7 Days of Satriani: Surfing As a Nightcap
Once again I have let the 7 Days of Satriani post slip until the very last minute. This time letting it slip until this late at night actually serves as an inspiration for the post.
One of the things I loved about Surfing With the Alien right away was it’s potential as a sleep aid. Sure, a huge chunk of the album is very rock and roll and would not help anyone lower their heart rate but there were some songs that would and the lack of words was one less thing to distract my easily distracted mind. Besides, I was in middle school and didn’t have a real sophisticated concept of what “good” sleep music was. I also reveled in the idea of being old enough to have my own cassette deck and music and being allowed to play something to fall asleep to in the first place.
“Always With Me, Always With You” was good for this, but most of the songs that helped me find a good night’s rest were on Side 2 of the cassette – remember, kids, I started listening to this album back when your choice was LP or cassette.
The first thing I had to do was fast forward past “Hill of the Skull.” That was a little creepy for sleep time. Maybe it was because “Hill of the Skull” reminded me of Golgotha and the religious symbolism associated with it. Regardless, I didn’t like listening to that song when I wandered off to bed.
“Circles” got pretty insane and rocking in the midsection but had a sublime and cool intro and outro. “Lords of Karma” was something of a midtempo rocker, probably a bit too up for bedtime but it segued nicely into the last two songs on the album and I didn’t want to fuck with having to fast forward to anything.
The real key was the final one-two punch of the album, “Midnight” and “Echo.” There was a time when I thought these two songs were actually one song, a suite. I still can’t stand to listen to them separately much the way many Pink Floyd fans feel about “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse.” They belong together, and these were the last two stops on my way from the conscious to the beyond. It wasn’t uncommon for me to get all the way to the beginning of “Echo” only to fall asleep before the final notes. I guess that was the point.
There are a lot of Satriani songs that came later that were better for falling asleep and I did create mix tapes of them as time went on, but Side 2 of Surfing was my sleep aid in the days before I had enough of those albums or the required dual cassette jam box to make said tape.
Filed under: Tags: Joe Satriani, Seven Days of Satriani
