Customer Reviews

Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had to write this review because I found it alarming that the average was only 4 out of 5 stars. There's no need to be a guitar player to appreciate this album, although it certainly doesn't hurt in one's appreciation of just how unorthodox FZ's style was. But the whole point of this set is NOT to showcase how good a guitar player Zappa was, but of how good a musical mind he had. One of Frank's favorite things to do was improvising solos; it was an interesting challenge to him, to spontaneously come up with musical events worth listening to. Lest you think this set is self-indulgent, be aware that Zappa was very critical of his abilities. He considered most of the solos he played to be failures; what you hear on these discs is a collection of the ones which he thought were worth sharing with the world. In fact this was originally a mail-order release and was eventually licensed to CBS for sale in stores due to overwhelming demand. It seems even Frank didn't know how good he was. So how to approach an album like this? We know we're not listening for guitar gonzo show-offy pyrotechnics. We're listening for musical ideas. It's improvised and there is sensitive interplay between FZ and his rhythm sections, but it isn't jazz. It's sort of weird avant-rock, in a very unique style. Nothing else sounds quite like it. It's like beautiful electric improvisations from Mars.

Little-heralded progressive masterwork from a visionary who straddled many genres and transcended them all. Even if you were one of those folks who didn't care for Zappa's smirking cynicism and unorthodox (to say the least) arrangements - he didn't go out of his way to be popular - nobody questioned the man's god-like chops. This 3 CD set of absolutely flabbergasting guitar solos is one of Zappa's amazing 'xenocrony' productions (the liner notes describe this process in detail; typically for Zappa, it's backbreakingly painstaking and requires innate musical ingenuity). All 20 selections collected flow more or less continuously, generally seperated by spoken-word snippets or a short burst of static. To the non-initiated who are dipping a toe into the water and ripe to dive in, let me assure you this blows the doors off every Satriani/Malmsteen-type shredfest combined, and will stun, delight and enthrall ANYBODY with a CD player and a brain, both in working order. Essential as oxygen.

For our anniversary, my beloved girlfriend bought this set for me. I've never received a better gift. Zappa released too many masterpieces to have a single one consigned as "his best work". But, for the bean-counters, Shut Up is among his top 5. Most rock guitarists spend their careers (if they're lucky enough to have one) recycling Stones & Zeppelin riffs (my god, why?) and running up & down pentatonic scales & tremelo picking three notes furiously for guitar solos. Why settle for that boring excrement? Frank Zappa had more nuance & versatility in his playing than all of those classic-rock radio cretins combined.

Nearly all of these solos are electric, but there is a bouzouki duet with Jean-Luc Ponty (Canard du Jour) that may be the best performance on the set. Zappa's ultra-eclectic technique veers from fusion to metal to eccentic blues so deftly that I, as a semi-guitarist, am filled with self-loathing. Although they are worlds apart in technique and style, Zappa reminds me of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and George Harrison in that all of their guitar solos can actually be considered compositions in their own right, rather than a supplemental solo tacked on during a lull from a vocalist. Zappa was/is rock music's most versatile genius. Please go buy this.

I am a professional guitarist. I teach and play for a living - it's one of the one things I know anything about. So, I feel pretty confident when I say that Frank Zappa was not a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. He proclaimed this truth himself on many occasions. First and foremost, Zappa was a brilliant composer. As a guitar player, Zappa had a sporadic, idiosyncratic style that was exciting and fresh. He might not nail every note, but he flutters and bubbles his way through the line and the result is pure exuberance.

Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar is a collection of extended solos that serves as a great introduction to, and general representation of, Zappa's eccentric guitar playing. The magic lies in the phrasing, not necessarily in virtuosic skill. These are mostly modal jams. There is a familiar b7 to 1 progression (from "Inca Roads" and others) that rucurs throughout. Zappa was mostly a modal improviser. He was partial to blues scales, major and minor pentatonic scales, mixolydian scales, lydian scales, dorian scales and the occasional whole-tone or diminished scale. But the melodic ideas that he wove together with these colors are jubilant. He was a great improviser and a great rock guitar player. He was my favorite guitar player. He was no virtuoso. He was no Joe Pass or John Mclaughlin or Andre Segovia or even Steve Vai. But I would rather listen to Zappa than any of these guys.

I do not like zappa at all but this is clearly fantastic. What I never found appealing was the excessive wordiness of his output. OK it is a matter of personal taste. But this is really very very good. Once all the vocals are gone, we simply have all the real virtuoso playing and no extras. Even I have to concede that the man was a genius and a fantastic artist.

Frank Zappa is an excellent, versatile guitarist with quite an imagination. While he has a unique sound, he plays in many different styles so it never gets monotonous. In concert, he will dive into these amazing extended solos. He was basically one of the best rock guitar players, ever. Unforntunately his reocrds and some of his performances don't always feature his guitar playing. I remember being disappointed when he didn't even play his guitar on a Saturday Night Live performance.

In this album, Zappa pulls guitar solos out of different songs from a number of concerts. This is done extremely effectivily so that each piece has the feeling of a complete composition. (The later Zappa album, called "Guitar", isn't so successful.) And there are a number of wonderful compositions here and quite a bit of variety.

When this first came out, it was only available through mail order as three seperate records. Later, it was available as a Japanese import three record set. I'm not sure why the CD version was put out as a 3 disc set. It could almost fit on one CD and definitly would fit on two. But, even at the high cost, it is worth buying for anyone who has the slightest appreciation for Zappa's guitar playing.

A couple nights before I went off to college from my dirt bag home town in 1982, my high school friend Bob let me make a cassette copy of his Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar boxed album set that his sister had bought him in Europe. It was almost impossible to find or buy this album set at that time in the U.S. and it made no commercial "impact" whatsoever. As Frank said, "Who is going to play 'Heavy Duty Judy' on AM radio?" -- or anywhere else. Nobody did. Amazingly I still have that 18-year-old beat-up TDK cassette tape with side 4 of Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar, including "Stucco Homes" and still listen to it quite a bit.

Usually Frank would present wild guitar solos as compact little sandwiches in the midst of mostly vocal songs. On this rather audacious set of music, he does away with all the words and just presents guitar instrumentals that are different enough from each other to keep from sounding like ... guitar solos.

What I like is the range of bizarre guitar sounds on the record and Frank's use of the guitar as a melodic instrument, like a jazz saxophone, instead of just a "rock out" guitar solo that is part of a regular song. The variety of guitar tones he gets are pretty amazing and fun to listen to.

While a multi-record set of guitar instrumentals is probably one of the most self-indulgent things a rock-type performer can put out, somehow Frank pulled this off and created an original and interesting set of records. A big part of the success of these songs is the drumming by Vinnie Colaiuta, who really seemed to click with Frank's idea of improvisation and vice versa. On later releases, the improvisational synch between Frank and his drummer is rarely as lively and spontaneous as on these songs.

Like most of Frank's stuff, this is definitely not a set of music for everyone and because of its density of notes may not be easy to digest on first listening. But by my experience, it stands up over time as a really good, inspired and original bunch of music with the added bonus of being improvised without a net in front of a live audience.

I think this is an under-rated and pretty unique group of recordings -- but still I'm sure lots of folks would hate it.

Oh well.

Zappa's a cool guy to get into, because he produced a ton of music and a lot of it is great. I go through Zappa phases, with increasing down-time in between. As time passes, what I've noticed, is that the humor is sounding more and more dated, but the music sounds better than ever. The goofy songs, with their doo-wop "yeahs" and early 1960's-style vulgarity, are kind of corny by today's standards. Listening to some of it reminds me of getting trapped in the corner of a family event, humoring a clueless old uncle who is riffing the same halitosis-flavored puns that weren't funny when I was ten. I feel bad saying that because I'm not trying to knock Zappa. My point is that his music is still worth listening to, but it is especially worth listening to because of the musicianship.

For anyone who takes their music seriously, the "Shut up and play yer guitar" series should be a staple of your collection.

Can I talk about something unrelated for a second? This morning, at my daughter's elementary school, they had a little performance for kids who got there early. A fourth-grader was standing in the front of the auditorium tuning a violin, and the teacher announced she was going to play Paganini's first violin concerto. I assumed she was either mistaken, or Paganini wrote some beginner's music I hadn't heard about. But it was the most incredible thing. The piano accompaniment lead, and then she started in with the violin part and I was blown away. She didn't just play it, she played it flawlessly. She played dynamically and with intensity. It would have been a good performance from a musician of any age. Even the kindergarten kids were captivated. When the piece ended I jumped up, with tears streaming down my face, and gave her a standing ovation. I didn't want to embarrass my daughter; I tried to regain composure. I said my eyes were tearing because of allergies. But every time I've tried to tell someone about this, the waterworks start again and I'm sobbing like baby. And here it goes again. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and check out these CDs if you haven't already.

Seriously, I've grown up with my share of Santana, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Clapton and Dead albums/solos, but Frank Zappa is a cut above the rest. There is something about Frank's solos which take you places I've never been before (even Jerry's solos at concerts didn't take me to those places... hallucinogenics included). Those other guitarists, just tease the fringes of those forbidden places, Frank seems to have no problem taking his fans there, and leaving them there with just the sound of his rockin' SG.

Sure, you are going to pay a little bit more for this 3 CD set, but believe me, it is worth the investment. I don't think there is another boxset, or guitarist for that matter, who will turn out a similar product, or even come close to "Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar". This album definitely captures Frank's passion for music and guitar solos. Bottom line, this is just fun, uncut, turn the volume up to eleven, rock n' roll. A must have for any Frank Zappa fan. And for those of you, who are typically turned off by Zappa albums, and his antics, this one will have you rethinking, just who is this American Composer named, Frank Zappa.

Two words to sum up this album -- "NO JOKE"

I highly recommend this musical delight to anybody who likes guitar playing. Some of the greatest soloing ever done by Frank who was without doubt the greatest exponent of the electric guitar of all time ever bottom line. people have mentioned the great vinnie colaiuta and indeed it seems no coincidence that frankie delivered his wickedest solos while vinnie was playing. fz has even said that vc was the best drummer he played with. and then you have arthur barrow a supreme bassist, the awesome warren cucurullo on rhythm guitar and tommy mars ed mann denny walley..ray white ike willis steve vai. what talent! and of course terry bozzio on pink napkins. the album starts off with the magic five-five-five what an opener folks! the sound quality is awesome for a live recording. you see frank recorded all his concerts so he knew what he was doing. so on albums like joe's garage you have live guitar solos edited onto studio music e.g the incredible keep it greasy guitar solo. getting back to SUAPYG, hog heaven the second track..a real appositely titled track, the guitar sound being really rough/dirty/brilliant. then shut up and play your guitar some more, which is extracted from a performance of inca roads, as are the title track,gee i like your pants and the awesome return of the son of shut up and play your guitar. heavy duty judy-a classic. treachorous cretins-brilliant arpeggios with a cool reggae beat. then the carlos santana secret chord variations, santana's name is hardly worthy to appear on a work of such majesty. soup an ol clothes is another winner as is canarsie. ship ahoy defies description. you have frank zappa and terry bozzio together and wow awesome man. worth the price of the album alone. kind of funky too. also on disc one is the more subtle while you were out, which led to one of the tunes on jazz from hell 1986. disc two begins with one of the all time classics:'the deathless horsie'. great guitar solo. there is another version on YCDTOSA 1 from 1984 which also cooks big time. There are some shorter solos on disc two like pinocchio's furniture and beat it with your fist. these too are great solos . then you have pink napkins which is a less frenetic version of 'black napkins'. BN is one of the all time great zappa guitar solos and there are numerous versions, notably the one on zoot allures, also the one on the baby snakes video. getting back to the album, there are two longer solos at the end of disc, ie canard du jour and stucco homes. canard is a great improv with that genius of fusion violon:john luke ponty. another tune which has to be heard to be believed. and stucco homes is another of the more subtler efforts on the album it is brilliant too. what it all adds up to is the best guitar album of all time by the greatest musician of this or any other century fz. Thank you.