Any chance of knowing what went on in the mind of Frank Zappa would lead any other man to insanity. While he may not have been looking to make pop hits, what Zappa brought to rock and roll was absolute nonsense that he turned into art, usually revolving around playing the most complex tunes imaginable and sticking the most absurd lyrics over the top of it. The guitar was always Zappa’s first love, and his two favorite guitar solos came from a completely different world.
Then again, for a man who was always about making the strangest noises possible, his guitar tone is fairly straightforward. Compared to other guitar anomalies like Lou Reed, who favored trying to strangle the guitar half the time, Zappa wasn’t shy about showing his chops, especially with the beautiful work that he did on his jazz fusion albums like Hot Rats.
Looking at his solos, there doesn’t seem to be any direct inspiration from anywhere. Even Jimi Hendrix had the blues to fall back on. But there wasn’t anything that Zappa played that came from The ‘Chuck Berry Handbook’ or the ‘George Harrison Manual’. This was straight from his heart. And you only get to be that way from listening to a lot of soul music.
When rattling off some of his favorite guitar passages of all time to Let It Rock, he singled out ‘Three Hours Past Midnight’ by Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and ‘Story of My Life’ by Guitar Slim as the best R&B solos ever. Just listening to where both men took their craft, though, Zappa seemed to be cut from the same cloth. These were artists who didn’t care in the slightest what the tone of the guitar sounded like. So they may as well have made something that said more about them as players than any melody.
Especially on ‘Three Hours Past Midnight’, Watson sounds like he’s wrestling a wild guitar half the time. Even grunts midway through his solo as if he’s trying to squeeze any other bit of life out of it before it falls apart. Zappa would eventually be a little more fluid than Watson. But he never forgot that idea of spontaneity leading the charge.
Despite his taste for R&B, Zappa still had a healthy appreciation for his contemporaries. Yes may have been more straight-ahead prog than Zappa’s usual taste for weirdness. He admitted that Steve Howe’s guitar solo on the song ‘Claramount Lake’ by Tomorrow was one of the guitar highlights in his record collection.
Considering Yes was on its way to becoming one of the progressive bands too progressive for many fans to take in. Howe and Zappa have always felt like two sides of the same coin. Zappa may have had the same musical knowledge and background to compete with the greatest, but if he deliberately attempted to make something sound distorted and weird, Howe emphasized every note he played, almost like he was trying to match Jon Anderson in everything he said.
Other players might be interested in paying tribute to their inspirations whenever they rip a solo. But whenever Zappa heaped praise on his idols, it wasn’t so much to credit them for his success. He would always be a weirdo, but maybe these solos helped open his eyes to what guitar playing could be.
