''The Extremist'' is the fourth studio album by guitarist

Joe Satriani Joseph Satriani (born July 15, 1956)Prato, Greg"Joe Satriani – Music Biography, Credits and Discography". '' AllMusic''. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved May 28, 2014. is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and guitar teacher. Early in his ...

, released on July 21, 1992 through

Relativity Records Relativity Records was an American record label founded by Barry Kobrin at the site of his company, Important Record Distributors (IRD) in metro New York. Relativity released music that covers a wide variety of musical genres. When it entered in ...

The album is one of Satriani's most popular releases and his highest-charting to date, reaching No. 22 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200"The Extremist - Joe Satriani , Awards"
''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

''. All Media Network. Retrieved 2014-03-20. and remaining on that chart for 28 weeks, "Joe Satriani - Chart history" '' Billboard''. Retrieved 2014-03-20. as well as reaching the top 50 in six other countries."Joe Satriani - The Extremist (album)"
''finnishcharts.com''. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2014-03-20. Three singles reached ''Billboards

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

chart: " Summer Song" at No. 5, " Friends" at No. 12 and "

Cryin' "Cryin'" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Taylor Rhodes. It was released by Geffen Records on June 20, 1993, as a single from their 11th studio album, ''Get a Grip''. The single rea ...

" at No. 24. ''The Extremist'' was

certified Gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

on December 22, 1992. and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the

1993 Grammy Awards The 35th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1993 and recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. The nominations were announced on January 7, 1993. The evening's host was the American stand-up comedian Garry Shan ...

,"35th Grammy Awards - 1993"
Rock On The Net. Retrieved 2014-03-20. Satriani's fourth such nomination.

Overview

"Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness" is dedicated to Satriani's wife Rubina, and is the second song named after her, following "Rubina" from '' Not of This Earth'' (1986). "Summer Song" has endured as one of Satriani's best-known songs and is a mainstay at his concerts; it was used by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

in a commercial for the

Walkman Walkman, stylised as , is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for p ...

"Joe Satriani's Chronology"
satriani.com. Retrieved 2014-03-20. and was later included on the soundtrack to two of Sony's console video games: '' Formula 1'' (1996) for the PlayStation and ''

Gran Turismo 4 ''Gran Turismo 4'' is a 2004 racing video game for the PlayStation 2, the fourth installment in the main ''Gran Turismo'' series and the sixth for the overall series. It was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entert ...

'' (2004) for the PlayStation 2. Two

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

from ''The Extremists recording sessions, "Crazy" and "Banana Mango II", together with the outtakes "Thinking of You", "Speed of Light" and "Baroque", were later released on Satriani's 1993 double album ''

Time Machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

''.

Reissues

''The Extremist'' has been reissued several times. The first was in 1997 through Epic Records and again on June 16, 2008 as part of the '' Original Album Classics'' box set. The most recent reissue was part of '' The Complete Studio Recordings'', released on April 22, 2014 through Legacy Recordings; this is a box set compilation containing remastered editions of every Satriani studio album from 1986 to 2013.Bosso, Joe (2014-04-08)
"Joe Satriani talks The Complete Studio Recordings album by album , Surfing With The Alien (1987)"
'' MusicRadar''.

Future Publishing Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...

. Retrieved 2015-03-18.

Critical reception

Phil Carter at

gave ''The Extremist'' four stars out of five, saying that the album lives up to its name. "Summer Song", "Friends", "Motorcycle Driver", and the title track were noted as highlights.

Track listing

Personnel

*Joe Satriani – guitar, Dobro, keyboard, synthesizer, banjo, mandolin, bass (tracks 8, 10), harmonica, arrangement, mixing, producer *Phil Ashley – keyboard (track 6), synthesized strings, synthesized trumpet (track 10),

squeezebox The term squeezebox (also squeeze box, squeeze-box) is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina. The term is so a ...

Gregg Bissonette Gregg Bissonette (born June 9, 1959) is an American jazz and rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. He has played on albums by dozens of recording artists, including David ...

– drums (tracks 1–6, 8, 9) *Bongo Bob Smith – drums (track 8), percussion (track 8) * Simon Phillips – drums (tracks 5, 10), tambourine * Paulinho da Costa – percussion (tracks 2–4, 6, 8, 9) *

Jeff Campitelli Jeff Campitelli (born 29 December 1960) is a drummer who has worked with Joe Satriani on many of his albums as well as live performances. Before Satriani's breakthrough in instrumental music he played with Joe Satriani in a band called The Sq ...

– cymbals (track 10) *

Andy Johns Jeremy Andrew "Andy" Johns (20 May 1950 – 7 April 2013) was a British sound engineer and record producer who worked on several well-known rock albums, including the Rolling Stones' '' Exile on Main St.'' (1972), Television's '' Marquee Moon'' ...

– organ (tracks 2, 9), arrangement (track 1),

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

(tracks 1–9), mixing, production (tracks 1–9) *

Brett Tuggle Brett Tuggle (September 23, 1951 – June 19, 2022) was an American musician who is best known for his keyboard playing with Fleetwood Mac and the David Lee Roth band. Career Early years As a child, he studied classical piano and learned guitar ...

– organ (track 4) * Matt Bissonette – bass (tracks 1–6, 9) *

Doug Wimbish Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bass player, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang ...

– bass (track 5), spoken vocals Technical *John Cuniberti – engineering (tracks 5, 6, 8, 10), production (tracks 5, 6, 8, 10) *Bart Stevens – engineering assistance *Dan Bosworth – engineering assistance * Michael Semanick – engineering assistance *David Plank – engineering assistance *Michael Reiter – engineering assistance *Julie Last – engineering assistance *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...

– mastering *

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Tim ...

– cover photography

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Awards

References

External links

The Extremist
at satriani.com

at Guitar Nine Records {{DEFAULTSORT:Extremist, The Joe Satriani albums 1992 albums Relativity Records albums Albums produced by Andy Johns Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance