Frank Zappa & Elsewhere
A fun initiative from The Idiot (as seen on Facebook):
To mark what would have been composer Frank Zappa’s 70th birthday on 21 December 2010, let’s try and repeat the success of Rage Against The Machine’s Christmas #1 with “The Black Page”.
You can purchase and download Frank’s Synclavier version of the track (for just 79p) on Amazon UK. Spread the word!
A new Rondo Hatton Report has been published:
Amongst other contributions, this issue features a second submission from Kohjitsu Ohyama, author of two authoritative Japanese books on FZ, proposing a solution to the vexed question of the ‘ultimate compilation’ problem — and from the wilds of Indiana, Prof. Hollinden weighs in with the third installment of his Pigs & Ponies series.
More info and a free download right over here.
I heartily recommend that you direct your browser to this tumblr blog.
In my youth, I felt like I had an easier time introducing my friends to Zappa. I used to simply play “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” because when you’re 14 or 15 years old, it’s the funniest thing you could possibly hear. It had swear words in it, he was making fun of the jocks we all collectively hated, and it was catchy as Hell! Similar cases could be made for other tunes like “Stick It Out,” “Catholic Girls,” and “Jewish Princess.”
Continue reading “Defending Zappa?”
Welcome to KUR’s 2nd Annual Virtual Zappanale Mix for August 2010. For those of us who cannot make it to this year’s festival in Bad Doberan, I have compiled an eclectic mix of some of my favorite FZ covers by well known alumni – and some other not so well known. On this virtual stage, time and space does not matter as acts appear fresh from 1969, while others are temporarily brought back from the hereafter for just one more kick at the can, so to speak, all together in one mix. Of course, I’d love to be there in Bad Doberan, and perhaps I will go there one day, myself. Until then, enjoy the music of the maestro. And the spirit of the Mothers…
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
Note: my sincerest appreciation and thanks to Andrew Greenaway and MagicFingers for their assistance in the compiling of this mixtape.
While in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4th, 1971 during a short European tour, Frank Zappa and The Mothers appeared on the Swedish TV show entitled “Spotlight“. The 34 minute broadcast had interviews with Zappa mingled with music clips from 200 Motels [“This Won’t Take Long”, “The Final Solution”, “Centerville”] and included performances of “The Air”, “Dog Breath”, “Mother People”, “You Didn’t Try To Call Me”, “King Kong”, and “Who Are The Brain Police?” from Palais Gaumont, Paris, France on December 15th, 1970.
Continue reading “Spotlight, Swedish TV, 1971”
Did Mr Penman get it right back in 1995, when FZ’s back catalog was being re-issued by Ryko? Let’s have a look…
For the pop life of me, I cannot see why anyone past the age of 17 would want to listen to Frank Zappa again, never mind revere him as a deep and important artist, never mind worship at the tottering edifice of his recollected, remastered and repackaged works. Surely the only pertinent use for Zappa was as an interim stage for young lads ‹ scared witless by what they suddenly perceive as the transience or hollowness of popular culture ‹ for whom Zappa represents a gi-normous prefab sneer of self-importance behind which they can shelter for a while. (And, lest we forget: in the pre-Viz, pre-Mayall and Edmondson 1970s, he was the only legitimate supplier of fart and bum and willy jokes).
I beg, as they say, to differ.
Waiting in my inbox today was a missive from an impressive and interesting chap, to say the very least: one Chanan Hanspal, a composer/guitarist of Welsh Indian extraction from Wales. Who is Chanan Hanspal? Click on his name and discover more about how he dove into the London jazz funk world – played, recorded, and toured with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Geri Halliwell, and Pharoah Sanders to name just a few.
Continue reading “Chanan Hanspal Plays Zappa”
