yankee rose + heaven tonight

Two different tunes from the 80s when guitar was king, by kings of the guitar: David Lee Roth's Yankee Rose with Steve Vai handling the guitar chores and Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Heaven Tonight. Though done by masters of technique the songs (and videos) are in that vein of true rock 'n roll fun. And who wouldn't rejoice at playing these tunes to thousands of fans?

Yankee Rose
(1986)




Heaven Tonight
(1988)

Actually Steve and Yngwie represent 2 different approaches to shredding, and here are representative short licks from the above tunes. Steve seems to like sliding around the neck, especially when arpeggiating. The picking isn't so rough but the shfting is in this one (this occurs at 2:38 in the video -- subtract out 1:41 if you're listening to some form of the audio):


And Yngwie -- Mr. "Neo-Classical" -- is all about sweeping arpeggios and alternate picking, the latter of which is featured here in a very nice harmonic minor passage (at 0:36):



N.B. I've transcribed this at pitch -- Yngwie (with band in tow) tunes down a half-step, so he's really playing in F# minor, though it sounds in F minor.