Frank Zappa!

[Ivy]

I've always had this idea that Frank Zappa was an artist one can't just dabble in. And since I wasn't heretofore ready to obsess over him yet, I never listened much. Recently I've recognized this deficiency in my musical education and decided to rectify it. So I bought Strictly Commercial which came in the mail today, and I'm listening now.

Now, I usually don't cotton to "Best Of" compilations unless I already have everything the artist has made and there are songs on the Best Of that I can't get anywhere else. But FZ's catalog was so overwhelming that I needed somewhere to start, and I decided to make an exception and buy Strictly Commercial.

[youtube="BnZrbFL9ImM"]Peaches en Regalia[/youtube]

Peaches En Regalia--This is my favorite so far. It's just so off the wall and bizarre while still remaining tight and clean. The arrangement is really mouth-watering, too. I read somewhere that he thought of himself as a composer, but noticed at an early age that all of the most successful composers were dead, so he channeled his talent into rock of a sort, instead of orchestral music.

[youtube="q2wgxwdPYFE"]Don't Eat the Yellow Snow[/youtube]

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow--My kids love this song. They especially love the part about the dog-doo snowcones.

[youtube="7gT0VeRAGbE"]Willie the Pimp[/youtube]

Willie the Pimp--This isn't on Strictly Commercial, but it's the reason I decided to get into FZ now. The last time I saw my brother (a long-time Zappa fan), he played this for me and we just jammed out Asheville-style to the guitar solo. Now, I must protest that I am not normally a fan of guitar solos or shredding. I think it's mostly silly. But a handful of people are allowed to solo all they like--Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and maybe a few more I can't think of right now. I had to add FZ to that list as well.

Any Zappa fans here who can give me some pointers on what to check out next, any info about him, etc? For some reason, I am constantly reminded of Martoon when I listen, so I would love to know if you're a fan. Others too, of course.

 

[MacGuffin]

Ask C.J. Woolf!

I'm Zappa-deficient myself.

 

[SillySapienne]

I fell in love with Zappa after watching this!!!



YouTube - Frank Zappa on Crossfire

 

[SillySapienne]

Dude, I am watching this again, and

 

[Ivy]

He's pretty hot, no?

 

[SillySapienne]

He's pretty hot, no?

Oh, yes he is!!!

 

[Ivy]

Okay! We've established FZ was hot and smert.

Any suggestions music-wise?

 

[Ivy]

More good stuff...

[youtube="huazqHdbgts"]My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama[/youtube]

I'm pretty sure the drums from this song have been sampled a thousand times before. I don't know if it's true or not but FZ characterized it as a parody of the usual "teen songs" they were up against and not getting any radio play because of. He had this to say about it:

Now we got desperate a few months ago and uh, because we thought nobody liked us. And uh, we're also pissed off at the fact that people won't play our records on the radio, and we didn't know whether or not it was 'cause our music was crappy or because somebody really knew what the words to the songs meant. So they couldn't . . . So they wouldn't take a chance. So we came to the conclusion that actually all it was was a conspiracy against the Mothers Of Invention because we're supposedly so dirty, vile and crazy and also a threat to our great nation and all that it has stood for in the past and we hope it will not continue to stand for in the future . . . However boys and girls . . . The people who run the radio stations are on the watch, you know, for our records, when they come in as soon as somebody sends a single to the radio station with our name on it they either melt it, break it, stomp on it or send it in an envelope directly back to the record company from which it came with a threatening note. But we said, "What the heck? Why can't we be just like other teen-age rock & roll bands--outside of the fact that we're all over thirty--and go and cut a single record and try and get the sucker on the radio?" So what we did was we went into a professional recording studio in New York City in the middle of the night for two nights in a row and also a Saturday afternoon for mixing and cranked out two miserable teen-age type records with words that couldn't possibly offend anybody and uh they're reasonably singable--by any group other than the Mothers Of Invention-- and uh, they're teen-age boy-girl type songs. And so they're being released this week. I would expect to be able to add these to our list of smash flops very shortly.

Moving on!

[youtube="7Y1X3KOVRgE"]Fine Girl[/youtube]

So many of the innovators of the 60s and 70s got to the 80s and... well, just totally sucked. Now, for some reason FZ was super-into the "synclavier" which I can't help but find a bit cheesy, but for the most part he managed to keep it real in the 80s. I like the sly feminist undertones of this song. (FZ didn't really identify as any -ist as far as I can tell, and was an equal-opportunity offender which is my favorite kind, but he was clearly about living and letting live.) What makes a "fine girl"? Mostly being good at chores and "going down," evidently.

Okay, next! (And last, for today)

[youtube="_xl77Wdla6o"]I Come From Nowhere[/youtube]

This isn't on the compilation I bought. It sounds like a parody of 80s prog rock to me. And the video, while not a FZ creation, is sublime (I especially liked the use of Don Vito as drummer). Listening to this stuff, I'm getting a vague idea of just how influential it has been on everything quirky to come after, from Weird Al to Ween to (and I have to swallow my pride here) Phish.

 

[Mort Belfry]

Let's turn the water black the instrumental version is one of my favs.

Also the Muffin Man, Planet of the Baritone Women and the Slime are good.

 

[Ivy]

I like Muffin Man. Very bizarre.

[youtube="KsOAYhCgXyE"]Muffin Man[/youtube]

And another fun one:

[youtube="hq2VtvKQoeE"]He's So Gay[/youtube]

 

[Ivy]

The Slime is on my compilation, but it hasn't captured me yet. I'll check out that Baritone Women one, thanks MB!

 

[Ivy]

For the records, folks: I never took a shit on stage, and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.

I just felt the need to share that with someone and you're it. (Yes, you. None of those other MBTIc people. Just you.)

 

[Martoon]

For some reason, I am constantly reminded of Martoon when I listen, so I would love to know if you're a fan.

Cognitively, I'm a big Zappa fan. Experientially, only moderately so. I love what he did and what he stood for. Constantly experimental. Wasn't afraid to go "out there"; in fact, his greatest fear was getting stuck "in here", I believe. One of the first to do electronic sequencing (or music that wasn't humanly playable, as he called it). Now, of course, everything is sequenced, and it's overdone.

YouTube - Frank Zappa on Crossfire

Okay, I have to comment on this. In the opening of that segment, they're talking about videos that don't look too bad, but if you listen to the lyrics, they're horrifically offensive, the kind of stuff you wouldn't want in your home. So what do they use an example of these appalling lyrics in that opening segment? Duran Duran's The Chauffeur??? Seriously? Here's the shocking lyrics they're talking about:

Out on the tar plains, the glides are moving
All looking for a new place to drive
You sit beside me so newly charming
Sweating dewdrops glisten freshing your side

And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind
The front of your dress - all shadowy lined
And the droning engine throbs in time
With your beating heart

Way down the lane away, living for another day
The aphids swarm up in the drifting haze
Swim seagull in the sky towards that hollow western isle
My envied lady holds you fast in her gaze

(chorus) (chorus)

Sing blue silver

And watching lovers part, I feel you smiling
What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind
To tear out from your eyes, with a thought to stiffen brooding lies
And I'll only watch you leave me further behind

(chorus) (chorus)

Sing blue silver
Sing, sing.. blue silver

(theres more to this kind of camouflage)
(more than just colour and shape)
(who's going now, in to a classiomatic? )

Okay, there's some sensuality suggested there. But it's poetry, and it's far from crude or obscene in any sense. I've always thought the video was rather cheap and cheesy, but I've always liked the song. And it's the lyrics they're complaining about?

Yeah, if I heard my kid saying something as filthy as "And the sun drips down bedding heavy behind; The front of your dress - all shadowy lined", I'd be washing his mouth out with soap. Heck, I'd go straight for the Liquid Plumber.

 

[rhinosaur]

So I contacted my ex-roommate and asked him for some Zappa recommendations. Here's what he said.

wow thats a tough one. Freak Out, Lumpy Gravy, Bongo Fury, Jazz From Hell, Joes Garage all three acts, as for songs Tiger purple lagon, King Kong, yellow snow, lucille, G spot, wille the pimp, comik debris, carolina, He used to but the

(Cross-posted at INTPc)

 

[pure_mercury]

Going back to the first album:

Frank Zappa Trouble Every Day - Song - MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music

 

[pure_mercury]

So I contacted my ex-roommate and asked him for some Zappa recommendations. Here's what he said.



(Cross-posted at INTPc)

I would have to put in We're Only in It for the Money, Uncle Meat, and Hot Rats.

 

[Ivy]

Going back to the first album:

Frank Zappa Trouble Every Day - Song - MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music

That's on the compilation too. Very cool.

 

[kuranes]

Frank Zappa

He's an interesting guy. Some of my favorite Mothers' songs.

YouTube - Igor's boogie phase one & two - Zappa
YouTube - Frank Zappa - Little House I Used to Live In
YouTube - Overture To A Holiday In Berlin - Zappa
YouTube - Frank Zappa, holiday in berlin full length

He had something of an extreme "INTP" philosophy about interactions with people - Zappa quote-
"Try to imagine what the opposite of loneliness is. Think of it. That everyone in the world loves you ? What is that ? Realize you are in isolation. Live it ! Enjoy it ! Just be glad that there aren't a bunch of people who want to use up your time. Because along with all the love and admiration that's going to come from the people that would keep you from feeling lonely, there is the emotional freight you have to bear. People who are wasting your time; and you can't get that back. So when you're lonely and all by yourself, guess what you have ? You have all your own time. That's a pretty good fucking deal. Something you couldn't buy any place else...And every time you're out being sociable and having other people be ' nice ' to you, so that you don't feel ' lonely ', they are wasting your time. What do you get for it? Because after they're done being nice to you, they want something from you. And they've already taken your time! Loneliness is... not a bad deal. It's a good deal."

Zappa wasn't just posturing with this philosophy. He actually lived it. Reportedly his wife and he admitted that they got along best by trying to speak to one another as little as possible. ( Maybe like those monks with their vows of silence, doing all their interactions by showing versus telling ? By example versus verbally ? )

His kids knew that dad was not to be disturbed while composing and that he spent most of his awake time at home while composing, according to a book I just read about FZ, by Barry Miles. ( Dweezil or Moon feel free to jump in here to MBTIC threads and contradict this ! ) The rest of the time he was out touring or otherwise unavailable.

Somewhere in between 1980 and 1981 his daughter Moon slipped a note under his door addressing him as "Daddy" ( not as "Frank", as he preferred ) and "introduced herself." "I'm 13 years old. My name is Moon. Up until now I have been trying to stay out of your way as you record. However, I have come to the conclusion that I would love to sing on your album." She left the house telephone number and the name of her Mom ( Gail ) as her "agent" for him to contact, suggesting that she might do her Encino accent, or "Surfer Dude" talk for him. This eventually became the core of the "Valley Girl" song that was one of his few mainstream successes.

FZ didn't believe songs had any intrinsic quality for influencing emotions either. FZ agreed with Stravinsky ( who has a famous quote on the subject ) on this point, as well as admiring his music and that of Edgar Varese. "If an instrument sounds sad, change its rhythmic accompaniment and see if it still does."

Any of you guys like Frank ?

He was a refreshing change from the "theocracy" he predicted would eventually creep into government power ( versus secular considerations ) in America, if we weren't vigilant, but still an abrasive guy, in his own way.

Frank and Doo-Wop
http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/arts-entertainment/8405-doo-wop.html

 

[Jack Flak]

I've always admired his character more than his melodies. Dissonance generally displeases me.

 

[kuranes]

I've always admired his character more than his melodies. Dissonance generally displeases me.

I thought of you as I posted this.

A lot of his stuff isn't really dissonant ( or atonal ), despite his admiration for Schoenberg. I would agree that it's not "radio friendly" though.