Zappa: Is it just me or...

[tommyj66]

Yeah Ok,,, LOL!!!

[teleman1]

71818

The Zappa band as I remember was George Duke, Napoleaon Murphy Brock & I think Ruth Underwood.

By the way, Before Zappa came on there was Captain Beefheart. All I can remember is he walked up to the mike and blew squelling random notes on a saprano sax;I wanted to cry!

[studio1087]

I started listening to Frank in about 1980 because I thought the production quality was amazing. I commented about the production quality on Yes albums and a musician freind turned me onto Zappa.

After being amazed at the studio quality, I started listening to the guitars and zylaphone parts and was just lost listening. Amazing writing and amazing musical performane skill.

I've only heard one band cover a Zappa tune. I heard a fusion group pull off "The Art of Sinister Footwear". The bandmembers looked like they were pannicing but they did it.

I'm a big fan.

Aside from being a fantastic writer, performer, freedom of expresion activist and political activist, Frank was funny as hell.

[wellstrung]

LOL!!!

The fact is, anything and everything I listen to or read is carefully calculated to raise my coolness factor. Of course, I will never divulge my secret combination. I am proud of this and quite successful. The fact that I am alone and avoided only proves how uncool everyone else is.

On a less serious note, I grew up listening to Zappa thru the influence of older siblings. Freak Out, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Hot Rats, and Fillmore East. These are records no young person should listen to repeatedly...

I've always been a huge admirer of Zappa's musicianship, but by the late 70s I remember feeling that he was just too damn clever and cynical; His music was always interesting, but his themes bored me. At some point in the 80s I heardVariations On The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression from Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar and thought, okay, your pointing out Santana's cliched mediocrity, but why? Frankly, his social/cultural commentary distracted me from his music.

I think it's time I gave Frank another new listen. If anyone's still following this post, any recommendations on Frank the musician with less of Frank the cultural provocateur? Really I'm only familiar with the ones I listed already, along with Overnight Sensation.

[stratcat55]

My older brother got me hooked on Zappa in the late 60's. To understand Frank Zappa, you have to see past Titties and Beer, and Joe's Garage. Listen to Yellow Shark. You'll find some amazing musical compositions there. He was also an amazing guitarist in his own right and all his live shows that I've seen were top notch and the sound quality was amazing. I even saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra open for Zappa at the Spectrum in Phila in 73. If you look around you can find a video of a very young Zappa playing a bicycle on the Steve Allen show. Sometimes we still play Willie the Pimp and Road Ladies.

[wellstrung]

Listen to Yellow Shark.

I will. Frank's gotta lotta albums.

http://www.zappa.com/fz/content/disc...um-display.php

http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/albums/

Thanks for the suggestion.

...Zappa playing a bicycle on the Steve Allen show.

Playing a bicycle?

[Kap'n]

Playing a bicycle?

Yep. A bit of this was featured on the BIOGRAPHY television show. Tuned spokes, etc. Steve seemed a little befuddled.

[Fripperton]

Playing a bicycle?


Just search and YOU can find it on the TUBE somewhere.

[wellstrung]

Playing a bicycle?


Just search and YOU can find it on the TUBE somewhere.

Yes, I've watched it. Pretty funny. Frank's clearly already developing his experimental, deadpan-serious, no-irony-here, iconoclastic persona.

Not to be academic or try to define him or anything.

[telecast]

No, it ain't just you. I don't like him, never did. Probably never will.

[Guitar_Mc]

Quote by Moonpie
Now, if I'd spent money buying his music and investing the time to listen to it and I still didn't get it.....I'd be asking myself what could be more uncool than buying something because eveyrone else thought it was cool....and you don't get it? You could have bought an album that you liked. You feel like a dumbass. This festers for years...then one day....you think.....Is it just me??????

You feel like a dumbass. This festers for years...then one day...you...you lose it and rip a tree stump from the ground without the assistance of any power tools.

[NeoFauve]

Yep. A bit of this was featured on the BIOGRAPHY television show. Tuned spokes, etc. Steve seemed a little befuddled.

Anything you can hit and get a "boing" out of, with a little sustain, can be a musical instrument.
Guitars are just pre-fab boingers, with a standardized system of boing intervals.

[Kap'n]

Anything you can hit and get a "boing" out of, with a little sustain, can be a musical instrument.
Guitars are just pre-fab boingers, with a standardized system of boing intervals.

.

[NeoFauve]

http://www.balch-porterfield.org/ima...ll_the_cat.gif

[wellstrung]

Anything you can hit and get a "boing" out of, with a little sustain, can be a musical instrument.
Guitars are just pre-fab boingers, with a standardized system of boing intervals.

http://boingboing.net/

[NeoFauve]

http://boingboing.net/

http://www.keeslau.com/TomWaitsSuppl.../conundrum.htm

[Kap'n]

I can't hear the sound clips at work, but there's this guy...

Joe Jones

He did backing tracks on a tune or two on Yoko Ono's Fly album, Airmale, I think.

[wellstrung]

http://www.keeslau.com/TomWaitsSuppl.../conundrum.htm

I need a Conundrum for my soon-to-be new studio! Love Tom Waits, especially Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs.

I can't hear the sound clips at work, but there's this guy...

Joe Jones

He did backing tracks on a tune or two on Yoko Ono's Fly album, Airmale, I think.

Lots o' sonic ideas for recording. Hmm...

[moonpie]

You feel like a dumbass. This festers for years...then one day...you...you lose it and rip a tree stump from the ground without the assistance of any power tools.

Well, I cheated a bit with a chain saw and a sawsall

[Offshore Angler]

IMHO, Frank Zappa displayed levels of genious with the electric guitar that have never been paralleled. To come onstage with Baby Snakes and a Pignose and destroy convention in an age of full stacks is just one example. To hear FZ correctly is to hear the ultimate expression of a musician's pursuit of perfection.

What stands out when you listen to him is that in an age of corporate rock and formulized music, he was successful doing what he wanted to do, and playing the music he heard in his head.

He should also be regarded as the patron saint of all guitar modders. Nothing, and I mean nothing that FZ used was stock. Filters, feedback circuits, and anything else he could dream up where incorporated in his gear.

Just having a kid named Steve Via as your backup guitarist in your band should say something.

YMMV

Chuck

[stratcat55]

IMHO, Frank Zappa displayed levels of genious with the electric guitar that have never been paralleled. To come onstage with Baby Snakes and a Pignose and destroy convention in an age of full stacks is just one example. To hear FZ correctly is to hear the ultimate expression of a musician's pursuit of perfection.

What stands out when you listen to him is that in an age of corporate rock and formulized music, he was successful doing what he wanted to do, and playing the music he heard in his head.

He should also be regarded as the patron saint of all guitar modders. Nothing, and I mean nothing that FZ used was stock. Filters, feedback circuits, and anything else he could dream up where incorporated in his gear.

Just having a kid named Steve Via as your backup guitarist in your band should say something.

YMMV

Chuck

Yep. Zappa also had Barcus Berry pickups installed in some of his guitar necks to make them "speak" faster.

[cre2403]

Not to mention a little known bass guitarist by the name of Jack Bruce guesting on his records.................

People that don't get Frank probably like Madonna..........

[Kap'n]

Not to mention a little known bass guitarist by the name of Jack Bruce guesting on his records.................

I think that was only one track, Apostrope'.

Me, I love Jean-Luc doing his solo on 50/50, and Frank picking right up on it. If you're not actively listening, it's like "when did they switch?"

George Duke's solo ain't too shabby either.

[Fripperton]

Want to hear a rare recording of Frank?

[Fripperton]

Here's another one.

[wellstrung]

http://boingboing.net/

Oddly, coincidently, when I posted the above link, the first article in boingboing was about odd musical instruments. I thought the link would then always take you there. Turns out it will take you to any other topic. Ooooohh.

So here's a link more relevant to the Zappa topic of playing the bicycle:

Oddmusic

[redcoats1976]

doesnt frank have a celestial body of some kind named after him,like a comet or something?not too many of us ever will...

[Kap'n]

doesnt frank have a celestial body of some kind named after him,like a comet or something?not too many of us ever will...

Here 'tis

[NeoFauve]

doesnt frank have a celestial body of some kind named after him,like a comet or something?not too many of us ever will...

You mean... ?

http://www.ranchocanyonmusic.com/squ.../moonunit.jpeg

[Papaya King]

I hold FZ in the highest possible esteem, but I understand how someone could have trouble with much of the man's work. His music is not an easy listen; it's at times quite demanding of the listener. Some folks do not like demanding music. To tell the truth, while FZ is one of my favorite artists I find I enjoy him best in small doses once in a while. Regular listening (for me) takes the edge off the "awe" his music (at it's best) inspires.

[YaReMi]

Very well put, PK

[68tele243]

I haven't really listened to any Zappa since the early 80's and I can truthfully say that I don't miss it one bit. I was never what one would call a big fan of his music although Zappa is clearly a very talented musician I just found that there were way too many moments of sheer non-sense on the albums, which took away from the experience rather than added to it. Although their styles differ greatly I liken listening to a Zappa album in the same category as listening to a Satriani album.............fine in small doses but fatal if consumed in larger amounts................

[jerryjg]

I QUOTE "What stands out when you listen to him is that in an age of corporate rock and formulized music, he was successful doing what he wanted to do, and playing the music he heard in his head." ------ I see what you are saying, yet i believe that Zappas' music is formulaic also in this respect; when I hear Zappa, much as I may love his skill and artistry,and I do, I hear in Frank Zappa someone who is first and foremost, strictly commercial, that is, strictly from commercial.He (Zappa)just approaches it from a different and more complex angle.So even though Frank Zappa was not "corporate" as you rightly state, he was corporation in of of himself,being that he was a giant in the industry who accepted endorsements, toured,and also produced and recorded so many other acts and styles of music(I think he discovered the ALICE cOOPER BAND' , for example). In being a commercial production, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention are ,by definition, just as systematic in their own style ,albeit a genre they invented themselves( how fitting -the name of their band) as any other commercial music, no matter how iconoclastic. I think this is partly what the other people that are put off by his music may be in disagreement with,especially in terms of having to be cool enough to like his music and thus be accepted by Zappa fans who may percieve themselves as unconventional "trend buckers" yet who are in actuality conventional consumers of the corporate " anti-corporate" music industry,if you will. This is my Masters Thesis for Zappa Graduate Studies 401. Before you flame me, remember, this is in the form of an academic treatise. It doesnt have to make any sence, it only has to follow the outline of an essay.

[Kap'n]

I think he discovered the ALICE cOOPER BAND

Yep. Their first two albums, Pretties for You and Easy Action were on Frank's Straight label. He also 'discovered' the GTO's and Wild Man Fisher.

I like Pretties for You a lot, less so Easy Action. Neither is for the typical AC fan. PfY is pretty psychedelic.

[cre2403]

I just watched the dvd - Baby Snakes - last night. Having seen Frank live twice, I think this video really gives you an idea what stellar musicianship Frank brought to the stage. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to see some spectacular playing - even if you don't "get" Zappa. True, there's a bunch of silliness and some interesting clay animation mixed in - but if you want to skip to the end and just watch the Halloween concert in NYC - I think you will be awed by Frank's guitar playing and the incredible tightness of the band. Its the best I've ever seen him do. Terry Bozzio on drums is an astounding player. He would have rolled over John Bonham like a steamroller and left him twitching on the ground. Adrian Belew is no slouch as the "second" guitarist either.......all in all a very enjoyable concert experience on the home theatre (turn it up!). You can rent this easily from Netflix - but I'm ordering my own copy immediately.

[Kap'n]

Yeah, Baby Snakes is a great DVD. I should buy a copy.

[Skip]

Peaches en Regalia and Willie the Pimp

Man must be you.... I remember listening to Hot Rats about a zillion times... and then there was Captain Beefheart...

[Rickenjangle]

He sure did. But they also had to play something. Frank composed challenging music for them to play.

Besides, would you rather hear Chester Thompson play something off of Overnite Sensation, or something off of Abacab?

Abacab. Any day of the week. Even though it's a lesser Genesis album, I'd take it over anything I've ever heard from Frank.

Sorry, but that's just my opinion...I just don't "get" Frank, I guess.

[Kap'n]

Abacab. Any day of the week.

Even that that thump thump Chester plays behind that crap bleep bleep solo Tony Banks plays with one hemisphere tied behind his back?

OK, it sold more records, but Zomby Woof? C'mon, work with me here.

[Rickenjangle]

Even that that thump thump Chester plays behind that crap bleep bleep solo Tony Banks plays with one hemisphere tied behind his back?

OK, it sold more records, but Zomby Woof? C'mon, work with me here.

OK, I'll have to admit, I haven't delved deep into Zappa's catalogue. But I'm a pretty big Genesis fan, and 3 Sides Live and Abacab were the first Genesis albums I had, so they've got a special place in my heart...