Guitar | ||||
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Released | April 26, 1988 | |||
Recorded | March 31, 1979 – December 18, 1984 | |||
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Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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Singles from Guitar | ||||
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Guitar is a 1988 live album by Frank Zappa. It is the follow-up to 1981's Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar ; like that album it features Zappa's guitar solos excerpted from live performances, recorded between 1979 and 1984. It garnered Zappa his sixth Grammy nomination for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance". [2]
Guitar was originally intended to be a 3-record box set like Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar , but Zappa decided, with this release, to start using compact discs as his primary distribution medium rather than records. As such, it was Zappa's first album to be released simultaneously on vinyl and CD. The double CD, released on Rykodisc in the US and Zappa Records in Europe, contained all 32 tracks for the intended 3-record box set, while the vinyl release was a double LP pared down to 19 tracks and released on Zappa's Barking Pumpkin label (US) and Zappa Records (EU).
Aside from "Watermelon in Easter Hay", "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace" and "Outside Now," all tracks were derived from performances of other songs, as on Shut Up 'n Play Your Guitar. Other solos were excerpted from "The Black Page", "Let's Move to Cleveland", "Drowning Witch", "Zoot Allures", "Whipping Post", "City of Tiny Lites", "Advance Romance", "Hot-Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel", "King Kong", "Easy Meat", "Ride My Face to Chicago", "Sharleena", "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus", and "Inca Roads".
Track names, though unrelated to the actual compositions, make many references to popular culture and world history. "Do Not Pass Go" refers to the Monopoly phrase that appears to prevent players from collecting a monetary bonus; "Jim & Tammy's Upper Room" recalls televangelists Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye Messner; "Were We Ever Really Safe in San Antonio?", "Sunrise Redeemer" and "Hotel Atlanta Incidentals" are references to the locations of the venues in which the pieces were played; "Move It or Park It" is a colloquialism that could express frustration with an apprehensive driver of a motor vehicle; "Orrin Hatch on Skis" refers to Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch; "But Who Was Fulcanelli?" refers to an alias apparently used by a 19th-century French alchemist and author; "For Duane", one of Zappa's many readings of "Whipping Post", references Duane Allman; "GOA" is titled after the region of India; "Do Not Try This at Home" refers to the disclaimer often associated with dangerous or risky feats on television or video.
"Chalk Pie" was Zappa's planned title for a 1982 release of which its tracks eventually appeared on Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch and The Man from Utopia . [3]
"In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky" refers both to Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and 20th-century composer Igor Stravinsky, one of Zappa's influences. During the piece, bassist Scott Thunes plays the well-known motif from "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", while Zappa plays a line from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring . "Taps" is also quoted by Thunes. [4]
"Variations on Sinister #3", though derived from a version of "Easy Meat", gained its name from the interpolation of themes from "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear" from You Are What You Is .
"Canadian Customs" almost certainly refers to the Canada Border Services Agency. Zappa is said to have experienced problems with the CBSA and created a routine around them with Napoleon Murphy Brock and André Lewis circa 1975. [5]
"It Ain't Necessarily the Saint James Infirmary" is a portmanteau of "It Ain't Necessarily So", written by George and Ira Gershwin with libretto by DuBose Heyward for Porgy and Bess and "St. James Infirmary Blues", a composition with no officially recorded writer, famously recorded by Louis Armstrong and later by Cab Calloway. Guitar credits the latter to Joe Primrose, but the song's author is unverified. Both songs are quoted on the track. [6]
The Real Frank Zappa Book , Zappa's autobiography, contains the following statement, which most likely accounts for the track name "Winos Do Not March": [7] [8]
I have a theory about beer: Consumption of it leads to pseudo-military behavior. Think about it-winos don't march.
Longer edits of "But Who Was Fulcanelli?" and "For Duane" and a shorter edit of "Things That Look Like Meat" appear on the 1987 compilation The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa . One of its tracks, "A Solo from Heidelberg", derived from "Yo' Mama", was originally intended to appear on Guitar.[ citation needed ]
Similar albums are Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar , Trance-Fusion , Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute , and The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa .
All tracks composed by Frank Zappa, except where noted.
No. | Title | Track source | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace" | Fox Theatre, December 12, 1981 | 3:42 |
2. | "Which One Is It?" | "Black Page" - Olympiahalle, June 26, 1982 | 3:04 |
3. | "Republicans" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Tower Theater, November 10, 1984 | 5:07 |
4. | "Do Not Pass Go" | "Drowning Witch" - Hammersmith Odeon, June 19, 1982 | 3:36 |
5. | "Chalk Pie" | "Zoot Allures" - Terrace Ballroom, December 7, 1981 | 4:51 |
6. | "In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Atlanta Civic Center, November 25, 1984 | 2:50 |
7. | "That's Not Really Reggae" | "Whipping Post" - Hammersmith Odeon, September 25, 1984 | 3:17 |
8. | "When No One Was No One" | "Zoot Allures" - Sporthalle, May 21, 1982 | 4:48 |
9. | "Once Again, without the Net" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, December 20, 1984 | 3:43 |
10. | "Outside Now (Original Solo)" | "City of Tiny Lites" - Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle, March 31, 1979 | 5:28 |
11. | "Jim & Tammy's Upper Room" | "Advance Romance" - La Patinoire Municipale, June 1, 1982 | 3:11 |
12. | "Were We Ever Really Safe in San Antonio?" | "Drowning Witch" - Majestic Performing Arts Center, December 10, 1984 | 2:49 |
13. | "That Ol' G Minor Thing Again" | "City of Tiny Lites" - Hallenstadion, June 24, 1982 | 5:02 |
14. | "Hotel Atlanta Incidentals" | "Hot-Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel" - Atlanta Civic Center, November 25, 1984 | 2:44 |
15. | "That's Not Really a Shuffle" | "King Kong" - Brøndbyhallen, May 11, 1982 | 4:23 |
16. | "Move It or Park It" | "Black Page" - Alte Oper, June 11, 1982 | 5:43 |
17. | "Sunrise Redeemer" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Sunrise Musical Theatre, November 30, 1984 | 3:58 |
No. | Title | Track source | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Variations on Sinister #3" | "Easy Meat" - Oscar Mayer Theater, August 11, 1984 | 5:15 |
2. | "Orrin Hatch on Skis" | "Ride My Face to Chicago" - Sunrise Musical Theatre, November 30, 1984 | 2:12 |
3. | "But Who Was Fulcanelli?" | "Drowning Witch" - Sporthalle, May 21, 1982 | 2:48 |
4. | "For Duane" | "Whipping Post" - Atlanta Civic Center, November 25, 1984 | 3:24 |
5. | "GOA" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Bismarck Theater, November 23, 1984 | 4:51 |
6. | "Winos Do Not March" | "Sharleena" - Memphis, TN, USA, December 4, 1984 | 3:14 |
7. | "Swans? What Swans?" | "Pound for a Brown" - Fox Theatre, December 12, 1981 | 4:23 |
8. | "Too Ugly for Show Business" | "King Kong" - Berkeley Community Theatre, December 10, 1981 | 4:20 |
9. | "Systems of Edges" | "Inca Roads" - Rhein-Main-Halle, March 27, 1979 | 5:32 |
10. | "Do Not Try This at Home" | "Black Page" - Parco Redecesio, July 7, 1982 | 3:46 |
11. | "Things That Look Like Meat" | "City of Tiny Lites" - Terrace Ballroom, December 7, 1981 | 6:57 |
12. | "Watermelon in Easter Hay" | Jones Beach Theater, August 16, 1984 | 4:02 |
13. | "Canadian Customs" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Queen Elizabeth Theatre, December 18, 1984 | 3:34 |
14. | "Is That All There Is?" | "Let's Move to Cleveland" - Philipshalle, May 22, 1982 | 4:09 |
15. | "It Ain't Necessarily the Saint James Infirmary" (Gershwin, Gershwin, Heyward, Primrose) | "Pound for a Brown" - Stadio Communale, July 8, 1982 | 5:15 |
Total length: | 131:38 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace" | 3:42 [9] |
2. | "Republicans" | 5:08 |
3. | "Do Not Pass Go" | 3:37 |
4. | "That's Not Really Reggae" | 3:17 |
5. | "When No One Was No One" | 4:41 |
Total length: | 21:28 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
6. | "Once Again, without the Net" | 3:58 |
7. | "Outside Now (Original Solo)" | 5:29 |
8. | "Jim & Tammy's Upper Room" | 3:11 |
9. | "Were We Ever Really Safe in San Antonio?" | 2:50 |
10. | "That Ol' G Minor Thing Again" | 4:39 |
Total length: | 20:42 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Move It or Park It" | 5:43 |
12. | "Sunrise Redeemer" | 3:53 |
13. | "But Who Was Fulcanelli?" | 2:58 |
14. | "For Duane" | 3:25 |
15. | "GOA" | 4:46 |
Total length: | 21:13 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
16. | "Winos Do Not March" | 3:14 |
17. | "Systems of Edges" | 5:32 |
18. | "Things That Look Like Meat" | 6:55 |
19. | "Watermelon in Easter Hay" | 4:00 |
Total length: | 20:16 |
Apostrophe (') is the sixth solo album and eighteenth in total by Frank Zappa, released in March 1974 in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. An edited version of its lead-off track, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", was the first of Zappa's three Billboard Top 100 hits, ultimately peaking at number 86. The album itself became the biggest commercial success of Zappa's career, reaching number 10 on the US Billboard 200.
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his then-14 year old daughter Moon Zappa, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!".
Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute is a posthumous album by Frank Zappa.
The project Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar consisting of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar is a series of albums by Frank Zappa. The albums consist solely of electric guitar instrumentals and improvised solos (mostly) played live by Zappa and featuring a wide variety of backing musicians.
Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by American musician Frank Zappa. It was released on November 15, 1986, by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and cassette, and in 1987 by Rykodisc on CD.
Zoot Allures is the 22nd album by the American rock musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1976 and his only release on the Warner Bros. Records label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager, Herb Cohen, Zappa's recording contract was temporarily reassigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 is a double disc live album by Frank Zappa, spanning from December 10, 1971, to December 23, 1984. It was released in 1989.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 is a double compact disc collection of live recordings by Frank Zappa. Disc one comprises performances by the original Mothers of Invention, spanning the period from 1965 to 1969. "My Guitar" had been previously released as a single in 1969. Disc two comprises performances from the summer 1982 tour of Europe. It was released in 1992 under the label Rykodisc. The last track on this collection ends with Zappa's anger at some audience members tossing cigarettes on stage; after a warning to stop was not obeyed, the disc ends with Zappa stating, "Houselights! The concert's over!"
The Man from Utopia is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1983 by Barking Pumpkin Records. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou".
FZ:OZ is a live album by Frank Zappa, released in 2002 as a two-CD set and is the first release on the Vaulternative Records label from the Zappa Family Trust. It contains almost all of the January 20, 1976 concert at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia.
Make a Jazz Noise Here is a live double album by Frank Zappa. It was first released in June 1991, and was the third Zappa album to be compiled from recordings from his 1988 world tour, following Broadway the Hard Way (1988) and The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (1991). The album's cover art was made by Larry Grossman.
The Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles previously unreleased material. Much of the material covered dates from early in his career, and as early as 1958, into the mid-1970s. Zappa had been working on these tracks in the years before his death in 1993.
The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa is a 1987 compilation album featuring guitar solos by Frank Zappa. It was issued as a cassette from Guitar World magazine, and has also been available in bootlegged versions as Guitar Hernia and Solo on Guitar. The cassette contains some unique material, including different takes and an excerpt from an unreleased remix of "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra" from the Studio Tan album, featuring drum overdubs by Chad Wackerman. The album was released on vinyl in April 2019 as part of Record Store Day.
Trance-Fusion is an album by Frank Zappa. Released posthumously in 2006, 13 years after the musician's death, the album forms the third in a trilogy of instrumental albums which focus on Zappa's improvised guitar solos, after Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981) and Guitar (1988). Trance-Fusion was among the last albums completed by Zappa before his death, along with The Rage & The Fury: The Music Of Edgard Varèse, Dance Me This and Civilization Phaze III. It was also among the first releases by Zappa to be made available digitally via iTunes through Gail Zappa's distribution deal with Universal Music Enterprises.
Baby Snakes is the soundtrack to Frank Zappa's film of the same name. It features seven songs from the film.
Buffalo is a live album by Frank Zappa, posthumously released in April 2007 as a two-CD set, consisting of the complete concert given on October 25, 1980 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York with a band that has previously been heard on Tinsel Town Rebellion (1981) and Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981). It is the second installment on the Vaulternative Records label that is dedicated to the posthumous release of complete Zappa concerts, the first release being FZ:OZ, the concert on January 20, 1976 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney.
Tinsel Town Rebellion is a double live album released by Frank Zappa in May 1981. The album was conceived by Zappa after he scrapped the planned albums Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, and contains tracks that were intended for those albums.
You Are What You Is is a 1981 double album by American musician Frank Zappa. His 34th album, it consists of three musical suites which encompass pop, doo-wop, jazz, hard rock, reggae, soul, blues, new wave and country. The album's lyrics satirize a number of topics, including hippies, socialites, fashion, narcotics use, cultural appropriation, religion, televangelists and the military draft.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 is a live album by Frank Zappa. Despite the subtitle 'The Helsinki Concert', the album is not one complete concert, but was, in fact, assembled from two different concerts performed in Helsinki in 1974. The working title for this album was The Helsinki Tapes, a title more accurately reflecting the fact that the album was composed of performances from more than one show. It is the only album of the series You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore that includes only one Frank Zappa Band, and only one location of concert. All other albums mix different bands and different time periods in the stage career of Frank Zappa.
Zappa's Universe is a 1993 Frank Zappa tribute album featuring alumni from many of Zappa's bands. The music was compiled from a series of concerts from four consecutive nights of concerts at The Ritz in New York City, and filmed for a concert video of the same name. Steve Vai’s cover of the song "Sofa" from the album won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1994.