Listen To ‘The Greatest Guitar Solo’ Trey Anastasio ‘Ever (Saw) A Human Play’

While the media has always been quick to compare Phish to the Grateful Dead, there’s perhaps no artist who influenced Trey Anastasio more than Frank Zappa. The Phish guitarist witnessed several Frank Zappa concerts and a 1988 show in Burlington, Vermont included what Anastasio has described as “the greatest guitar solo I’ve ever seen a human play.”

Rolling Stone placed Frank Zappa on a 2011 list of the Greatest Artists of All Time. Trey Anastasio was asked to write a tribute to the late guitarist to accompany the entry. “Zappa was incredibly vital to me, as a composer and guitarist. I think he was the best electric-guitar player, other than Jimi Hendrix,” Anastasio explained. “Zappa conceptualized the instrument in a completely different way, rhythmically and sonically. Every boundary that was possible on the guitar was examined by him.”

Hints of Frank Zappa’s influence can be found in many Trey Anastasio compositions including “Reba,” “Harry Hood,” “My Friend, My Friend,” “Split Open and Melt” and “Scabbard.” FZ also influenced how Anastasio interpreted a pair of classic rock songs. “[W]hen I played at Bonnaroo with my 10-piece band, we did two covers, ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ and ‘Sultans of Swing.’ In both songs, I had the horn section play the guitar solos, note for note. I never would have thought of doing that if I hadn’t seen Zappa do ‘Stairway To Heaven’ in Burlington with the horns playing Jimmy Page’s entire guitar solo, in harmony,” Trey wrote in the 2011 Rolling Stone homage.

Trey Anastasio initially saw Frank Zappa perform live in New York City when he was in high school. In 1988, Zappa embarked on what would turn out to be his final tour. Anastasio and Phish bandmate drummer Jon Fishman caught “at least four shows” during the tour. One took place on March 12, 1988 at the Memorial Auditorium in Phish’s home base of Burlington, Vermont.

Frank Zappa’s Burlington concert featured other moments which stood out in Anastasio’s memory besides the aforementioned “Stairway To Heaven” cover. “I brought a Phish t-shirt up to him. I use to make those,” Trey recalled during an appearance at the 2015 New Yorker Festival. “I gave one to Frank, he took it from the front of the stage and held it up. He had this laundry line at the time where he was hanging laundry for the whole tour and he hung it on the laundry line. That was like the greatest thing ever.”

There was one Frank Zappa solo in particular that blew Anastasio’s mind. “They played Memorial Auditorium, they played ‘City Of Tiny Lights’ and he ripped it … hard,” Trey said on the first episode of Osiris' Alive Again podcast after revealing the Burlington “City Of Tiny Lites” featured “the greatest guitar solo I’ve ever seen a human play.”

Trey Anastasio also brought up that specific version of “City Of Tiny Lites” in the 2011 piece he wrote for Rolling Stone:

“When he played, he was in communion with the instrument. I also saw Zappa at Memorial Auditorium in Burlington, Vermont, on his last tour, in 1988. He did this guitar solo in ‘City Of Tiny Lites’ where everybody in the band dropped out except drummer Chad Wackerman. I was in the balcony near the side of the stage. When Zappa turned his back on the audience to play with Chad, I saw this huge smile on his face. But this was also the guy who did 87 orchestral pieces like The Yellow Shark. It’s hard to believe somebody could do so many different things.”

Listen to an audience recording of Frank Zappa’s March 12, 1988 concert in Burlington, Vermont below with “City Of Tiny Lites” starting at the 1:20:34 mark: