Second Heat



Second Heat is the second Racer X album, released on Shrapnel Records in February 1987. It is the first Racer X album to feature guitarist Bruce Bouillet and drummer Scott Travis. According to Jeff Martin, the album was recorded, mixed, and mastered in 119 hours.

Second Heat is widely considered to be the definitive Racer X album, largely due to Bouillet's guitar harmonies and the band's tight songwriting sensibilities during this era. It is the only studio album in the band's catalog that features Bruce Bouillet.

Background
Throughout 1986, Racer X had been playing shows in California and Phoenix with newly-acquired drummer Scott Travis, who replaced Street Lethal drummer Harry Gschoesser, and Bruce Bouillet, one of Paul Gilbert's former GIT students.

The band soon began writing songs for their second album, which was originally titled Motor Man. These songs made use of Travis' advanced double bass technique and Bouillet's guitar harmonies with Gilbert. That winter, they headed in to Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA to record these songs for the new album.

Composition
The guitars and bass on the album were recorded in Eb tuning.

One of the album's most notable tracks, "Scarified", is an instrumental built around one of Scott Travis' drum lines. The song has since become one of Racer X's most famous pieces and a hallmark of Paul Gilbert's concerts and clinics.

"Sunlit Nights" was Racer X's first ever ballad and a mainstay of live shows. "Motor Man", which features a harmonized arpeggio intro, is frequently cited by Paul and Bruce as the hardest Racer X song to play on guitar. Replacement guitarist Chris Arvan admitted that he thought he could "never really play Motor Man." The album also includes a heavy metal cover of David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream", a track from his album The Rise and Fall Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The track "Heart of a Lion" was given to singer Jeff Martin as a birthday present from Judas Priest singer Rob Halford. The song was a cut track from the 1984 Defenders of the Faith album, but Halford would later record it with his self-titled band, Halford. In a 1988 interview, Paul Gilbert says that, since the song was never published by Judas Priest, they had a hard time getting permission to cover it since the label did not have any record of the song existing.

"Living The Hard Way" is a more radio-friendly track that follows a traditional format. "Lady Killer", the album's closer, features one of the album's many dueling guitar solos and references Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" in its lyrics ("when you're talkin' 'bout love...").

"Gone Too Far", "Sunlit Nights", "Heart of a Lion", "Motor Man", "Moonage Daydream", and "Scarified" became hallmarks of live Racer X concerts. On the Extreme Volume II album, "Heart of a Lion" is preceded by a brief intro of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused".

Tracklist

 * 1) Sacrifice
 * 2) Gone Too Far
 * 3) Scarified
 * 4) Sunlit Nights
 * 5) Hammer Away
 * 6) Heart of a Lion (Judas Priest cover)
 * 7) Motor Man
 * 8) Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover)
 * 9) Living the Hard Way
 * 10) Lady Killer

Band

 * Jeff Martin: vocals
 * Paul Gilbert: guitar
 * Bruce Bouillet: guitar
 * Juan Alderete: bass
 * Scott Travis: drums

Additional Musicians

 * Mike Mani: keyboard on "Sunlit Nights" and "Heart of a Lion"

Trivia

 * In an interview, Chris Arvan mentioned that Mike Varney strongly disliked the album artwork for Second Heat. Conversely, it is Arvan's favorite Shrapnel Records album artwork.
 * The opening track, "Sacrifice", was often covered by Paul Gilbert, Russ Parrish, and Jeff Martin in The Electric Fence.
 * There is a heavy metal band from Germany named "Second Heat", although it is unknown if their name is a reference to the album.