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Topic ClosedIs Steve Vai prog?

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Poll Question: Is Steve Vai prog?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
24 [36.92%]
39 [60.00%]
2 [3.08%]
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Wolf Spider View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Is Steve Vai prog?
    Posted: August 07 2005 at 11:35
A guitarist extraordinare you know him, you love him, you know him from his solo/G3/Zappa albums. And the question is - is he a prog artist or not? Do you want him on Prog Arch?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 11:49

I think that he belongs here, in the category Jazz-Fusion, although he's not very Jazz - I would describe his music as Shred-Fusion, with many progressive influences. The problem is that most people only know the more popular Vai tracks - For the Love of God, his work with DLR and Whitesnake. Some people don't even know that he played in Zappa's band.

His best album is Passion and Warfare, and it contains some amazingly complex songs. Sisters, Blue Powder, Erotic Nightmares, The Riddle, Answers, Ballerina - fantastic.

The albums Flexable/Flexable Leftovers are very progressive. Of course some people might say that they're just experimental, but that is a matter of taste and which elements of prog are most important to you.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:14
I voted "yes"... he definitely belongs on here.

And whoever voted "Who the f**k is Steve Vai?"... have you been living under a rock or something?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:15
Yes,he is...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:26
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

I think that he belongs here, in the category Jazz-Fusion, although he's not very Jazz - I would describe his music as Shred-Fusion, with many progressive influences. The problem is that most people only know the more popular Vai tracks - For the Love of God, his work with DLR and Whitesnake. Some people don't even know that he played in Zappa's band.

His best album is Passion and Warfare, and it contains some amazingly complex songs. Sisters, Blue Powder, Erotic Nightmares, The Riddle, Answers, Ballerina - fantastic.

The albums Flexable/Flexable Leftovers are very progressive. Of course some people might say that they're just experimental, but that is a matter of taste and which elements of prog are most important to you.

 

I remember buying P&W a few days after it's release(on cassette!!!),and being blown away by it.Arguably his best solo cd EVER

And I also consider his solo work pretty proggy.



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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:39
Vai is coming soon!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:41
I reckon he belongs!Thumbs Up
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 12:47

I hope he releases his performance with the Metropole Orkest - very impressive stuff. Track 7 of his current album is from those sessions.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:29
Oh looks like we have a good amount of people that say he's prog!  Eat that Tony R.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:35
Originally posted by Retrovertigo Retrovertigo wrote:

Vai is coming soon!


Thanks for adding him!
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:37
Yeah and for some reason it's causing an uproar with some people.  I don't get it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:40
There's no way he should be added - you might as well start putting in the multitude of guitarists who played with Iron Maiden or Steve Stevens or any other mindless axe-wielding fool with a degree from the GIT. He's not prog, not even good.

And no I don't agree with Queen's addition, so it's not a valid argument to say 'if Queen are in then...'

Big fat no to Vai.


Edited by arcer
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:42

Originally posted by Retrovertigo Retrovertigo wrote:

Oh looks like we have a good amount of people that say he's prog!  Eat that Tony R.

This is not a game or a pissing contest.

Now I'm annoyed.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:47

Originally posted by arcer arcer wrote:

There's no way he should be added - you might as well start putting in the multitude of guitarists who played with Iron Maiden or Steve Stevens or any other mindless axe-wielding fool with a degree from the GIT. He's not prog, not even good.

And no I don't agree with Queen's addition, so it's not a valid argument to say 'if Queen are in then...'

Big fat no to Vai.

Your comparison with Iron Maiden shows that you don't even know his progressive albums ...



Edited by MikeEnRegalia
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:51
Originally posted by arcer arcer wrote:

There's no way he should be added - you might as well start putting in the multitude of guitarists who played with Iron Maiden or Steve Stevens or any other mindless axe-wielding fool with a degree from the GIT. He's not prog, not even good.

And no I don't agree with Queen's addition, so it's not a valid argument to say 'if Queen are in then...'

Big fat no to Vai.


Vai is prog, but Satriani, Malmsteen and the rest aren`t. Listen to a couple of his CD`s and you`ll see for yourself!
 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:55

Originally posted by Wolf Spider Wolf Spider wrote:

Originally posted by arcer arcer wrote:

There's no way he should be added - you might as well start putting in the multitude of guitarists who played with Iron Maiden or Steve Stevens or any other mindless axe-wielding fool with a degree from the GIT. He's not prog, not even good.

And no I don't agree with Queen's addition, so it's not a valid argument to say 'if Queen are in then...'

Big fat no to Vai.


Vai is prog, but Satriani, Malmsteen and the rest aren`t. Listen to a couple of his CD`s and you`ll see for yourself!
 

Satriani is as prog as Vai, and Malmsteens first album is kinda proggy!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:55
It's easy, these guys don't think he should be added because they don't expect anyone as recognized to just get added to the Archives, regardless if they've heard a good amount of their stuff anyways.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 13:59

Originally posted by Retrovertigo Retrovertigo wrote:

It's easy, these guys don't think he should be added because they don't expect anyone as recognized to just get added to the Archives, regardless if they've heard a good amount of their stuff anyways.

Wow... that's a pretty broad generalization. I believe that Vai is as progressive as Jeff Beck, and what happened with that?

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 14:01
Originally posted by MikeEnRegalia MikeEnRegalia wrote:

Originally posted by arcer arcer wrote:

There's no way he should be added - you might as well start putting in the multitude of guitarists who played with Iron Maiden or Steve Stevens or any other mindless axe-wielding fool with a degree from the GIT. He's not prog, not even good.

And no I don't agree with Queen's addition, so it's not a valid argument to say 'if Queen are in then...'

Big fat no to Vai.

Your comparison with Iron Maiden shows that you don't even know his progressive albums ...



Fair point. The comparison was made out of exaggerated shock value - but there is a valid comparison somewhere to the vast plethora of tedious metal guitar players whose sole purpose in life is to play very fast over facile backing tracks in order to simply demonstrate their technical gifts. It has always been (to my ears at least) the modus operandi of guitarists like Vai and his ilk and bears little relation to progressive music from Genesis to Radiohead and back again. That music was all about finding something to say in a way that is descriptive, atmospheric, challenging and different - virtuosity is an irrelevance in that music. It the music that triumphs, not the player.
Nothing I have ever heard of Vai or his colleagues ever gave me that impression.

I do havbe to qualify this by saying that I have no love for metal, progressive metal, progressive black/death/silly/pointless metal of any stripe. In fact, I think progressive metal is the bastard child of the genre, a blind alley followed by dullards who pursued a single strand of progressive rock to ridiculous lengths. Progressive to me inlcudes artists like Mum, Underworld, David Sylvian, Talk Talk, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor etc.

Perhaps, in that light, me saying Vai is rubbish is unhderstandable but I do think I'm divorced enough from partisanship to be able to make a value judgement on someone's ability to make music that progresses, advances a genre.

Vai, in my opinion, does not. Therefore he does not merit inclusion.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2005 at 14:05
no.
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