Zappa, Frank - Variations On The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression Lyrics

Zappa made his point but Santana won the long run. I guess karma is a bitch

Zappa jelous??

The best Santana solo I've ever heard :)

Youre a son of a bitch

I never thought Santana was a "great" guitarist. He obviously is very talented but plays the same stuff over and over. He has magically been bumped up in those wonderful "50 greatest guitarist {bullshit list} lately. You know the ones that list oh, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell,John Lennon{love him} yet exclude RORY GALLAGHER,Roy Buchanan,Johnny Winter,Gary Moore,Tommy Bolin,Ritchie Blackmore,Paul Kossoff,Steve Morse etc etc. Point being{opinion} I think Santana is overrated as is Page and Van Halen and to some degree,dare I say Hendrix. Being innovative doesn't make you the greatest. Hendrix was a great guitarist but he wasn't the greatest as every damn list ranks him. Nor was/is Clapton and B.B. King. All of it is subjective and opinion I assume. Taste,style,popularity but still.....Thou shall not rank Hendrix and Clapton below the top 3 or hell fire shall consume thee is ridiculous. I'm sure plenty will think I'm full of shit. Fair enough. Oh I forgot! According to the greatest guitarist list we now have Kurt Cobain. Please!!!! Make it stop.

Could someone tell me how this is a rip on cs? It's an excellent tribute it sounds like

Zappa was a real piece of work.

He definitely had his opinions, like them of not. Santana may not have been creative in the off-the-wall style of Zappa but he brought Latin sound and rhythm into rock and jazz and for that alone he should be celebrated. I will always love Santana and Zappa.

wanna hear the ultimate emotive/shred solo by Frank? check "son of orange county" from Zappa/Mothers Roxy& Elsewhere...amen.

Some people have no sense of humor it seems... I don't think Frank was out to put down Carlos with this title, it's a pretty light-hearted joke. Someone could easily make a "Variations on the Secret Frank Zappa Chord Progression" track based on the I-II vamp that dominates this record, and I bet Frank would get a kick out of that. He stuck that vamp in nearly every song he could... Inca Roads, RDNZL, Son of Orange County, and Yo Mama just off the top of my head. Phish later took this vamp for their tune Reba.

All of you saying Santana's a hack or Zappa's a hack need to just lighten up and go listen to the music you actually like. Also, I doubt many of you could listen to this whole jam and keep track of the downbeat the entire time the way these stellar musicians did. Give it a try sometime. Great track, I love Vinnie's playing.

Very well said. I feel a lot of people seem to assume Frank was this deeply bitter man who attacked everyone out of arrogance and disdain for those he viewed as beneath him. I can't speak for the man, but a good portion of what's on his records seems to be on there for a lighthearted laugh. The social commentary is there, and it's often brutal, but it's funny as hell, too.

Take South Park for example. They make fun of so many different people and things. Is it because they hate everything, or is it because it's funny? Again, they may make social commentary every once in a while, but it's more to do with pointing out the ridiculousness of something than it is to do with actually hating on it.

Back to Frank's music, a song like "Status Back Baby" isn't about making fun of certain high school students because they're detestable idiots who deserve to be attacked. It's making fun of how ridiculous the concept of "status" is in high school as well as how many kids worry about something so trivial and arbitrary. That's my take on it at least.

Poor Carlos Santana should reach out to Frank and request that this genius could try to educate him as to what real music is, and how it should be playeed so that .....oh, wait, he can’t REACH OUT TO A DEAD GUY! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

People who don't like this don't get Zappa's Humour....It's quite clearly a Parody of Santana's more hit and miss ballsy improvised jams he did with his band in the late 60's, not his more composed later beautiful emotive stuff like Europa.

This is the guitar solo from City of tiny lites it's not a jam

Frank is a master guitar player.Obviosly this is not a compliment to Mr.Santana but in a Weird way it is a Compliment because he went out of his way and spent so much Time & Energy to Make a Point about Carlos music.the answer to anyone who's so invested in that kind of criticizing or hating or toxic feelings speak volumes about them.Does Carlos even care/"Oye Como Va" FZ

From Carlos Santana's autobiography. I just finished reading this paragraph and pulled up this video because I'm not familiar with most of Zappa's stuff.

Whatever Frank meant by it, Santana claims to have "laughed his ass off"

Zappa did this because he actually had a true dislike for Carlos... this song was NOT a compliment or tribute whatsoever....

MarshallAmp Man
exactly

Frank used the II-V "Santana" progression a lot in his own compositions. I don't think this was intended as a mockery.

it's more a Dorian i- IV but yeah

@David Ferrara yes

Oh, yes, it was. The progression is not an invention of Santana at all. He just milked the cow to death!

My sister was a typical snobby Zappa fan who fell for this crap. Yeah, Frank, anybody who actually sold records and concert tickets was a fraud and beneath your contempt; we get it. The fact that Carlos Santana and his late 60's/early 70's band brought something new to a pop/rock audience, while largely ignoring your stuff, is something you just couldn't stand. Oh, BTW, your daughter long ago discarded that "Moon Unit" moniker which you cruelly hung on her at birth, asshole that you are.

I'd just like to point out that you spend your time watching youtube videos you don't like and rant whole paragraphs out of nowhere

Zappa's message about popular culture wasn't out of jealousy. popular music has been dumbed down since the 50's, gradually getting worse. I'd be contemptuous too if my competition passed off i-IV as a song, which santana was famous for.
santana is a hack. he has no theoretical training and relies on pentatonic cliches, passing them off as "expressionate".
and santana's comeback didn't introduce anything new to modern music. latin chord progressions have remained popular in mainstream music since the 60's. if anything, it was a marketing gimmick to try and remain relevant.
if you had any clue how large Zappa's cult following is I don't think you'd be trying to make an appeal to popularity here.

You have to understand that Frank was a genius, and I don't mean musically, although he probably was, but in terms of raw intelligence. People like Frank tend to be frustrated and lonely a lot of the time. Imagine people thinking you're weird, not understanding you, etc. Add to that, that you grew up in an All-American town and have an unusual appearance, you're an outsider, etc.. Professionally, a lot of your musical peers obtain adulation, wealth, popularity, yet, despite your superior abilities, you're overlooked, misunderstood, not appreciated.

frank making fun of santanas eolian mode abuse

*dorian

I thought Zappa sounded a tad like Santana before this track!

Too bad he felt compelled to do this, but jealously and envy will drive people to do a lot of things.

Deborah Hubbert it's a pretty light joke. He's just doing his thing over a progression Santana frequently used & made famous. That's about it

...and here's an example of what passes for "art" or "music" from the "genius" mind of Frank Zappa. Warning: Headphone Alert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjU2GCKx4g

Russ, you miss the point of Franks music, of which he combines simple ideas with complex ones in, often, a humorous setting.
a brief look at the orchestral music in Zappa's last ten years is testament to just how talented he was. he was neither envious or jealous - he was making fun of popular music

Zappa was by far one of the most original and ridiculously greatest gtr players ever! Sheer Genius!

fz saw santana like he is a big dreamer without knowledge about music

Zappa had to respect Santana's guitar work in "Waves Within" and "Flame Sky".

Eh, music's not really a competition imo. Maybe Zappa didn't like Santana for what he saw as cheap gimmicks or repetitiveness, but that doesn't make Santana a bad musician or his fans idiots for liking him. Was Zappa a more talented composer than Santana? I would absolutely say so if you asked me. I might even laugh at the question because the answer seems so obvious to me. I mean, Frank was certainly more capable, but let's face it. Very few in rock or pop music actually live up to the technical expertise of Frank Zappa. That doesn't stop people from liking what they like. Technical expertise isn't everything in music, and at the end of the day, it's still a matter of taste. So kudos to Zappa for being Zappa and kudos to Santana for being Santana.

Love CS and FZ, in all their glory... but all I hear here is Vinnie. :-)

Vinnie must be the drummer!

Any improvised solo becomes an ego trip of licks after 15.06 seconds. Peeps love my 5 second solos and my 3 second ones are more popular but black napkins is a real serious solo where frank actually plays with feeling

look at this fuckhead casually mentioning hes better than frank zappa

Old people are dead.

traditionally, a solo section is given to show virtuosity, hence destroying your entire premise.
lesser musicians fall back on supposed "feel"

I grew up a huge fan of Santana but the more I learned about music and the more saw Carlos live- I realized that he gets his emotion from extending notes- not from finger picking. Zappa played all styles and never settled for the same old

It's just what Charlie's music needed,,,,, A good kick in the bollocks!!!

Sorry fellow Zappa fans, but Carlos' style is very smooth and emotive, while Frank plays a frenetic, McLaughlin-style notes-everywhere guitar solo...sorry, this has no bearing on C.S.

Agreed.

Carlos got pretty prog on the Moonflower live album. I like that one quite a bit

It's not the solo that sounds like Carlos, it's the two chords over and over in the background. But the real question is; Does humor belong in music?

He's making fun of Santana, rightly so.

i aren't fan but,santana don't is eeeh... one "great guitarist" is one more guitarist what helped at rock,but is a great pillar of rock

Don't forget to "Like" Guitarscapes on Facebook.

One of my all time favorite pieces from Zappa enormous ouvre

E's only gorn and Out-Santana'd Santana.

This is Frank's sense of Humor,doesn't that sound like a Santana Song? He does one for Dawayne Allman too!

It's lonely here; seems strange...