A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a couple of old friends I knew in High School, and among our collective reminiscences, were those long afternoons we spent listening to my Frank Zappa and Mothers of Invention records on my parent’s ancient, mahogany console stereo. “Do you still listen to Zappa? they asked, wondering perhaps if I’d put aside my childish concerns for more adult oriented fare. Of course, it’s their children, now, who are listening to Zappa. Songs like “Catholic Girls“, just a reminder of younger days. What is it about Zappa’s music that turns the average, ordinary fan, musician, into a life-long freaks of his music, I wonder? (more…)
Zappa had in Helsinki, Finland two concerts on September 22, 1974 (famous Helsinki concerts, YCDTOSA vol. 2). Short concert review (“Voihan Zappa!” is on page 89). Before that on September 17 Zappa made a PR trip to Helsinki, described in the main article together with an interview (pp 24-31). The day before concert on September 21 Frank and Gail Zappa attended a wedding in Helsinki, which is included into the main article too. Their wedding present was a cappella performance of Approximate. A lot of funny pictures!
PS. Another nice article in English describing these events (and more) is Frank Zappa in Finland.
Welcome fellow KUR-meisters to the final installment of the Tweezer Glint series, “Tweezer Glint: Finale – The Roxy Years 73/74 (Part III)”. 120 tracks of raw, unbridled buffoonery amid some of the finest musicianship you’ll hear from this period of Frank Zappa’s career. For those among you who missed earlier installments of the Tweezer Glint series, do not fret, the entire series will be streamed again, in order, later in 2010. For now, enjoy this unique ensemble which played for that all too brief a period known as the Roxy Years – 1973 through 1974.
Welcome to the second installment of Tweezer Glint: Finale – The Roxy Years (Part II). Slip on your headphones to oblivion, kick up your feet, and enjoy this unique group of talented musicians which many consider to be the absolute best ensemble FZ ever assembled and took on the road.
In “Tweezer Glint: Finale — The Roxy Years 73/74 (Part I)“, we hear Zappa songs evolve as his band toured them, some growing from their early proto instrumentals into fully realized versions, while others became more refined with each successive performance; still others act as a showcase for the talents each and every band member. What should be obvious to anyone who listens to these tracks is that Frank and band are having a lot of fun. So are the many and varied audiences. So should you. I know I had a ball putting this one together. A fine way to end the series, methinks.
Note: Parts two and three will be posted in two and four weeks, respectively. I wish to thank Charles Ulrich’s analysis of the 1973-1974 bands at Planet of My Dreams for his useful research. This mixtape would be much, much less than it is if not for his efforts.
On Tuesday afternoon of August 27th, 1974, sometime after 5:30pm, Frank Zappa, George Duke, Chester Thompson, Tom Fowler, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ruth Underwood took to KCET-TV Channel 28′s Sound Stage B in Culver City, Los Angeles to film a performance for broadcast later that December 8th (and thus becoming the source material for countless bootleg vinyl records, and later, bootleg videos and DVDs).
It’s a unique performance. For instance, on “Montana”, Zappa seems to forget the lyrics “And it would be on top, / That’s why I’m moving to Montana” and sings nonsense instead. “Stink-foot” is a “Tom Waits Version” (“right around the corner – over by Tom Waits’ restaurant”) and is sung through a frequency shifter transposing his voice down below normal range. “Inca Roads” provides the basic tracks for the official One Size Fits All release. “Florentine Pogen” (view the clips above) is the One Size Fits All version, but here it is 9:40, whereas on One Size Fits All it fades and is several minutes shorter.
I have gathered and linked the bootlegged filmed performance, A Token Of His Extreme, below:
As per usual with bootlegged videos, the visual and audio qualities of each segment comes and goes. And, also, as usual, the Warner Group of Companies were busy muting a lot of these postings on YouTube, or outrightly having them removed altogether. Unless you already have a copy (available from Zappateers), this performance will soon disappear from YouTube. I suggest failing that, saving your money and waiting for the Zappa Family Trust to release an official version more in keeping with Zappa’s legacy (I certainly would like to replace my copy with something highly clean, crisp and watch-able).
Warning: some segments may induce epileptic seizures.
Thanks to ‘bakabana1966′ and ‘phideauxiii’ for posting these video clips.
The original uploader Farbror Sid is not sure what Zappa album this poster, by Dave McMacken, came with. Anybody? I’ve been looking around on the web for a while and I can’t find this poster or any references to it. Maybe it’s very rare in real life too. I seems it’s a Mothers (of Invention?) jubilee and I’m counting six candles.
Here’s the poster in question (click to enlarge see the full poster):
Heh, well I was about to ask you guys, but one visit to the wiki identified the above as… a 1974 Christmas card. All hail The Mighty Wiki! The folding creases in the image however do suggest that this illustration was also printed in a poster format… and possibly shipped with an album?
I...
...