Flying In A Blue Dream - Joe Satriani (1989)

Quality or nostalgia: was younger me onto something, or just on something?

Early on in his career as a guitar god, Joe Satriani proved that he had a little more to offer than many of his peers.

He had been a guitar teacher before he really started recording, and I think it shows in his strong technique and his ability to keep things designed and intentional rather than just freaking out on a solo.

The instrumental tunes are much more structured and melodic than a lot of guitar shred sort of records. It was a bold choice to sing (and sing his own lyrics) for his technical instrumental audience, but those are some of the best tracks on here.

So is it Quality or Nostalgia?

It actually holds up very well; a lot better than I thought it might. Aside from his furious but exacting playing, he has a great sense of humor and lightness in everything he does. There’s a sense of fun in his music that a lot of similar artists ignore.

Tracks I Liked

The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing - 80s metal done right

Headless - kind of a Van Halen style jam

Strange - best songs nobody seems to know about

I’ve talked before about my late friend and mentor, Jack. He got us tickets to go see Satriani in St Paul on this tour, and drove us up there and back. Yet another opportunity to pick his brain about the music he loved. The return trip, in my own weird little Joe Pera moment, was the first time I heard The Who’s Baba O’Reilly. I reacted about like Joe did.