Have a little patience while the guy Ian Tanner wrestles his way through Village Of The Sun first, then… check it out:
Far from Not perfect, yet really impressive. I mean: would you have the balls to record yourself having a go at — of all FZ’s tunes — Echidna’s Arf (Of You), and then put it on YouTube for everyone to see?
The first clip, shot at a concert in Detroit, August 19, 2000, features the Grandmothers – Don Preston, Ener Bladezipper, Sandro Oliva, Bunk Gardner, and the late Jimmy Carl Black – performing Black’s “Indian of the Group”.
In the second clip, recorded at the Jimmy Carl Black Benefit Concert on December 7th, 2008, in Action, California, has Bunk Gardner on flute and Andy Cahan on Guitar (both original Geronimo Black alumni) performing “Seista”.
The third clip, Jimmy Carl Black performs his last gig in El Paso, Texas, at King’s X with his son, Geronimo Black.
In the last clip, Mick Pini, Jimmy Carl Black, and Uwe Jesdinsky perform the song, “Political Man” at the Rockhouse, in June 2008. This track, recorded and available from CD Baby, on ‘Hamburger Midnight’ by B.E.P. (Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada, Mick Pini), 2008, as a download-only release. An excellent live blues album. Go and have a listen.
A toast to all these Mothers, both official and unofficial.
John Lydon (also known as Johnny Rotten) presents a profile of Alice Cooper — whose theatrical persona was perhaps America’s most significant ally with the British glam movement and who also influenced John’s own band, the Sex Pistols — on “Billion Dollar Baby: The Alice Cooper Story”, a BBC Radio 2 Documentary first broadcast in November 2002.
Two episodes of approximately 30 minutes each.
Part One:
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Billion-Dollar-Baby-The-Alice-Cooper-Story-Part1.mp3]
Part Two:
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Billion-Dollar-Baby-The-Alice-Cooper-Story-Part2.mp3]
Around the 6:40 point of Part 1, there’s an intriguing account of what Frank Zappa saw in, and attracted him to sign this initial Alice Cooper group to a record contract.
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:
• The Dog Breath Variations
• Uncle Meat
• More Trouble Every Day
• Montana
• George Duke Solo
• Florentine Pogen Part 1
• Florentine Pogen Part 2 (The Solo)
• Oh No
• Pygmy Twylyte
• Stink-Foot (Tom Waits Version)
• Inca Roads
• Pygmy Twylyte (Dummy Up)
• A Token Of My Extreme (Honey Jam)
• Approximate
• Cosmik Debris
• Room Service
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.
Later that night: Jennifer Lettelleir gets Bests Choreographer award for the theatrical version of Joe’s Garage.
“In 1988, Frank gave me no direction. None! He never said no to anything I did.” In that spirit, Thunes made the ornery composition “Alien Orifice” [Make a Jazz Noise Here] his own personal showcase of what a bassist could do in Zappa’s later live setting, rocking and reharmonizing this nasty piece with almost limitless dexterity and depth throughout.
In bassplayer.com, an article by Bryan Beller. What a pity that the excellent homepage called The Scott Thunes Effect disappeared somehow*. I wish I’d saved all those scores there.
*Update:
The Scott Thunes Effect turned into the bassnotation.com! Thanks Hugh for the info! Of course you’ll find Alien Orifice there.
… and not a lot of ink was spilled over it either, apparently — Dweezil Z:
He doesn’t answer any of his phones and they all say they are disconnected. Is he suddenly in the witness protection program? What has happened? We decide to look at our e-mails. I had one in my in box from Ray.
Ready for the hilarious punchline? Ray quit via e-mail with no advance “romance” notice whatsoever.
The band will be performing as 6 piece band – “until we find a few musical compatriots that will complement our line up“. The days of Zappa alumni joining ZPZ on stage are gone, or so it seems.
We will be emailing all seven winners shortly requesting their snail mail addy. Congrats to those who won, apologies to those who didn’t get picked… Regardless: thanks all for participating. It’s been a fun ride!
Now that the book is finally up for sale, Sharl and I are giving away:
A/ one copy of Tom Waits: Musik & Mythos, the book, along with one set of twelve postcards, and
B/ six sets of twelve postcards.
Click image to enlarge:
To enter the competition, simply post a comment answering the following three questions:
1. Name an artist who covered a Tom Waits song, and name the title of the song itself.
2. Mention your favorite Tom Waits song.
3. How does one say Good Morning in German?
The contest starts now and remains open until Wednesday April 1st, 6pm Western European Time, upon which an innocent hand will draw the winners — not to worry: there will be video! Ladies and gentlemen: start your engines…
Woooaahh. I like it.
