Flying in a Blue Dream (song)

Song infobox
Name = Flying in a Blue Dream


Artist = Joe Satriani
Album = Flying in a Blue Dream
Released = October 30, 1989
track_no = 1
Recorded = Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA; Hyde Street Studios; Different Fur; Coast Recorders; Alpha & Omega Recording, San Francisco, CA
Genre = Instrumental rock
Length = 5:28
Label = Relativity Records
Writer = Joe Satriani
Producer = Joe Satriani, John Cuniberti
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next = "The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing"
next_no = 2"Flying in a Blue Dream" is the title track off Joe Satriani's third studio album. It starts with a recording of a radio station teamed with emotional harmonics then follows into the proper song. It is one of Satriani's most popular songs, and is still performed at all of his live concerts. Live versions can be found on the "Live in San Francisco", "Satriani Live!", and "" albums.

The intro heard was not planned, but was recorded nonetheless by producer John Cuniberti while recording Satriani's guitar parts for the song. Apparently, Satriani's amplifier was picking up a frequency from a radio or TV station, and Cuniberti simply said, "I'm recording this," and proceeded. Amidst the recorded speech is a young boy's voice saying "sometimes they act like they still like each other, and sometimes they don't." The same excerpt is still used today when Satriani performs the song in concert. The acoustic rhythm guitar part is usually played as a backing track.

Musically, the track strongly features the C Lydian mode which is a major scale with a raised 4th degree of the scale, giving it a spacey-dreamy feeling.

Also featured strongly in the track is Joe Satriani's fluid and complex usage of the legato technique to quickly play scalar runs.

When played live, the intro harmonics are produced by Satriani and then manipulated by physically moving himself and his guitar to different positions relative to his amplifier - this changes the frequencies of the harmonics, giving an interesting array of variations on the initial harmonic.