THE GOOD

2. Frank Zappa, Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, November 1980

Prior to 1984, when the Stanley shifted away from rock acts, the venerable theater was a real treat for musicians and audience members alike.

In fact, a couple of years ago I talked to Ike Willis, who sang with Zappa's band at this particular show, and he mentioned how everyone always loved coming to Pittsburgh to play at the Stanley. The acoustics were unmatched, and the overall environment was exponentially preferable to, say, a hockey rink converted to a concert venue.

What I remember about the Zappa show was keeping my eyes glued to the stage for two-plus hours. No checking out who else was in the audience. No getting up to wander around. None of that other monkey business kids might do at rock concerts. The performance was that riveting.

For this tour, Zappa brought along his most dynamic vocalists, Willis and Ray White, along with a teenage kid who would become a guitar legend in his own right, Steve Vai. But whenever Frank took his turns on the fretboard during the show, we knew we were witnessing genius.

It's been said countless times, but there will never be anyone else like Frank Vincent Zappa (1940-93).

(Stay tuned.)

Yeah, I know. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is about as cliched as you can get for a theme. But what the heck ...

The idea here is to recall, for better or worse, some of what I've encountered at concerts over the past three decades or so. Maybe you were there for some of 'em. I know you weren't there for the first show on the list:

THE GOOD

1. Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1982.

Picture two ancient blues singers, one of them blind and blowing on his harp, the other picking his guitar. A much younger percussionist beats out the rhythm behind them. And about a dozen college kids are in the basement of the student union watching the show of their lives.

The fellows had been doing their thing together since before World War II, but they still had the energy to roar through their time-tested repertoire for a couple of hours. And the few of us who were in attendance couldn't get enough of seeing those living legends go at it.

Sonny (the blind one) died in 1986 and Brownie in 1996. RIP, gentlemen.

(Stay tuned for more.)

Again with the Grateful Dead: The archives also have produced extensive video documentation of the band's performances in the latter part of its career. A new DVD set, "Truckin' Off to Buffalo" (a line from one of their more recognizable tunes), chronicles the Rich Stadium performance of July 4, 1989.

The band's first such release, "View from the Vault," holds special significance for Pittsburgh-area Deadheads, as it comes from the Three Rivers Stadium show of July 8, 1990.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been there. But when the concert date was announced, I looked on my calendar and saw my wife's due date was right around the same time.

Sure enough, she went into labor the morning of July 8. A few of my out-of-town friends, dressed as you'd expect for a Grateful Dead concert, stopped by Magee-Womens Hospital on their way to the show to see how everything was going. As you'd expect, they drew quite a few stares.

So today, my son Rob can watch a concert that took place the day he was born, in the city where he was born. (That is, if he ever starts listening to the Grateful Dead!)

Mention today's top guitarists, and the conversation should include Steve Kimock.

He's not exactly a household name, despite playing for a quarter of a century with many of the more recognizable personalities from the music mecca of San Francisco. Perhaps that's because his repertoire - lengthy instrumental workouts with plenty of room for soloing - hardly lends itself to the short attention span of the average listener.

But anyone who takes the time to sit down for a spell with Kimock's music comes away mightily impressed with his fluid, melodic playing, which never becomes less than interesting, even when his tunes progress toward the 20-minute mark.

Kimock's longest tenure was with a Bay Area band called Zero, which in its early days also featured former Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina. That aggregation carried on from the mid-'80s until 2000, when Kimock concentrated on a full-fledged solo career.

His highest-profile tenures have been with the post-Grateful Dead bands the Other Ones and Phil Lesh & Friends. Of particular interst is his recording with the latter group, the live "Love Will You See You Through," on which he teams with legendary Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna axeman Jorma Kaukonen for some intense playing. Check out their respective turns on the rendition of the Airplane's "Good Shepherd."

My favorite Kimock project was called KVHW, after the initials of the four principals: He teamed with bassist Bobby Vega from Zero, Bay Area drummer Alan Hertz and former Frank Zappa vocalist/rhythm guitarist Ray White. The quartet joined together for a benefit show in the spring of '98 and started playing regularly together that summer, but lasted only until the end of the following year.

At any rate, KVHW combined instrumentals Kimock and Vega brought from Zero with catchy new jams and some souped-up versions of old favorites, most notably the Meters' "Cissy Strut" and the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing." Vega's funky bass licks on the latter should be able to make anyone wanna get up and boogie! But despite tight ensemble playing throughout, Kimock's guitar always was the focus of the group.

KVHW had only one commercial release, a hard-to-find live CD, but many of its shows are available online. A recommendation is the Dec. 5, 1998, show at the Gate in Vancouver. On the fifth anniversary of Zappa's death, the band added three of his songs to the setlist, including Kimock's reading of the sublime instrumental "Watermelon in Easter Hay."

These days, Kimock keeps busy touring with his own band, and he's released some solo material, including a DVD that provides a firsthand look at his fretboard wizardry. If you appreciate great guitar playing, that's a good place to go.

(Note: That offer in regard to the Grateful Dead trivia question in the previous post is still on the table. Come on, you Deadheads!)

For the amount of recorded material available for fans, no artist comes anywhere close to rivaling the Grateful Dead.

Throughout its 30-year existence, the band always encouraged audience members to tape shows for posterity. That tradition continued after the demise of the original band, as subsequent projects after Jerry Garcia's death - The Dead, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, Ratdog and others - follow the same policy. And plenty of those shows are available online, with the musicians' blessing.

Commercially, the Grateful Dead has issued a continuing series of archival recordings, called "Dick's Picks" after the band's longtime archivist, the late Dick Latvala. The series is up to its 25th volume now, and the latest installment has a pretty good story attached.

In 1971, it seems, Garcia gave a bunch of the band's soundboard tapes to future Dead keyboard player Keith Godchaux, to help him learn the repertoire. The tapes were promptly forgotten and stowed away, finally seeing the light of day just this year.

For the rest of the story, click here.

Question (get it right, and I'll send you a copy of the recording): On what Grateful Dead album did the late Keith Godchaux make his debut?

Here's a real tribute to Dad: Play his music, which also happens to be some of the most challenging and creative of the 20th century.

Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa are doing so by embarking on "Zappa Plays Zappa," also known as the Tour de Frank, in Europe this winter. They're tackling the vast catalogue of composer Frank Vincent Zappa (1940-93), who of course had a penchant for unique names for his children to go along with his unique music.

I won't attempt to jot down all the superlatives I have for the late Mr. Zappa as a composer, musician and social commentator - not enough space here - but suffice it to say his boys have tons of stuff to choose from when they develop set lists. And that's literally tons, by the way. Frank's legendary vault of tapes, documenting his performances from the '60s through early '90s, looks to take decades to thoroughly investigate.

At any rate, it's great to see real, live musicians continuing to play his music. Lord knows the radio won't. And much of it is tough to play, structured in bizarre signatures and chord changes. But some of the bands who attempt to tackle Zappa do it magnificently, such as Project/Object, a New York-based band I saw in Pittsburgh a few years ago. Next time they're in town, look them up!

Dweezil and Ahmet should be up to the task. Dweezil in particular is a tremendous guitarist, just like Dad. In fact, Dweezil was pretty darn good when he first played with his father, when the kid was 14. He's only gotten better in the two decades since.

Let's hope Zappa Plays Zappa goes over big in Europe (all things considered, it can't miss there), and the boys bring it back home for '06.

(Answer to Monterey Pop query: Moby Grape, as in, "What's purple and lives at the bottom of the ocean?" Seriously, that's where they got the name. And seriously, if you can find it, check out their debut album.)

Answer: Sultry Hawaii native Tia Carrere played bassist/vocalist Cassandra Wong, the love of Wayne's life.

According to the first bio of her I found online, Tia was born in 1967, which happened to be the year that ushered in the golden age of rock. (You have an even more golden age in mind? Lemme know what you think it might be.)

The Big Event of '67 was the Monterey International Pop Festival (billed as "first annual," but it didn't work out that way), the first of its kind and still the best one ever - Woodstock, Live Aid and Bonnaroo included.

Volumes have been written about those three days in June nearly four years ago, but suffice it to say that the festival's headliners, the Mamas and the Papas, must have been on a major downer by the time they closed the show on Sunday night.

Why? You try competing against the major-stage U.S. debuts of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who, not to mention a lineup that also included a cast of present and future superstars ranging from from Simon and Garfunkel to the Grateful Dead. By the time John, Michelle, Denny and Mama Cass crooned their tunes, they must have known their brand of folk-rooted rock wasn't quite the hippest thing going anymore. (Still, it sounds pretty darn good on the Monterey CD and DVD sets.)

My favorite part of the proceedings - one my kids always get a kick out of seeing - is the crowd's reaction to Jimi's famous guitar-lighting antics, hot on the heels of Pete Townshend smashing up his axe. D.A. Pennebaker's film crew captured some scenes of audience members staring at the stage in utter disbelief, if not abject fear. The tide had definitely turned.

And we've seen nothing to top it since.

Question: One of the bands at Monterey had just had its debut album released by Columbia Records a few weeks previously. On the night of the debut party, a couple of band members were arrested for cavorting with some young ladies, suffering the first of what would be many blows that derailed what rock historians say should have been a tremendously successful career. What was this group of San Franciscans?

Answer: Status Quo's psychedelically engineered "Pictures of Matchstick Men" hit the American Top 20. You'd immediately recognize the overly simplistic, phase-shifted guitar lick that opens the tune. Later reinventing itself as a 12-bar boogie band (think Foghat with higher-pitched vocals), Status Quo had a string of hit singles and albums in the U.K., but we paid no more attention to the group over here. They apparently had sufficient star power as late as '85 to launch Live Aid.

Foghat ... hearing that puts you right smack in the middle of the '70s, doesn't it? I saw the band headlining a double bill with the similarly of-that-era Sweet. What I remember, besides waiting around to hear Foghat do "Slow Ride," was an extremely long solo by guitarist Rod Price, during which the other players left the stage. Hey, that was part of rock shows back then. But Rod acquitted himself very well, under the circumstances.

That solo immediately came to mind when I heard of Rod's death earlier this year. Foghat's lead singer, Dave Peverett, also is deceased. As are Sweet's Brian Connolly and Mick Tucker.

RIP, guys.

Question: This isn't quite music trivia, but I like her ... in the "Wayne's World" movie, what actress belted out (lip-synched) a version of Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz"? (And has she been in anything of note lately?)

Answer: Bob Geldof, whose band was called the Boomtown Rats. He also was instrumental in organizing Live Aid. Holy cow, that was 20 years ago (as of July 13)!

Of course, it took 19 years for the day's performances to reach DVD. At least, some of the performances. Many potential DVD buyers would have liked to have seen material that was not included, such as Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones playing together for what very well may have been the last time. They didn't bill themselves as Led Zeppelin, but that was close enough.

My overriding memory of that day is watching a ragged-sounding Bob Dylan croak out a few tunes with ragged-looking Keith Richards and Ron Wood playing guitar on either side of him, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. Not the best moment for any of those guys.

I also remember that I missed a good bit of Live Aid because I was forced that day to go to a wedding reception involving two people I didn't even know. Wonder if they're still married ...

Question: What band opened Live Aid? And what was its only U.S. hit single (way back in 1968)?

Answer: Nick Mason has been Pink Floyd's drummer since the group was known variously as Sigma 6, the Screaming Abdabs and the Architectural Abdabs.

Speaking of Mason, he just had a book published, called "Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd."

And speaking of Pink Floyd, it's been a long time since that cash cow (cash inflatable pig?) has cashed in on its legendary status. I've been hearing that Mason might reunite with David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Richard Wright for the first time in a quarter century. Such a tour, of course, would entail Stones-like ticket prices, but it also would be a guaranteed sell-out for as many shows as the band wanted to schedule.

After all, the Floydian Four probably will be paying a large contingent of other musicians to join them. I remember going to Three Rivers Stadium in 1988 and seeing (as I've always told it) "23 people onstage calling themselves Pink Floyd." It was pretty much the same in '94.

Whatever the case, get ready to buck up and hope they break out "Careful With That Axe, Eugene."

Question: Who played "Pink" in the film version of "The Wall," and what band does he front? Bonus: What storied event did said musician organize?

Deep Purple, which is back on tour this summer (including a June 11 stop at the Chevrolet Amphitheater), traces its roots back to 1968. The band has gone through numerous personnel changes since then, with one member in every configuration: drummer Ian Paice (who's still sporting the same type of oval sunglasses he wore on the cover of the legendary "Machine Head" album).

Here's a question: A few years before Deep Purple formed, another British band got together and went on to become one of the top draws in rock history. During its lifespan, that group, too, had one constant member: its drummer. Can you name the band and its percussionist?

Hint: Although the band in question hasn't toured or released a new recording since 1994, rumors abound of an imminent tour featuring its "classic lineup" for the first time in a long while.

The era of the modern electric guitarist started about four decades ago, when players like Clapton and Hendrix began running their Gibsons and Fenders through stacks of Marshall amplifiers, creating a whole new sonic range with endless possibilities.

One of the innovators in that regard flourished in San Francisco, during an era people tend to remember for the flowers and tie-dyes. But Quicksilver Messenger Service played harder-edged music than many of the other Frisco bands, and lead guitarist John Cipollina (1943-89) drove that sound.

Cipollina was ahead of the curve in the electric guitar's formative years of the '50s. He used to say that while his friends were busy working on their hot rods, he was customizing his axes, looking for new sounds.

He helped form Quicksilver in the mid-'60s, and you can see the band in its original incarnation perform in the boxed-set DVD of the Monterey Pop Festival. The high point for him and the band came on their second album, "Happy Trails," which features extended jams with plenty of opportunity for Cipollina and second guitarist Gary Duncan to flash their chops.

Quicksilver kind of stagnated after that, though. Cipollina hung in there for a while, then joined a pretty good bar band called Copperhead. From there, his resume included partnering with former Electric Flag singer Nick Gravenites; guesting with Man, an interesting Welsh band that often drew comparisons to Quicksilver; and playing with San Francisco-based Zero, which also featured a talented young guitarist named Steve Kimock (more about him later).

Even though I'm an admitted dinosaur when it comes to a lot of my musical preference, I keep an ear out for newer artists who put on a good performance.

Admittedly, what caught my attention about Stockholm Syndrome was hearing the band's scorching cover version of "Couldn't Get It Right," a hit single for the Climax Blues Band in 1976 (one of the few good songs playing on the radio during that discofied year).

But the typical Stockholm Syndrome set is full of originals, mostly the work of guitarist/singer Jerry Joseph, who also fronts his own band, the Jackmormons.

Also in the group is bass player Dave Schools of one of the longest-tenured jambands, Widespread Panic. Check for Dave all over the DVDs from the past few Bonnaroo festivals, as well as on Gov't Mule's "Deepest End" CD/DVD extravaganza.

Stockholm Syndrome is schedule to release "Holy Happy Hour," the band's debut CD, later this month on Terminus Records. Dave handled the production chores. And the albums does include "Couldn't Get It Right."

Incidentally, Ask Yahoo! sez the term "Stockholm Syndrome" describes the behavior of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. Shouldn't that be the "Patty Hearst Syndrome"?

Face it. Life would be pretty dull without music.

So let's give some props to the first Cro-Magnon who banged out some rhythm on some rocks, and his Neanderthal neighbor who blew through a mastodon horn to invent melody.

And let's thank all the folks who continue that tradition.

The local area is loaded with talented musician who love to play and sing for our entertainment. Who are they? Well, that's what we're here for - to let you know about what our tunesmiths are up to these days, what they look like, what they sound like and, perhaps, why they do what they do.

Maybe you're a musician. Maybe your best friend is one. Maybe you've seen an act that really strikes a chord with you.

If so, let me know, and I'll be glad to lend an ear. It's as simple as e-mailing me (just look to your right).

That's the least we can do for the people who brighten this world a bit.