Frank zappa as guitarist.  

He did things with guitars I've never heard the like of anywhere else he definitely deserves more credit for it than he gets. I will check out your Frank Zappa topic as well.

What are your favourite songs from Zappa, to me i love tunes like Florentine Pogen or Inca Roads but there are many more, he also played a great guitar solo on Inca Roads. There a three record set out that i bought in the 80´s called simply Guitar it only contains his solo, awesome... i played Florentine Pogen in a group in 1998 only with a four member group it wasn´t easy but we got in tune with it... haha

I like his funnier ones like "Bobby Brown", and "City of Tiny Lights" never fails to impress me.

Yes they are good songs though i hope you also like his more complex compositions & arrangements too. Well he really worked with a lot of different styles and influences.

And many different musicians he did so much music in his life it's mind boggling really. I like the stuff he did with Adrian Belew and the band he had at that time.

Yes right, he allways had great musicians around him. To me i like really the time he had played with the musicians that are on the One Size Fits All album from 1975. I specialy like his female percussionist on vibs Ruth Underwood, George Duke on Keyboards or Napoleon Murphy Broke on sax & vovals, i think Chester Thompson was on drums that time but Terrio Bozzio is also awesome.
The band he had on Zappa in New York is also outstanding, i love that album.

ps. hey is that you on your avatar with the guitar, for how long are you into it?

Yes that's me and my old guitar, several other members of my family are into the guitar, I only started learning recently because I've started singing and it's hard to find a guitarist to accompany me.

That´s great to hear, so a real guitar player family.
I guess you write your own songs then, i think it´s a good idea that you also play guitar then but you sure will find also another mate to back you up. I play electric guitar since 1988 and yes i know it´s not easy to find the right musicians for own compositions, specialy i live in a area were most guys are into cover music. At the moment we are looking for a singer, i would like to have a female vocalist in our group.

Sometimes he did take his lyrics too far I think, but he didn't get to go far enough with that guitar in my opinion.

He did get into politics towards the end of his life, would have been great to see him as president. He was a genius and is very under rated by many people.

He was good on vocals too but he was a great guitarist too.

Yes there wasn't a lot of commercial potential for lots of his work, and he did know who to pick to make himself sound better, he also used good vocalists.

Thanks for best response.

He's one of the hardest guitarists to imitate that must mean something, and the seamless editing in of guitar solo's to different songs impressed me.

It is because he was not afraid to play and he had his own style. He was a damn good guitar player and I am sure Steve Vai and Joe Satriani wouldn't have played with him if he sucked.

I don't play with anyone who sucks. Well at least not in public. LOL. I am one of the best bassists in my state and I have standards & I am sure they did too.

I think that is a sign he was good or they may not have done it. Also if Zappa sucked he wouldn't have needed Satriani or Vai to play his stuff. He could have just got Slash to do it. LOL

I agree Many people don't realise just how good Frank Zappa was as a musician, it's often lost under the controversy of his lyrics.

A lot of what are now "best musicians" got their big break when Frank let them play with him. If it wasn't for Franks influence & help, who knows where some of these people would be now.

He did make a colossal amount of music in his life and work with many musicians, he was an amazing man.

They has been no one like him before or since I'm surprised there isn't more interest in his work, though he does have quite a cult following if you look.

I'll be the first to admit that there was a LOT of his material I didn't like. I guess I must have found him at just the right time as I was hooked from the first time I heard that first song which was Dinah Moe Humm. The second one was Montana. Then I went & bought Apostrophe' -on 8 track.

Proves my point he was an under rated guitarist, I like most of what he did though some things drag on a bit and he did like to show off with huge guitar solo's.