Ignacio Gonzalez Reviews Surfing With The Alien: Legacy Edition by Joe Satriani

by Ignacio Gonzalez.

Twenty years ago in 1987/88, Joe Satriani’s sophomore album Surfing With The Alien was released to audiences living in a strange world. Music was dominated by pop, as seen by the success of U2’s Joshua Tree and INXS’s Kick. At the same time, the hair spray, guitar-rock scene was in its mature stage, with Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” on full radio play and the explosive arrival of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction. Jesse Jackson was a strong presidential hopeful to go up against George Bush Senior; the stock market crashed on Black Monday; television was all about the Iran-Contra hearings; and, Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine won a free speech battle in the nation’s Supreme Court. If there’s an era many hesitate to revisit, it’s this one. Then, why is Surfing With The Alien being reissued on August 7 for its twentieth anniversary, newly remastered and featuring in-depth liner notes by Satriani and a bonus DVD of Satriani’s debut at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival?

In my role as reviewer, I can name many reasons why Surfing deserves a remastered reissue, as well as a place in everyone’s music collection as the benchmark (now improved and beefed up with extras) for the rock guitar instrumental genre. This time, however, the artist himself says it best. When his first solo album, Not Of This Earth, was released in 1986, Satriani explains, “I was already plotting to make a ‘real’ rock ’n’roll instrumental guitar record that would celebrate all the fun, depth, and spiritual elements of the instrument. I wanted to elevate the status of the idiom itself.”

Well aware of the limited exposure achieved by instrumental records, let alone a completely original “rock guitar” instrumental, Satriani predicted that Surfing “would be the last album that anyone would let us make. We were doing something that was just so unpopular. A blend of rock and blues and jazz and techno and film music, played as guitar instrumentals? No one really understood it.”

Satriani was mistaken. Surfing became the first rock guitar instrumental album to reach Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart, a surprising bestseller reaching position 29 on that list. The album was certified platinum for U.S. sales of over one million copies, with chart hits “Satch Boogie” reaching 22 in the charts and the title track “Surfing With The Alien” reaching 37. “Always With Me, Always With You,” originally released on Surfing and later re-released on Satriani’s Live in San Francisco, received a Grammy nomination in 2001 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (Jeff Beck snatched the award with “Dirty Mind.”).

Yet, unlike today’s world of quick releases through Internet downloads, the Surfing buzz was slow to take off, and the reissue album’s accompanying DVD takes one back to re-live the new vibe Satriani was bringing to rock music and appreciate the challenge he was facing as he charted the course. The DVD features never-before-seen live footage of Satriani performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988 during the tour supporting Surfing.

Satriani’s in-depth liner notes, available with the reissue, tell the exciting story surrounding his rushed arrival in Geneva for the show, a missed soundcheck, and a four-hour wait to perform because guitarist Carlos Santana and Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento would not leave the stage. Actually, Satriani seems to have forgotten the reason why Santana would not stop playing that night. Santana’s friend and saxophonist Wayne Shorter joined the guitarist on-stage for an inspiring set later released as Carlos Santana & Wayne Shorter: Live at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival. You can imagine Satriani’s anticipation having to follow that set with his new “rock” instrumentals.

Finally, at four in the morning, Satriani, bassist Stu Hamm, and drummer Jonathan Mover finally hit the stage and kicked off with Surfing’s “Ice 9.” Satriani recalls, “After just four bars of ‘Ice 9’ most of the audience just got up and left! …The film captures the band in its infancy, trying to figure out how to rock with this unusual, instrumental material.”

The '80s glam rock attire is there, complete with tights, high-top sneakers, crimped hair, hair spray and bright colors. But, once Satriani hits the first note, you are hypnotized by the fluidity of his playing and the freshness and enthusiasm of the band’s energy. If you’ve seen Satriani recently, watching the Montreux show makes you realize how his technique was as good then as it is now, and it hits you that his whole career has been about leveraging that technique to keep his creativity and musical adventure growing. Not only do you get an intimate look at the trio tearing through tunes from Surfing and Not Of This Earth, you get a precious piece of guitar music history and a look at the beginning of what would become Satriani’s amazing ability to bring his records to life for a live audience.

And what about the music, the songs? All the original ten tracks in Surfing speak for themselves. After all, there are no words in them. They are pure musical gems that bring to life the great Satriani challenge: how to use his highly advanced technique and imagination to bring a title to life with music. With an improved sound achieved with remastering from original mix tapes, Satriani’s career-launching adventure is now an even better sonic experience.

I’ll never forget the day I bought my copy (a cassette!) of Surfing. I was 14 years old, and my mother drove me to the music store inside a mall in El Paso, Texas, to make the purchase with my weekly allowance. Walking out of the music store with tape in hand, I made my mother skip a visit to her favorite shops in the mall in a rush to get back home and listen to this tape that had a picture of Marvel Comics superhero Silver Surfer on the cover and promised to have the most awesome guitar shredding ever played. Being an aspiring rock guitar player at the time, it was imperative that I get back home immediately to pop this baby in the double deck tape player.

I pressed the “play” button and, right away, Satriani had me hooked. The title track “Surfing With The Alien” kicked off, and I could not escape a mental trip to the beach with a friend from outer space. Almost immediately, the tune had you on a surfboard right smack in the middle of a huge wave, with your alien friend ahead of you and looking back every once in a while to make sure you kept up and didn’t wipe out. Every harmonic change in the song is like a totally new wave taking you for a ride. Every solo, each with its own tone and focus, plays with the same virtuosity and energy that you and your alien buddy are using to surf the big waves. The fluidity and excitement of Satriani’s playing was like watching the best surfer in this world or another conquer the biggest wave ever.

Listening to the rest of the tracks was just as incredible. The melodic “Always With Me, Always With You” is timeless, Satriani’s playing pure and lush. “Satch Boogie” was like Eddie Van Halen times five. “Circles” was this fabulous jam with an incredibly smart intro and outro sandwiching a ferocious monster. The two-handed tapping extravaganza in “Midnight” is…you’re speechless. But, the hairs on the back of my neck still stand up when I hear the now remastered jet swoosh that kicks off “Surfing With The Alien.”

The intimacy of Satriani’s track-by-track liner notes included in the reissue brings a fascinating look at the level of sacrifice and creativity behind Surfing. While Satriani is often open about the stories behind his instrumentals, his narrative in the reissue oozes with the sweat and blood that made the production and recording possible. There was a lack of money, gear, eating and sleep. There was an expectation of failure. Yet, all of the musicians believed in themselves and in the music they were making. They took their idea and infused it with their own life experiences in an intelligent, creative and unpretentious way.

Today, Satriani has become a premier, full-time working ambassador of the guitar rock instrumental genre. There’s every bit of reason to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Surfing With The Alien and take it home for a “crank it up” listening affair.

Surfing With The Alien 20th Anniversary CD Track Listing
Surfing With The Alien
Ice 9
Crushing Day
Always With Me, Always With You
Satch Boogie
Hill Of The Skull
Circles
Lords of Karma
Midnight
Echo

Joe Satriani Montreux Jazz Festival concert DVD Track Listing
Ice 9
Memories
Midnight
Rubina
Circles
Lords of Karma
S.T.U.
Echo
Hordes of Locusts
Always With Me, Always With You
Satch Boogie

Related Links
Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani Interview
Rich Murray Reviews Surfing With The Alien: Legacy Edition by Joe Satriani
Ignacio Gonzalez’s IG Blog

[Editor's note: We recommend a visit to Ignacio Gonzalez's IG blog, which provides guitarists with inspiration, education, insights and ideas through the eyes of an everyday guitar player, teacher and writer.]

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