|
Post by Pantagruel on Dec 4, 2013 13:48:54 GMT
I still feel the emptiness he left behind when he died. What would he do now? What would have he said now about everything that's happening in the world? What new exciting music would we listen to today? Impossible to determine, unfortunately. He was one of a kind. He was my hero, always been. May he rest in peace. www.zappa.com/zapparadio/ ---> I'll be cranking up Zappa radio all day long. LOUD.
|
|
|
Post by steelmonkey on Dec 4, 2013 17:13:04 GMT
He would have had a lot to say about Arnold Schwartzenegger as governor of California...that's for sure.
|
|
tullist
Master Craftsman
Posts: 478
|
Post by tullist on Dec 4, 2013 20:39:44 GMT
Just an addition, and the last work of genius following the name Frank Zappa. This is not really music at all but a sound collage from the Senate hearings on obscenity that Zappa participated in in his final years. For those with a depth of Zappa knowledge extending beyond Apostrophe and Over Nite Sensation I think they will find it reminiscent of similar works on Lumpy Gravy years earlier. Except those kinda sucked. This doesn't. youtu.be/kGo9xXjHH-U
|
|
|
Post by Pantagruel on Dec 4, 2013 22:14:47 GMT
Just an addition, and the last work of genius following the name Frank Zappa. This is not really music at all but a sound collage from the Senate hearings on obscenity that Zappa participated in in his final years. For those with a depth of Zappa knowledge extending beyond Apostrophe and Over Nite Sensation I think they will find it reminiscent of similar works on Lumpy Gravy years earlier. Except those kinda sucked. This doesn't. youtu.be/kGo9xXjHH-ULast work of genius? You haven't heard "The Yellow Shark" and "Civilization Phaze III", then. "Lumpy Gravy" kinda sucks, huh? Funny, you mention that: it's going to be my thesis at university. It's actually a very complex and well made album!
|
|
tullist
Master Craftsman
Posts: 478
|
Post by tullist on Dec 4, 2013 23:54:42 GMT
Just an addition, and the last work of genius following the name Frank Zappa. This is not really music at all but a sound collage from the Senate hearings on obscenity that Zappa participated in in his final years. For those with a depth of Zappa knowledge extending beyond Apostrophe and Over Nite Sensation I think they will find it reminiscent of similar works on Lumpy Gravy years earlier. Except those kinda sucked. This doesn't. youtu.be/kGo9xXjHH-ULast work of genius? You haven't heard "The Yellow Shark" and "Civilization Phaze III", then. "Lumpy Gravy" kinda sucks, huh? Funny, you mention that: it's going to be my thesis at university. It's actually a very complex and well made album! Lumpy Gravy. We are talkin about the "pigs and ponies" scene right? Thanks its complexity and other redeemable qualities are well lost on me, though I parted ways with that record over 30 years ago. If you dig it I am profoundly happy. As long as I keep listening with my own brain and heart not likely my perception will change. Ditto for his Varese or Stravinsky inspired classical work. No I have not heard them, at least not to my recollection. Unlikely there would be much of interest to me, my classical tastes do not run to the likes of most relatively contemporary classical composers, as I find their efforts to be exclusionist, and forgetting the simple advice of the likes of Lester Young to who ever the new hot $h1t tenor player was on the tour bus...."Sing me a song boy." Additionally his attempts at jazz music were lacking, though certainly abstract for abstractions sake. And the likes of a title like a memorial barbecue for Eric Dolphy, lets just say I don't think it is something old Frank would have offered to the young man's face, but conveniently he had passed by 1964 making him fair game for the likes of Zappa I suppose. One thing he could have taught Zappa within his zest for abstraction, is how to make that sucker swing, something always well lost on old Frank, sorry, you are very definitely a white man Frank, not that some of us cannot swing. But was he a great, even formidable talent. Yeah.
|
|
|
Post by JTull 007 on Dec 5, 2013 3:04:52 GMT
Although I am not a total Zappa fan in all his music, seeing him live in '75 was incredible. Next to Carlos Santana, I have never witnessed such an amazing guitarist onstage. He was magic! Frank Zappa - Inca Roads (A Token Of His Extreme) Rock In PeaceThe line-up exists of Frank Zappa—guitar, percussion, vocals; George Duke—keyboards, finger cymbals, tambourine, vocals; Napoleon Murphy Brock—sax, vocals; Ruth Underwood—percussion; Tom Fowler—bass; Chester Thompson—drums.
|
|
|
Post by steelmonkey on Dec 5, 2013 4:36:06 GMT
I know, deep in my heart, that more Zappa, like vitamins and exercise, would definitely be good for me...had a few albums...saw him twice...and pretty much think that if i devoted time and effort to Zappa i would be rewarded even infinitely,,,but the fact is, i never delved that deep....know Overnite sensation, fillmore east, just another band from LA, by heart...know and like a couple dozen other songs,,,respect him as a top league lead guitar...he just never really hooked me and I'm willing to blame myself for not trying.....maybe down the road, in the rock and roll nursing home, if i can still hear, I'll review Mr Zappa at length...and fill in some of my Neil Young blanks...and countless, obscure Prince albums...and...and....and.....or maybe I'll just listen to A Passion Play and Homo Erraticus every day.
|
|
|
Post by steelmonkey on Dec 5, 2013 4:41:23 GMT
Hey Jim. that's when i saw him...twice in 1975/76...Cleveland and NYC when I was a college boy...I think 'Zomby Woof' was the 'new' album that tour....does that sound right? Or was it Apostrophe? Beefheart guested on the album, not tour.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 5, 2013 14:25:26 GMT
Hey Jim. that's when i saw him...twice in 1975/76...Cleveland and NYC when I was a college boy...I think 'Zomby Woof' was the 'new' album that tour....does that sound right? Or was it Apostrophe? Beefheart guested on the album, not tour. I worked for a while with a Zappa fanatic who collected everything by him. He did mention, and whether it is true he wasn't 100% sure, that up until his death, Zappa attempted to by all the master tapes to the various Zappa bootlegs that were in circulation. A mammoth task I would have thought but looking at the bootleg sites it seems he wasn't that successful.
|
|
|
Post by JTull 007 on Dec 5, 2013 15:33:06 GMT
Hey Jim. that's when i saw him...twice in 1975/76...Cleveland and NYC when I was a college boy... I think 'Zomby Woof' was the 'new' album that tour....does that sound right? Or was it Apostrophe? Beefheart guested on the album, not tour. In retrospect the show I saw was either late '75 or early '76 at Duke University. This was the "One Size Fits All" tour and had some very cool tunes on it. Zappa is like a parody of all music. Even his more serious tunes became something you can laugh with or at least smile to. The live shows were better than the studio tracks. I have felt that way about Tull all my life.
"She was a debutante daisy With a color-note organ, Deep in the street She drove a '59 Morgan"
This happens when the audience becomes a catalyst for the musicians to reach a subliminal euphoria of cosmic awareness.
|
|
tullist
Master Craftsman
Posts: 478
|
Post by tullist on Dec 5, 2013 16:35:12 GMT
Hey Jim. that's when i saw him...twice in 1975/76...Cleveland and NYC when I was a college boy...I think 'Zomby Woof' was the 'new' album that tour....does that sound right? Or was it Apostrophe? Beefheart guested on the album, not tour. I worked for a while with a Zappa fanatic who collected everything by him. He did mention, and whether it is true he wasn't 100% sure, that up until his death, Zappa attempted to by all the master tapes to the various Zappa bootlegs that were in circulation. A mammoth task I would have thought but looking at the bootleg sites it seems he wasn't that successful. I do recall it was a concern of his, my buddy had some box set from the 80's if I remember right, called "Beat the Boots". I am guessing his estate has not blocked the various websites that offer free boots, ala the Allman Brothers, Hot Tuna, King Crimson, all coming to mind as amongst those you will not see on those sorts of websites. Of those 3 frankly quite surprised it is a concern to the first 2, coming from the general milieu of the grand daddy of music sharing, the Grateful Dead. Usually someone fanatical enough to want a dodgy recording of the Mothers at Albert Hall in 68 already own the entire catalogue, and I believe most performers, like Ian Anderson for instance, understand that.
|
|
tullist
Master Craftsman
Posts: 478
|
Post by tullist on Dec 5, 2013 16:46:36 GMT
As with Ian Anderson, when Zappa frequently visited the areas of potty or sexual humor he would leave me well un amused. Not offended, but coupled with the often condescending way it was delivered, I would have had no difficulty having told his face, buddy, you ain't all that funny, and maybe not quite so smart as you think. I always found him to have a general take on life that one was stupid unless otherwise proved to his liking, well less than an endearing trait. Still bristle at how he did the original Mothers, decidedly not righteous treatment of, to my mind, certainly the most interesting of his forays, and including his best humor. Parody was mentioned earlier by Jim, not at all sure of the overall truth of that as regards the entire catalogue, but if a greater parody, in this case of the hippie scene in general, has ever been done in any strain of music that tops "We're Only In It For The Money, I have not seen it. Having said that I do think Frank probably needed reminders that were it not for those hippies your career would have been one obscure ass motherf**ker. I ain't asking,I remember. And it was only the freak wing of the hippies that liked him. Understand I am talking 1968 here, not 1974, much different animal, basically mainstream radio ready Zappa. But brilliance was usually touched upon in most of his outings I am aware of. And I have a deep appreciation for the logic offered in this song...http://youtu.be/li7FZ6E8HOo
|
|
|
Post by steelmonkey on Dec 5, 2013 17:05:44 GMT
I think you may have hit the nail on the head, Ray....Zappa was one in a thousand who thought he was one in a million...what do you do with people like that ?
|
|