A tribute to Frank Zappa, in 9/4 time. This is from act III of Joe's Garage, "Joe's Last Imaginary Guitar Solo".
Story behind the song
All instruments played by Michael Duran
Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, rhythm & solos
Carvin DC127 with Fishman TriplePlay & TEC BC in pitch-shift mode, ambient sweeps, music box, and bells.
Carvin LB20 Bass
Masterkey61 MIDI keyboard on Vibes.
Drums played on Yamaha DD55 drum pads, via MIDI & VITA Rock Drums VST.
Joe's Garage is a 1979 rock opera by Frank Zappa.
Don Shewey of Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "The guitar solos that Zappa plays in Joe's imagination burn with a desolate, devastating beauty."
Zappa self-deprecatingly describes the album as a "stupid little story about how the government is going to do away with 'evil rock music'.
Originally released as two separate studio albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III, in 1987.
The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is eventually imprisoned for his indiscretions.
After being 'rehabilitated' Joe is released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he goes back to his dingy little room where he lapses into despondent insanity, and plays his last imaginary guitar solo in his tortured mind.
Joe's Garage is noted for its use of xenochrony, a recording technique that takes guitar solos from older live recordings and overdubs them onto new studio recordings.
All of the guitar solos on the album are xenochronous except for "Crew Slut" and "Watermelon in Easter Hay", a signature song that Zappa has described as the best song on the album, and according to his son Dweezil, the best guitar solo his father ever played.
Lyrics
Frank Zappa;
Act III
SCENE SEVENTEEN
WATERMELON IN EASTER HAY
CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER:
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER. Joe has just worked himself into an imaginary frenzy during the fade-out of his imaginary song. He begins to feel depressed now. He knows the end is near. He has realized at last that imaginary guitar notes and imaginary vocals exist only in the mind of the imaginer. And ultimately, who gives a f*** anyway?! Excuse me. Who gives a f**k anyway? So he goes back to his ugly little room and quietly dreams his last imaginary guitar solo.