VAI.COM

ok maybe i went too far



















just once is ok too

errr...Little Richard should sue everyone who did re-create "Tutti Frutti"...before that somebody who originally wrote it should sue Little Richard first!!!

I had realised the exact similarity even when I first heard it back in 1991...but who cares anyway? Jim Helms doesnt...

OK, I know I'm new and all, and this is a somewhat old and well beaten thread that may not be read or heard much, BUT...

Wouldn't it be really great to know where (as in spiritually) Steve got the inspiration for this deeply touching and very emotional composition? I will not believe perhaps the single most amazing collection of somewhat organized noise on our planet could simply be something everyone else thinks is stolen. We may have all enjoyed a song that had origins in other peoples music, or even someone else's cover of an original song. As long as the artist covering the tune pays homage, respect, and rights to the creator and owner of the tune there is nothing wrong with it.

Further, It has been my dream (as has been the dream of millions of other guitar players) to play FTLOG through from start to finish. I heard it for the first time in 1992, and with the invention of VAItunes, and Garageband I now have a very sucking quality rendition (due to my own playing, NOT due to Naked tracks or Apple Inc.) of myself trying very hard to sound like the master. This has only taken me 15 years, but worth the wait. Spend 1 hour per day with the same song for over 10 years. If you still love it more than any other song, you may be obsessing, but I prefer to think it is more like hypnotized, entranced, enamored, and even more than that... still satisfied after all these years. There have been many more technically brilliant and sonically adventurous compositions from Mr. Vai since FTLOG, but those first eleven notes reach so deep down into your soul that each breath becomes a prayer for the next seven minutes of life. No matter who is playing it (perhaps Mr Kenneally), or on what instrument, (Oboe, Violin, Piano...) it is FTLOG and not an old TV theme. Certainly NO one can render the music like the marvelous fingers of Master Vai.
So, all that to say this, What spiritual place did Steve find himself in to hear such an amazing tune? Does anyone know the answer?

I started wondering who had written the original FTLOG when my wife who was in the next room heard I was playing the song from You Tube on my PC . It was the version where he plays the song live with the Holland Metropole Orchestra . She told me she had heard that song before but did not think Steve Vai had written it.


I started researching and that brought me to this thread and all the remarks. But as I now sit here pondering all the comments, I realize that wherever it may have originated, Steve has a brilliant mind and the intelligence to come up with it himself. It is one of my favorites and I think it has stood the test of time, and will continue to do so.

I am a newbie, and am just trying to feel my way around this site.

Thanks.... Steve R.