Call me old fashioned but the only thing I`ve ever thought was a great romantic, gothic and truly bluesy use for used guitar strings involved a tall tree, and a precariously balanced stool to dance with the devil upon…for a short while. Emo huh?
Or maybe I`ve just been listening to too much Beck Hansen…for awhile there he was definitely throwing down some Dylanesque skills both lyrically and instrumentally. I draw your attention here to Beck`s rough house cover of Dylan`s Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat in all it`s steampunk lo-fi, harp-dog magnificence. It`s great but covering Dylan is a bit like trying recreate Picasso with your local painter and decorator…scruffy!
With the rerun shows
And the cocaine nose-job
The daytime crap of the folksinger slop
He hung himself with a guitar string…
Welcome to 1979, the last year of the great music decade that was the seventies! Here are two absolutely exemplary guitar instrumentals from two guitarists divided not only by the vast expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and the north American Landmass but also coming from diammetrically opposed guitar traditions and styles. To all intents and purposes Frank Zappa`s fusionist flurries and highly modal guitar solos would seem a million miles away from the delicate sonorifics and nascent power of Peter Green`s guitar style.
But you decide; Green`s Slabo Day is an absolute triumph of phrasing, tone, meter, understated elegance and power – Zappa`s Watermelons in Easter Hay a similar victory of substance over stylistics. These tracks are available on In the Skies and Joe`s Garage. If this doesn`t move you then perhaps you need to get your hearing tested. Here`s a link to a Zappa exegesis site for those of you who want to learn more. There is also some amazing guitar playing from Steve Vai on a lot of Zappa`s albums especially on the “You are what you is” album from 1981.
The Zappa video below contains swearing, so, 18 years or older please.
