Passion and Warfare was written based on a series of dream sequences that Vai had when he was younger, and in the guitar music book of the album, Vai sums it up as "Jimi Hendrix meets Jesus Christ at a party that Ben Hur threw for Mel Blanc".
It was all recorded in The Mothership studio at his home in the Hollywood Hills, a 1,600-square-foot (150 m2) building in which his guitar parts for Whitesnake's 1989 album Slip of the Tongue were also recorded.
As such, Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale has small spoken parts on the album; Coverdale, Adrian Vandenberg and Rudy Sarzo are credited with backing vocals. Vai states that planning the album started as early as 1982, but was shelved after joining the David Lee Roth band and not picked up again until parting ways with Roth in 1989.
Widely acclaimed as his best album, Passion and Warfare finds Steve Vai coming into his own as a composer, as well as bypassing vocals almost entirely.
His style isn't quite as derivative of influences Frank Zappa and Joe Satriani as it was six years earlier on Flex-able; while some of Vai's sense of humor is still evident on tracks like the cock rock strut of "The Audience Is Listening," it is mostly replaced by a spiritual reflectiveness on ballads like "For the Love of God" and "Blue Powder" and dignified, committed rockers like "I Would Love To" and "Liberty." Vai is a more distinguished composer than most of his guitar-shredder contemporaries, and rather than simply showing off his technique, he isn't afraid to experiment or take chances in his playing. Thus, Passion and Warfare is arguably the richest and best hard rock guitar-virtuoso album of the '80s.
Track listing
1. Liberty - 2:03
2. Erotic Nightmares - 4:15
3. The Animal - 4:01
4. Answers - 2:56
5. The Riddle - 6:24
6. Ballerina 12/24 - 1:43
7. For the Love of God - 6:03
8. The Audience Is Listening - 5:30
9. I Would Love To - 3:41
10. Blue Powder - 4:44
11. Greasy Kid's Stuff - 2:58
12. Alien Water Kiss - 1:10
13. Sisters - 4:07
14. Love Secrets - 3:40
(All tracks are written by Steve Vai.)
Personnel
- Steve Vai – guitar, Eventide H3000, keyboard (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 11), bass (tracks 8, 9, 11), arrangement, engineering, production
- David Rosenthal – keyboard (tracks 2, 9, 13), background vocals
- Pia Maiocco (credited as Pia Vai) – keyboard on one chord (track 4)
- Bob Harris – keyboard (track 10), background vocals
- Chris Frazier – drums (tracks 1–5, 8, 10, 11, 13)
- Tris Imboden – drums (tracks 7, 9)
- Stuart Hamm – bass (tracks 2–5, 7, 10, 13)
- Nancy Fagen – "vocals & hysteria" (track 8)
- Jamie Firlotte – boy vocals (track 8
- David Coverdale – background vocals
- Rudy Sarzo – background vocals
- Adrian Vandenberg – background vocals
- Pascal Fillet – background vocals
- Laurel Fishman – background vocals
- Lillian Vai – background vocals
- Pam Vai – background vocals
- Joel Kaith – background vocals
- Corky Tanassy – background vocals
- Jamie Kornberg – background vocals
- Lauren Kornberg – background vocals
- Corinne Larue – background vocals
- Famin' – background vocals
- Darla Albright – background vocals
- Laura Gross – background vocals
- Rupert Henry – background vocals
- Suzanna Harris – background vocals
- Julian Angel Vai – background vocals
- Pascal Fillet – mixing
- Bernie Grundman – mastering
Notes
Released: May 1990
Recorded at: Studio The Mothership
Genre: Instrumental rock, progressive metal
Length: 53:15
Label - Relativity Records
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