The original video of Steve Vai's amazing performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VjwciFLAg

A friend (and fellow guitarist) sent me a link to this clip without explanation and a big part of why I found it so funny is that I wasn't prepared. It's so well done that it takes a while for it to sink in that it isn't real, even if you're familiar with Steve Vai, as I am. I wanted to present it here in the same way so I didn't tag it "comedy" or "parody" or add it to any channels that would give it away.

I tried to come up with some clever way to give a hint in the description that wouldn't be too blatant but I couldn't so I left it straightforward. By the way, I believe that every word in the description is true: Steve Vai is a gifted musician. I wouldn't have thought it funny if I thought he was a hack.

I also assumed that anyone watching the clip would ultimately figure out that it was faked. Maybe I assumed too much. So for anyone watching this who hasn't figured it out yet: IT'S A FAKE! STEVE VAI DOESN'T REALLY PLAY LIKE THIS!

It is fake, thats the point! This is actually really well done. Of course Steve Vai is an amazing guitar player, but looking at this video, it really seems like he is playing this shitty solo.

I submitted the Steve Vai one a couple of days ago. I think this stuff is brilliant and painfully funny

http://www.videosift.com/video/Guitar-master-Steve-Vai-awesome-solo

QuadraPixel: If you still don't get the joke, go watch the Steve Vai one. Tell me you don't laugh looking at his serious face botching note after note on a doubleneck guitar.

The effect is to juxtapose the seriousness and fame of the performer with a terrible performance to comedic effect. Live footage works much better than videos, as evidenced by the Metallica one which was one of the least well done imo.

This is just one of many parodies done by this person. And it's not nearly the best. Here is the MetaFilter thread about it. My personal favorites are Eric Clapton and Steve Vai. Especially Steve Vai.

They are a great idea and funny. Stop the Metallica hate, they rock too.

The thread: http://www.metafilter.com/64832/whole-lotta-shreddin-goin-on


Enjoy.

ok so now we have a default front page of the queue with still some getting more than 1.0000 votes to views?
also, if i see 3 Steve Vai videos with one vote at the top of the queue, and i quick view them all and don't watch them, because i don't like steve vai, they go straight to page 8 with a ratio of 0.5

this is a bit out of order because it values the first person's vote more than subsequent people...i.e. the first voter has the power to banish the clip to page 8 without even downvoting, or keep the clip on page 1.

this means that obvious upvotable clips will dominate, and other good stuff will be randomly lost, based on the opinion of the first voter. It's ok for obvious stuff to be on top, but not to get such a huge advantage which it doesn't need...? The "expiring soon" list is great, but maybe not as great as the front page of the queue.

http://www.videosift.com/talk/Dynamic-Queuing
i still dream about this...

I meant to downvote, this is a fake.

See http://www.videosift.com/video/Steve-Vai-Blue-Powder for the real Steve Vai

that would have to be "Zappa plays Zappa" where Frank Zappas son Dweezil played his fathers classics, mind-blowing for me beind too young to have seen Frank play. Guests included, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozio and Steve Vai.

There was a great emotional moment where they actually had the band playing a whole track on which they added a video recording of Frank himself playing the lead guitar part ( with audio from back in the days), on the huge screen behind the band. Amazing!

Jason Becker gets the job as the lead guitarist for David Lee Roth, following in the footsteps of Steve Vai (and less directly in the footsteps of Eddie Van Halen). He learns he has Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) before he even gets to enjoy his very first world tour.

Most people with ALS die fairly soon after the symptoms get nasty, but exceptions like Jason Becker and Stephen Hawking live on in nearly-useless bodies. Jason Becker composes music using a specially-designed computer he controls with his eyes, one of the few parts of his body he can still control reliably.

When Frank Zappa Produced an Album....he did it the only way possible, the Frank way...
Musicians

* Frank Zappa – guitar, keyboards, vocals, arranger, producer, main performer, assistant
* Tommy Mars – keyboards, vocals, soloist
* Patrick O'Hearn – wind, bass guitar
* Scott Thunes – vocals, Minimoog, synthesizer, bass guitar
* Johnny "Guitar" Watson – vocals, guitar
* Ray White – guitar, vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony vocals, harmony
* Moon Unit Zappa – vocals
* Ed Mann – percussion
* Chad Wackerman – drums, vocals
* Ike Willis – vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony vocals, harmony
* Arthur Barrow – bass guitar
* Napoleon Murphy Brock – saxophone, vocals, harmony vocals, harmony
* Brad Cole – piano
* Roy Estrada – vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony, bass guitar
* Bob Harris – keyboards, vocals, harmony vocals
* Thana Harris – vocals, harmony
* Steve Vai – guitar, soloist, fills
* Dweezil Zappa – soloist, guitar
* George Duke – keyboards, vocals, piano
* Bobby Martin – keyboards, saxophone, vocals, falssetist, harmony vocals, harmonica

Tags changed from "guitar, steve vai, ry cooder, crossroads" to "guitar, steve vai,ry cooder,cuttin heads" by gold star member pho3n1x.

Bozzio's Body of Work according to Wiki:



Solo

* Solo Drum Music I/II & III
* Drawing The Circle
* Chamber Works
* Solos & Duets (with Chad Wackerman)
* Nine Short Films (with Billy Sheehan)
* Chamber Works (2005, with Metropole Orchestra)

Frank Zappa

* Bongo Fury
* Zoot Allures
* Live In New York
* Sheik Yerbouti
* FZ:OZ
* Sleep Dirt

Missing Persons

* Missing Persons (EP)
* Spring Session M
* Rhyme & Reason
* Color In Your Life

UK

* Danger Money
* Night After Night

Other

David Torn, Mick Karn, Terry Bozzio

* Polytown

Bozzio Levin Stevens

* Black Light Syndrome
* Situation Dangerous

Jeff Beck

* Guitar Shop

Steve Vai

* Sex and Religion

Vivian Campbell

* Two Sides Of If

KoRn

* (Untitled Eighth Album)

The Knack

* Zoom

hide

* "Hide Your Face"

Fifteen years ago this would have had me drooling....I was all about Stevie, Satch and all the other gunslingers trying to melt our faces off (and our fingers bleed). I was a real technique-whore...had to be damned near impossible to play or it was crap. Somewhere along the line though...I realized that there were players that could touch me more with one note than a million Myxo-phrygi-doria-whatever arpeggiated scale-runs ever could. I still appreciate great technical playing for what it is and I don't think that good technique, and great "feeling" are mutually exclusive....but I'm far less interested in how many 128th notes there are or how many modes can be played in 16 bars.
For what it's worth this "almost" gets there. Still get a little too much of the old "Look what I can do!!!" vibe though. Gets my upvote though, Vai always had a much better sense of song-writing than most of his peers.

My last submission wasn't quite up to snuff (honestly, I wasn't happy with the video quality, so I'm not too disappointed), but there is no denying that Steve Vai is the supreme god of guitar. Especially when he breaks out the triple-neck. Sure, Michael Angelo Batio plays faster, but Vai writes such beautiful music, in addition to playing with such amazing skill (and he sings surprisingly well, too).