Zappa.com

Lots of great musishnins out there... not all of them rock. For example, Alan Holdsworth is a great guitarist, but doesn't rock. Technic out the wazoo, bizarre sounds, cool compositions,
but practically no rock whatsoever.
Also, I'm not talking about Buddy Holly-lalala-type Rock 'n Roll, Jam-Band noodling guitarists, Fuziod shredders, or Metal guitar acrobats. ROCK. Four on the Floor. I suppose Jerry Garcia might
have rocked once or twice in his lifetime and people tell me that Metallica has done so as well, but I disagree. Imo, most metal bands suffer from being too damn much like Hair Bands who trade
their ROCK wholesale for pooched out smooch photos and spandex, none of which ROCKs. Kirk Hammet may be talented and wear leather, but he couldn't rock if his life depended on it. Wheedley-deedley is no substitute for a jaw-breaking power chord. Hammett's leads blow and his rhythm stops sound more like a.... electric harpsichord. That may be fine and even capably
performed, but it doesn't ROCK.



First up... Link Wray.




Look at him! He's practically dead and that one look rocks more than any rocker 1/4th his age! Keep that picture in mind and think of Mick Jagger. Now, I like the Stones and Keith rocks,
but compared to someone like Link Wray, Mick comes off like a prancing cheezeball.
ALL Link Wray does is rock. No fancy compositions or whatnot. Not that composition is bad, but rock is attitude, balls, toughness, in-your-faceness etc... and Link Wray throws down.
He keeps it blunt and beats you over the head with it.
When Link Wray's guitar growls, its mad, its got an agenda and its gonna tear you up. Not like, say Steve Vai, whose growling guitar sounds like a kitten caught in a tree or a
zipper with a microphone on it. I love Vai, but I would say he occasionally rocks. He is talented as can be, but compared to someone like Link Wray, who rocks with most every note he plays,
well, I gotta say Vai ends up sounding kinda pussyish.

A request: Don't just make a list of your favorite artists, try to think of someone who was truly balls-to-the-wall!

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Frank should have jammed with Link Wray. That would have been fucking awesome. I only have the greatest hits Rhino CD, I've been meaning to pick up those Missing Links compilations.

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

I'll tell you who doesn't rock-Lou Reed.

OK, ya struck a chord, admittedly its not a hard thing to do! I guess I'd say that with the breadth of his catalog, I'd call him an occasional ROCKer.
So, since I know yer a smart kid and I don't agree at with ya at all... lets hear yer reasons!

(Preferrably after listening to What Goes On off of 1969 Live. Raw and beautiful!)

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I'm assuming we're talking about musos other than Zappa, who, when he intended to rock, rocked. Call me an old man, I don't care, but Led Zeppelin still does it for me.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

ha! I like this thread!
I got to see Link Wray in the late '90's in KC in a bar. We had no idea what to expect -- what's the old guy gonna do, some acoustic thing? We were honored to find out he was still alive. But It was the best show I've ever seen. He and the young bass player and drummer and his wife sometimes on tambourine. But the three of them played it blisteringly fast with tons of feedback and overdrive. He'd set up arcs of feedback that'd swirl around each other with the bass n drummer flailing, propelling the whole thing. More than magic, sinister, compelling, full-throttle, no compromise. It's too bad he died (last year?). One of the great rnr originals has passed. Kids talk about Dick Dale and Rev Horton Heat, say, but they cannot compare. No contest.
Saw Iggy Pop like three years ago in KC. Fantastic. He's still that same guy.
Metallica happened to be the LOUDEST show I've ever seen, in Tulsa, jan90. I'll side with you on that too tho Arkay.
Jerry Garcia? I saw him solo in '89 and he played Chuck Berry's Round and Round or one of those Berry numbers he would play. It rocked. I remember thinkin, 'the fat man rocks'.<big grin>
Jimmy Page went on a solo tour with Jason Bonham on drums in '88. What rocked? Smokestack Lightning, In My Time of Dying. I'm sure Mr Page (hasn't he been knighted yet) probably rocked some with the Black Crowes a couple years back, but I really dunno if he's got that full-throttle thing anymore.
On Reed and the Velvets, get the Quine Tapes. you won't be sorry.
But nobody's mentioned the obvious cross-over, this guy

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" . . . On the outside now . . ."

Well my experience with Lou Reeds solo music is minimal, I have to admit. But thinking of The VU brings up 'hazy' and 'lazy' to me, not 'rock and roll'.

My friend popped on a Lou Reed solo album once, and I remember being pretty bored..like it was The VU but minus any experimental tendencies whatsoever. But really, this is still just an opinion!

Great, thanks Lumpy. The only Iggy album I have is The Idiot. I just ordered the anthology. I remember first seeing Iggy in 1968-69 in Toledo, Ohio. He was pretty much a local out of Detroit I saw him along with the MC5.

I don't detest Reed but, in any of his incarnations, he's not someone I have ever bothered to look for or will ever bother to look for.

Probably the one that I'm really sorry I missed a lot of is Jorma Kaukonen, original lead guitarist with the original Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and then just a marginal solo career. Shit, I don't even know if he's still alive now or just retired and packed away his guitar.

--Bat

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<------PhotoArtWerk by debutante_daisy http://www.facebook.com/BatchainTheMovie

I know this is a cliched answer, but Jimi Hendrix kicked some serious ass in his day...

I never got the appeal of the MC5 at all until I saw that documentary 'A True Testimony'. On record, they're mostly boring to my ears, but that live footage in the film rocks hard.

Another unlikely candidate, but there's an awesome video doing the rounds of James Brown performing on television in Boston the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. That stuff rocks hard, without actually being 'rock' music.

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"When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again." -- Eric Dolphy

OK, lessee...

Iggy and MC5 - Check! Total ROCK attitude, no argument. Zardoz, thats awesome that you saw him live in the 60s. I've seen him 3 times and he lays it all out there every time.

Zeppelin - No argument there either. JP and others might have an argument, but not from me.

James Brown and George Clinton - Who would've guessed that old school funk would ROCK?

Hendrix - Like Zeppelin, a casualty of the Classic Rock format, but I actually just ran across another Hendrix video I hadn't seen before. So, imo, its really just the overplayed stuff thats cliche.

Jefferson Airplane - Ehh... I saw one of their incarnations in 1983 or so and thought it was ok, but I've never really been a fan, so I don't know their stuff really well.
Of the Hot Tuna I've heard, I liked that more than Jefferson Airplane.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I had to stop right there. I've been listening to Allan Holdsworth since his days with Tony Williams. While I would admit that much of what he does woud not be classified as ROCK the first thought that came to my mind when reading your superlative NEVER ROCKS was the first UK Album.

UK was one of the most progerssive Rock bands of it's time.

This Album ROCKS

Fair enough, as I don't have that album. The only album I have by UK is this one:

... which doesn't ROCK.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Pete Townshend and Brian Setzer rocks imo. I'm sure there are a lot of other musicians that rocks, too. U.K. was an outstanding prog rock band, but they didn't rock at all. If If Iggy Pop counts I would like to add Wire.

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What's the ugliest part of your body ?

I think I know what you mean here. The Band of Gypsies album will always be a favourite of mine.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

Neil Young.

OK, maybe he hasn't always rocked, but when he does, he's damn good.

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

The Steve Morse Band.

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I can't tell when you're telling the truth.
>I'm not.
How do I know anything you've said to me is...
>You don't.

Yeah, I forgot Neil. He rocks for the free world.

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What's the ugliest part of your body ?

AC/DC of course.

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Some folks got it,
some folks don't,
some so yoogly,
they never won't

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I'm petulant, and I'm having a frenzy...

Fucking ditto on Bo Diddley. That guy ROCKED!

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For my clinically insane music
http://routenote.com/album/FOWL
http://www.myspace.com/fowlmusic
http://www.last.fm/music/fowl
http://www.deezer.com/en/#music/fowl
Your mental health requires buying my cd

I rock. \m/:x

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You betcha! I sat next to him on a plane trip to London. We talked for a while. I was like "Holy fuck you're Bo Diddley!" and he just looks and says "Yeah I know!"

He Rocks for sure.

But the one True Rocker whose still out there day in day out is IGGY.

Check out Skull Rings or Brick by Brick or American Caesar and of course Raw Power... and if you see him live it's even better.

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"Welcome to the Frank Zappa Memorial Country Club & BBQ" at wgt.com 75 members and counting.