SHUT UP ’N PLAY YER GUITAR

Where do you begin when you try to put together a listening guide to Zappa’s vast repertoire? Well, you can ask a bunch of known ‘Frankophiles’ to pick their favourite track or era of the man’s music, for starters…

THE IDIOT BASTARD SON – MOTHERMANIA (1969)

MIKE KENEALLY: “Mine is the specific version of The Idiot Bastard Son that Frank prepared for the Mothermania compilation. The tape is running at a different speed from the [We’re] Only In It For The Money version, there’s no weird talking section in the middle, and the mix is completely different. It’s very haunting sounding, with more flutes in the mix, and just feels like a complete world unto itself defined by Frank’s musicality and harmonic sense.”

TWENTY SMALL CIGARS – CHUNGA’S REVENGE (1970)

ADRIAN CLARK : “I could so easily have picked my favourite solo break, because there are so many, charting the uniqueness and gradual evolution of Frank’s playing: Hungry Freaks, Daddy, Transylvania Boogie, Inca Roads, Rat Tomago. But for me, right now, the essence of the Zappa guitar sound is best conjured up by Twenty Small Cigars from Chunga’s Revenge. It’s a simple little tune, mostly composed, but it has that combination of jaunty and wistful that Frank did so well.”

APOSTROPHE(') (1974)

AHMETZAPPA: “I was born in ’74 and the only music I heard probably until I was, you know, 10 maybe, or maybe seven or eight, was just Frank’s music because we didn’t really have the radio on. Whatever he was working on in that era – and previously – was the stuff that was played the most in the house. My dad’s music was my entire musical landscape. The stuff from the early 70s and 80s, I mean, I just love that. I love it all so, so much. Apostrophe('), Over-Nite Sensation, Sheik Yerbouti… you know?”

ST ETIENNE – JAZZ FROM HELL (1986)

GUTHRIEGOVAN: “I think my favourite FZ guitar moment might be St Etienne, from the Jazz From Hell album. The phrasing is exquisitely unpredictable and I really enjoy the perverse eccentricity of Frank’s decision to include an extended guitar improvisation like this – over a beautifully chilled-out backing – on an album that otherwise comprises wall-to-wall statistically dense Synclavier programming! And then, there’s that sound – a classic multi-layered Zappa rig where the sparkling clean attack of each note seems to cross-fade into a thicker, more overdriven amp tone, dialled in to start feeding back at the slightest provocation… Truly splendid.”

INCA ROADS – ONE SIZE FITS ALL (1975)

STEVE VAI: “Well, you can ask me and I’d answer differently every time, but right now I’m going to say Inca Roads [from One Size Fits All]. It’s a gem among gems. There’s so much embodied in that one piece of music that it’s uncanny. That guitar solo is my favourite guitar solo he’s ever done. The melody in it is the voice of God, you know? There you have it. There’s no other way for me to describe it. That piece of music is extraordinary on so many levels. There’s comedy in it, there’s historical melody, there’s freedom.”

ROXY & ELSEWHERE (1974)

ALEX WINTER: “I like Zappa at the two extremes of his career. The most experimental rock era – Hot Rats is probably my favourite of the rock albums. And I love The Yellow Shark, and how can you not love Roxy & Elsewhere and the greatest band he had? That mid-70s period is thought of as his heyday because he just had the ultimate rock band, though there were artists in that band that weren’t rock musicians. That’s what makes Zappa great. If you listen to Roxy And Elsewhere or music from that era, it’s hard to beat.”

WATERMELON IN EASTER HAY – JOE’S GARAGE ACTS II & III (1979)

DAVIDMEAD: “I think Watermelon In Easter Hay, the penultimate track from Joe’s Garage Acts II & III is almost the exact opposite of Zappa’s accustomed soloing style. Instead of the angular, snarly, angry and often dissonant guitar outing over a single chordal rhythmic vamp, here we find Frank in melodic mode. This is a beautiful, melancholic instrumental featuring a soaring melody and a simply gorgeous solo that you just don’t want to end.”

INCA ROADS – ONE SIZE FITS ALL (1975)

JOHN ETHERIDGE: “I think the number-one Zappa guitar solo has to be on Inca Roads from the album One Size Fits All. This is a bolted-on solo taken from a live gig in Helsinki (you can hear that as well on You Can’t Do That On Stage Any More Vol 2). The solo has been somewhat edited and re-EQ’d and the pedal effect is, I think, a Mutron envelope filter. Zappa really plays ‘bandleader’ solos. He allows himself all the time in the world and is not out to impress. Here it all comes together in a compact masterpiece that ends with the first example I’d heard of fret tapping. Totally individual style and content.”