Creative, technical, and talented, but lacking emotion IMO.
- Thread starter Super Turbo Deluxe Custom
- Start date
GoDrex
Hero Member
- Messages
- 3,656
stubhead said:
still looking for any evidence of Frank "ripping" him in print.... can anyone find it?
here's something I did find:
http://home.online.no/~corneliu/picturedisc2.htm
Interviewer:
John McLaughlin?
Frank Zappa:
I met John. I think he's a great guitar player and I think that he's probably done a lot to educate American audiences to some aspects of Eastern music that they wouldn't have come into contact with before. We did a tour with McLaughlin and old Mahavishnu, we did 11 concerts with them.
EDIT - - I think I found it:
It is in the Interview called "One Size Fits All (1977) and is in the Miller Freedman's A Definitive Tribute to Frank Zappa.
Steve Rosen: What about the contemporary heavies, like Jeff Beck or John McLaughlin?
Frank Zappa: I like Jeff, yeah. I've listened to "Wired" [Epic], and there are a couple of solos on there that I like. And I like some of his stuff on "Rough and Ready" [Epic]. A person would be a moron not to appreciate McLaughlin's technique. The guy has certainly found out how to operate a guitar as if it were a machine gun. But I'm not always enthusiastic about the lines I hear or the ways in which they're used. I don't think you can fault him, though, for the amount of time and effort it must have taken to play an instrument that fast. I think anybody who can play that fast is just wonderful. And I'm sure 90% of teenage America would agree, since the whole trend in the business has been "faster is better."
awwww now I see why you're all upset with mean ol' Frank. :laughing7:
"I’m not a virtuoso guitar player. A virtuoso can play anything and I can’t. I can play only what I know, to the extent that I have developed enough manual dexterity to get the point across..." - Frank Zappa
GoDrex
Hero Member
- Messages
- 3,656
Ok this is entertaining and it's relevant. It even has a BB King reference hahaha :laughing7:
Interviewer:
And the other part of the same article is going to be your thoughts on some of your contemporaries and your people, if you don't mind. People like Chuck Berry?
Frank Zappa:
Chuck Berry? Well, I used to like Chuck Berry when I was in High School. Songs like "Havana Mill" and "Wee Wee Hours" which were the flip sides of the hits that he had - the more bluesy things. His main innovation besides that duck walk choreography was the multiple string guitar solos - the lines were harmonizing because he was playing on two strings at once. There was another guitar player who used to do that named Jimmy Nolan who I had a lot of respect for.
Interviewer:
B.B King?
Frank Zappa:
I don't like B.B. I saw him on television before I went on this tour and he was still blue.
Interviewer:
Oh yeah, I've seen him recently and I thought he was amazing. Keith Richard?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Keith Richard.
Interviewer:
Jimi Hendrix?
Frank Zappa:
I knew Jimi and I think that the best thing you could say about Jimi was: there was a person who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
John McLaughlin?
Frank Zappa:
I met John. I think he's a great guitar player and I think that he's probably done a lot to educate American audiences to some aspects of Eastern music that they wouldn't have come into contact with before. We did a tour with McLaughlin and old Mahavishnu, we did 11 concerts with them.
Interviewer:
Lowell George?
Frank Zappa:
There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Eric Clapton?
Frank Zappa:
I know Eric, I haven't seen him in years and years. There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Jeff Beck?
Frank Zappa:
One of my favorite guitar players on the planet. From a melodic standpoint and just in terms of the conception of what he plays, he's fabulous. I like Jeff.
Interviewer:
Rory Gallagher?
Frank Zappa:
We worked 2 jobs with Rory Gallagher on this tour and, uh,......[long pause]... he's still playing the blues.
Interviewer:
Jimmy Page?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Jimmy Page.
Interviewer:
Peter Green?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know him either.
Interviewer:
Jerry Garcia?
Frank Zappa:
We did one concert with Garcia on this tour but we were the opening act and I didn't see any of his set.
Interviewer:
Pete Townshend?
Frank Zappa:
I've met Pete but I don't know what I can say about his guitar playing.
Interviewer:
Robert Fripp?
Frank Zappa:
I've never heard a Robert Fripp record.
Interviewer:
Ritchie Blackmore?
Frank Zappa:
I have met Ritchie too, and..... I'm not really familiar with the work of these people because you have to understand I'm not a pop consumer and I don't listen to a lot of these.
Interviewer:
[What do you listen to?]
Frank Zappa:
Well, what I do is I take cassettes with me on the road because sometimes you're sitting in the hotel room and you just want to listen to something, but what I take is not rock and roll. I like Chopin, I have Purcell, I have Webern, I have Varese, I have Bulgarian music. I don't listen to Rock and roll.
Interviewer:
Yes, um, Carlos Santana?
Frank Zappa:
We worked with Carlos Santana on Cologne in 1980 or 81 and it was a similar situation. We did two shows at the sport palace in Cologne. They opened the first show, we closed it. Then we opened the second show and they closed it so I never heard him play.
Interviewer:
As you said you don't listen to popular music so I don't expect you know Eddie Van Halen.
Frank Zappa:
I do know Eddie. He comes over to the house because he hangs out with my son.
Interviewer:
I see. But do you know him as a guitar player?
Frank Zappa:
Oh yeah. He and my son play together and he's fabulous, but there's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
I presume you don't know The Edge - from U2?
Frank Zappa:
The Edge?
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
[unintelligible] from Big Country?
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
What would be your thoughts on the original guitar playing of the Mothers, i.e. yourself?
Frank Zappa:
Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth.
Interviewer:
I was going to ask you who was your favorite guitar player.
Frank Zappa:
Well, my original favorite guitar player was Johnny "Guitar" Watson, not from a technical standpoint but from listening to what his notes meant in the context in which they were played; and also Guitar Slim who was the first guitar player that I ever heard that had distortion - even during the 50s. In a strange way I think I probably derive more of my style from his approach to the guitar from the solos that I heard then.
Interviewer:
You still haven't told me your thoughts on yourself as a guitar player.
Frank Zappa:
Well, I do something very different on the guitar. I don't so much play the guitar as make up stuff... the notes that I play during the solo, I conceive it as a composition that's happening instantly at the time that it's... You know, you have 2 minutes to fill up or you have 9 minutes to fill up or whatever it is - a piece of time which is anywhere from 2 to 9 minutes long and you're gonna decorate it with notes - you're gonna make a composition in there.
The quality of that composition is determined by what you're physically capable of playing at that time, what the rhythm section will allow you to play and whether or not the keyboard player who's supplying the harmonic climate is going to mess up what you're playing by sticking in his favorite Jazz Chord right there. These are all the dangers a person faces when improvising a guitar solo.
There are some guitar players who will practice their guitar solos and they will always be perfect and they will be the same every night - I don't do that. When it's time to play, I don't know what I'm going to play until I start doing it; and then an idea will pop up and I'll just develop it in the same way I'd develop an idea on a piece paper except that I don't have to wait to hear it - I get to hear it as it's coming out.
Interviewer:
And the last question on this section is: What would be the future of guitar - or rather, how do you see the future of guitar in the increasingly synth and keyboard orientation to music?
Frank Zappa:
There will always be a market for people who want to hear guitars squealing and oinking and bending and twanging and making sounds like guitars are supposed to make. There is a market of people who are interested in fashion and they will begin hating all those other old guitar sounds in favor of guitar sounds which are not like guitar sounds but are played in guitar position but sound like synthesizers - there's a market for that, there are people who want to hear it - but I don't think that will be the ultimate future of the guitar.
Interviewer:
And the other part of the same article is going to be your thoughts on some of your contemporaries and your people, if you don't mind. People like Chuck Berry?
Frank Zappa:
Chuck Berry? Well, I used to like Chuck Berry when I was in High School. Songs like "Havana Mill" and "Wee Wee Hours" which were the flip sides of the hits that he had - the more bluesy things. His main innovation besides that duck walk choreography was the multiple string guitar solos - the lines were harmonizing because he was playing on two strings at once. There was another guitar player who used to do that named Jimmy Nolan who I had a lot of respect for.
Interviewer:
B.B King?
Frank Zappa:
I don't like B.B. I saw him on television before I went on this tour and he was still blue.
Interviewer:
Oh yeah, I've seen him recently and I thought he was amazing. Keith Richard?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Keith Richard.
Interviewer:
Jimi Hendrix?
Frank Zappa:
I knew Jimi and I think that the best thing you could say about Jimi was: there was a person who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
John McLaughlin?
Frank Zappa:
I met John. I think he's a great guitar player and I think that he's probably done a lot to educate American audiences to some aspects of Eastern music that they wouldn't have come into contact with before. We did a tour with McLaughlin and old Mahavishnu, we did 11 concerts with them.
Interviewer:
Lowell George?
Frank Zappa:
There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Eric Clapton?
Frank Zappa:
I know Eric, I haven't seen him in years and years. There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Jeff Beck?
Frank Zappa:
One of my favorite guitar players on the planet. From a melodic standpoint and just in terms of the conception of what he plays, he's fabulous. I like Jeff.
Interviewer:
Rory Gallagher?
Frank Zappa:
We worked 2 jobs with Rory Gallagher on this tour and, uh,......[long pause]... he's still playing the blues.
Interviewer:
Jimmy Page?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Jimmy Page.
Interviewer:
Peter Green?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know him either.
Interviewer:
Jerry Garcia?
Frank Zappa:
We did one concert with Garcia on this tour but we were the opening act and I didn't see any of his set.
Interviewer:
Pete Townshend?
Frank Zappa:
I've met Pete but I don't know what I can say about his guitar playing.
Interviewer:
Robert Fripp?
Frank Zappa:
I've never heard a Robert Fripp record.
Interviewer:
Ritchie Blackmore?
Frank Zappa:
I have met Ritchie too, and..... I'm not really familiar with the work of these people because you have to understand I'm not a pop consumer and I don't listen to a lot of these.
Interviewer:
[What do you listen to?]
Frank Zappa:
Well, what I do is I take cassettes with me on the road because sometimes you're sitting in the hotel room and you just want to listen to something, but what I take is not rock and roll. I like Chopin, I have Purcell, I have Webern, I have Varese, I have Bulgarian music. I don't listen to Rock and roll.
Interviewer:
Yes, um, Carlos Santana?
Frank Zappa:
We worked with Carlos Santana on Cologne in 1980 or 81 and it was a similar situation. We did two shows at the sport palace in Cologne. They opened the first show, we closed it. Then we opened the second show and they closed it so I never heard him play.
Interviewer:
As you said you don't listen to popular music so I don't expect you know Eddie Van Halen.
Frank Zappa:
I do know Eddie. He comes over to the house because he hangs out with my son.
Interviewer:
I see. But do you know him as a guitar player?
Frank Zappa:
Oh yeah. He and my son play together and he's fabulous, but there's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
I presume you don't know The Edge - from U2?
Frank Zappa:
The Edge?
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
[unintelligible] from Big Country?
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
What would be your thoughts on the original guitar playing of the Mothers, i.e. yourself?
Frank Zappa:
Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth.
Interviewer:
I was going to ask you who was your favorite guitar player.
Frank Zappa:
Well, my original favorite guitar player was Johnny "Guitar" Watson, not from a technical standpoint but from listening to what his notes meant in the context in which they were played; and also Guitar Slim who was the first guitar player that I ever heard that had distortion - even during the 50s. In a strange way I think I probably derive more of my style from his approach to the guitar from the solos that I heard then.
Interviewer:
You still haven't told me your thoughts on yourself as a guitar player.
Frank Zappa:
Well, I do something very different on the guitar. I don't so much play the guitar as make up stuff... the notes that I play during the solo, I conceive it as a composition that's happening instantly at the time that it's... You know, you have 2 minutes to fill up or you have 9 minutes to fill up or whatever it is - a piece of time which is anywhere from 2 to 9 minutes long and you're gonna decorate it with notes - you're gonna make a composition in there.
The quality of that composition is determined by what you're physically capable of playing at that time, what the rhythm section will allow you to play and whether or not the keyboard player who's supplying the harmonic climate is going to mess up what you're playing by sticking in his favorite Jazz Chord right there. These are all the dangers a person faces when improvising a guitar solo.
There are some guitar players who will practice their guitar solos and they will always be perfect and they will be the same every night - I don't do that. When it's time to play, I don't know what I'm going to play until I start doing it; and then an idea will pop up and I'll just develop it in the same way I'd develop an idea on a piece paper except that I don't have to wait to hear it - I get to hear it as it's coming out.
Interviewer:
And the last question on this section is: What would be the future of guitar - or rather, how do you see the future of guitar in the increasingly synth and keyboard orientation to music?
Frank Zappa:
There will always be a market for people who want to hear guitars squealing and oinking and bending and twanging and making sounds like guitars are supposed to make. There is a market of people who are interested in fashion and they will begin hating all those other old guitar sounds in favor of guitar sounds which are not like guitar sounds but are played in guitar position but sound like synthesizers - there's a market for that, there are people who want to hear it - but I don't think that will be the ultimate future of the guitar.
buckallred
Junior Member
- Messages
- 177
He doesn't like BB?
Well. I don't like Frank. BB is a legend. Frank is not.
Well. I don't like Frank. BB is a legend. Frank is not.
Well, I ultimately find Frank Zappa's playing and writing too boring to listen to repeatedly. He had the basic 70's improv style down pat - I'm surprised he said he never heard Jerry Garcia - but he makes a point about not practicing solos. Unfortunately, he also didn't practice the patterns and time inversions that lets one improvise long solos that are interesting and different from each other. Because of his comments in interviews, he managed to convince people that he never repeated himself, but there's a 3-CD Zappa set called "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar". It's a collection of nothing but guitar solos, and it's unlistenable to me because of the incessant repetition, especially of the triplet pulloffs that he use to construct every single solo. Granted, all the guitarists like Clapton & Garcia used them too, but they also sounded interested in what they were doing. I get the vibe from Frank that I get from Hollywood sit-com writers and producers - utter contempt for their audience: "Here, I'll just make a bunch of crap and the idiots will buy anything." And then, he got mad when people who played with more sincerity and maturity, like Santana, got more commercial success. WAAAAH! :sad1:
He did get better after the 11-date tour with the Mahavishnu Orchestra - it's a famous story, one which might have embarrassed him into practicing again. On the first date, Mahavisnu opened and munched the audience's brains. Zappa came out with his costumes and third-grade potty humor, and the audience laughed at him... not in the right way. At the second date, Mahavishnu opened again, and Zappa refused to even go on. After that, he had a meeting with the managers and demanded that he be allowed to open for the then-unheard-of Mahavishnu Orchestra.... it was this incident and a few others that caused Columbia to start marketing Mahavishnu as "the hardest act to follow". They opened for The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mott the Hoople, Aerosmith - it was a slaughterhouse. :icon_biggrin: But at least, a bunch of complacent guitarists started practicing again.
Talk's cheap:
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/MahavishnuOrchestra1972-11-09CommunityTheaterBerkeleyCA.asx
sugarmegs.org has what looks to be 50 to 70 old Zappa shows too (under "F"), pick out a 1972 one and see! :hello2:
I saw Zappa for free on this 1978 tour, and he didn't suck too bad - he'd (very obviously) been practicing his Mahavishnu licks:
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/FrankZappa1978-09-17FoxTheaterAtlantaGA.asx
He did get better after the 11-date tour with the Mahavishnu Orchestra - it's a famous story, one which might have embarrassed him into practicing again. On the first date, Mahavisnu opened and munched the audience's brains. Zappa came out with his costumes and third-grade potty humor, and the audience laughed at him... not in the right way. At the second date, Mahavishnu opened again, and Zappa refused to even go on. After that, he had a meeting with the managers and demanded that he be allowed to open for the then-unheard-of Mahavishnu Orchestra.... it was this incident and a few others that caused Columbia to start marketing Mahavishnu as "the hardest act to follow". They opened for The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Mott the Hoople, Aerosmith - it was a slaughterhouse. :icon_biggrin: But at least, a bunch of complacent guitarists started practicing again.
Talk's cheap:
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/MahavishnuOrchestra1972-11-09CommunityTheaterBerkeleyCA.asx
sugarmegs.org has what looks to be 50 to 70 old Zappa shows too (under "F"), pick out a 1972 one and see! :hello2:
I saw Zappa for free on this 1978 tour, and he didn't suck too bad - he'd (very obviously) been practicing his Mahavishnu licks:
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/FrankZappa1978-09-17FoxTheaterAtlantaGA.asx
Superlizard
Hero Member
- Messages
- 2,514
stubhead said:
Frank has always been a sort of an enigma to me.
I had Freak Out! ... I enjoyed it, but mostly from a 60's-novelty-act standpoint.
I never took Frank seriously, but then again, from hearing his stuff, seems he never took his music seriously either.
It's like he tried to walk the "fine line" between Spinal Tap (intentional spoof, self-deprecating humor) and a band like, say, Oasis (smarmy, hubris). In actuality, there is no line 'tween the two.
Can't be both at the same time... and if you're p00ping on your own audience by treating them like clueless
Neanderthals, you might as well cut your own (metaphorical) musical throat. No wonder he never got into the big-time.
Death by Uberschall
Master Member
- Messages
- 4,162
May not have been mainstream, but damn, he put out some albums!! :guitaristgif:
Zappa Discography:
Freak Out! (July 1966)
Absolutely Free (April 1967)
Lumpy Gravy (December 1967)
We're Only In It For The Money (February 1968)
Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (November 1968)
Uncle Meat (March 1969)
Mothermania (April 1969)
Hot Rats (15 October 1969)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (December 1969)
Weasels Ripped My Flesh (August 1970)
Chunga's Revenge (23 October 1970)
Fillmore East - June 1971 (August 1971)
200 Motels (October 1971)
Just Another Band From L.A. (March 1972)
Waka/Jawaka (5 July 1972)
The Grand Wazoo (November 1972)
Over-Nite Sensation (7 September 1973)
Apostrophe(') (22 March 1974)
Roxy & Elsewhere (10 September 1974)
One Size Fits All (25 June 1975)
Bongo Fury (2 October 1975)
Zoot Allures (29 October 1976)
Zappa In New York (13 March 1978)
Studio Tan (15 September 1978)
Sleep Dirt (12 January 1979)
Sheik Yerbouti (March 3, 1979)
Orchestral Favorites (4 May 1979)
Joe's Garage (19 November 1979)
Tinseltown Rebellion (11 May 1981)
Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar (11 May 1981)
You Are What You Is (September 1981)
Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (May 1982)
The Man From Utopia (March 1983)
Baby Snakes (March 1983)
London Symphony Orchestra vol 1 (9 June 1983)
The Perfect Stranger (23 August 1984)
Them Or Us (18 October 1984)
Thing-Fish (21 November 1984)
Francesco Zappa (21 November 1984)
FZ Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (21 November 1985)
Does Humor Belong In Music? (27 January 1986)
Jazz From Hell (15 November 1986)
London Symphony Orchestra vol 2 (17 September 1987)
Guitar (April 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 1 (May 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 2 (September 1988)
Broadway The Hard Way (November 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 3 (October 1989)
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (April 1991)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 4 (June 1991)
Make A Jazz Noise Here (June 1991)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 5 (July 1992)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 6 (July 1992)
Playground Psychotics (27 October 1992)
Ahead Of Their Time (April 1993)
The Yellow Shark (December 1993)
Civilization, Phaze III (December 1994)
Strictly Commercial (August 1995)
The Lost Episodes (February 1996)
Läther (September 1996)
Zappa Discography:
Freak Out! (July 1966)
Absolutely Free (April 1967)
Lumpy Gravy (December 1967)
We're Only In It For The Money (February 1968)
Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (November 1968)
Uncle Meat (March 1969)
Mothermania (April 1969)
Hot Rats (15 October 1969)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (December 1969)
Weasels Ripped My Flesh (August 1970)
Chunga's Revenge (23 October 1970)
Fillmore East - June 1971 (August 1971)
200 Motels (October 1971)
Just Another Band From L.A. (March 1972)
Waka/Jawaka (5 July 1972)
The Grand Wazoo (November 1972)
Over-Nite Sensation (7 September 1973)
Apostrophe(') (22 March 1974)
Roxy & Elsewhere (10 September 1974)
One Size Fits All (25 June 1975)
Bongo Fury (2 October 1975)
Zoot Allures (29 October 1976)
Zappa In New York (13 March 1978)
Studio Tan (15 September 1978)
Sleep Dirt (12 January 1979)
Sheik Yerbouti (March 3, 1979)
Orchestral Favorites (4 May 1979)
Joe's Garage (19 November 1979)
Tinseltown Rebellion (11 May 1981)
Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar (11 May 1981)
You Are What You Is (September 1981)
Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (May 1982)
The Man From Utopia (March 1983)
Baby Snakes (March 1983)
London Symphony Orchestra vol 1 (9 June 1983)
The Perfect Stranger (23 August 1984)
Them Or Us (18 October 1984)
Thing-Fish (21 November 1984)
Francesco Zappa (21 November 1984)
FZ Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (21 November 1985)
Does Humor Belong In Music? (27 January 1986)
Jazz From Hell (15 November 1986)
London Symphony Orchestra vol 2 (17 September 1987)
Guitar (April 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 1 (May 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 2 (September 1988)
Broadway The Hard Way (November 1988)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 3 (October 1989)
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (April 1991)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 4 (June 1991)
Make A Jazz Noise Here (June 1991)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 5 (July 1992)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 6 (July 1992)
Playground Psychotics (27 October 1992)
Ahead Of Their Time (April 1993)
The Yellow Shark (December 1993)
Civilization, Phaze III (December 1994)
Strictly Commercial (August 1995)
The Lost Episodes (February 1996)
Läther (September 1996)
Marko said:GoDrex said:
Feel and 'Soul' are in the ear of the beholder... just like Tone
I swear that I can hear a lot of "Feel" in Yngwie's music.. especially his older stuff.. (great tone, great vibrato, and he always plays as if his life depends on it)
but apparently, most people just hear a bunch of notes when he is playing.
exactly. with this 'matt rach' guy, I hear a lot of joy in his playing, he really loves to play, and he likes technique, which for me is fine, cause I like it too. some people dont like, for example, paul gilbert, for exactly the same reason,but his solo's move ME more than lets say, chuck berry.
Death by Uberschall
Master Member
- Messages
- 4,162
Can't wait for that DVD!! :headbang1:
Death by Uberschall
Master Member
- Messages
- 4,162
Orpheo said:Marko said:
why not?
-his tone gives me a headache
-annoying note-choice
-where's the build up, the construction of the music? its just hammering out notes at random!
-Steve Vai is an annoying, pesky little man. so full of himself.
Should I go on?
:doh:
There's something wrong with Steve Vai's face. I think he's a robot.... programmed to "emote" by the same guys who did Max Headroom - need to upgrade that software, Steve-O! :headbang:
I like to watch him on YouTube now and then, but his writing is not strong - I wish I had that technique though! In a way, he peeves me in the same way Zappa did, I feel he's squandering his talent. Satriani, too - they cram a slow part together with a fast part, soft with loud, but the parts aren't musically related. Every Vai & Satriani album has 3 or 4 great songs and a bunch of retreads, I wish they'd started a band together and they could make a whole CD! I suspect because of early listening and/or classical experience, people like Eric Johnson, Steve Morse (& Paul Gilbert!) write instrumentals that hold together better to my ear. Of course I wish Morse & Johnson would start a band, there are too many of these halfway-greats running around these days. Guthrie Govan? Do something, dude....
The reasons why one person or another "clicks" with one or another listener are pretty complex, though - I like Haydn & Beethoven and can't stand Mozart, even though I "know" Mozart is a genius.... :icon_scratch: Same with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, everyone "knows" they're great, I wouldn't let 'em play in my private elevator... unless I wanted to sleep in it. It's fine if someone else wants to worship Zappa or Vai (or Mozart!), I got a picture of Jesus growing in the mold in my toilet bowl, I'll go worship that now it's a free country God Bless America Hoo-Ray etc. & so forth.
P.S> (In case you don't read YouTube comments from the gromits, that chick violin player Vai's got is hot...) :hello2:
I think he's a robot.... programmed to "emote" by the same guys who did Max Headroom - need to upgrade that software, Steve-O! :headbang:I like to watch him on YouTube now and then, but his writing is not strong - I wish I had that technique though! In a way, he peeves me in the same way Zappa did, I feel he's squandering his talent. Satriani, too - they cram a slow part together with a fast part, soft with loud, but the parts aren't musically related. Every Vai & Satriani album has 3 or 4 great songs and a bunch of retreads, I wish they'd started a band together and they could make a whole CD! I suspect because of early listening and/or classical experience, people like Eric Johnson, Steve Morse (& Paul Gilbert!) write instrumentals that hold together better to my ear. Of course I wish Morse & Johnson would start a band, there are too many of these halfway-greats running around these days. Guthrie Govan? Do something, dude....
The reasons why one person or another "clicks" with one or another listener are pretty complex, though - I like Haydn & Beethoven and can't stand Mozart, even though I "know" Mozart is a genius.... :icon_scratch: Same with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, everyone "knows" they're great, I wouldn't let 'em play in my private elevator... unless I wanted to sleep in it. It's fine if someone else wants to worship Zappa or Vai (or Mozart!), I got a picture of Jesus growing in the mold in my toilet bowl, I'll go worship that now it's a free country God Bless America Hoo-Ray etc. & so forth.
P.S> (In case you don't read YouTube comments from the gromits, that chick violin player Vai's got is hot...) :hello2:
GoDrex
Hero Member
- Messages
- 3,656
The thing about Steve Vai - my theory on why is acts the way he does, is he's one of these guys that thinks he's very spiritual and whatnot (kind of like some other guys people like). He's very into meditation and fasting and his connection to God and all that stuff. That's how he's able to play at such a high level (according to what I read about him many years ago)- playing guitar is like a spiritual experience for him. Or maybe it's all just BS and he can't control his face. I've been known to make some weird faces when playing. I try not to look at him when I'm listening to his recordings. :laughing7:
About Steve Morse. The guy is undeniably great at the guitar - possibly the best I've ever heard, but I've yet to find one song by him that gets me excited. To me the guy plays as if he's a machine. He's so perfect that it doesn't phase me. And he's yet another of these guys that loves the super fast machine gun alternate picking. Yeah I get it you can pick up and down better than anyone. There's virtually no personality - everything I've heard the guy do sounds like he's doing an instructional video for GIT or something. I've tried to like his music since the 80's when I first got "The Introduction" on a plastic record in Guitar Player magazine, but there's no surprise for me or excitement for me in his music.
About Steve Morse. The guy is undeniably great at the guitar - possibly the best I've ever heard, but I've yet to find one song by him that gets me excited. To me the guy plays as if he's a machine. He's so perfect that it doesn't phase me. And he's yet another of these guys that loves the super fast machine gun alternate picking. Yeah I get it you can pick up and down better than anyone. There's virtually no personality - everything I've heard the guy do sounds like he's doing an instructional video for GIT or something. I've tried to like his music since the 80's when I first got "The Introduction" on a plastic record in Guitar Player magazine, but there's no surprise for me or excitement for me in his music.
I'm watching that last Vai video now (Now We Run) and I think that's just how he naturally looks when he's soloing. Everyone is different in that respect, some people barely move a muscle in their faces, some look like their having a bowel movement etc. A very famous guitarist here in Sweden, Janne Schaffer, always has his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth. Apparently he tried to keep it in once, but then his playing collapsed...
Vai is a US frontman and entertainer, so I'd be far more surprised if he didn't do a lot of stuff on stage even though they don't contribute much the the actual sound he's making.
On a side note... A couple of years ago when I was in the student theatre band, one of saxophone girls came up with a theory after watching the lead gutiarist do a solo: That a player's solo face is the same as their orgasm face. We had a lot of fun at practice after that! :icon_jokercolor:
Vai is a US frontman and entertainer, so I'd be far more surprised if he didn't do a lot of stuff on stage even though they don't contribute much the the actual sound he's making.
On a side note... A couple of years ago when I was in the student theatre band, one of saxophone girls came up with a theory after watching the lead gutiarist do a solo: That a player's solo face is the same as their orgasm face. We had a lot of fun at practice after that! :icon_jokercolor:
Similar threads
