Why am I writing another One Song when we retired the feature last week? Well, technically that was the group version of One Song. We still plan on keeping the feature but in a non-group setting. It will be a little more intimate...a little more personal...and we won't have to shout over Joel's loud 'fucking-fuckity-fuck-fuck sentences.' Whenever we have the need to talk about a single song..that isn't new, but still kicks ass....we will use this format.
Soooooo, I'm going to talk about Frank Zappa's legendary Black Page and tell you a little story about a kid named Steve Vai.
It's not too well known that Steve Vai got his major break with Frank Zappa. Sure Vai, a student of Joe Satriani, is a fucking incredible guitar player but his knowledge of music theory and ability to transcribe is off the charts. When Vai graduated from the Berklee College of Music at the age of 20 he was a huge admirer of Frank Zappa. In hopes of grabbing Zappa's attention Vai mailed a guitar transcription of The Black Page as if to say 'bro, check this shit out...can I be in your band?'
So, What the Fuck is The Black Page and why on Earth would it grab Zappa's attention?
To fully understand Vai's virtuosity you must be able to comprehend the complexity of The Black Page. Zappa originally wrote this piece as a challenge for his Drummer Terry Bozzio; the piece was so complex that neither of them were sure that it could even be played. As described in Wikipedia:
The Black Page is written in common time with extensive use of tuplets, including tuplets inside tuplets. At several points there is a crotchet triplet (sixth notes) in which each beat is counted with its own tuplet of 5, 5 and 6; at another is aminim triplet (third notes) in which the second beat is a rubato quintuplet (actually a tuplet of 7), and the third beat is divided into tuplets of 4 and 5. The song ends with a crotchet triplet composed of tuplets of 5, 5, and 6, followed by two tuplets of 11 in the space of one (so forty-fourth notes, so faster than 32nd notes but still slower than sixty-fourth notes - really fast).
Do you have any idea what that fucking means? Neither do I, but it took one of the best kit drummers in history 4 weeks to learn it from begining to end, which in Terry Bozzio time, is a lifetime. Graduate students analyze this song for the their thesis and it still remains one of the most complex pieces to play on a drum kit. Accomplishing the feat is the music nerd's equivalent to reaching the peak of Mount Everest. So when Vai transcribed this piece, meant for drums, into a guitar composition....it sure as fuck grabbed Zappa's attention. Not only did he mail the sheet music, Vai also mailed Zappa a tape of him playing The Black Page on the motherfuckin' guitar. (This is when I imagine Zappa spit out his orange juice.)
Long story short Vai got an audition with Zappa and ultimately was invited into the band. Immidiately below is a video of Vai talking about his brutal audtion. The second video is a live performance of The Black Page #1 and #2.
Note: Zappa added a second version of The Black Page (#2) to be a little more listener friendly. (or as Zappa described it: The Teeny Bop version). However, if version #1 (drum solo) sounds like just a bunch of random notes to your ears, then please pay attention to the high-hat keeping common time.