For My Sunday Song #77, I am going with one of my favorite songs by Joe Satriani called “I Believe”. The song is off one of his best albums called ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’ from 1989. Joe is known for his guitar playing and making it sing. Well for this song, Joe is actually singing. One of the very few songs he has ever done that on which was the first reason I was drawn to this song. It was nice to hear him sing.
The song is a ballad and a much slower pace than you are used to getting from him. I was enthralled by the dark tone to the song and even the dark lyrics. The lyrics discussed how hard life is, but it is inspiring to as it was still filled with so much hope. I will let Joe tell it better from an interview he did with Songfacts.com…
“It was a difficult period in my life, where my father was in the process of passing away, and I was struggling with finishing up the Flying in a Blue Dream record. I was actually writing other songs that were instrumental pieces for the album. I’d be taking breaks during those periods, and I’d pick up the acoustic guitar and would start playing music.
There was a big painting in our apartment that a friend of my wife’s had done. She had worked my wife’s face into this figure, and I used to look at that quite a bit when I would take breaks from working on the album. So I wrote a song really about how difficult life is, but how ultimately, you have hope and you can change things for the better. It was really about writing that song and looking at that picture.”
Now give it a listen and hopefully it touches you the same way. Let me know what you think. Have great Sunday!!
I got something on my mind
How did we get here? Where are we going?
Why is life so hard
World’s a crazy space
Got to hold on to my dreams
There’s just no other place
There’s just no other place
We can change anything
I believe
We can rise above it
I believe
There’s a reason for everything
I believe
In my dream
I’ve seen them turn and walk away
And I keep searching, for the right words
To send these thoughts away
A picture of a beautiful face
And I see something, in her eyes
Sends me to a better place
Sends me to a better place
We can change anything
I believe
We can rise above it
I believe
There’s a reason for everything
I believe
In my dream
I believe
We can change anything
I believe
In my dream
When I see the name Satriani, I immediately think guitar – so nice to read he can provide some nice vocals too!
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He sang several songs on that album and I liked them all. He should do it more.
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This is one of my favourite ballads of all time. Great post John. I’d put this in my top 5 ballads.
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That is pretty high praise. It is one of my favorites as well, but have never thought about what is my top 5.
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All My Love by Zeppelin is in there for sure.
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I didn’t know this one (not familiar with that album), but it’s actually good to hear some Satriani vocals! Lyrics seem just as relevant today, too!
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The album this song is off of is my favorite Satriani album and I highly recommend it if you get a chance.
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I’ll add it to the list for sure… I have a few of his albums, but they’re mostly more recent ones.
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