Tag: ray collins

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets — Vinyl Revisited

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets is a Mothers of Invention album released in 1968, and controversially reissued in an alternate mix with newly recorded bass and percussion in 1984 by Frank Zappa (all post-1984 reissues of the album have featured this remix).

The following three clips from the 1968 vinyl version of the album (“Anything“, “Love of My Life“, and “I’m Not Satisfied“), with original bass and drum parts, which has not been officially rereleased on CD, is a real treat for those who have only known the 1984 remix, and never heard the original release:

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Whatever Happened To Ray Collins?

Check this bittersweet little piece on the current whereabouts of former Mother, Ray Collins:

He moved to Claremont after a modest legal settlement with Zappa over his and other founding members’ contributions to the band, he says. […] Collins turned down several offers to join the Grandmothers, a band made up of graying ex-Mothers. Instead, he’s lived a hand-to-mouth existence, mostly by choice. His only income is Social Security and twice-annual royalty checks from co-writing the doo-wop song “Memories of El Monte.”

That doesn’t appear to have made him a bitter man though:

“If you just enjoy life,” Collins continues, “it’s conducive to not being successful. You know what I mean? I just enjoy life.”

(via)