Re: Frank Zappa

[Greg Kucharo <telecaster@mac.com>]

  Utterly seconded, thirded, fourth, etc.
  
  Also, he relied heavily on the Synclavier in his later work, and from
interviews I got the impression that he could do most of the things he
envisioned in his head on it.
  I have all his albums, and from a guitar perspective the albums you 
enumerated
are definately worth having. 

12:05 AM Chris Richards


>Frank Zappa is one of my favorite guitarists. He
>some of the most amazing guitar tones (especially
>during the early 80's), and he had a really
>amazing melodic sense and played stuff that was
>pretty crazy rhythmically. He once said one of
>his problems as a band leader (apart from finding
>guys who could cover all the styles he wanted he
>incorporated into his music, who could play the
>insane written stuff he came up with and weren't
>impossible to deal with) was finding a rhythm
>section that could follow when he improvised. If
>he had a less than adequate rhythm section, it
>forced him to play a certain way that bent
>towards what the drummer and bassist could do. He
>said the reason he could do the stuff that was on
>the Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar set was because he
>had Vinnie Calutia drumming with the band that
>played on most of it (I suppose, therefore, that
>Guitar sounds the way it does because had Chad
>Wackerman on most of it). 
>
>I think any serious rock guitar junkie owes it to
>him or herself to check out Guitar, One Size Fits
>All, the entire You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore
>set, Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar, and Them Or Us.
>And Joe's Garage is essential listening, if for
>no other reason than for the studio version of
>Watermelon In Easter Hay, which is one of the
>most stunning guitar instrumentals I've heard. 
>
>I don't particularly like the guitar tones he had
>on his earlier records (Hot Rats is an AMAZING
>record, but his guitar sounds like it's coming
>out of a speaker made out of wet cardboard, and
>it's not just the wah wah pedal either), but even
>there, he had some stunning stuff that's worth
>hearing. Burnt Weenie Sandwich is another
>favorite. 
>
>=====
>May you never thirst!
>The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris
>
>"What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James 
>Earl 
>Jones
>
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