On this day (21 March) in 1995, Steve Vai’s E.P. Alien Love Secrets was released. And it features what is arguably the guitar virtuoso’s greatest song - Tender Surrender.
Looking back on the 30th anniversary of this landmark track, Vai tells MusicRadar: “I guess I’m not considered much of a blues player in the conventional sense.
"But I’ve always been rock/blues oriented," he adds, "because I’m a huge Page, May and Blackmore fan. None of them were strict blues, though.
“As for how Tender Surrender expands, well, that was a deliberate thing. It called for a bluesy touch.
“I don’t know why, but throughout my career, I’ve made a psychological point of veering away from anything too pentatonic. I like to find my most unique voice.
“So what are you going to do? Will you try to sound like something that’s already been done and still being done by people who are better at it than you? Where are you going? Where are you right now?”
Tender Surrender could very well stand as the greatest composition to be found in Vai’s storied career.
There’s a jazziness to the opening lines that show him treading new ground, and from there he builds and builds, showing a great amount of restraint by teasing the listener in closer and closer until he finally erupts with a mesmerising overdriven crescendo that’s guaranteed to make any guitar player’s hairs stand on-end before masterfully bringing it all back down.
This is Vai at his most poetic, digging in deep into his soul to tell a story that warms the heart of anyone who hears it.
The Alien Love Secrets E.P. is in many ways a continuation of the otherworldly brilliance documented on Vai’s classic 1990 album Passion And Warfare.
There was, of course, the Sex & Religion album released in between Passion And Warfare and Alien Love Secrets.
But Sex & Religion was more of a band situation, with a young Devin Townsend on lead vocals.
As far as instrumental guitar goes, Alien Love Secrets is a creative masterpiece that follows on from Passion And Warfare and can match it toe-to-toe in terms of sheer genius.
And while Tender Surrender is its crowning glory, there is so much to enjoy in the E.P.
There’s the playful shuffle of Juice. The evocative melodies of Die To Live. The mind-melting funk of The Boy From Seattle. The joyful Ya-Yo Gakk – a father and son duo featuring a very young Julian Vai on lead vocals. And there’s the metallic ferocity of Kill The Guy With The Ball.
And of course there is one of Vai’s most famous tracks, Bad Horsie, in which he uses his wah to add extra cut to bluesy lines in C Minor and his whammy bar to make his Ibanez scream like a horse bolting from the barn.
Vai recalls how this classic track came to be.
“Back in the ’80s I received a call from Ry Cooder to perform on the soundtrack for the movie Crossroads,” he says. “I read the script and saw there would be a duel.
“It said the person I was playing, Jack Butler, would make his guitar sound like a locomotive. I knew how to do that immediately, I would tune down and go ‘Guh guh, guh guh!’ There was something about the riff that I liked, I ended up turning it into Bad Horsie.”
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