{"id":24009,"date":"2022-11-09T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24009"},"modified":"2022-11-09T09:35:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T14:35:19","slug":"joe-satriani-telling-stories-with-and-without-words-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/09\/joe-satriani-telling-stories-with-and-without-words-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Satriani: Telling Stories With and Without Words (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Sometimes the timeline exceeds two years. Satriani mentions \u201cThrough a Mother\u2019s Day Darkly,\u201d a breathtaking highlight of The Elephants of Mars<\/i>. He wrote the song in 1999, while working on what would become Engines of Creation<\/i>, his eighth studio album. But the unfinished, keyboard-based track didn\u2019t make it onto that record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept trying to bring it into every album,\u201d Satriani says. \u201cBut it was always either too dark or moody or cinematic. There was something about it that never worked with each album’s theme.\u201d Yet as he began work on his last record, Satriani returned to the 20-plus year old basic track. \u201cIt was kind of an open-ended session file,\u201d he says. So he cued up the track in ProTools [digital recording application], picked up a guitar and improvised over it.<\/p>\n

But Satriani and his producer Eric Carieux agreed that the recording still wasn\u2019t complete; it needed something else. They reached out to the guitarist\u2019s songwriting partner Ned Everett and asked him to record a spoken-word voiceover, using dialogue from Satriani\u2019s Crystal Planet<\/i> comic book series. That element added just the right amount of drama, and a bit of humor as well. \u201cSuddenly it all came together,\u201d he says. He describes the result as \u201ca soundtrack to an imaginary film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s certainly a filmic quality to Joe Satriani\u2019s music. In fact his songs have often been used in movies, television commercials and other visual media. Satriani is generally quite pleased when his music is chosen for those kinds of applications. He admits that he was \u201cpretty shocked that the Olympics would use a number of my songs to close out their television broadcast.\u201d Director Cameron Crowe requested a Satriani tune for a kickboxing scene in his 1989 film Say Anything<\/i>; the guitarist wrote \u201cOne Big Rush\u201d to order.<\/p>\n

Satriani also recalls an accidental success in the form of an early \u201890s Sony Walkman commercial. \u201cWe spent a lot of money on [music] videos \u2013 we had a really fun video for \u2018Summer Song\u2019 \u2013 and we just couldn’t get MTV to play them,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo we got a call from Sony, and they said, \u2018We\u2019d like to use your song to do these radio and TV commercials to support a product called the Walkman.\u2019\u201d Satriani agreed, but with two important stipulations. \u201cWe said, \u2018Well, yeah, but don’t talk over the music. And put a chyron at the end like it’s an MTV video.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sony agreed, and the Walkman spot ran often on MTV, including during commercial breaks on the channel\u2019s annual awards show. \u201cWe wound up being on the MTV Awards more than if we had been on<\/i> the MTV Awards,\u201d Satriani says with a hearty laugh. \u201cSummer Song\u201d went on to become the guitarist\u2019s biggest international radio hit to that point.<\/p>\n

That whole idea of instrumental music being open to interpretation does have its hazards, though. There are the rare occasions when music is repurposed in a way that doesn\u2019t meet with the artist’s approval. And that happened to Joe Satriani in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

At the time, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet remained as that country\u2019s Commander in Chief. And without permission, his Air Force used Satriani’s \u201cAlways With You, Always With Me\u201d in its recruiting ads. \u201cMy first thought was, \u2018Why would they play that song? It’s a love song!\u2019\u201d Satriani says. \u201cIf they would\u2019ve asked us, we would have said no: \u2018We don’t do foreign military endorsements.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"He believes the commercial would have confused his South American fans, but admits that there wasn\u2019t a great deal he could do about it. \u201cArtists really have very little control over their art,\u201d Satriani says. \u201cYou just never know what people are doing around the corner with your song. So, at some point, you throw your hands up in the air and say, \u2018Well, the only thing I can do is to put out my own message.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And Joe Satriani has been focused on doing just that. For example, his current track-by-track podcast series digs deep into the creation of The Elephants of Mars<\/i>. And it\u2019s the latest in such endeavors from the guitarist, a practice that extends back to the release of his 2006 album Super Colossal<\/i>, if not earlier.<\/p>\n

The Internet really helps,\u201d he says. \u201cI can connect and bond with the audience all over the world, which is great!\u201d He believes that the Internet’s reach and immediacy make for an important tool to communicate and connect, not just for him and his audience, but for all artists. \u201cFrom Bombay to Paris and New York to San Diego,\u201d Satriani says, \u201cyou can instantly tell your story.\u201d<\/p>\n

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