Isn't it sort of like taking all the sex scenes out of a good novel or film and editing them all together just for pure slobber value?
"Well, in a way, yeah," Zappa acknowledges. "But I think that's what the marketplace wanted. That's what a guy who really likes guitar solos wants. And there have been enough customers for these albums over the years to prove that they exist out there. They don't want to wait around . . . They don't need an excuse to have a guitar solo. And the solos themselves are constructed in such a way that they're like little set pieces. They have melodies of their own, development sections, recapitulations . . . just like compositions. I think that, for the most part, they do stand as tunes. So I don't find it especially objectionable to present them like that. In a way, it's niche marketing. For people who want that, I've constructed it and there it is."
The solos themselves are constructed in such a way that they're like little set pieces. They have melodies, development sections and recapitulations, just like compositions. See, the way I think of a guitar solo is as an instant composition. You have a certain amount of time in which you're going to be making up a piece of music, and you hope that the people who are working with you onstage are also interested in inventing music on the spot. When it works, which is not very often, that's one of the reasons why I'm glad I have a recording truck. You can snag it. Because it's gone after that. That's the only time it exists.
It was around the time of Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention. I remember Jazz from Hell had been released and I knew Bob Rice [he was my next door neighbour!], who at the time was Frank's computer assistant. He said one day that I could assist at the rehearsals of FZ's imminent tour.
Bob knew I was a photographer. I asked him if I could take some photos. That's how I met Frank. I knew Zappa's music quite well already and it was great to see the process of putting together a big band like that. The rehearsals were taking place in a huge movie studio in Hollywood. Frank would arrive around 9 pm and rehearse the band until about 2, 3 in the morning.
[...] Initially I was at rehearsals and I asked if I could take some photos. So I did.
Two days later, Frank came up to me and said, "Let me see the photos you took." I did have some with me already, colour slides. He took a look and simply said, "How much do you want to do the tour book?"
I would like to say that during rehearsals, I was extremely interested in studying Sinister Footwear II on the piano. To see, hear and photograph the band was an immense pleasure for me.
So the next day, I told Frank how much I wanted, and he said, "I need to do the album cover of my next album, Guitar. How much do you want?" I answered, "I will let you know tomorrow." He then said, "I want a 'red' portrait, because red is commercial." So I knew I had to come up with a red shot.
But I was taking lots of great pictures every night because I was happy to be with such great people and musicians. It was a great band, and it was great to be so close to Frank every night.
[...] I did the first selection, of course. Then Gail Z got in the way, and everybody—and almost all the musicians in Frank's band—were having big problems with her. Ed Mann, for example.
Gail was a very unpleasant person to many people, including me.
[...] So, this is what happened:
I was selecting the photos with Frank every day. Then Gail came in the picture and she had a graphic guy from Art Hotel, responsible for the most boring covers of the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series. And Gail decided that he was going to do the graphic design of the album Guitar and the tour book.
By then, Gail was driving a lot of people up the wall—especially some of the musicians in Frank's band.
[...]I had ideas about the album cover and the tour book. But Gail was so nasty: she basically believed she was one of the queens of Hollywood, in a league with Joni Mitchell or Madonna—just because she was Frank's wife.
She ended up selecting my photos with her uncreative graphic artist, so she could tell him what to do and feel in power.
Some of the best photos I took have never been published.
[...] I took more photos. For an advertisement for Carvin amplifiers featuring Frank, for example.
Basically, what I'd be doing right now, if I wasn't talking to you, is . . . I'm trying to finish the editing on the new guitar album. I'm almost done, and I'm hoping to get that out within the next 2 months. I've got some photos over there (points over there) that I want to use for the cover, and after I finish the editing, I've got to write the liner notes, then I gotta select the photos, then I gotta call the guy who's doing the layout, and coordinate all this stuff, and get it all done before I go on the road. So that's what I do. I worked last night until 8 o'clock in the morning and went to bed. I got up at 1 o'clock with my nose running all over the bed (Frank has the flu today), and I've got a rehearsal tonight from 6 until 2 o'clock in the morning every night until the equipment ships out.
musicians: F.Z. (HENDRIX STRAT)
We had a conversation about what was the grossest thing you could imagine, and you know, my assert to Frank was chalk pie. 'Cause the idea of that in your mouth, just disgusting.
With "Chalk Pie," we had a conversation about what was the grossest thing you could imagine, and my answer to Frank was chalk pie. The idea of that in your mouth, just disgusting.
date: FEBRUARY, 1979 location: WEISBADEN, WEST GERMANY original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: KLAUS WIEDEMANN remote facility: SCULLY at Mix Console remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN
Outside now original solo
THE RADIO IS BROKEN quote very close to the beginning.
matthew contreras
What is the story behind the title Where We Ever Really Safe In San Antonio? Being a resident of SA myself I've always wondered about this. I know it was recorded here but do you have any other info? Was security lacking that night at the ol' Majestic Theatre or what?
gz
No. Nothing to do with security. Everything to do with closed minds and criminalization of youth culture. Some of those minds were in the Mayor's office at the time.
On 'Guitar''s 'That Ol' G Minor Thing Again', FZ's solo between 00.25-00.35 quotes McLaughlin's 'Arjen's Bag' (from Extrapolation)
FZ quotes "Big Swifty" at 2:30 in "Hotel Atlanta Incidentals." It's in the same key and everything.
date: JUNE, 1982 location: DIJON, FRANCE
In the Guitar album there is a track called That's Not Really A Shuffle. It's from King Kong in Copenhagen 1982-05-11, not from Dijon. Strange, because somebody wrote a rewiev about this concert in Zappastuff, and he sad it's not a remarkable solo.
A SOLO FROM COLOGNE 5:11
Summer 1982 recorded live in concert, Cologne, West Germany
previously unreleased—will be included in the next guitar box set
engineer: Mark Pinske
original recording medium: 24-track analog tape
musicians: Frank Zappa, lead / Steve Vai, rhythm guitar / Ray White, rhythm guitar / Ed Mann, percussion / Tommy Mars, keyboards / Bobby Martin, keyboards / Scott Thunes, bass / Chad Wackerman, drums
guitar: Custom StratocasterThis is fairly typical of the Strat solos during the '82 European tour. Video also exists for this cut. I am considering the production of a 1-hour video version of the next guitar box. Let me know if you are interested . . . call 818-PUMPKIN and tell Dottie or Mariel or Gerald if you think there's a market for such an item.
I've always wondered who Fulcanelli was since I heard Frank give that name as the answer to the question "Which character from history would you most like to meet." (At the time I wrote the name down on a post-it note so I wouldn't forget and the post it note still lives in my desk drawer).
| TGWATFZ (1987) | Guitar (1988) |
|---|---|
| 0:00-1:42 | |
| 1:42-4:31 | 0:00-2:48 |
A SOLO FROM ATLANTA 4:05
Autumn 1984 recorded in concert, Atlanta, Georgia
engineer: Mark Pinske
original recording medium: 24-track digital tape
previously unreleased—will be included in the next guitar box set
musicians: Frank Zappa, lead / Ike Willis, rhythm guitar / Ray White, rhythm guitar / Bobby Martin, keyboards / Alan Zavod, keyboards / Scott Thunes, bass / Chad Wackerman, drums
guitar: custom StratocasterThere weren't very many people at this concert. Too bad they missed it. This was toward the end of the 1984 tour. The last concert of the tour was the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, December 23. I haven't played the guitar at all since then.
| TGWATFZ (1987) | Guitar (1988) |
|---|---|
| 0:00-3:24 | 0:00-3:24 |
| 3:24-4:05 |
Goa. It's a region in India. They have a certain type of food that I like, a type of Indian food that's seasoned a certain way.
date: FEBRUARY, 1979 location: WEISBADEN, WEST GERMANY original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: KLAUS WIEDEMANN remote facility: SCULLY at Mix Console remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN
"GUITAR" CORRECTIONS:
[...] SYSTEMS OF EDGES—(should be listed as a 4 track master)
| Wiesbaden, March 27, 1979 (early show) | Guitar (Zappa Records, 1988) |
|---|---|
| Inca Roads | Systems Of Edges |
| 02:03-02:27 | 0:00-0:33 |
| 02:27-03:03 | |
| 03:03-03:29 | 0:33-0:59 |
| 03:29-04:00 | |
| 04:00-04:17 | 0:59-1:17 |
| 04:17-07:22 | |
| 07:22-11:36 | 1:17-5:32 |
Except for the ending synthesizer line on "THINGS THAT LOOK LIKE MEAT," there are no overdubs.
December 1981 recorded live in some place that's not there anymore in Salt Lake City, Utah
previously unreleased—will be included in the next guitar box set
engineer: Mark Pinske
original master: 24-track analog tape
musicians: Frank Zappa, lead guitar / Steve Vai, rhythm guitar / Ray White, rhythm guitar / Ed Mann, percussion / Tommy Mars, Hammond organ / Bobby Martin, Jupiter 8 clavinet / Scott Thunes, bass / Chad Wackerman, drums
guitar: Gibson Les Paul CustomThis is a fairly representative example of my style and approach in a live setting circa 1981. Recorded within three days of the end of the '81 tour, it captures the band in an unusually consistent groove, wending its way home to Los Angeles. Video tape of this solo exists and may be released in conjunction with the next guitar solo box collection.
| Guitar (Zappa Records, 1988) | TGWATFZ (1987) |
|---|---|
| 0:00-0:03 | |
| 0:03-5:25 | 0:00-5:21 |
| 5:25-6:18 | |
| 6:18-6:57 | 5:21-6:00 |
Additional informant: Charles Ulrich
Research, compilation and maintenance by Román García Albertos