Tears of Sahara

[DocNrock]

Does anyone remember this song?  Tony MacAlpine in the 80s?  Just recently rediscovered it.  I have it on vinyl, but nothing to play records!  Didn't know (or remember?) that George Lynch played harmony and one of the solos. 

 

[Cagey]

I don't remember ever hearing it, but then, I don't remember a lot of things. I found a performance of it here. Guy clearly has a lot of talent and it's a nice melody, but it's grossly over-processed. Would have been better were it just a tad more raw.

 

[line6man]

Funny, I was just listening to it a week or two ago.

:guitarplayer2:

 

[aarontunes]

Yep, I do remember that song. I used to won it on vinyl, but haven't heard it in a long while. Wonder if it's on Spofity...

 

[stratamania]

Yes I remember that one. Used to also have it on vinyl. Tony, is an excellent musician, he would also have Chopin piano pieces on his albums as he is accomplished on the piano and keys also.

Look out for him and Vai playing together, great stuff.

 

[DocNrock]

@Cagey:  Glad you like it, man.  I neglected to say that I found the album (Maximum Security) on iTunes, so it the song and album now reside on my iPod.  I haven't had a chance to listen to the link yet, as I don't want to wake up my wife too early.  :icon_biggrin:  On the album, there is definitely a lot of processing to the guitars:  delay/reverb/chorus it sounds like, to me..  Then again, that was kind of the sound of 80's LA metal solos.  I think it would be killer with less processing, as well.  Perhaps an Eric Johnson-like tone?  What brought it to mind was running across a video of Nili Brosh, whom I had never heard of.  Apparently she is touring with Tony MacAlpine currently.  The video was a short clip of her practicing the harmony part to "Tears of Sahara."  Pretty damned good player.  Very crisp and clean playing with an incredible vibrato.

@Line6man:  Cool that you were recently listening to it, as well.  Vinyl also?  Or iTunes?  CD?  Good music like this always seems to come around full-circle. 

@Double A and Stratamania:  Awesome that you both had it on vinyl.  Don't know if it is on Spotify.  Did you look for/find it there, Double A?I did know MacAlpine is an accomplished keyboard player, as well, but have never heard any of his Chopin (or didn't recognize it as such).  I'll have to keep an ear out for it.  I also didn't know about any collaborations between him and Vai.  That has the potential to be amazing.  Thanks for the tips.

If anyone is interested, I found a great Guitar Pro tab of the song with both guitar parts and the keyboard part.  http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/t/tony_macalpine/tears_of_sahara_guitar_pro.htm

 

[stratamania]

Here you go from the Live in Denver DVD

http://youtu.be/IsWCqeI8Mb8

 

[line6man]

@Line6man:  Cool that you were recently listening to it, as well.  Vinyl also?  Or iTunes?  CD?  Good music like this always seems to come around full-circle. 

I started out on a Vinnie Moore kick on Youtube, and ended up listening to some Tony MacAlpine, as well. Tears of Sahara definitely stands out as one of the better songs that he played in the '80s.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I still have the original cassette, along with Maximum Security.
I still have Vinnie Moore's Time Odyssey, which I wish I had on CD!

They're so old, they sound like warped records on my new tape player.
Gosh, I've still got cassettes I've had since around 1981 now that I think of it, even old stuff from when I had a Tascam Porta 01 multitrack recorder, lol!

 

[DocNrock]

Vinnie Moore.  Now there's another great player I haven't thought of in a long while!

And TonyFlyingSquirrel, now we're talking...cassettes!  That's awesome you still have them.  I still have all my old vinyl, but at some point I tossed all of my old cassettes.  :doh:  Oh well.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

T-Mac, Vin-Mo, David Chastain, Joey Taffolla, Old school Racer X, Cacophony, Jason Becker.

Yup, now I gotta find them on CD or iTunes. :guitarplayer2:

 

[swarfrat]

If you're desparate:
http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~springer/DigitalNeedle/index.html

(Mostly a technical curiosity - the guy scanned records with a flatbed scanner, did some image processing on them, then extracted some very very noisy lo-fi audio. But cool for trying.)

 

[aarontunes]

@Double A and Stratamania:  Awesome that you both had it on vinyl.  Don't know if it is on Spotify.  Did you look for/find it there, Double A?I did know MacAlpine is an accomplished keyboard player, as well, but have never heard any of his Chopin (or didn't recognize it as such).  I'll have to keep an ear out for it.  I also didn't know about any collaborations between him and Vai.  That has the potential to be amazing.  Thanks for the tips.

Yep, found it on Spotify, along with much of his catalog. Looks like it will be a McAlpine day at work today!

 

[DocNrock]

@TonyFlyingSquirrel-  Those are some great players!  So sad about Jason Becker.  He was so accomplished at such a young age before being stricken with ALS.  I never was able to see him play, but recently I ran across a video of Jeff Loomis doing a jam room cover of "Perpetual Burn."  Obviously, Loomis is crazy good just to be able to cover it.  But to have written it, especially as young, is really a testament to Becker's talent and early dedication to the guitar.  You've probably seen it, but if not:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF6e7sBgiyw

@Swarfrat-  That is actually really cool!  Thanks for posting it.

@DoubleA -  Awesome!  A MacAlpine day at work would be a great day! 

 

[swarfrat]

Yeah, I should try it - there are some records I had as a young kid that are scratched (not saying, but possibly as a result of some slightly older kid discovering that if you roll a paper into a funnel, stick a sewing pin through the little end, and drop the steel pin in a groove, you can make a crude grammaphone. Hypothetically speaking).

They're out of print, and it's not really a lifelong passion, just some memory's I'd like to refresh.