Surfing With the Alien by Joe Satriani

Surfing with the Alien, Joe Satriani's second studio album, came out on Relativity on October 15, 1987, and it's the record that turned a guitar teacher into a guitar hero. Satriani produced it himself, and it's all instrumental: no singer, no lyrics, just his guitar doing the singing, in liquid runs, whammy-bar dives and melodies you can hum.

Before this, he was the guy who had taught the likes of Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett; after it, he was a name in his own right, and it remains one of the most successful records of his career. "Satch Boogie" is the showpiece, a boogie shuffle strapped to a rocket. The next year, Mick Jagger came calling, wanting him out front on guitar when he took his own band on the road.

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