Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
| Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by Frank Zappa | ||||
| Released | May 11, 1981 (US) | |||
| Recorded | July 1972; February 1976; February 1977 - December 11, 1980 | |||
| Genre | Instrumental rock, hard rock | |||
| Length | 106:52 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic (2 CD) |   |
| AllMusic (Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More) | |
| AllMusic (Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar) | |
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, a project consisting of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, is a series of albums by Frank Zappa. Released as separate albums in May 1981 on Barking Pumpkin Records, it was subsequently reissued as a triple album box set in 1982.
As the title implies, the album consists solely of instrumentals and improvised solos, largely performed on electric guitar. The album series was conceived after Zappa shelved a proposed live album, Warts and All, and two tracks intended for that album appear on this series.
The individual Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar albums and box set have been well received by critics, and Zappa subsequently produced two more albums focusing solely on guitar-oriented music: Guitar (1988) and Trance-Fusion (posthumously released in 2006).
After the release of Joe's Garage, Frank Zappa set up his home studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, and planned to release a triple LP live album called Warts and All. As Warts and All reached completion, Zappa found the project to be "unwieldy" due to its length. Zappa later conceived the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar series, which contained two tracks originally prepared for Warts and All.
The album is entirely instrumental and features mainly guitar solos, hence the title. It is, however, interspersed with brief verbal comments between tracks, many of which were originally intended for the scrapped album Läther. Each disc is titled after a variation on the album's name, which is shared with the title track found on each respective disc.
Most solos on the album are culled from live performances of previous Zappa songs. The three title tracks are derived from successive renditions of "Inca Roads"; various other solos were taken from readings of "Conehead", "Easy Meat", "The Illinois Enema Bandit", "City of Tiny Lites", "Black Napkins", "The Torture Never Stops", "Chunga's Revenge", and "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus". "Ship Ahoy" was the coda from a performance of "Zoot Allures" the first part of which appears on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3.
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