The extremist
| The extremist | |||||||||
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| Studio album by Joe Satriani | |||||||||
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Publication |
July 21, 1992 |
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1990-1992 |
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| Label (s) | Relativity | ||||||||
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Title (number) |
10; 11 bonus track edition |
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running time |
47:53; 51:59 |
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Studio (s) |
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The Extremist is the fourth studio album by American rock musician Joe Satriani and was released on July 21, 1992 under the Relativity Records label . The release is one of Satriani's most successful albums; ranked 22nd on the Billboard 200 , reached gold status in the United States just 5 months after its release, and was nominated for a 1993 Grammy Award in the category of " Best Rock Instrumental Performance ".
History of origin
Satriani parted with his rhythm section , consisting of bassist Stuart Hamm and drummer Jonathan Mover, because the “healthy competition and musical tension on the stage” exuded a sizzling liveliness in the established and practiced pieces, but the different musical ones when jamming away Worlds revealed. The two preferred funk , jazz and fusion , while Satriani felt at home in the fields of rock and blues . A spontaneous intro to classics of these styles was therefore not possible, which is why Satriani felt uncomfortable with them after a while.
At the end of November 1990, Satriani worked with what would later become the Living Color bassist Doug Wimbish , Simon Phillips , who was known as a Toto drummer in addition to his studio engagements, and the keyboardist Phil Ashley, who had references from Kiss , in New York for around four weeks until Christmas on initial ideas for the follow-up album to Flying in a Blue Dream . Actually, Satriani had already envisioned this line-up for Flying in a Blue Dream , because he had got to know the three musicians in Mick Jagger's tour band in 1988 and harmonized with them both personally and musically, but the projects and obligations of all those involved were set in advance and left such an early merger is not possible. 14 rough versions were created in the New York Bearsville Studios. The work was continued from February 1991 in the studio landscape of San Francisco , in which Satriani's regular percussionist Jeff Campitelli took part. Satriani also tried out other drummers, always looking for the perfect sound. This process is said to have dragged on for three months before Satriani considered it appropriate to abandon the effort. The elaborations still sounded too much like a self-copy to him. In the following eleven months he relaxed, jammed without pressure and structured his ideas, negotiated a contract with the Sony label Relativity, but above all looked for suitable musicians.
In February 1992, after countless auditions, the musicians were found, but no singer who met his expectations of a reliable, charismatic front man . In March 1992, Andy Johns and John Cuniberti were recruited as Satriani's production partners at Record One Studios in Los Angeles . In addition, the brothers Matt (bass) and Gregg Bissonette (drums), whose most renowned engagement was with David Lee Roth , were supposed to provide a powerful sound. Therefore, the recordings made up to then, which had already devoured 200,000 dollars , were almost completely discarded. Only New Blues remained in the existing version and Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness was edited. In the absence of a singer, Satriani simply renounced the lyrics that he had written for half of the songs in New York, with a clear conscience even because he had noticed their similarity unpleasantly.
Satriani often first comes up with a topic in the form of a title, which he then wants to express instrumentally. This is how the almost six-minute war came about . Conversely, it can happen that he has written down arrangements but cannot find a suitable title for them and then throws them away. Satriani hadn't thrown away, but kept the summer song , which dates from 1989 and which he hadn't wanted on the winter release Flying in a Blue Dream . A year later, Cryin 'was written on the occasion of his father's death. Satriani thought the song was too personal a composition and tried to reduce the degree of emotionality by taking out passages in the version recorded in New York with Wimbish, Phillips and Ashley. In Los Angeles, encouraged by his colleagues, he added them back in. The guitar track ultimately used for the album is a so-called " first take ", which means that it was only recorded once and in one piece. With Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness the starting point was a melody based on folk music , which was underlined by more and more folk instruments with every stage of development in the various recording studios and contrasted with an electric guitar melody. Nicky Hopkins played the piano, but was forgotten in the credits. Satriani dedicated this title to his wife Rubina. All in all, according to Satriani, the ten pieces create a homogeneous whole that requires intensive listening to be recognized.
As the album title, he chose the song title The Extremist . A friend once called him this because of his endless practice sessions and improvement mania. For him, this is by no means a drudgery, he asserted. And outside of musical matters, he's not really an extreme guy.
Shortly after the publication, until the end of March 1993 they went on "The Extremist" world tour, with Europe in particular showing itself to be a promising market.
Background information
The song Summer Song became one of the most famous Satriani compositions after the album was released and was adapted by Sony Music Entertainment as a promotional song for the Walkman . The piece was later used in the video games Formula 1 from 1996 for the PlayStation and Gran Turismo 4 from 2004 for the PlayStation 2 . The Disney corporation used War for its power rangers areas in the theme parks . The piece was also used as a theme song for a Californian radio show . In 1993, the two B-sides of the recording works Crazy and Banana Mango II were released along with the outtakes Thinking of You , Speed of Light and Baroque on the compilation album Time Machine .
Re-releases
The Extremist has been republished numerous times; In 1997 the album was released by the record company Epic Records . On June 16, 2008, the album was released as a box set for the Original Album Classics series. On April 22nd, 2014, the songs on the album were revised under Legacy Recordings on the compilation The Complete Studio Recordings , which, in addition to The Extremist pieces, contains other compositions from Satriani's studio albums from 1986 to 2013.
Track list
| No. | title | Songwriter | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Friends ( arrangement : Joe Satriani, Andy Johns) | Joe Satriani | 3:29 |
| 2. | The extremist | Joe Satriani | 3:43 |
| 3. | Was | Joe Satriani | 5:48 |
| 4th | Cryin ' | Joe Satriani | 5:43 |
| 5. | Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness | Joe Satriani | 6:11 |
| 6th | Summer song | Joe Satriani | 5:00 |
| 7th | Tears in the Rain | Joe Satriani | 1:18 |
| 8th. | Why | Joe Satriani | 4:45 |
| 9. | Motorcycle driver | Joe Satriani | 4:58 |
| 10. | New blues | Joe Satriani | 6:58 |
| Overall length: | 47:53 | ||
Bonus track
| No. | title | Songwriter | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | Crazy | Joe Satriani | 4:06 |
| Overall length: | 51:59 | ||
- The bonus track was part of the special edition in Japan .
reception
Criticism
Critic Phil Carter of the music website Allmusic praised Satriani's ability in a variety of musical styles that are included on the album. Carter also finds that Satriani is touching many new musical areas and that the album absolutely reflects Satriani's talent. Finally, the critic gave 4 of the 5 possible rating units for the album.
Satriani always puts his playing skills "at the service of flowing melodies", said Henning Richter in the Musikexpress . Since the work “[s] stylistically a bit more closed than its predecessor”, Satriani created a new highlight, which he gave 5 out of 7 possible points. In the "sister magazine" of the same publishing house, the Metal Hammer , Andreas Schöwe spoke of perfection, the simplicity of which is more effective than the speed record chasing of some of his colleagues. He also decided on 5 out of 7 possible points. The other critics gave between 3 and 7 points, from which an average rating of 4.4 points was determined.
The rock-hard encyclopedia writes that it is "an introverted and security-conscious successor to the first two albums" without trying to sing . The Break Out reviewer was won over by not having delivered a copy of the predecessor and yet having provided pleasant moods and variety . Achim Karstens in Rock Hard assessed the work in a similar way : It differs significantly from its predecessor and the songs differ from each other in their respective moods, such as the hectic-threatening war , the "sad, melancholy and calm" held Cryin` and the "fast and cheerful “presented summer song .
Martin Scholz wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau : “The 36 year old New Yorker presents an instrumental album that is reminiscent of Jeff Beck at his best. He leaves the self-loving ego show to others, Satriani first and foremost writes songs that don't need a singer. He takes on the part with his guitar, always paying attention to a healthy balance between simple melodies and wacky solos. His nimble finger art is not tied to any style. Satriani sits between the chairs, lets off steam in rock and heavy metal , but always hits the right note in funk , blues and folk numbers. "
In Stereoplay, Henning Richter confirmed the success of Satriani's intention that the guitar should "grab" the listener. He awarded 8 out of 10 possible points for the repertoire, as well as for the interpretation.
Chart success
In Germany , The Extremist reached number 55 on the German album charts . In Switzerland , the album rose to number 11 on the Swiss charts . In the United States, the release reached number 22 on the Billboard 200. The highest chart position was the album in Norway at number 5. In Australia and New Zealand , The Extremist was positioned at number 29 and 16. In Sweden and the Netherlands , the release was at number 35 and 44 on the hit parade. The two singles Summer Song and Friends ranked 5th and 12th on the Billboard mainstream rock songs chart in 1992 . A year later, the release Cryin 'came in 24th.
Self-assessment
When asked about the feedback from extremists , Satriani replied at the end of 1993: “It went very, very well. It was the first time I received a gold disc in Europe for this record. In America it was my most successful radio album to date. And this time everything went much faster than it was before. In terms of subject matter, it was a different kind of album for me, as I not only liked it on record, but also when we performed it live. So I'm already happy that [sic!] It was so well received. "
Awards for music sales and sales figures
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
 France (SNEP)
|
 gold
|
100,000 |
 United States (RIAA)
|
gold
|
810,000 |
 United Kingdom (BPI)
|
gold
|
100,000 |
| All in all |
3 × gold |
1,010,000 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d The Extremist at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ a b Gold & Platinum Searchable Database. Recording Industry Association of America , accessed April 9, 2015 .
- ↑ 35th Annual Grammy Awards - 1993. Rock on the Net, February 24, 1993, accessed April 9, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Markus Baro: Joe Satriani. Guitar extremes . In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. September 1992, p. 20 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Achim Karstens: Joe Satriani. Speed fingers - or more? In: Rock Hard . No. 66 , November 1992, Smalltalk, pp. 112 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Andreas Schöwe: The Joe Must Go On . In: Metal Hammer . September 1992, p. 20th f .
- ↑ a b c d e Lothar Trampert: Joe Satriani. Cryin '... guitar extremist . In: Guitar & Bass . The musician magazine. September 1993, p. 20th ff .
- ^ Andy Bradshaw: Joe Satriani. Eclectic Guitar . In: Metal Attack Guitar (= Metal Hammer Special ). No. 1/92 , January 1992, p. 24 f . (Multi-month issue).
- ↑ a b Joe Satriani Albums. The extremist. In: starpulse.com. Retrieved April 23, 2015 .
- ^ A b c Henning Richter: Joe Satriani. Hey joe A headstrong American guitarist follows in the footsteps of Jimi Hendrix . In: Stereoplay . The international hi-fi magazine. November 1992, portrait, p. ? .
- ↑ Pascal Amann: Master class in rock guitar. Conversation with Joe Satriani before the concert in Neu-Isenburg . In: Darmstädter Echo . March 20, 1993, p. ? .
- ↑ Achim Karstens: Satriani Park . In: Metal Hammer . January 1994, p. 20th f .
- ↑ Time Machine (leaflet insert). Relativity Records , 1993. 88561-1177-2.
- ↑ The Extremist at Discogs
- ↑ Original album Classics on Allmusic (English)
- ↑ Joe Bosso: Joe Satriani talks The Complete Studio Recordings album by album. Music Radar, April 8, 2014, accessed April 9, 2015 .
- ^ The Extremist + 1. Music Stack, accessed on March 21, 2014 (only available until March 21, 2014).
- ^ Henning Richter: Joe Satriani. The Extremist (Sony Music) . In: Musikexpress . No. 440 , September 1992, Rock, Pop, pp. 90 .
- ↑ Andreas Schöwe: Joe Satriani. The extremist . In: Metal Hammer . September 1992, p. 60 .
- ↑ September ´92 . In: Metal Hammer . September 1992, Soundcheck, p. 54 .
- ↑ Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Enzyklopädie . 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years. Rock Hard GmbH, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , Satriani, Joe, p. 352 f .
- ↑ Holger Jung: Joe Satriani. The extremist . The Heavy Rock Magazine. In: Break Out . September 1992, p. 36 .
- ↑ Martin Scholz: Joe Satriani . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 6, 1993, Toptip, p. ? .
- ↑ The Extremist. Retrieved April 9, 2015 .
- ^ Horst Odermatt: Joe Satriani. Travel through time . In: Heavy, or what !? A rock magazine. 10 (November / December), 1993, pp. 8 .
- ^ Les Certifications (Albums) du SNEP (Bilan par Artiste). InfoDisc, accessed April 9, 2015 .
- ^ Joe Satriani :: Charts & Sales History. UKMIX, November 30, 2005, accessed April 9, 2015 .
- ^ BPI Gold Sales Award. (No longer available online.) Equipboard, archived from the original on July 10, 2015 ; Retrieved April 9, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
