Frank Zappa and Charles Bukowski

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?

Humor in Music — Z


Does humor belong in music? During this particular Z gig (NAMM, Hilton, Anaheim, CA) in late January, 1995, it did.

Bryan Beller:

The Z show was a private party for Peavey, with a special guest appearance by Dick Clark. We all got dressed up in fake costume stage tuxes and wore ZZ Top beards for a planned skit, before playing our only song of the evening: an even newer medley, one that spanned the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. It was fun, it was silly, it was Z in a nutshell.

Here are Parts III, IV, and V.

Z is:

Dweezil Zappa – guitar, vocals
Ahmet Zappa – vocals
Mike Keneally – guitar, vocals
Bryan Beller – bass
Joe Travers – drums