ajejebrazorf

Oh my God, it's shocking, he looks like a respectable person! But do you think it was him who chose the little outfits? Like "Frank, but I'm cold like this" and him "shut up, you must perform in your underwear, otherwise I won't pay you"?

yeah yeah, Bozzio come on, he’s hyper-tamarro. An amazing drummer, but he has escaped from the zoo. He’s also punished by the unsettling resemblance to the lead singer of the Darkness. Vai also makes the tamarri ranking anyway, I have a live performance where he’s wearing a leopard print prison shirt.

the famous keyboardist I was talking about, George Duke

No, I don't quite agree. For me, the ultimate tamarro is Bozzio, a gorilla who played in his underwear. Then there's a keyboardist who looks like he came straight out of the Flintstones (I don't remember his name, but not the famous one), and the saxophonist in shorts isn’t to be underestimated either. Jimmy Carl Black might win for the ugliest (competing with the Flintstone keyboardist), but come on, he's just too funny. "Hi boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group":))) catch me that quote.

robi, Vai's solo stuff...as for the albums, this and Flexable are saved (I didn't say they're great albums). Sex and Religion is junk, Fire Garden is a monstrous drag, Alien Love Secret has only Juice...for me, it remains the mah.

But are you talking about the videos with Belushi doing the samurai and threatening everyone with a sword? Or the ones where there's the saxophonist in those horrible short shorts? But then why do 90% of Zappa's musicians look like idiots?

The g3 sucks not only because it’s all guitar, but because one wonders "where's the music?" DI Vai solo has a few tracks I like (this album isn't too bad anyway), but it's certainly not a masterpiece for me. Di Vai is definitely worth it for Juice that Robi mentioned, a super cheesy but fun track, For the Love of God, and a little something from Flexable. But my idea of a super mega guitarist is Marc Ribot, my personal guitar superhero. Caz has nothing to do with it, but who do you think was the most cheesy musician among all of Zappa's musicians?

I agree that Vai is superior in terms of fantasy (billions of times more than Malmsteen) and much better than Satriani, who may be less showy but creates supermarket melodies. However, I really like Zappa, but I prefer, you know, since you mentioned Man from Utopia, a monstrous piece like Dangerous Kitchen to You Can't Do That, which are nice (very nice in some parts) but sometimes they overdo it a bit when they start their half-hour solos. Ah, if you want, if you're interested, I can send you some various videos of Zappa, even though I believe you already have a ton of stuff. But for me, Vai was placed there to be the juggler and nothing more; from that perspective, he's a limited guitarist. They even left me the DVD of the last G3 with the Drombo trio Satriani Malmsteen (sad, a sweaty big guy spinning his guitar around his neck in 2004 or 2005—acceptable in the '80s, but he’s no longer a kid) and Vai. Vai is circus at inhuman levels; it’s almost annoying how much he shows off, but look how good I am. I mean, even Pastorius, to name one, was an amazing show-off at home, but aside from the nonsense, when he had to play, he definitely played; he didn’t always do the "let me show you..." So, if we’re going for circus and nothing else, let’s reevaluate Portnoy & Petrucci, huh? :)

Hey beautiful guys, I’m jumping in (I’m the anon above who was talking with Gigino). Caz, did you know that Zappa was a fan of Trippa Malmsteen? For me, he chose Vai because he needed a transcriber for sheet music and someone to pull off "the impossible guitar parts" and those Stratocaster abuses, especially live, and if you’ve seen Zappa’s live videos, you know what I’m talking about and all the craziness they did; he was someone who knew how to sell himself well. In short, there was a lot of circus, and Zappa’s circus might be more entertaining, but musically, it’s worth a Saturday at Vai’s circus. So, for me, Vai is pretty superfluous even with Zappa, and aside from the show-off moments, the composition was entirely in Zappa's style.

I know, Kosmo, I agree, and I’m familiar with many of the bands you mentioned (I recently heard Marta sui tubi), but some you brought up I’ve never even heard of, like VicLarsen, Sedia(?), and Le Masque. There’s no shortage of bands in Italy; let's just say that unlike other countries, there isn’t much promotion for many of those trying to do something different. A good site to get informed about our local rock scene is rockit. To quote Agnelli himself, who explained the lack of success of Italian rock to a surprised Dulli, "making rock in Italy is a bit like wanting to be a soccer player in Ivory Coast," you have the same visibility.