Kinda Young, Kinda Dead…

In doing my thesis research (which will include a chapter on You Are What You Is), I stumbled across the discussion of “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth” over at the ARF.ru website, which had this comment:

Fuck ME. I remember the Charlie fragrance commercials, but I don’t remember kinda young kinda wow. I was real young so I dont doubt it.
I always suspected that Charlie’s Enormous Mouth was a riff on the “Charlie” fragrance because “Charlie” referred to a woman name in both cases. (For the non-English speaking, Charlie is usually a nickname for Charles, a mans name, and rarely used for Charlene or any other female variant).

In this day and age of vintage commercials being posted on YouTube for nostalgic purposes, I was able to find a 1973 ad for the Charlie fragrance…

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I find FZ’s work to be endlessly rewarding to the astute listener.

Band From Utopia @ Cologne’s Tanzbrunnen, 1994

While initially invited to perform at the Jazz Open Stuttgart in Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany on July 1st, 1994, Band From Utopia also had one other gig two days after Stuttgart at Cologne’s Tanzbrunnen on July 3rd, 1994. Watch these recently posted videos of Band From Utopia’s Cologne (courtesy of TheCaveStudioFilms) performances of “Tink / 13” (above) and “Village of the Sun / Echidna’s Arf (of You) / Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” (below):
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Interview With Michael Bruce – The Original Alice Cooper Group

Recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other original members of the Alice Cooper GroupMichael Bruce was the band’s guitarist, keyboard player and backing vocalist. In an exclusive interview by Nightwatcher for Nightwatcher’s House of Rock, Michael Bruce talks about his experiences as a member of the Alice Cooper Group (for the Zappa/Mother of Invention fan, though, one will find a lot of interesting historically relevant information – both in the interview, and on Michael Bruce’s website):
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From Hungary With Love

I discovered Frank Zappa’s music in the early years of the ’70s, back in my home country, Budapest, Hungary. I was about 20 years old, and just went through eight years of music training, and four years of art school, and all I cared about was art and music (big coincidence, huh?). Of course, I had some interest in girls too, but since I had no formal training regarding that matter, I thought I shouldn’t mention it.

Nice, long article by Gábor Csupó, creator of (among others) the Lost Episodes CD-cover – about youth, about music, about FZ.

The Scott Thunes Effect Reloaded

Ever since The Scott Thunes Effect (later known as Bass Notation), went offline, I’ve received numerous requests of people asking if I or anyone else could provide them with Thunes’ bass transcriptions for many of the ’88 band’s tunes, as they were originally listed there.

Today I’m happy to report that we’ve managed to salvage 44 pages of transcripts (with a couple more to follow). A huge thank you goes out to Stewart Cable, who had downloaded the transcripts back when they were still available. He was more than happy to email them to me, so that I could share them with you – so cheers Stewart!

Without further ado, here’s where you can now once again view and/or download these files:

Note: by putting this material online, I am not claiming any authorship and/or copyright. If not for Steve D who did the original transcripts, these files would not even exist.

And finally, as Steve noted in this AFFZ thread with regard to Scott Thunes:

… He’s a big scary man who shouts at people who displease him, so I don’t want him thinking i’m a stalker or anything…

Mr Thunes, if you’re reading this: I second that emotion…

Kentucky Fried Dupree

Brandon Coleman writes:

I just graduated with my bachelors in Jazz Guitar from Morehead State University in Kentucky. Wonderful music program there, with lots of great musicians to play with. For the guitar ensemble, I arranged one of my all-time favorite Zappa tunes, “Dupree’s Paradise”. We even opened up the middle section with some free improvisation. This video is from our Fall 2008 concert, a lot of the guys you see have graduated and went on to make great music.

Frank Zappa – Penguins In Bondage, 73-74

Ah, the memories, Barry. Especially from the 8th November 1974 WXRT radio broadcast of “Penguin In Bondage” from Frank Zappa’s performance at the Roxy on December 1973 (above) with various visual memories added later. Then a soundboard recording of “Penguin In Bondage” from St.Paul, Civic Center Arena on November 27th, 1974. Followed by a November 15th, 1974 performance of “Penguin In Bondage” at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York. And lastly, “Stockholm In Bondage” in Stockholm, Sweden on August 21st, 1973 for the Swedish program ‘Opopoppa Special’ (below).
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