- The Magic Band play Captain Beefheart in 2008 – “It may be a bit premature for me to mention that more dates are planned, but if I’m wrong you can just say it’s the first time I was happy to be confused.”
- Radio6 commemorates the anniversary of the death of Frank Zappa – To commemorate the anniversary of the death of Frank Zappa on december 4 1993 Wim Brands and Co de Kloet will shine their light on some legendary musical stories of FZ.
- Music Thing: Japanese melody road plays tunes through your tyres – “Don’t be distracted by the burst of DJ Mink’s ‘Hey Hey, can you relate?’ at the start and keep watching.”
- Conceptual Continuity – Zappa Wiki Jawaka – A fun little category page to peruse.
- YouTube – TPMtv: Racing For the Exit – Jonnybutter says: “Just a bit of hilarious for you from rightwing American politics. The opening clip of the ‘Singing Senators’ is funny in its own right, but there is also a little bit of ‘Lone Ranger’ CC there (Hi-yo Silver! Away!).”
- Crossfire Releases Zappa Veteran Bob Harris’ the Great Nostalgia – “The Great Nostalgia, originally a self-financed release on his Mastahna label, has been remastered (and in some cases remixed) from the original session tapes.”
74 thoughts on “Lukewarm Poop From Dec 1st”
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I do not envy you, Barry, nor do I envy people who will endeavor to analyse FZ in a scientific way. They’ll all end up being puzzled. The best possible result will be the mirror image of pointilism ( in painting): essentialy nothing but dots. Every now and then an essential point.
Compare it with the famous sentence in the Laurel & Hardy films: ” This is just another mess you’ve got us into, Stanley”.
You’re right. The essential message should be : just listen to it and try to decode it. Decoding, understanding ( ie listening in a joyfull way ) is a task on its own. It’s about the capabililities of the listener’s brain ( much more important than audio devices). Most of the people just turn their back to it because it happens to be too far fetched, too difficult.
“bernard” has just left his straight jacket !
Frank Zappa on Freaking Out:
It is Frank Zappa’s mind that I have always been amazed by: his musical mind, his satirical mind, his ability to think outside “the box” so to speak and then write, speak and compose about it; then leaving “clues” for those to follow throughout his conceptual continuity if they so choose.
If you decide not to, that’s your business. But my analysis of the works and mind of FZ just adds more dimensions to my appreciation of the man’s obvious genius. Envy me or not, I suggest you begin with a thorough Freaking Out, bernard, and move on from there…
“bernard” is his real first name. He says, he has nothing to hide.
He actually has a very good life. He has a good job, his employers highly respect him for what he´s doing. Partly because he´s a workaholic.
On the hobby side: He´s interested in music. Since +/- 40 years. And since his 5 children now all have left the parental house, he happens to have more time for his beloved hobby.
Frankly spoken this sounds like “Truck Driver Divorce” to me. And his mind gives him essentialy nothing but dots.
A true zen saying: nothing but dots is what he wants!
Blogging ( and replying to things published on blogs) is about ” dots”, i e short pieces.
I’ve started collecting elements (“dots”) for a ( free) e book on music. I’m still puzzled as this is just the initial phase. Don’t not yet where I will end up. It looks as if the first e book I’ve written ( 3 years ago) was a much easier task.
By the way I’ve just discovered this blog from L. A. ( looks good ) :
http://musicologymatters.blogspot.com/ – I like border crossres ( FZ was one).
When it comes to the music of Frank Zappa, some people “get it” and some do not. There’s no middle ground. You either love it, or hate it.
About dot:
Mission: The Department of Transportation was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, the Department’s first official day of operation was April 1, 1967. The mission of the Department is to:
Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.
Well, the white zone is for loading and unloading only!
One foot on the white zone, one foot on the black zone. Border crossing is not good in transport, it happens to be very good in music.
FZ – in a very early phase- made use of ” weird” recording technics.
There is for instance the theremin. Led Zeppelin used it while recording the first minute of Wholotta Love.
See: The theremin (originally pronounced [ˈteremin] but often anglicized as [ˈθɛɹəmɪn] [1]), or thereminvox, is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. It was invented by Russian inventor Léon Theremin in 1919, and it is unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched.( Wiki).
It’s this : http://netnewmusic.net/cac/
Did FZ use it?
“Border crossing is not good in transport?”
One can transport a lot of Mexicans into the US by border crossing!
Is “bernard” a racist?
Come on, Roland. We’re talking about music.
Over there, in Music, border crossers ( ” painting outside , beyond pre fixed lines”) are the most interesting. FZ was one of them.
See…
thereminworld.com
urbangraffito Says:
“When it comes to the music of Frank Zappa, some people “get it†and some do not. There’s no middle ground. You either love it, or hate it.”
I love it a lot!!
Okay “bernard”, I went a little too far. Let´s stay with music.
All right, folks. A trivia question for bernard only: what do Frank Zappa and Kate Bush have in common?
Not that much. I’ll think it over. It would be easy to say : long hair .
“urbangraffito” even if I´m a spoiler for “bernard”, I tell you my guess anyway: They both worked / played with David Gilmour.
Kate Bush first album “The Kick Inside” was partly produced by Gilmour and he was a kind of mentor for her.
And October 25, 1969, Frank Zappa jammed with Pink Floyd at the Amougies festival. How about that?
Just listened to the Radio6 program about FZ. The most interesting part in terms of CC clues was an excerpt from the Amos&Andy radio show featuring the King Fish, whose way of talking inspired FZ to create the Thing Fish character (or was it Ike Willis who was talking like this all the time and FZ merely picking this up?).
They had George Duke on the phone and talked to him about the Greggary Peccary recording sessions. Duke went like “don’t remember anything of it, man, but it’s a great piece of music, man, thank you for calling, man, etc. etc.”). The phone interview with Napoleon Murphy Brock was more interesting, though. He talked a bit about how his vocal part in “The Evil Prince” was recorded, apparently FZ had only prepared the lyrics and the melody was improvised together with NMB.
I was able to record the program with my satellite PVR, so if i find the time (ha!), i’ll create an MP3 or maybe even a FLAC version of it.
Both Frank Zappa and Kate Bush were early advocates of computer generated music. Frank Zappa on the Synclavier composed most of Jazz From Hell (86) on it, while Kate Bush relied heavily on New England Digital’s Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) on her 1982 album, The Dreaming.
Give us another trivia question, “urbangrafitto”, pls.!
Another “trivia” question?
You’re a clever and curious boy. You’ve just turned 15. You get a present : x dollars. You take the decision to use that money to make a long distance phone call to Paris to talk with an obscure and absolutely underestimated ( in that time) composer ( Varèse) because you’ve discovered one of his records in the bargain bin of the record shop and you like the music. You get Varèse’s wife on the phone who explains that her husband is in Brussels for this :
http://www.digischool.nl/ckv2/ckv3/kunstentechniek/philips/het_philipspaviljoen.htm
or another URL, already mentionned on this blog:
http://www.ubu.com/film/varese.html –
played continously over 425 loudspeakers.
Question is: what’s the ultimate result?
My answer would be exactly the same as Varèse’s ( at the end of his life): ” It seems that after all these years of people throwing merde at me, I ‘ve finally become fertilizer”.
Next question is : will this happen to FZ music?
Okay, Roland, here are two questions (to keep you busy):
1. What do painter Brion Gysin, writer William S. Burroughs, and musician/composer Frank Zappa all have in common?
2. Two versions of Sleep Dirt were originally released, one instrumental, and one with accompanying jazz vocals. Which version was closest to Zappa’s intent and why?
Q1) All three are dead !
Q2) If you are talking about the track “Sleep Dirt”: I didn´t know, that there are 2 versions. If you are talking about the album “Sleep Dirt”: The vocals were meant to be for the “Hunchentoot” project, WB released the instrumental versions without permission. The vocal versions were Zappa intention, as far as I know.
Instrumental “Sleep Dirt” is my favourite.
Okay, just kidding: I mean they are all dead, but I think you are asking for “The Nova Convention”, where all three participated. Is that, what you were asking for “urbangraffiti” ?
Brion Gysin taught the cut up method to William S. Burroughs, who made major use of the method in his novel, Naked Lunch. The cut up method is a method of creation where different parts from separate origins are brought together to a new piece. Zappa was certainly aware of this method and modified it for his own purposes. Beginning with Zoot Allures, Sheik Yerbouti, and finally most of Joe’s Garage was composed with a composition technique FZ called Xenocrony, whereby instrumental passages from completely different songs (bass part of one song, drums from another, guitar from another etc) were fitted together musically to form the compositional foundation for completely new song.
Great, Urbangr.
Btw, I meant the album “Sleep Dirt.” Jazz vocals on the track “Sleep Dirt.” How sacrilegious of me…
Every good Zappa freak should get this one quick…
Which former Mother composed music for this war movie soundtrack, and what movie was it?
I salute you, “urbangrafitto”, I didn´t know that. Very interesting!
Don Preston I love the smell of Napom in the morning
Yes, it´s Don W. Preston !
What’s the ultimate result? If young Zappa would have talked to his musical idol Edgar Varèse, might he have lost his ambitions and started a “proper” career? Records of an artist in the bargain bin of a record shop? Is it possible that because he couldn´t talk to him, he became extra strong in his ambitions to make music and started to make music on a bicycle? Different music, interesting music? Or would he have changed his mind, and write pop songs about love? Most of the songs you can listen to on the air are about love. Did this ever changed anybody who listenend to them for good? These records end up in a bargain bin as well!
FZ called himself ” a current day composer, currently active in rock business”. Even as a US teenager he was already very much interested in both old – 50 ties- R&B and contemporary classical music.
Both elements have always been present. ” High” & ” Low”, at once.
Actually he was the first one ever who made an attempt to combine both, thereby exploring new musical territories.
My guess is that this will happen to be one of the great things about FZ, which will later be mentioned in musical history books.
And another great thing about FZ, which will be mentioned in musical history books is the musical redundancy in his oeuvre, which he used to sell as “Conceptual Continuity” and all his fans and admirers went for it.
He will be remembered as a cheater in music, as well. Tagging his albums as “100% live music”, although he cut all these live recordings together – a section from here, a bit from there, a little solo from nowhere. (Remember how many tour places it took, to put out a proper version of “Jesus thinks your a jerk”?) And people really believe it´s border crossing he did! No doubt, he knew how to sell being different in his output. The frame is more important than the picture.
There were good releases through the years. But hand a typewriter to a monkey and after some time, you´ll have something to release. Very often he went in directions, which are more than questionable.
He wrote a lot but he stole a lot, too. Everything he could use from music history or his musicians and sold it as FZ – what is that?
Yep, Roland.
The more you dig into it , the more it’s truly interesting/ puzzling.
Great artist = enigmas. Miles Davis / Picasso,/ Sun Ra/ Stravinsky/ Varese, etc., etc. in the difficul 20th century.
They just announce the shape of things to come. Figure it out,:not an easy task.
( Even bigger , like J S Bach, I’ll try to explain later, hoping for comments making my own absolutely ridicoulous).
Read for instance this book ( Noise – Jacques Attali ) , written by a french influential jew. A book on music.
“What is noise to the old order is harmony to the new.”
Summary : http://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/aesthetics%20of%20music/attali'snoise.htm
“bernard”, one honest word towards you: Sorry, that I was so nasty to you in the past. I mean it !
FZ is already being forgotten. Just step inside your local new CD store and look for anything by Frank Zappa or The Mothers of Invention. Modern listeners only know what is being fed to their ears: crap. Like FZ himself, an individual has to be willing to expand his knowledge if deviation from the norm is to be possible…
He has no air play, that´s for sure. But when it comes down to talk about music at a party or at work – wherever – and Zappa is mentionend, there is always a reaction, negative or positive.
In my experience due to this topic, there is no doubt about it: His music lives on! Things do not always look like meat. He´s not forgotten and one can be surprised, who still knows and listens to his music.
I like this one: “What is noise to the old order is harmony to the new.â€
Zappa will always have a small but vocal following (ahem…clearing my throat).
Just one more example on the line of you’re nothing ( disabled, from poor beginnings, etc.) and you endeavor to be become somebody: David Bowie.
He will always be & remain the M minus one of FZ. OK. For sure, just figure out why.
His masterpiece is CD ” Heathen” ( in my humble opinion). Clue after clue, the universal way.
For instance ” Uncle Floyd” ( nonkel Bob for the Flemish); ” Cactus”, royalties for the Pixies; announcing 09.11 ( ” Steel on the skyline”).
To me Bowie was always an artist, who was able to sell himself newly every record. Like Madonna. But where was the “real” person?
In this case, I´d rather prefer Zappa, because he never put away himself as a person. He was always there – real. Sometimes his interviews said more about him, than anything else!
Misunderstood sometimes, or maybe often by many people, but not unreal and blurry, like one release he´s Major Tom, next release he´s a Diamond Dog, next one next shade.
All for the money, for entertainment, for your personal laugh and listen, but where´s the person… In the end Bowie was the first to sell stocks on his music. See what I mean?
Excuse me, am I at the right weblog? Or did I blink and suddenly reappear in some alternate universe?
David Bowie, an artist? A creator of masterpieces?
In the universe where I come from David Bowie is mainly known for “pop fluff” where the number of units sold of an album determine its ultimate value…
“Maybe you should stay with your David…”
The terms artist, masterpiece, and especially genius are thrown about far too often when talking about popular music…
Exactly “urbangrafitto”, so why use these terms on Zappa so often?
To play the devil’s advocate for a moment, just by calling Zappa an artist or a genius, or his individual compositions masterpieces, does not necessarily make him/them so. The same can be said for any other popular musician. The over use of those terms weaken their meaning over time until they prove meaningless. For instance, is Britney Spears’ most recent video and example of her genius as an artist, or is it her masterpiece? Get the idea…None of us are truly equipped to declare who is or isn’t a genius, or what constitutes a masterpiece. Only time and objective distance can make those distinctions.
I fully agree, urbangr.
Wow, you guys are being harsh on Bowie! Allow me to disagree. I’m inclined to rate him almost right up there with Zappa, ahead of his time as he was. Oh, and as for making money from one’s music: did FZ ever say he wasn’t in it for the money? Brilliant musicians have been known to wither and die for not being business savvy. Chet Baker, anyone?
I really have nothing against Bowie. A fine entertainer, performer, record producer. Managed to keep up with the myriad changes occurring both in the industry and the culture around him, and thus remained high in the charts throughout his career. But right up there with Zappa? Ahead of his time? I tend to disagree, Barry. Like many other contemporaries of Bowie (i.e. Lou Reed, Freddie Mercury, etc.), they managed to ride an initial wave of creative innovation, but uniquely ahead of their time? Consistently original? I don’t think so. That was something that I think FZ always had in abundance. Yet, when asked if he would be remembered, FZ knew the score: artists like Bowie will be more well known 100 years from now just based on the numbers of units sold…
Chet Baker, anyone?
I don’t know of many jazz musicians that made a lot of greenbacks from their trade, anyone?
Look at prizes for art paintings – the genre doesn´t necessarily plays a role in it. They have gone through the roof. Demand? Time? Real value? Why do people so much money for it?
Products in music business, like Madonna or Spears will be remembered for their sold units. I truly think they will be forgotten quicker, than we all think.
I strongly believe that Zappa will be remembered for his innovation in music, although I question releases he made, but he boldly went where no man has gone before.
Just in: Karlheinz Stockhausen died last Wednesday. He was a German composer, rated by some as one of the most important complex and controversial composers of the 20th century. He is known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music and aleatory (controlled chance) in serial composition. Stockhausen died in the German city of Kürten, in Nordrhein-Westfalen so the Stockhausen Foundation announced on Friday December 7, 2007. No cause of death was diclosed.
Stockhausen. Influence on popular music: one of the guys from Kraftwerk was his pupil.
But I hope you´re not saying, that this was his only influence on pop music, “bernard”?
Paul McCartney claims in several statements that he was the first Beatle to discover Stockhausen’s music. He has named “Gesang der Jünglinge” as his favorite Stockhausen work. McCartney probably introduced the late John Lennon to Stockhausen’s music in mid-1966. Lennon was also greatly influenced by Stockhausen. “Hymnen”
was Lennon’s inspiration for “Revolution #9” on the Beatles’ White Album.
Rock musicians such as Frank Zappa, Peter Townshend, Jerry Garcia and Bjork name Stockhausen as a major influence on their musical lives and work. Jazz musicians like Miles Davis, George Russell, Anthony Braxton and Charles Mingus have also been Stockhausen admirers.
Anyway, one more reason, to forget the present day products of modern music business, because it´s elevator music …
“urbangraffito Says:
I really have nothing against Bowie.” I do!! He pinched Adrian Belew away from FZ, and at one of Frank’s shows too!
P.S. Didn’t Frank use one of Stockhausen’s technicians (Klaus Wiedemann) on his ’76 tour?
Stockhausen’s work with Pete Waterman and Kylie Minogue will stand the test of time. Ahem.
‘Telemusic’ has to be the piece by KS that I enjoy most.
There’s a bit in Pynchon’s ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ which takes place in a bar with nothing but Stockhausen on the jukebox.
This is truly a knowledge sharing blog. Great.
If we continue like this, we ( KUR & comments together) will be ble to publish a very good book on music. And it might jappen to be much better than academics & scholars are publishing. Why?
Because academics & scholars simply do not that muchin this ( for them dangerous) area.
For instance just to illustrate the poorness of what they’re doing, or the absence of attention:
1. FZ related. We can feel that FZ music was very mathematical. Like J S Bach FZ didn’ study mathematics in depth. It was about introducing that element in an intuitive way. For FZ there was a ” system in the madness” when – for instance – he changed the rythm after a few bars. Ever seen a study/ paper / book from an academic on this lsubject? So far they seem to be limiting themselves to +/- good biographies.
2. Further. Have a look at the EU 7th Framework Research Programme, http://ec.europa.eu/research/future/index_en.cfm – priority ” Humanities”. Nothing but interesting things. However as good as nothing on music. While music has a tremendous influence on society.
You’ll be able to find lots of intersting obituaries of KH Stovckhausen, right now.
For instance on another blog, combining ” high” and ” low”:
http://serenadeingreen.blogspot.com/
or:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22contemporary+classical%22+%7C+%22avant+garde%22+music
http://www.kunstmusik.com/
Blogs are great.
Bowie is a genius
don’t believe it?
listen to his masterpiece duet with Bing Crosby
little drummer boy
pa rumpa pum pum
this obviously had a powerful influence on zappa
Cletus Awreetus
Alrightus
“jane23”: What are you talking about? “Little Drummer Boy” was released years after “The Grand Wazoo”! But this is not what you mean, he?
i was just trying to be humorous by suggesting that Bowie influenced Zappa to write Cletus Awreetus from the Grand Wazoo LP,
and that the “little drummer boy” duet was somehow a masterpiece
um, not even close.
but you are right, Grand Wazoo was released in 1973
Bowie/Crosby duet aired on 9/11/1977
pa rumpa pum pum!!!
jane23 — given Bing Crosby’s penchant for beating his kids (or so it is been suggested), couldn’t the Bowie/Crosby duet aired on 9/11/1977 have been Zappa’s inspiration for Bobby Brown Goes Down? Can’t you just imagine Bing reaching his golden shower with Bowie holding the spindle up his butt? pa rumpa pum pum!!!
gropey bing bing
beat bing’s butt
pa’s rump a pump pump
the return of the son of wooly the pump?
“jane23” & “urbangrafitto”, that is really gross, I have to vomit oer my keyboard now. Zulch!
I found out, why Zappa wrote “Lucille has messed my mind up”. It´s a bizarre parallel to his experience on stage: B.B. King´s guitar is named “Lucille”.
King got the name after an Arkansas bar caught fire during an early gig, forcing him to risk his life rushing into the building to retrieve his guitar. The next day it was revealed that the blaze began when two men knocked over a bucket of kerosene while fighting over a woman named Lucille.
“Smoke on the water” anybody? (This is my attempt of being funny “pa’s rump a pump pump”, “jane23”!)
Father Bernard’s unxpected answer to the ( funny) Smoke On The Water Question, Roland.
– For sure it’s not about the content of the first three sentences of that Deep Purple song. We assume that our children can read & write, isn’t it?
– It’s about the visible, very short & instant effect of Yellow Snow right after its production.
Haha.
Hey, Roland, boys will be boys (or bings will be bings). Who says KUR readers/posters don’t have a sense of humor that rivals any other site out there?
Not me.
“Father Bernard´s Pancake Christmas” & “urbangrafitto”: Yes, shall it be so – boys will be boys!”
Men are made of boys, Roland. And humor – as long as it’s not beased on fear- can lead to new ways of thinking.
And I’m listening now to ” On the town square” from Comicopera- Robert Wyatt. A piece for keyboard, cornet, percussion, guitar , tenor sax and … steelpan.
http://www.dominorecordco.com/site/index.php?page=artists&artistID=245
Home page = Wyatt playing cornet for a horse.
Speaking of humor, is there any footage out there, either audio or video which captures FZ actually laughing? Hmmmm. A new area of Zappa study methinks. Someone contact Ben Watson, quick!
And I don’t mean the occasional chuckle or giggle, but a real bonafide Zappa guffaw.
That’s exactly the problem with FZ. He was a border crosser , he was – for instance – both a composer & satirist. Unlike humor satire presupposes knowledge.
I think we all agree: FZ was a very clever man. Combining ” high” & ” low”, satire & composition, Rock & Ensemble Modern, etc..
Digging into writing a study of FZ is not an easy task. We’ve had enough biographies. Now the time is ripe for more interesting things. However the one who will make an attempt to write the next book on FZ will face two major problems: ” ordinary ” readers will laugh as it will happen to be too difficult, self declared” scholars” will focus on academic shortcomings.
However what’s happening right now, x years after FZ? Popular music is getting more & more complicated. And present day classical music is turning its back to ” much too much academism”.
Listening to Robert Wyatt makes me depressive, although he is brilliant – no doubt. But I´d rather prefer to stay happy these days. The more I try to think about if I ever have seen Zappa burst out laughing on any footage through the years, I must answer: sorry, no! Smiling, yes. I agree with you, “bernard” – he was to academic in his humour. But I disagree about “Popular music is getting more & more complicated”, if you´re talking of the daily radio routine.