I can’t believe people had the gall to give Joe Satriani hell for this. He’s probably the cleanest player I’ve ever seen.

The way you figured it out reminds me of how Chris Liepe on his channel demonstrates vocal techniques like "HUUUUHHHH" or "pick up something heavy", where you are just making noises but learning how your body feels and how the airflow works when you make the noises, then you translate those into your delivery as you sing to add grit or compression or whatever.

I love how people want to troll Satriani for trying to do this on Howard Stern without knowing the backstory of that show, especially when they can't even play like Satriani themselves. Actually Andy Wood had the best response to it all right after people posting their trolling of it/ First, that show was done almost at the last minute and Satriani was nearly playing it all on the fly. They had had maybe 15 minutes together the day before to work out a few things. If people cared to look into things, they would know that Satch had been making paintings for auctions at galleries and Sammy literally called him up with this idea while he was in the middle of doing a painting. That call may have taking place a few days to a week before that appearance on Howard Stern that everyone want to skewer him for. So, figure in his schedule of going to these art shows, he may have had a couple of days at most to learn those songs on his own, prior to meeting with the rest of the guys to try and get things worked out for that 15 mins or so. Second, and this is a big one people seem to forget..... nearly a year before when it was leaked by Jason Newsted that there might be a VH tribute tour, BOTH Alex Van Halen and DLR talked to Satriain as the guy to be the guitarist in it. The most important 50% of the original Van Halen wanted Satriani as the guitar player for the tribute tour that they were contemplating at that time. I think that says all you need to know about the guitar player who should do it and the people who wanted him in it. If they cared to look at some more recent interviews with Satch, they will see how serious he is taking the upcoming tour. He is having an amp specially built to get the tone that he thinks will be most useful is getting EVH's guitar tone on the bulk of the VH catalog. While he was always a big fan, he tried not to learn or play like EVH, as to not try and sound like him, like a lot of other players when he was on the scene. As he has said in interviews, he will be working on that right after the Satch/Vai tour concludes. So, we will see how it all plays out (ha!) in a few months. Cheers, Tim

I saw Joe Satriani trying to play this. Hell yeah dude! I’ve considered learning but my scatter brain will not cooperate with me lol. Keep rocking dude!

I don't have any aspirations of being able to play this, but I watched every second of your video! haha You're such a great teacher and down to earth guy. You really make it seem possible! Thank you!

It just sounds so incredibly cool.

Woah that Kramer guitar is just 🔥🔥

Love the guitar man

holy cannoli this video is greatly timed I'm learning this song

If you can get your hands on Satch's Sufing With The Alien tab book, the Performance Notes to Midnight gave me practice tips to train the rhythm of the intro into my fingers away from the guitar...like what Mike shows by turning his guitar around to train the rhythm into your fingers. Just a tip for those who want extra credit.

I love Mean Street. It was the first Van Halen song I ever heard and that intro with the lick at the end freaked me out!

Nice job! I recently learned this intro (not up to full speed) and the tapped harmonics are my favorite! So fun

Might have to give this song another go! It is such a cool song.

This intro sounds so coool! I wanna play it too!

Back of the neck reminds me of Lacquer Head by Primus.

Absolutely Brilliant breakdown of that intro and expertly taught. This is definitely a masterpiece of your channel. Well done!!!! I now have a least a chance after many years to take a final shot at this, wish me luck. All the best ❤

dude ive been trying to this for months this video helped so fast

Awesome, genuine tips, thanks alot

Very well explained! Thx, man!

Awesome video!! This is why you’re one of the best on KZfaq!

Love this intro! Newly striped guitar looks awesome! 🤘🏻🔥 I've got my They Live! shirt on today too 😊. One step at a time reminds me of What About Bob and "baby steps" 🙂 Love that MJ song, listened to him a ton as a teen!

Very informative.

i just noticed you have really long fingers which im sure makes playing guitar easier for you than those of us with big hands but stubby fingers

Interesting how you come up with things to help you figure the easiest way to learn it and play it! I saw your video on LZ Rock n Roll that too was excellent!

Brilliant 👏

Sweet guitar!!!!

I was always missing the first finger on the fret hand muting the strings. Great video.

So cool 😎

4:50 MOPS Mean Street + On Base Percentage + Slugging

awsome

Very impressive.

I slowed the playback speed down to 0.5 to get the pattern right but couldn't stop laughing because you sounded drunk at that speed

Man i don’t know why i didn’t check out more of your videos before now . Admittedly I have only seen a few till now. But man i really dig the way you relate to things on guitar and relate guitar to other things ! Love the guerrilla practice regiment ! Dude that Jimmys Chicken 🐔 Shack is frikn sick !! What a cool sound and u nailed it on that tele ! I bet u have a cool guitar community going here ! Im definitely subbing if im not already subbed! 😁 Thanks for this cool ass breakdown ! Fascinating!

The very beginning of the video where you were playing the guitar part, like I wasn't paying attention to my phone, so I wasn't aware of what video was coming up next to the playlist, but whenever I heard that I thought it was rock bottom by UFO at first lol like perhaps a cover, or a live version or somebody was playing a variation of the riff. That would actually be a pretty cool song to discuss, especially the live version where Michael Schenker played (Hamburg, 1981, the video I'm thinking of is like 13yo i think) 🤙🏿

It’s often overlooked how amazing EVH rhythm was,his inner meter was incredible Take a moment and just listen to his rhythm guitar playing on those first few albums where the overdubbing is minimal. He was a freak of nature and he composed it all as well.

I think there is such a carry over in techniques with different instruments.. speaking of Midnight. I gave up on it for awhile after chipping away at it everyday (almost everyday). started playing keyboards more, then came back to it and my right hand was so relaxed, strong and fluid. also practiced it like you did (when my left elbow was sore). I would slap my hand on the strings then tap with my right in rhythm

Damnn that guitar 😍😍

Man, Ozark is such a good show.

I have wondered if Joe made the Midnight/Mean Street connection, he is already so close with that pattern.

I always said if you can tap it on a table than you can transfer it to guitar …I count it like: 1 and 2 and 3 and tap tap…but insanely fast 🤘

As soon as this popped up, I knew you'd be referencing that Howard Stern video with Satch.

One of the bands u covered in fix this band, apocalypse made a single u should check it out

Slappa da guitar

Nothing better than Classic Van Halen.

Tom Morello would be a good candidate for this

Big thing that made it easier for me was playing the top 2 not like a tap, but like hammering an artificial harmonic. It’s at the 12th fret, so it sounds damn near the same anyways to my ear.

noicee

When the aliens get here and ask what rock n roll is -Mean street.

Mike, What Ozark episode are you on?

Man I love that Kramer!! Joe Satriani can't play that right! 🤣👍

Satch was called out on the spot, who knows when the last time he played it was? And maybe, just maybe he was like secretly thinking I can’t just nail it. These guys who posted videos after probably practiced it for hours and did 100s of takes. That’s my take.

What guitar is that?

4:10 sounds nearly identical to the opening of Mr.rager by kid cudi😳

That's the thing about Eddie Throw the rulebook out the F#@n window

Satch bloows

Looks easy but, not so much when doing I think hahahah :D

Watch Tommy Emmanuel. Like EVH, he's explored almost every sound a guitar can make playing it percussively. Tommy isn't a rocker but I bet if you showed him this technique or played Mean Street for him and asked him how to play the intro he'd figure it out almost instantly.

Like anything else.. it just takes time.

Man that guitar is sexy

ok

It’s almost a paradiddle

Awe man is this the vid that's getting hit? DLR's team or what? Wolf's? Sad news.

If you play this in perfect time, 16th notes...you will never get it to sound like the record. It's a very short lick, and Ed makes it swing, especially when he hits the 12th fret E twice in a row. Trying to play it straight makes it robotic and odd, which is kinda how Joe made it sound months ago. For Ed, it's natural. For us?...not so much.

It's not that hard The song I'm the one is way harder

Sure, but can you play at 280 and chew gum at the same time?