Rocky Road

Joe Satriani, "Summer Song"

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As San Francisco high school students in 1986, we learned about the burgeoning rock instrumental genre from Vinnie Moore and Yngwie Malmsteen. In 1987, we discovered Cacophony (Jason Becker and Marty Friedman), Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Tony MacAlpine. 1988 brought us Greg Howe and Stuart Hamm.

So in summer 1992, when my friends were back from their respective colleges, we heard Berkeley resident Joe Satriani's "Summer Song." We brought its album, The Extremist with us everywhere, including Bay Area audio stores. Many of my friends went to - you got it - UC Berkeley. I do not recall how she did it, but my future girlfriend, ACS, got some of us non-Cal students into the Strawberry Canyon pool. Place your Discman next to your pool chair, lean back, put on the headphones, cover your face from the sun, and enjoy!

So for us, "Summer Song" was a maturation point. Since we had known about and liked instrumental rock for over half a decade, we felt like we reached a certain plateau.

Oh hell yeah. But for audiophiles, it was this Sony commercial, which (a) finally established instrumental rock within the audiophile community, and (b) made it cool to embrace the CD format.

A quarter century later, everyone and his/her kids are still groovin' to "Summer Song."

-Lummy The Loch Monster

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