Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir

by Joe Satriani, Jake Brown

Overview

Go behind the scenes with the musician The New York Times called “a guitar God"—in this new edition featuring an all-new chapter on Joe's latest album, Shockwave Supernova, and bonus interviews!

Oft-hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of his generation, living guitar legend Joe Satriani has long transcended stylistic boundaries with a sound that raises the bar like a new horizon for the broader genre of instrumental guitar rock. Joe’s 6-string secrets have astounded listeners around the world for nearly 30 years.

In Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir, Satriani and coauthor, music biographer Jake Brown, take fans on their first authorized tour of the story behind his climb to stardom and the creative odyssey involved in writing and recording a storied catalog of classics including “Surfing with the Alien,” “Summer Song,” “Satch Boogie,” “Always With Me, Always With You,” “The Extremist,” “Flying in a Blue Dream,” “Crowd Chant,” and more.

Featuring previously unpublished photos and hours of exclusive, firsthand interviews with Satriani, Strange Beautiful Music offers a unique look inside the studio with Joe, giving fans a chance to get up close and personal like never before. With insider details about his collaboration with multi-platinum supergroup Chickenfoot, exclusive interviews with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony of Van Halen and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, commentary from fellow guitar legends such as Steve Vai, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Primus’s Larry LaLonde, and legendary music producers including Glynn Johns and the late Andy Johns, this memoir offers a rare inside look for die-hard Satriani fans, guitar enthusiasts, and anyone who loves to rock.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941631577
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	784,281
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

For three decades, Joe Satriani, the biggest-selling instrumental rock guitarist in the Soundscan era, has traveled the world, playing to sold-out crowds both as a headliner and as founder of the all-star “G3” guitar extravaganza. His studio and live recordings have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Of his 14 solo albums, two have gone platinum and four others went gold, with 15 Grammy nominations between them. In 1988, Mick Jagger invited Joe to perform as lead guitarist on his first solo tour, and in 1994, Joe toured with Deep Purple as their lead guitarist. His side project, Chickenfoot, featuring former Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar and former bassist Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, saw their debut album certified gold.

Award-winning music biographer Jake Brown has written 43 published books since 2001, featuring many authorized collaborations with some of rock’s biggest artists, including 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Heart (with Ann and Nancy Wilson), country music legends Merle Haggard and Freddy Powers, heavy metal pioneers Motorhead (with Lemmy Kilmister), late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur (with the estate), celebrated rock drummer Kenny Aronoff, legendary R&B producer Teddy Riley, country rap star Big Smo, late funk pioneer Rick James, the superstar country music anthology Nashville Songwriter, all-star rock drummers anthology Beyond the Beats, all-star rap producers Hip Hop Hits anthology, and the all-star rock producers anthology Behind the Boards, among many others. Brown is a regular contributor to Tape Op magazine (including the 2016 AES cover story with Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan), has appeared as the featured biographer of record on Fuse TV’s Live Through This series and Bloomberg TV’s Game Changers series, and received national press in Rolling Stone magazine, CBS News, USA Today, MTV.com, Hollywood Reporter, Parade magazine, Billboard, and others. In 2012, Brown won the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award in the category of Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: The Hendrix Experience

Chapter 2: High School Confidential

Chapter 3: Learning Curves

Chapter 4: Satch Goes West

Chapter 5: Twists of Fate—The Joe Satriani EP, 1983–1984

Chapter 6: Not of This Earth—1985–1986

Chapter 7: Relativity

Chapter 8: Surfing with the Alien—1987

Chapter 9: Launching the Silver Surfer

Chapter 10: Flying in a Blue Dream—1989

Chapter 11: The Bearsville Experiment

Chapter 12: The Extremist—1992

Chapter 13: Eponymous—1995

Chapter 14: G3/Crystal Planet—1997

Chapter 15: Engines of Creation—2000

Chapter 16: Strange Beautiful Music—2002

Chapter 17: Is There Love in Space?—2004

Chapter 18: Super Colossal—2006

Chapter 19: Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock—2008

Chapter 20: Chickenfoot I—2009

Chapter 21: Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards—2010

Chapter 22: Chickenfoot III—2011/2012

Chapter 23: Unstoppable Momentum—2013

Chapter 24: Shockwave Supernova—2016

Conclusion: 2017 and Beyond

The Gear: Album by Album

Acknowledgments

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Joe has refined his own style of playing to a point where he’s forever up there in the stratosphere of excellence that is reached by very few musicians."
—Brian May

"Every time Joe puts his fingers on a guitar, what comes out sounds like inspired music, even if its just a finger exercise. He created and branded a niche with his own voice and in so doing he wielded an entire genre."
—Steve Vai

“After all the times I had been on stages with Joe, been on the side of stages watching and listening to Joe, and all the times I have been in the audience cheering for Joe, I continue to have no idea how Joe does what he does."
—Robert Fripp

“Joe Satriani’s my favorite guitar player.”
—Sammy Hagar

Editorial Reviews

“Joe has refined his own style of playing to a point where he’s forever up there in the stratosphere of excellence that is reached by very few musicians."
—Brian May

"Every time Joe puts his fingers on a guitar, what comes out sounds like inspired music, even if its just a finger exercise. He created and branded a niche with his own voice and in so doing he wielded an entire genre."
—Steve Vai

“After all the times I had been on stages with Joe, been on the side of stages watching and listening to Joe, and all the times I have been in the audience cheering for Joe, I continue to have no idea how Joe does what he does."
—Robert Fripp

“Joe Satriani’s my favorite guitar player.”
—Sammy Hagar

From the Publisher