Steve Vai recorded his debut album, Flex-able, at home on an eight-track studio and released it himself in 1984.
Even though Vai is one of rock's most renowned guitar virtuosos, Flex-able isn't really a typical "shred" album; playing with Frank Zappa for several years rubbed off on Vai, and many of his compositions reflect both Zappa's musical influence and a skewed sense of humor that makes for some whimsically entertaining moments (i.e., "Little Green Men").
Make no mistake, there's still plenty of Joe Satriani-esque technical virtuosity on display, but since Vai has a few other tricks in his bag, Flex-able turns out to be much more enjoyable (and accessible to listeners other than guitar-technique fetishists) than the average '80s guitar shred-fest.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Little Green MenSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 05:39 | 12 MB | 36 MB |
| 2 | Salamanders in the SunSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 02:25 | 5 MB | 13 MB |
| 3 | Call It SleepSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 05:09 | 11 MB | 27 MB |
| 4 | JunkieSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 07:23 | 16 MB | 42 MB |
| 5 | Bill's Private PartsSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 00:16 | 0 MB | 1 MB |
| 6 | Next Stop EarthSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 00:34 | 1 MB | 2 MB |
| 7 | There's Something Dead in HereSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 03:46 | 8 MB | 18 MB |
| 8 | So HappySteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 02:43 | 6 MB | 13 MB |
| 9 | Bledsoe BluvdSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 26 MB |
| 10 | Burnin' Down the MountainSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 04:22 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 11 | Chronic InsomniaSteve Vai | Steve Vai | Play | 02:05 | 4 MB | 11 MB |
| 38 mins | 88 MB | |||||
| 38 mins | 223 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Brown | Design, Illustrations |
| 2 | Scott Collard | Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Synthesizer |
| 3 | Larry Crane | Bells, Lyre, Vibraphone, Xylophone |
| 4 | Greg Degler | Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone |
| 5 | Joe Despagni | Sound Effects |
| 6 | Laurel Fishman | Vocals |
| 7 | Peggy Foster | Bass |
| 8 | Chris Frazier | Drums |
| 9 | Stuart Hamm | Bass, Sound Effects, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 10 | Bob Harris | Trumpet, Vocals |
| 11 | Suzannah Harris | Vocals |
| 12 | Billy James | Drums, Percussion |
| 13 | Paul Lemcke | Keyboards |
| 14 | Pai Maiocco | Vocals |
| 15 | Tommy Mars | Keyboards, Violin, Vocals |
| 16 | John Matousek | Mastering |
| 17 | Mark Pinske | Assistant |
| 18 | Irney (Bob Harris) Rantin | Vocals |
| 19 | Ursula Rayven | Vocals |
| 20 | Lill Vai | Sound Effects |
| 21 | Steve Vai | Bass, Bells, Composer, Design, Drum Machine, Drum Programming, Engineer, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Mixing, Percussion, Piano, Primary Artist, Producer, Sitar, Synthesizer, Vocals |
| 22 | Chad Wackerman | Drums |
| 23 | Pete Zeldman | Drums, Percussion |
| 24 | Neil Zlozower | Photography |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |