STEVE VAI – PASSION AND WARFARE LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 UK 1990 FRANK ZAPPA DAVID LEE ROTH

Steve Vai – Passion And Warfare
(Food For Thought Records  1990  GRUB17)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– still. in original shrinkwrap
Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Steven Siro “Steve” Vai (born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, singer, songwriter, and producer, born and raised on Long Island, New York. Vai was voted the 10th “Greatest Guitarist” by Guitar World magazine, and has sold over 15 million records. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of 18 as a transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, and joined his band from 1980 to 1983. He embarked on a solo career in 1983 and has released eight solo albums to date. He has recorded and toured with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake, as well as having recorded with artists such as Mary J. Blige, Spinal Tap, and Ozzy Osbourne. Additionally, Vai has toured with live-only acts G3, Zappa Plays Zappa, the Experience Hendrix tour, as well as headlining international tours.

Vai has been described as a “highly individualistic player” and part of a generation of “heavy rock and metal virtuosi who came to the fore in the 1980s”. The launch of the Ibanez JEM guitar developed and co-designed by Vai was described as the “exact moment the entire guitar landscape was reshaped”. He also designed the first commercially produced seven-string guitar, the Ibanez Universe, which was used by nu metal artists in the 1990s. He released his first solo album Flex-Able in 1984, while his most successful release, Passion and Warfare (1990), was described as “the richest and best hard rock guitar-virtuoso album of the ’80s”.

Passion and Warfare is the second studio album by guitarist Steve Vai, released in September 1990 through Relativity and Epic Records. It has been certified Gold by the RIAA. It was written based on a series of dream sequences that Vai had when he was younger, and in the guitar music book of the album, Vai sums it up as “Jimi Hendrix meets Jesus Christ at a party that Ben Hur threw for Mel Blanc”. It was all recorded in The Mothership studio at his home in the Hollywood Hills, a 1,600-square-foot (150 m²) building in which his guitar parts for Whitesnake’s 1989 album Slip of the Tongue were also recorded. As such, Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale has small spoken parts on Passion and Warfare.

Vai states that planning the album started as early as 1982, but was shelved after joining the David Lee Roth band and not picked up again until parting ways with Roth in 1989. Vai utilized many unusual recording techniques on the album. For what would come to be one of his most popular songs to date, “For the Love of God”, he fasted for ten days and recorded the song on the fourth day of the fast. “Blue Powder” was originally recorded in 1986 as a showcase track for Carvin, using their X-100B amplifier, and given away with Guitar Player magazine in flexi disc format. Vai was introduced to Carvin by his mentor Frank Zappa, who had also used the X-100B. The drums were subsequently re-recorded for the album.

The equipment used to record Passion and Warfare was: Ibanez JEM and Universe guitars; Charvel Green Meanie guitar; Marshall JCM900 and Carvin X-100B amplifiers; ADA MP-1 preamplier; Boss DS-1 distortion pedal; Eventide H3000 harmonizer; Lexicon 480L.

The song “For the Love of God” is available for download for the 2007 video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and was voted the 29th best solo of all time by a readers’ poll in Guitar World magazine.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Steve Vai.

Personnel

• Steve Vai – guitar, Eventide H3000, keyboard (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 11), bass (tracks 8, 9, 11), arrangement, engineering, production
• David Rosenthal – keyboard (tracks 2, 9, 13), background vocals
• Pia Maiocco (credited as Pia Vai) – keyboard on one chord (track 4)
• Bob Harris – keyboard (track 10), background vocals
• Chris Frazier – drums (tracks 1–5, 8, 10, 11, 13)
• Tris Imboden – drums (tracks 7, 9)
• Stuart Hamm – bass (tracks 2–5, 7, 10, 13)
• Nancy Fagen – vocals & hysteria (track 8)
• Jamie Firlotte – boy vocals (track 8)
• David Coverdale – background vocals
• Rudy Sarzo – background vocals
• Adrian Vandenberg – background vocals
• Pascal Fillet – background vocals
• Laurel Fishman – background vocals
• Lillian Vai – background vocals
• Pam Vai – background vocals
• Joel Kaith – background vocals
• Corky Tanassy – background vocals
• Jamie Kornberg – background vocals
• Lauren Kornberg – background vocals
• Corinne Larue – background vocals
• Famin’ – background vocals
• Darla Albright – background vocals
• Laura Gross – background vocals
• Rupert Henry – background vocals
• Suzanna Harris – background vocals
• Julian Angel Vai – background vocals
• Pascal Fillet – mixing
• Bernie Grundman – mastering