Anyone have an opinion on Steve Vai's Flex-Able or Flex-Able Leftovers albums? If you dig Zappa, you will dig these albums...
Posted Jan 10, 2020, 2:57 AM UTC
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I heard this album before I heard Zappa. The Attitude Song was distributed as a floppy plastic single between the pages of Guitar Player magazine and my fellow guitarist friend and I were just blown away by the complexity of it.
Correction: it was Guitar Player magazine, not Guitar
https://www.discogs.com/Steve-Vai-The-Attitude-Song/release/1929943
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Attitude Song is one of the best things I have ever heard.
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I remember the flexi. I was too young and too into awful hair metal to understand Vai's genius back then. But I do now, largely thanks to Zappa. Wish I still had that issue!
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I'm always searching for new Zappa gems and Zappa-inspired stuff. I'm a fan of Vai's playing but hadn't heard either of these albums for some reason. But when I did, they blew me away. Both albums are heavily Frank-influenced and I even had to double check the credits to see if Frank contributed (he didn't). Anyway, if you like Zappa's weirder and groovier shit, check these out. They don't disappoint. I've been listening to Little Green Men over and over again...
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Make sure to check out Thanks For Flying With Us by Mats Morgen Band if you haven't already. And also the Freak Guitar albums by Mattias Eklundh. Holy shit, that stuff is fun! The Swedish connection. Oh yeah, Marco Minnemann! Start with The Green Mindbomb.
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Thanks! Will definitely check those out! 🍻
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The song you linked makes me cringe... but I absolutely love Flex-able. Was on heavy rotation in the 90s.
Edit: https://youtu.be/eUXkpcXh3_g and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzgxXlJ2baQ
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I actually really like it. 😂 Reminds me of Frank's goofy sense of humor.
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Vai was my path to Frank, like other replies here. I actually started with Passion and Warfare before eventually making my way back to Flex-able. At the time, I was really confused and put off by it. Little Green Men, Junkie, and whichever song, “light without heat” is in are the only ones that still stand out. As a hardcore Zappa fan now, it would be interesting to revisit the album.
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As a kid I got into Vai via the film Crossroads and then with David Lee Roth. I was a metal head and Frank's stuff then made zero sense to me. I had no idea of Vai's Zappa connection. Ironically, it has been Zappa that has led me to Vai's earlier stuff like this and I love his guitar work with Frank. I am so digging Flex-Able. Cheers!
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I love Steve. He's one of the great ambassadors for guitar creativity and dedication. My favorite music of his is this early stuff where he wasn't quite committed yet to the stylistic path he would later lock on to. There's so much variety in those pieces. I think Salamanders in the Sun is the closest musical relative to Frank that he recorded. Passsion and Warfare is absolutely amazing and still retains a lot of that feeling, but by then he had already come into his own voice and in doing so, let go of much of that variety that I love about Flex-able/Leftovers.
I also want to mention the live album Alive in an Ultra World because I think it reintroduces some of the variety that I mentioned above, due to it's concept. It's the result of him doing a world tour, composing individual pieces inspired by various cities/countries along his route, and then performing those pieces for the people of those places.
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Awesome. Thank you for the recommendation. I've always loved Giant Balls of Gold but never knew what album it was from - going to check out the rest of that album now. I've been going through his whole catalog, really dig his style and absolutely love Flex-Able/Leftovers. 🤘🏼
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Zappa via Vai here also. Can anyone confirm that his self-produced debut, Flex-Able, started selling like mad when it appeared as an acetate in Guitar Player magazine? And that he sold 700,000 copies around that time, making around $7 per album (as it was self-financed). I think read that somewhere a long time ago.
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As I discovered Vai prior to Zappa, I loved Passion & Warfare, his Whitesnake and David Lee Roth work better than Flex-Able, which I had discovered later. Flash forward to today, and I think it's way better and interesting than I thought at the time (1989-1991). The "demo-ish" sound compared to the slickly produced Passion & Warfare is what turned me off back then, but since my mind has opened to a lot more experimental and different production styles, I enjoy it a lot more today. Yes, it is heavily influenced by FZ, but it is also Vai-esque, which makes it a bit naive and original, to me.
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Vai absolutely blew me away when I saw him in Crossroads. Blew my mind. So I tried, and without success, to find more of that. But it just led me to Roth and Whitesnake and Passion etc. What I absolutely love about Flex-Able is the songwriting and melody... there's just gorgeous stuff in there that reminds me of hearing shit like Watermelon in Easter Hay for the first time. Agree about it having its own Vai-esque flavor with heavy Frank influence. It's brilliant. I need to chase down a vinyl copy now.
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I found Frank via Vai in the 80s.
So many great songs, the solo in Junkie stands out and Viv Woman too. Have you listened to Western Vacation?
I love Western Vacation. Tommy Mars is outstanding throughout.
Does anyone know who they’re talking about in the track Patty when they say, “she fucks Farook?”
Seem to recall someone in Zappa’s orbit named Farook, but the old rusty synapses aren’t firing like they used to...
Thanks for the recommendation. Listening to it now. Just heard Send Us More Light. My god, that synth solo is beautiful!
Not yet. Looking it up now. Thanks for the recommendation! Agree about Viv Woman.
Re: Western Vacation, it talks about Marty Schwartz as one of Vai's Berklee friends...is that the same Marty Schwartz of Marty's Music YouTube guitar fame?
Edit: Nevermind, I don't think it's the same guy...weird that there's 2 Marty Schwartz guitar players...anyway, cool album!