As my appreciation for rock, popular and more esoteric musics grew, I became aware of the live concert. My first had to have been either Chicago or Jethro Tull. I saw the former sometime during my middle-school years (we called it "Junior High") and probably the latter during high school with the 'Mother of all' (pun intended) concerts, Frank Zappa around this this time. I attended a second FZ concert about two years later, shortly after the release of Zoot Allures in the mid 1970s. Funny, looking back on the music now, I really did not prefer lengthy, complex, intricate or technical FZ guitar solos at the time. My favorites with the vocal pieces and complex, jazzy, ensemble passages. Now I find the guitar solo recordings of Frank Zappa are my choice; 'air sculptures' as he referred to them. The Zappa 'guitar' albums were and are a tremendous inspiration to me in my writing, performing and recording.
I still at the time, did not know quite what to make of the iconoclastic Mr. Zappa. He was visually the hippy-freak-wildman; philosophically a socially liberal political libertarian; a guitar virtuoso and a modern music composer. Respected by some. Shunned by others. Repulsive to many yet revered by a great number (hundreds of thousands then/millions now?). Mysterious is probably the word that sums him up best in my perception at the time.
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