DevoTheStrange said:
The only reason I am saying Frank Zappa is overlooked as a guitarist in that people look at him more as a composer and writer of music and hardly pay attention to his guitar playing. Everyone focus on his writing ability and his control over his band and musicians he worked with. There less focus on his guitar work in discussion I have read about him, or have heard. That is why I mentioned him.
Whenever I hear people talk about FZ I never hear anyone discuss his guitar work. More oft than not I just hear about the comical aspect of his music, or he is discussed in such a way that you think people were talking about a conductor of an orchestra, not a guitarist.
Zappa was definitely overlooked or prejudged for many many years.
In my day, most people's answer to "did you ever hear Zappa?" was "isn't he the guy who ate shit on stage?"
I was introduced to Zappa by accident in the late sixties. I had a few dollars in my pocket and I rode by bike to the department store to buy a record. I saw an album called "Absolutely Free" - I thought it was free.
The joke was on me when I paid for it anyway and took it home, played it and couldn't stand it.
But I only had a few other records to play at that time so I kept playing it anyway.
Little by little it started sounding a little better until I was suddenly obsessed with it.
A few weeks later I had enough money to get another Zappa album - the only other one available at the time which was the first one, "Freak Out!" - I went to the mall to buy it.
Then I had pizza and I accidentally left the record at the pizza place. I figured it was stolen but nobody wanted it - it was there when I returned.
For years most people agreed that "Zappa sucks!" And you were a social leper if you liked that weird horrible stuff. I loved it and eventually I found a group of new friends who felt the same way.
It's even worse today because of remote controls on CD players. It's too easy to move to the next track if a song isn't doing it for you, even though it might take several good listens of something to find out what it's about and how you feel about it.