I talk about Joe Satriani a lot in this blog. Some of you may ask, how does he inspire me? Well for one, this guy makes me want to play better. Everyone sees him as a virtuoso and shredder type of player, he is, but he is way more than that. The guy is also a songwriter when he plays guitar.

No matter what Satch does in his career, “Surfing With the Alien” will always be the best thing he has done. That album means so much to me for a lot of reasons and that album helped me get motivated to play guitar in the beginning. Nothing will top “Surfing With the Alien”. It’s such an incredible album, I’ll never get tired of listening to it. I’ve always believed that if you’re a guitar player and if you haven’t heard that album yet, you’re not a true guitar player. Every guitar player should have listened to that album at some point.

I do buy Satch’s other albums and I buy his stuff with Chickenfoot, but like I said before, nothing will top, “Alien”. Satch’s other solo albums are pretty good, but he too has been staying away from the hard rock/shred instrumental that he’s known for. He’s been making a lot of electronica music lately. I haven’t been buying his newer albums lately though. His change of direction doesn’t interest me. I want him to go back to the Satch that we knew him before.

Honestly though, I don’t think he’ll ever make a good album as good as “Alien”, ever again though, even if “Crystal Planet” came pretty close to it.

Satch is great. He makes everyone want to play guitar. I had the opportunity to see him in concert one year and I’ll never forget that show. It was a blast seeing him. That “Alien” album is part of what made me want to become a musician and hopefully someday play like him.

Kev

Musician Birthdays: Mickey Dolenz (singer of the Monkees, famous for hits “I’m a Believer”, “Last Train to Clarksville”, etc. Born in 1945)

– In 1962: The Beatles made their radio debut on the BBC’s ‘Teenagers Turn’, (Here We Go), singing Roy Orbison’s ‘Dream Baby’. It was reportedly the first time they wore suits onstage.

– In 1965: David Bowie made his TV debut with The Manish Boys on a UK program called ‘Gadzooks! It’s All Happening’ when they performed their current single ‘I Pity The Fool.’

– In 1965: Bob Dylan’s single ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ was released in the US. The lead track from his Bringing It All Back Home album, gave Dylan his first top 40 hit on the Billboard chart when it peaked #39. Subterranean Homesick Blues is also noted for its innovative film clip, in what became one of the first ‘modern’ promotional film clips, the forerunner of what later became known as the music video. The clip was shot in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London, the cue cards which Dylan holds were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. While staring at the camera, he flips the cards as the song plays. There are intentional misspellings and puns throughout the clip.

– In 1966: Bob Dylan recorded ‘Just Like A Woman’ for his ‘Blonde On Blonde’ album at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

– In 1968: Albert King, Janis Joplin and Tim Buckley appeared at New York’s Filmore East, New York.

– In 1969: The Small Faces split up after singer Steve Marriott announced he was leaving the band. Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones linked up with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and formed The Faces.

– In 1973: Ron Mckernan, keyboard player with The Grateful Dead, died aged 27 from liver failure brought on by alcohol poisoning.

– In 1973: Paul McCartney was fined £100 ($170) for growing cannabis at his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland. McCartney claimed some fans gave the seeds to him and that he didn’t know what they would grow.

– In 1975: Olivia Newton-John went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Have You Ever Been Mellow’, the singers second US No.1.

– In 1986: Whitney Houston went to No.1 on the US album chart with her self-titled album. It spent a total of 14 weeks at the No.1 position.

– In 1990: Cher won the worst dressed female, and worst video for ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’, in The Rolling Stone Magazine’s awards, Donny Osmond won the most unwelcome comeback award.

– In 2003: Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was injured when the Honda motorbike he was riding was involved in a collision with a Fiat Punto car. The 53-year-old singer and guitarist suffered a broken collar bone and six broken ribs in the accident which happened in London’s smart Belgravia district in mid-morning traffic.

– In 2009: A blue plaque in honour of The Who drummer Keith Moon was unveiled on the site of the Marquee Club in Soho, London, where in 1964 the band played the first of 29 gigs there. Fans on scooters turned up to pay tribute to Moon, who was 32 when he died of an accidental overdose in 1978. The blue plaque, which means the site is of historic importance, was awarded by the Heritage Foundation.