Ok, Mario and I just couldn't resist this, taking full advantage of the Xtra Styles. Mario D, Right Channel Guitar Duel. Listen for shout outs to BIAB Forum at End. Sorry Frank Zappa, but you started it man.

Style is _TARPIT.STY

Genre is: CRAZY, ah, or Rock???? You decide.

https://soundcloud.com/david-snyder-gigs2/this-means-war-mario

This Means War, Mario
By David Snyder

with Mario D, Guitar (right channel)

Apologies to Frank Zappa

V1

There’s a guy with an axe named Mario
Played the blues both fast and slow
He posted his Songs in Band in a Box
Made a Fool of Me by the way he rocks

One minute he’s playing the Grateful Dead
Then the whipping post in the old woodshed
Next thing I know comes Stevie Ray
Make a fool of me by the way he play

Ch:

This is means war, Mario
I’m calling out to the devil below
Calling my friend Adrien Belew
This means war and I’m coming for you
Coming for you
Coming for you
Coming for you

Take This Mario
Wait! Mario D, has just entered the studio
Ok, then! It’s your turn Mario

[Guitar Instrumental duel to the death]

Bridge:

Wait a minute, I have a thought
Why should we be fighting
Why can't we just play beautiful music
Together, in harmony
and complement one another
Mario I think I see the light
Go for it Mario
I’ll follow your lead!
That’s what I’m talking about!
That’s what I’m talking about!

Outro:

Thank you ladies and gentlemen!!
This has been the ghost of Frank Zappa

Adrian Belew
Tommy Mars
Peter Wolf
Patrick O'Hearn
Terry Bozzio
Ed Mann
Special Thanks to:
PG Alyssa
PG Kent
PG Kallum
PG Callie
Dr. Peter Gannon
Floyd Jane
Janice And Bud
Herb Hartley
Charlie Fogle
Robert Dean
John Ford
RNam
Josie
Janice and Bud
Paddy and Matcham
Noel and Sergio
Tommy and Tommy
Peter and Kenny
Robert and Fred
Pradon and Dani
Trygve Larsen
Space Dog, GruveRider
90 DB, Aleck Rand, Pat Marr
Jannesan, Joanna, Greg Johnson
And all the Other Wonderful People on the Band in a Box Forum

This is the ghost of Frank Zappa, thank you
Good night!

All music and lyrics copyright 2016 by David Snyder
Solo Guitar duel to the death
by David Snyder (left channel) and Mario D (right channel)
****** Song Summary *************
Title: This Means War Mario
File:This Means War Mario_Zappa3.SGU
Key=A , Tempo 60, Length (m:s)=6:28

Style is _TARPIT.STY

David Snyder, Guitar Left Mario D. Guitar Right

RealTracks in style: 995:Bass, Electric, HardRockLA Ev 120
RealTracks in style: ~~688:Organ, B3, Background Pop Ev 065
RealTracks in style: 996:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm HardRockLACrispA-B Ev 120
RealTracks in style: 999:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm HardRockLAFuzzyA-B Ev 120
RealTracks in style: 2604:Guitar, Electric, Soloist JazzRock8thsJon Ev 120
RealDrums in style: RockHardLA^1-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Loose HiHat
_________________________

Wild guitar on this David! Really dug both guitar sounds but especially Mario's.

Loved your vocals - kind of reminded me of a David Byrne / Frank Zappa mashup.

Great stuff!

Rec

Thanks Rec. Appreciate that!

I am glad you liked Mario's the best. That was part of the intended silliness. His were supposed to be the "good solos" and mine were supposed to be the "What.....?" solos.

When Zappa played live, sometimes he would do absolutely masterful guitar solos, then he would seem to spoof himself, doing solos that were a tongue and cheek joke about the whole business of guitar soloing itself. You just never knew what was coming next. We were trying to mimic some of that.

Glad you liked it!!

I hope this is taken constructively, as I really think the inventive idea here is very cool.
First the good:
Zappa reference and style was well done
Lyrics are good (for the most part, see belew reference below)
BB/RB work was very good. Nice job

Now my critiques:
mainly a couple things ..
First; Mario is very defined in the sound stage. (this is good as it is a battle!)

He is on the right side at about 2 o'clock, but David is spread way too wide in the stereo mix. He takes over the right side too often; this should be a right/left battle (due to lyrics) and it is an unfair playing field for the listener.
Maybe instead of using a stereo track for David's guitar, they should be split to two MONO tracks and panned at -50 and +1 to preserve the stereo effect yet keep it in a defined range to keep the battle on a level playing field. This is something that stuck out to me as a listener. I was rooting for Mario (again; due to lyrics) but then he seemed to get pushed off the stage! Even when a truce had been declared in the lyrics.

Second, there are a couple references to Adrian Belew in the post/lyrics but I hear nothing referencing his style. Did I miss this? If not, it can be easily added. Just something I noticed, being a Belew fan for many years and knowing his 'stuff' ... I expected some harmonic/slide/dissonant things I didn't hear happen. (twang bar king, elephant talk, etc)

Like I said, I enjoyed it (enough so that I'd probably enjoy remixing it for fun if the SEQ file were available) but noticed a couple things that stood out here.

/Much of this is personal opinion, so "just sayin'" .. again, please don't take offense as overall I enjoyed it, but felt compelled to comment (which is fairly rare)
//never noticed David Byrne/FZ similarity before receder's post so I learned something very cool by listening! I am a fan of both yet never caught this before.

Pretty Wicked!

Thanks for the explanation David. Yes I figured the LH guitar was deliberately bad, but seriously it takes skill to play like that Zappa was a genius and I think you definitely captured some of the Zappa atmos.

Very, very cool and eclectic, David! And I'm pretty sure this is first time my name has ever been recorded for posterity in a song. And you can tell a lot of work went into this. Good job!

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback. I can address all this in a later mix down the road, this was just kinda thrown together for fun and I didn't spend an incredibly long time on the mix.

To address your suggestions:

1.) Adrian Belew. Check. I could add some effects to make it more "Adrian" there.

2.) Balance. The left side (David) is mono and panned strictly left and never goes to the right and there aren't any stereo effects. However there are a lot of stereo effects on the Mario part (right) which does create kind of a sonic sweep across both channels, I will grant you that--but you can tell he is predominately left. But that is the right bleeding over into the left, not the other way around.

3. We can easily look at these good suggestions if we decide to do a remix. This was just for giggles really.

But the panning suggestions would require some major work on the actual effects being used on the guitar--it is not just an issue of the pan knob, it is also an issue of the specific effects being used to achieve a certain tonal blast to mimic an "explosion" of sound that was fully intended to bleed over into the other person's "territory"--by design. I.e., "this is war." It would take some time to make the pans more strictly right and left and still keep the tones, if that makes any sense.

Thanks a lot for listening.

Thanks Kenny!

Thanks John!!