like an ugly shadow that can
permeate its gloom over all kinds of business and personal
relationships. Some people say that a little competition is healthy; I
believe they say that because they can't escape that part of their
nature, I should know. I'm probably one of the most subliminally
competitive people I've ever met, and it's distracting.
So, after the Whitesnake guitar parts were recorded, I went to work
on Passion and Warfare. I wanted the project to be extremely
personal, so I hibernated in the Mothership with an occasional
appearance to do a Whitesnakc video. During this time, David
had spent about $72,000 on the record, J had to go to Capttol and explain
again, DUrIng thIs period, Don Crierson left Capitol and Joe Smith
became President Tom Whalley was assigned to be my A&R guy
For those of you who arc not sure what" A&R" stands for, it means
Artist And Repertoire, An A&R person usually signs the hand, and
basically babysits them through a project, if they need it Essentially,
he' Ihe liason between the hand and record company). His iob can
pan the gamut of renegade extremes, From domg nothing to doing
'erything aside from recording :he music himself. Some A&R guys
<illhelp choose the mUSIC,find the nght producer, find musicians,
c.. In one case, I saw an A&R guy go as far as to fly the band
embers in from somc exotic European country, put them up in his
house, pay their doctor, lawyer and dentist extravaganzas, and even
pay for their hair extensions (all to be recouped from the artist by the
record company at a later date of course). That band was very lucky to
have om cone at the label believe in them so strongly I was in a
situation once where an unmentionable A&R person came into the
studio and listened to one of my solos and said "It's great lust take
out all the squeaky notes."
Although I didn't get to work with him much, rfelt pretty fortunate
to have Tom Whalley on my side. rfeel that in any profession there
are posers and there are true profcssion'lls. 1fclt Tom was a pro, if not
for the imple fact that he maintained an air of integrity in an
occupation that can lend itself to indulgent industry perversions.
remember now, the mighty A&R guy is like a majestic holy man in
Hollywood, He's the one that can make all your freakish little rock
'n' roll fantasies an erotic reality and remove all those frustrating
anxieties of failure. He is the entity that has heen graced by God with
the almighty power to [shaH I dare sayl to ... to,.. to... SIGN YOU TO
A RECORD DEAL (Ah, no, gasp!!).
I WENT To Joe SmIth and explained my latest situation. I was going to
Do another David Lee Roth alhum ISkyscraper\ and tour Capitol
agreed to release me from the solo album deal if I paid b,ICk the
$72000 and igned a deal to release a solo album with them
whener I decided to leave the David Lee Roth band. That wa
actually fine with me because I felt Capitol was a great label and that
Coyerdak WilSrecllrding the m,lSSIV(' vm:;lls of "Sltp of the Tongue,"
and then thl'y mixed th,' r('lord
In order to retain as mueh cr(";ltIve CllntrlOl;J',
po"slhk, I deuded tn
iInilnC,' the prolect mysdl ;lnd get rl'lmhllrvd hy tl1l' Iahcl Iatl'r
Yeah, tight I
I was nearing completion, so [ t:illkd mv 1\&R f'l'tSon at the record
company to come on hy and take a IlStell. H,' seemed genuindy
l:XCltedami went to the 1,111\.'1 to start getting them In gear tor release.
At the lime, the record comf'any was ,l;Oll1gthrow:h some changes,
Among some oi the changes \·,;asthe departure of David Berman and
Tom Whalley. I didn't hear hack from the company, so I kept calling
When I fmally gOt through, I was given a Ilumber to call to contact
my new A&R guy.
ow, like [ was saying hefore, the A&R person is the onc who sticks
with the b.md and tries to help creatively, personally, or any way they
can. They arc the link to the l,lbcL They go to the bbel and fight iar
the b,md, help coordinate all financing involving tour upport,
advances, budgets and a host of other nightmares. They're the ones
who keep an eye on radio and promoters (independent and notl.
They're the ones who make sure everyone at the Iahel is doing their
best for the band: is the record in the store? What arc the numbers
(record sales)? Do the radiO statiOIlShave the music' etc..
The A&R guy really has to love IIle music and believe in the band.
That's why he's the ARTISTS REPRESENTATlVE.
My new A&R guy seemed pretty unenthusi;lStic about illYmusic ,lIld
the deal started changing. At tillS point, I felt it best that I amicably
pan with the label.
ow, I will say this - for many ,mists, Clpitol records has heen a fmc
label. They've been very supportiw of many popular acts They arc a
'uccessful and iine ma/of labd and being such, they arc concerned
with then artists. Hut a completcly inSltllmentil!, nl)J1-cl1J11J11encal
alhum iroJ11a f,'1JII;Jr gu(:: "\'Ve1l,wc don't know ahout lh;ll." [In a
di orientedW3Y, I J:UessI don't blame thelll fm being cautious. I
I believe the experiences I had Me prelly typlcJI 1I1this busillcss.
ome 'ituations arc worse than others. Thnc arc horror storics.
Throu~ all this Hollywood mdusrrv hoopla I nl'\Tr hJd il manager,
but I was very fortunate to come across Gerry Rosenblatt. Gerry is a
fantastic lawyer who dealt with all this weird stuff I kept hoisting
myself into. He actually kept me financially ahead of the game, too.
The best advice I ever received from anybody about my career was
from Frank Zappa when he said, IIGet a good lawyer and retain all
your publishing.1/ Gerry was recommended to me by Frank.
I wasn't quite sure what I was gonna do but I wasn't worried. I knew
something would happen. Some labels started calling and were
interested in signing me, though I was very nervous about major
labels. With all good intentions, this record needed special handling
and someone who believed in it.
I was still dealing with Cliff Culteri at Relativity Records on behalf of
my album Flex-Able, He was the one who believed in Flex-Able from
the beginning. Relativity had a lot of success with Joe Satriani so I
know they could handle it properly plus I couldn't think of anyone
who I'd rather hand Passion and Warfare to than Cliff CulterL So
there you have it and there you have it.
Although some of this may sound depressing, the majority of it was
incredibly rewarding. I really love the fact that I have the opportunity
to create music that means so much to me and then actually have
people hear it and enjoy it. This is a feeling I hope all struggling
musiclans will experience sometime. I'm intensely happy with the
way everything turned out, and I really just like to complain because
in a weird twisted sort of way, I find a pathetic amusement to all the
whoop-doop-dee-doo. I hope you do too bcc<luse if by chance you're a
serious musician, you might have to go through some not so pleasant
situations too, and if you take them too seriously, you'll be miserable
and probably get cancer or something. I would do it all over again for
a product like Passion and Warfare (and I'm sure I'll have to).
I worked exclusively on my own when it came to PAW, with the
exception of some fine musicians, Stu Hamm on bass who also
appears on Flex-Able and Leftovers. I met Stu in Boston at Berklee
College of Musk where we had a band together called Axis.
Chris Frazier on drums, fantastic young smasher. Tris Emboden on
drums and Dave Rosenthal on keys, all of whom it was absolutely my
privilege to work with.
The conglomeration of equipment used on the album could choke an
elephant.
AMPS:
a. Seven different Marshall 100 watt heads were used throughout the recordings, all moded by Jose Arrendondo. They were run differently at different times for a desired effect. Sometimes I went out of the line level to the Bradshaw Rack, and sometimes it was just directly out of the head into the cabs. On the tune "Liberty," a specially made direct box was constructed for me by Steve Firlotte. It utilizes an old transformer I had laying around. It's extremely clean and useful.
b. Carvin pre amp
c. Rockman stereo rack mount pre amp
d. ADA pre amp
e. Direct into Massenburg mic pres
Direct into API pre amp
Direct into Neve AD80 pre amp
h. Marshall power amp 9000
i. Mesa boogie power amp, Strat 400
j. Fender Deluxe reverb amp
Roland Jazz Chorus
L Marshall pre amp
GUITARS:
a. Three Ibanez Universe 7 String Guitars - black, white, and psycho-colored. On the tune "Liberty," the Black 7-String Universe was used on all distorted sounds such as melodies and harmonizer.
b. Ibanez Jem 7, 77 and 777
. Guild 12- and 6-String acoustics. On the tune "Liberty," A Guild
coustic with direct mic'ing was used
Choral Sitar
e. B.e. Rich Double Neck
Tom Anderson custom guitar
Charvel Green Meanie
rooT PEDALS:
C Baby Wah Wah, MXR Distortion, Boss Super Overdrive, MXR
Phase 90, MXR Phase 100, MXR Flanger, Maestro Phase Shifter,
_(ution Bi Phase, some others I can't remember.
BOBBRADSHAWRACK:
On occasion I went through my rack. If I used a piece of gear either
coming into the console to be recorded, or in the mix, it was one of
these many pieces:
Rack - 2 Eventide H-3000 Harmonizers
2 Yamaha 1500 delays
1 T.e. Electronics Stereo Chorus
1 T.e. Electronics Signal Processor 2290
1 Drawmer Dual Gate
2 SPX 90's (Yamaha)
2 Roland SDE 3000's
2 Eventide 969 Harmonizers
OUTBOARD GEAR IN STUDIO RACK USED ON GUITAR:
a. Lexicon 480L
b. Neve Compressor Limiter
c. Urei compressor Limiters
d. Yamaha Rev 7, Rev 1 and Rev 5
e. MXR Rack Mount Phaser and Flanger
f. A Partridge In A Pear Tree
OUTBOARD EQUALIZERS:
API, Neve 4 Band, Massenburg, Yamaha Graphic, Pultec
STRINGS;
The only ones I'm sure of are for the 7-String. Normal D'Addario or
Gibson. Gauge: 42·10 with a 53 on the bottom 7th string.
CABINETS (SPEAKERS):
2 - 4 by 12" cabinets housing 30 watt celestians.
MICS:
Senhouser 421 and Sure 57s, close mic'd on amps, 414 AKG on the
acoustic guitar.
2. BALLERINA 12/24 RAP
This piece is performed with the use of the Eventide H-3000
harmonizer. A stereo harmonizing delay program is set. There are
echos, the first being 180 ms (one sixteenth note) and sounding a
major 6th higher. The second delay is set to 360 ms (one eighth note
and is sounding a perfect 4th higher than the original. The two
delayed harmonized signals are panned left and right respectively.
The part is played in an 8th note fashion to the delays. The actual
noted pan is the performance pan of the original th (The dry guitar .
Italiano
English
