Tribute CD's and tribute bands puzzle me. Why would you buy a carbon copy of
the original when nothing really beats the original. It's like getting a
2nd generation video tape of a new movie that someone bootlegged with a
camcorder in the theater. It just isn't the same. This can be said about
this latest addition to the tribute CD's that have bombared the market over
the last couple of years. The players on this CD are a top notch batch of
musicians, many
of whom I respect tremendously, so I won't say anything bad about them as
performers, artists or musicians. My gripe is why pay homage to two of the
greatest instrumental guitarists of all time and then make carbon copies of
their songs and just play over them. It defeats the purpose and makes the
consumer wonder why they would shell out fourteen bucks for a disc of second
rate versions of great songs done better by the original artist who wrote
them?? Each performer on this tribute which includes; Jake E. Lee, Bruce
Kulick (who turns in the only stylistically different rendition of
Satriani's "Always With Me, Always With You", with acoustic guitar), Brad
Gillis, George Lynch, Neil Zaza, and Enuff Z Nuff.are terrific players,
writters and musicians, yet they never really infuse much of their style
into any of the tracks they play on. Granted, each one of these players has
made their mark on the guitar map and each one of them can hold their own
under any circumstance, but why waste time playing close duplicates of the
originals. Twist them up a bit, make them your own, show the guitarist out
there, that you can take a great existing song and really infuse your
influence, personality and style into it. Instead, the safe road was taken
and the result is very stale and flat sounding. Take my advice, buy Steve
Vai's "Passion and Warfare" or Joe Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien" and
listen to the magic on those albums, and then you will understand why these
two artists stand the test of time.
