With the release of
\nGuitar<\/i>, Frank Zappa’s second two-CD collection of guitar
\nsolos, one had to question just what Zappa was trying to prove.<\/p>\n
After all, here was a musician who was actively trying to
\nestablish himself as a legitimate composer of serious music, as
\nwell as someone who had already put out a collection of his guitar
\nsolos (as
\nShut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar<\/i>) a few years prior. Why on earth
\ndid Zappa feel the need to release a second compilation like that?
\nMore importantly, why did we, as music consumers (as well as those
\nwho are Zappa fans), need a second set?<\/p>\n
If anything,
\nGuitar<\/i> acts as further example as to what Zappa
\nunintentionally proved on
\nShut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar<\/i> – while he was indeed a genius on
\nthe guitar, the solos removed from the context of the concert are
\njust damned boring.<\/p>\n
Whether you’re a diehard Zappa fan or not, the fact is, without
\nhaving the track listing in front of you, this collection of 32
\nsolos is going to become a huge mish-mash of speed-freak guitar
\nlicks after a short period of time. While some of the tracks are
\nrecognizable (such as “In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky,” with a certain bass
\nline that should be recognizable to any child of the ’60s), Zappa,
\nfor the most part, happily noodles away on these snippets culled
\nfrom 1979 to 1984, all progressing along away from their rightful
\nplace in the live stage shows they came from.<\/p>\n
And that, kids, is where
\nGuitar<\/i> fails the most. It’s one thing to grab one or two of
\nthese tracks at a time, and listen to them just to clear out the
\npipes. But after a while, you almost start wishing for vocal tracks
\nto kick in at some point, just to break up the repetitive nature of
\nthese tracks. At least, you may think, it would have been nice to
\nhave heard the songs these solos were pulled from, even if only for
\na point of reference.<\/p>\n
It’s not that
\nGuitar<\/i> is bad; tracks like “Sexual Harrassment In The
\nWorkplace,” “Swans? What Swans?” and “That Ol’ G Minor Thing” do
\nprovide some enjoyment. But I found that I could take no more than
\neight to ten tracks at a time before I had to turn the CD player
\noff, walk away and clear my head. Remember when our parents told us
\nthat you could even have too much of a good thing?
\nGuitar<\/i> proves this to be absolutely true.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, Zappa rightfully belongs enshrined in any kind
\nof guitarists’ hall of fame that one can imagine, and
\nGuitar<\/i> does contain many of those performances that make the
\nargument for Zappa’s inclusion. But this set breaks no new ground
\nover
\nShut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar<\/i>, and is recommended for only the
\ntrue die-hard Zappa fans.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-38550","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38550"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38550"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}