Frank Zappa, George Duke and Don Van Vliet respond to questions from an audience of post secondary students at Gifford Auditorium, Syracuse University, NY, on April 23rd, 1975.
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Recorded at the Palladium in New York City on October 29th, 1977, Frank Zappa tells the story behind “Bobby Brown (Goes Down)“, one of his most famous songs which topped the charts in some European countries around 1979/80.
Thanks to ‘YourArf‘ for posting this gem.
The Whip It Out Ensemble is a Frank Zappa tribute band located in Alberta, Canada. In the clip (above) they perform a medley of songs from The Mothers of Invention album ‘We’re Only In It For The Money‘ including “Lonely Little Girl“, “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance“, and “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?”
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Consider the following case, of Stephanie Lenz, who made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy” and then posted the 29-second video on YouTube:
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Kuiper en Berbée perform Charles Bukowski‘s poem “The Machinery of Loss” at the Leiden Poetry Festival on June 7th, 2009, accompanied by a medley of music by Frank Zappa, performed by Renk Jan Vissers (violin) and Ton Schijvens (drums and typewriter). Kuiper (the woman)= Klaas Bolhuis, Berbée (the poet)=Wilco Maas.
Technician: Lamp Wouda.
As a writer and a Zappa freak, I can certainly dig this — I mean, who else hasn’t dreamt of playing the Black Page on their manual Underwood or Smith Corona?
A little something to ease your Monday blues:
We’re an indie label digging through years of demo backlogs day by day. These are some of the choicest gems we’ve received. We know that some people worked very hard on these, but also that sometimes, things just don’t succeed…
Take for instance, this particular gem entitled Making Love.
Anyone who knows me, knows my affinity for Big Band Zappa, so whenever I get an opportunity to hear Ed Palermo Big Band arrangements of Frank Zappa’s compositions, it’s a real treat. Today was no different, when I uncovered Palermo’s February 6th, 2009, show at Five Towns College, Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, Dix Hills, NY (with guests Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bruce McDaniel, and John Tabacco) available for download.
In the above clip, Tom Waits appears on Fernwood 2 Night, a parody talk show, hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), created by Norman Lear as a spin-off/summer replacement from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The show ran from July 4th, 1977 to September 8th, 1977. On it, Waits performs “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)” from his 1976 Elektra/Wea album, Small Change.
Founded in 1996, the North Mississippi Allstars is a southern rock/jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, electric washboard) and Chris Chew (electric bass guitar). Their song, “I’d Love to Be a Hippy” is from their sixth studio album, Hernando. In the above clip, the song is performed live “in studio” of WBBB (better known as 96rock, a radio station out of Raleigh, North Carolina).
Incredible how little time it took for a band to mythologize hippies. Perhaps this was what Frank was ultimately getting at when he composed “We’re Turning Again”?
In the clip above, Crystal Zevon discusses the off beat life of her late husband, Warren Zevon, his inspirations for songs like “Mohammed’s Radio” (below), as chronicled in her book about him “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon“.
