For My Sunday Song #127, I am covering the instrumental classic Steve Vai song “For the Love of God”. The song is off his 1990 album ‘Passion and Warfare’ which was my first Steve Vai album. After hearing him play with David Lee Roth and with Whitesnake, I was a huge fan of his and had to have this on CD.
The song has this dreamlike feel to it as if it is floating around you in the heavens. It is strange and wonderful all at the same time. His playing is exceptional and out of this world. Per Wikipedia…
Vai recorded the track on the fourth day of a ten-day fast. During an interview, he explained, “I do try to push myself into relatively altered states of consciousness. Because in those states you can come up with things that are unique even for yourself”.
The song goes on for over 6 minutes and actually ends with some spoken words. Those words are spoken by David Coverdale and are “Walking the fine line between Pagan and Christian.” So, does this still count as an instrumental? Yes, it most certainly does.
The song was recorded on Steve Vai’s prototype for his Ibanez Universe series guitars back in 1990. His guitar techniques he utilized in the song were legato (which is going from note to not seamlessly without any silence), sweep picking (playing the same note on multiple strings with one sweep of the pick) and pitch bends (a passing or gliding from one pitch to another with a smooth progression). This is a picture of the style of guitar not necessarily the one he used…
Sit back and give the song a listen and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Have a wonderful and Happy Sunday!
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
When I think of Passion and Warfare the term that comes to mind is ‘Striking While The Iron is Hot!”
Vai was on a roll..from Roth to Whitesnake so the timing was right. I bought it at its release date..I bought two one for me and one for my brother…
I dug it but to be honest when I listen to Vai now its the the two Dave albums that do it for me,,,
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Agreed. I think there were a couple of solo albums I really liked and then it got weird and lost me. I am still hoping for this one on vinyl and then I will have all the good ones.
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Good on Vai still out doing it but unless he hooked with Roth again and recorded I’ll just view him from afar..
Eat Em and Smile ..man oh man..
and Hina from Skyscraper such brilliant playing
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He did things with the guitar you didn’t know were possible. He made everyone step up their game.
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For sure John!
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WOW! I’m in complete awe of musicians who can coax such incredible sounds from their guitars like Vai does on this track! Absolutely monumental!
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I have been learning the guitar as I get more and more into I realize two things…1) Vai, Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and all the others are better than I originally thought as they make it look so easy and 2) I really, really suck at the guitar!!
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That’s a good question about when a song stops qualifying as an instrumental – I’d probably vote that as long as it’s only speaking (and not in any sort of verse-chorus pattern), it still counts as instrumental!
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I would go with that theory. If it is one line or so, okay, but a whole verse and definitely a chorus would kill it.
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I think this is the finest song Steve ever wrote. The way it builds and builds!
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I can’t disagree with you on that one.
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