Frank Vincent Zappa: December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993

[Zomby Woof]

Frank Zappa departed for his "final tour" one decade ago tomorrow.

To say he was merely a brilliant and iconoclastic composer, a musician, or an innovator still somehow seems inadequate. His prolific, complex, diverse, humorous, and sometimes even perplexing body of work will endure for centuries. Literally, it will endure, long after the detritus of this era's Top 40 is nothing more than a footnote in the Official Canon of Mediocrity.

Zappa felt that art and politics were inseparable, and his scathing satires of Republicans (and a few wayward Democrats), TV evangelists, record company executives, brown-shoed CEO's, groupies, suburban hippies, and a cast of characters ranging from Suzy Creamcheese, Nanook the Naughty Eskimo, Dinah-Moe Humm, and Bobby Brown, to modified dogs, household appliance fetishists, potato-headed trailer park denizens, mudsharks, a mountain named Billy, and the Brain Police. Over 60 albums were a tribute to a richly realized imagination.

But most importantly of all, there was the music.

Equally influenced by doo-wop and R&B standards during his 1950's adolescence, and the post-modern panchromatic pallette of Edgard Varese and other mid-century masters, Zappa created a musical universe like no other before or since. In 1966, the unlikely underground icons of the L.A. scene obtained a recording contract from MGM, and with the direction of Bob Dylan producer Tom Wilson, recorded rock's first double LP, "Freak Out!"

A legend was born.

Zappa once said that he didn't care whether he was remembered or not. "Being remembered is for guys like Reagan or Bush."

Let us hope, despite his indifference to memory, he is remembered long after those characters, who also inhabited his work, have left the world stage.

The void left by his decade-log absence has yet to be filled, and probably never will be. Often do I fantasize that he would be writing the right songs, at the right time, about the criminal maladminstration we are saddled with during these sad times. Often do I think, how barren the popular culture landscape continues to be, and how he would still be defying it, causing trouble for the powers that be, every day. Trouble every day.

Frank Zappa, an American composer without parallel. Thank you for the profound influence you had, and continue to have, on my life and thinking.

I miss Frank.

[JohnKleeb]

1. So thats the sig of your Zappa songs posted tonight Zomby

Ive never heard Zappa's music but heard good things and may he RIP, and I think he lived or was born in one of the best damned cities on earth, Baltimore, Md.

[Zomby Woof]

3. born there

Moved to Florida briefly as a kid, then back to Baltimore, then as a teenager, southern California.

Perhaos you will be introduced to his music one day. Plenty of material recommended by DUers on here all the time. :-)

[JohnKleeb]

5. Perhaps I will, my dad dont listen to him

Baltimore is a great town btw.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. You must go find yourself some Zappa, and listen

You owe it to yourself as a human being.

[JohnKleeb]

11. any recommenditons?

[Zomby Woof]

13. start with "Hot Rats"

Mostly instrumental, highlights his guitar prowess, and gives you a hint of his quirkiness with subject matter, etc.

For a summary of the Reagan era, get "Broadway The Hard Way", which gets Reagan, Pat Robertson, Ed Meese, the Bakkers, Bush Sr, Koop, Swaggart, Michael Jackson, and yuppies all in one album. One of the highlights is Sting doing his own "Murder By Numbers" with Zappa contributing a blistering guitar solo. Sting turns in a hilarious Swaggart impersonation. But the band is so tight, you will be floored.

So many more...

[JohnKleeb]

14. why thanks Zomby

been needing some new music ya know.

[pezcore64]

15. ...

as someone whos young and didnt get to enjoy zappa until he had already passed away, id recommend some of the mixed cds of live shows and what not.

The "Cheap Thrills" cd is pretty good in my opinion...
It was the first Zappa cd I really sat and listened to and I fell in love with it.

[Zomby Woof]

16. I was 16 when I first heard "Joe's Garage"

The album had been out for 4 years, and it was the first I heard by him. My impressionable musical mind was warped, lol. Dare JohnKleeb listen to that one first? :D It got addicting.

[Kitsune]

24. Whoa, me too!

I heard Joe's Garage for the first time when I was 16 as well. ^_^

Now...I have a Phi Zappa Krappa poster hanging on the door to my bathrom. XD

It occurs to me that I was born 20 years too late for almost all of the music I like.

[Zomby Woof]

27. too cool

At first, I was laughing at the adolescent bathroom humor of "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?", then my jaw was dropping at the beauty and depth of "Watermelon In Easter Hay", and I realized, this is NOT a novelty act. Oh noooo, far from it. This was genius. Pure genius. Music was never the same after that.

[paulk]

66. No! No! Start with "Absolutely Free"

my fave!

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Here's his discography:

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/index.html

My intro to Zappa was Weasels Ripped My Flesh (http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Weasels_Ripped_My_Flesh.html which has the song "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "The eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque" and the ever popular "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama")



But I'd suggest starting with the first one, Freak Out. Still an amazing album.

Then, for me, I like Zappa in New York (it has "Titties and Beer" and "Punky's Whips" and "The Illinois Enema Bandit", which are all very funny, and also the phenomenally difficult and totally serious "Black Page" Nos. 1 and 2 and "The Blue Lagoon/Approximate")



And I'm also a big fan of Does Humor Belong in Music (stuff from the 1984 tour) and Broadway the Hard Way (the 1988 tour, though I'd also suggesting the other 2 double sets of 1988 tour material, all great).

And you should at least get one of the Zappa and the LSO CDs.

And You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2: "The Helsinki Concert", which has some of the tightest, most incredible playing - that was a fantastic band he had then, and they really knew the music by the time that concert was recorded, and you can tell - crisp, spot onperformances all the way around, and amazingly difficult music.

[Zomby Woof]

22. Make A Jazz Noise Here

That's also a great 1988 tour document.

Get "Lather"! It basically has all the great "Live In New York" material - it was finally released as intended in the mid-90's, with bonus tracks. No need to buy those albums which broke "Lather" up and reduced the track count - "Sleep Dirt", "Studio Tan", and "Orchestral Favorites". It's a 3 CD set, but worth it for hardcores like us. :-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Yes! And then when Kleeb has listened to hours and hours of Zappa,

he can buy Guitar, and while listening see if he can tell what guitar each solo was done with, and what year it was performed.

First time I listened to it, I nailed most of them. I was quite proud of myself!

Lather has a great selection.

"I will go to Frisco, and I will live in a house,
becuase all the groupies live together.
And I will get crabs, but I won't care.
I'll love the cops as they beat the shit out of me."

[Zomby Woof]

29. do you know the story behind Lather?

He recorded it in 1977 as a 4 album boxed set, all new material. Warner Brothers balked, then sued him! Hence, his legal hassles and hatred of them, and those 4 re-issues separately, and the surfacing of the songs in new forms on later albums. He played it on a CA radio station when the legal crap went down, and advised the listeners to get some tapes ready, because they will never hear it again.

Lucikly, he got to put it back together the year he died.

[Kat45]

60. "Lather" was the album held up when I saw him in concert

so I heard several of the songs meant for the album live in concert long before I heard them on an album. (see post 32 below). Then when "Lather" was put out (much later), I recognized the name and immediately bought it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

62. One kick to keep the memory alive

and the flames of mourning for talent lost burning bright.

[maveric]

33. Mission Bay High School, San Diego.

And not one picture of him on the whole campus.

[Zomby Woof]

38. he went there one year

Then he graduated from Antelope Valley High in Lancaster.

My sister went to Mission Bay High for part of her sophomore year, btw.

[grytpype]

2. I remember that day well.

I was getting ready to take a final exam when I heard the news on the radio. I just broke out in tears.

[Zomby Woof]

6. I read it in the morning paper

I had just bought "The Yellow Shark" and noticed how sickly he looked on the cover. I knew the cancer was getting to him, but he pressed on. I was devastated, even as I knew he wasn't long for the world.

It was the lead story on the evening news that night, and I remember the global reaction, including condolences by his friend Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic.

[Drifter]

55. Reminds me of the time ...

I woke up and the Today show was on. Katie Couric was interviewing someone. Seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. He wore a bandana around his neck (as if to cover something), and he had a full beard.

It was not until they went to commercial, when she said "We'll be back with more Frank Zappa", that I realized my hero was on TV (and I didn't recognize him.

I remember one part of the interview that has stayed with me (I paraphrase). Katie asked him "Who do you think you want to be remembered", or perhaps it was "How do you want to be remembered". Frank answered, "I am not concerned about how people will remember me. It is people like Reagan and Bush who are worried about what people think about them after they are dead."

Cheers
Drifter

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Just found the gold mine of Zappa lyrics

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/

and boatloads of other musics.

I remember when Zappa died - I had friends from all over the country send the obits and any articles from their papers and magazines, and I have a nice collections I listened only to Zappa music for a solid week and still didn't get through my collection.

I think of him so often, and his music runs through my head almost constantly. A life cut down too short. He had so much more to say. One of the few true artists that are produced in any generation, and we only had him for not quite 53 years.

It's a goddamn travesty.

And let me say, a beautifully written remembrance.

[Drifter]

56. Yes, this is a great site ...

I too recently found this.

Cheers
Drifter

[pezcore64]

8. ...

i think we all miss zappa ;)

cant go wrong with a little hot plate heaven at the green motel ;)

[Zomby Woof]

9. Republicans is fine if you're a multimillionaire

And Democrats is fine if what you own is what you wear!

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. But neither of 'em's really right,

cuz neither of 'em care

[Kitsune]

19. 'bout that hot plate heaven

'Cause they ain't been there!

[pezcore64]

12. I think that

song more than expresses my feelings...especially those two lines...

I tend to always repeat those lines when in hot discussion with some right leaning friends...
I usually start it with "As the great Frank Zappa once said..."
haha.

[Philostopher]

17. My brother was a bigger fan than I was.

Well, I mean he actually went out and bought all the stuff, not just most of it. I tried to turn him on to Zappa back around 'Sheik Yerbouti,' but though he thought it was funny I don't think it spoke to him -- he too young and insufficiently jaded, at that point -- so that was the end of the story for a while. He met a friend of my ex-husband's in college who'd also been a Zappa fan, though, and from there suddenly Zappa was cool. Maybe it was 'big sister syndrome' that made it insufficiently appealing the first time through, I don't know.

He loved Zappa enough to get a band he was in to learn 'Tinseltown Rebellion.' The ex has a tape somewhere of them doing it -- my bro is a keyboard player, and he sang most of it, so it was purely a labor of love on his part.

One of the funniest stories I have about hearing a Zappa song. My family used to vacation in Clearwater Beach, Florida in the summer. One day I was on the beach (back before they told us simple sunbathing would cause malignant melanoma), headphones on, when the DJ announced it was 95 degrees -- which meant it was nearer a hundred, since the rumor was the DJs on the Tampa stations weren't ever allowed to say it was over 93 for fear of scaring people away from the beach. 'In honor of the hottest day of the year, I think you'll all appreciate this,' he said, and he put on 'Nanook Rubs It.'

Not everybody on the beach was listening to that station, but many of us were -- gradually, over a period of perhaps thirty seconds, a score of people within my hearing range turned up their blasters until they drowned out the disco-pop station that competed with the rock station.

The other funny story was that my brother, the Zappa fan friend and I went to an honors party one year around Christmas. The theme of the party was Elvis. None of us had bothered to bring anything Elvislike, and we really didn't think that much of The Kang. After we'd been there about half an hour, somebody started hassling him about the fact that we were there without any Elvisnalia. Within a single second, the three of us launched into a three-part harmony rendition of 'Elvis Has Just Left The Building.'

We heard no more about our anti-Elvis behavior for the rest of the night.

I dearly hope Frank's not resting in peace. If he is, he's bored, and who would ever wish that on a guy like Frank, especially for eternity?

[Zomby Woof]

20. wonderful post!!!

I love that beach story!! :thumbsup:

It can be hard to get some people into Zappa. You have to gauge their tastes and life experiences, and hope you are starting with the "right" album. Many of my friends were instantly hooked, and were no trouble at all. Still, first impressions can matter, and there is no one definitive album.

I hope I get more stories similar to yours.

"Elvis has just left the building! Those are his footprints right there! Elvis has just left the building! He's up there with Jesus in a big purple chair!" :D

[Philostopher]

42. A friend of mine and I used to drive around

Listening to a tape her brother had made from a bunch of his vinyl. Our favorite was 'Broken Hearts Are For Assholes,' though if 'Goblin Girl' had been out, I suppose we'd have liked it, too -- we were vicious young women, full of piss and bravado.

Edit -- and true anomalies for the early eighties -- Midwestern Zappa fans!

[Ernesto]

21. It's all true

Zomby pretty much nailed it. When I saw Zappa, he & The Mothers of Invention were always right on the money, dialed in like a clock! But they were freaks of the highest order.... Kinda scary for many people @ that time.

[bbernardini]

23. One idol (Frank) died while I watched another for the first time...

Frank Zappa died in the middle of my first Todd Rundgren concert. Pretty messed up, if you ask me. :)

[Zomby Woof]

25. Todd has a similar following

That is, it's hard to explain the devotion to the uninitiated. Both were musical iconoclasts and wizards (true stars?) at the production helm.

[trackfan]

28. I knew Suzy Creamcheese (Pam Z) when I was a kid.....

and I still, thorough various circumstances, have some of her personal effects, including letters and traffic tickets.

[Zomby Woof]

30. welcome to DU

It's amazing all the backgrounds and walks of life of DUers. Glad you shared!

[ramapo]

31. Slime from the TV Set

That's one of my favorite lines from Frank.

If you've never heard it get Overnite Sensation...

A few other favorites...Waka-Jawaka, Boulez conducts Zappa, Orchestral Favorites, Jazz from Hell, Billy the Mountain and Yellow Shark

I don't know what I miss more...Frank's commentaries through his music or his music.

He was a great classical composer. I miss what he would've written about our current situation. I mourn for all the music we lost with his untimely death.

Thanks for remembering...

[Kat45]

32. I've been a huge Zappa fan since college.

One of my group of friends, who was so into his music that his nickname was "Zappa," turned the whole group of us on to him. The album that was constantly on his turntable then was "Overnight Sensation" (the source of your namesake, of course), with "Dyna Moe Hum" being the tune we all particularly got into. We'd be singing along, having a blast.

This friend was among the group of friends I was with the first time I saw Zappa in concert. Adrian Belew was with him at the time. That concert was the first time I heard such songs as "Bobby Brown" and "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes." If I recall, he had some kind of litigation going on with a label at the time, so these songs hadn't even been out on an album yet. They came out on "Sheik Yer Bouti" a couple of years later. (I had a shitty job at the time and that album helped me through.) Imagine hearing those songs for the first time in concert--it was great! My friend had a 1940s Chrysler; when we were leaving the concert, Zappa's limo happened to be on the road beside us. Frank looked at the car, looked at my friend, and nodded his approval.

I've also introduced guys I've gone out with to Zappa's music; I took two different 'dates' to his concerts.

I, too, wish he was still around to give his scathing commentary on this country and its 'leaders' today. We really need him these days.
Frank, we miss you.

[Kat45]

35. Cool! That was my 2000th post! So appropriate, being about FZ

I knew I was close to 2000, and I hoped my 2000th would be a post of some significance. But then I forgot I was close to 2000, and after my post on this Zappa thread I remembered again and decided to check just for the heck of it. And it was number 2000! Cool!

We love you, Frank.

[Zomby Woof]

39. congrats!!!

:toast:

[LWolf]

34. He was a local here.

For a while. He went to high school in my neighborhood. Not too many non-defense related icons graced these parts. Zappa and Judy Garland.

Does he have a song about the Antelope/Aerospace Valley?

[Zomby Woof]

40. Valley Of The Sun

He did that one in the mid-70's.

You must be from the Lancaster/Antelope Valley area. :-)

[LWolf]

48. Yep.

Not from here, but I've been here for 23 years now. I'm hoping to escape in the next year or two.

So I googled it, just to see what he had to say about this place. He left a lot of songs, and this is one I hadn't heard. He nails the place pretty well:

Goin’ back home
To the village of the sun
Out in back of palmdale
Where the turkey farmers run, I done
Made up my mind
And I know I’m gonna go to sun
Village, good God I hope the
Wind don’t blow

It take the paint off your car
And wreck your windshield too,
I don’t know how the people stand it,
But I guess they do
Cause they’re all still there,
Even johnny franklin too
In the village of the sun
Village of the sun
Village of the sun, son

Of course, the place has grown a lot; all of that overflow from LA. When I moved to Palmdale in 1980, there were 10-12,000 people. Now there are 120,000+ people here, before you get to Lancaster or other smaller spots in the AV.

Interesting that he wrote about Sun Village. A community with an interesting past. After WWII a white developer, with some help from a local black activist, built the first development that would sell to African Americans. For the local black community, it was a chance for home ownership and a reason for pride. "Sun Village" was shunned by the rest of the AV, and it stayed dirt cheap. It wasn't until the 80s, when I was living here, that the community became multi-ethnic. My boys went to high school there in the 90s.

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

50. Imagine Aaron Copland and Frank Zappa as your dinner guests.

I don't know if that makes much sense, but the thought sure made me smile.

[Eroshan]

36. The Idiot Bastards Son

This song reminds me of a certain pResident. I loved Frank and his time with The Mothers. Still got the vinyl.

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. Okay everybody, say it with me: "Dickie's such an . . .

Asssssss......HOLE!

Sincerely Dick we mean it! Sincerely Ron we mean it! Sincerely Dick AND Ron, we really mean it!

[Tredge]

41. A pleasant idea

I'd like to think I learned from him but I probably didn't. I haven't lived enough or as long, so I'll let it sit.

I'll wave a little wave and act like I mean well. Bye, man.

[RandomKoolzip]

43. A sad story re: Frank

Zappa was my hero when I was growing up. I was so into the Mothers's sound circa "Weasels," I often got my friends who played in the junior high band over my house for jam sessions, and I was psyched because they often sounded like "Didja get any onya?" or "Prelude to King Kong." I was obsessed with the guy. Collected bootlegs, live tapes, you name it. My friends called me "Zappa ii" cuz he was all I'd ever talk about. If somebody anted a serious answer to a question, I'd piss 'em off by yelling "Fast 'n' BUlbous! Zorch stroking!" or "leave my nose alone, please!" There was something about his music that just lit a spark inside me, that felt comfortable, that rode the same wavelength I did...It made me feel like there WAS a place for a weird kid like me in this world.

Frank was the patron saint of nonconformers. Everything he ever did reeked of surrealist wisdom, and taught you to be skeptical of everyhing any authority figure might tell you, with humor and a sort of deranged dignity.

Lucky for me Rykodisc was reissuing his stuff on CD while this was happening! Still, I often begged my parents for money to buy "Sleep Dirt" on vinyl, or a VG+ copy of "Roxy and Elsewhere."



That was when I was about 11-12 years old. Since during that time my father was often out of it due to liver damage, and massive intake of Xanax an other painkillers, he wasn't really "present" for me the way he had been when I was younger. I sorta looked at Zappa as a kind of surrogate father during this time.

When I was 17, the year 1993, I lost my father to cirrhosis, and Zappa died the week after. I don't think I've ever fully recovered from that double whammy.


"Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform and don't kid yourself." That's something to remember....

[Tredge]

44. All the same...

Don't let anyone tell you you weren't a good kid.

[Zomby Woof]

45. amazing

I often felt the same way, about the conformity, and my place in this world.

Thanks for sharing, and peace to Frank and your father, wherever they may be.

[RandomKoolzip]

46. Thank you both.

My father was the reason I wanted to be a musician; Frank was the reason I ever picked up a guitar.

I will now put on "What's New in Baltimore?" and cry my eyes out...

[Squeech]

47. Another reason to miss him

Totally apart from all that wonderful music and scathing sociological commentary, he was an intuitive marketing genius. He knew what he had to do to get a significantly Dadaist body of work in the collective face of white bread America.

He didn't jump out of the box fully formed as we remember him; he had to try a bunch of things, and most of them didn't work worth a damn. Early on, he wrote a "concerto" for bicycle, mainly as a percussion instrument, and somehow wangled an appearance on the Steve Allen show to perform some of it. His hair was short at the time, and he wore a suit and tie for the show, but he already had that moustache and soul patch beard, at least according to the photo in his book. (20 years later, somebody I can't remember made a record called Travelin Gamelan, scored for a large ensemble of bicycles. It was an interesting record, but there's a reason I've forgotten that guy and will always remember Frank.)

And there were things he wanted to accomplish that he never could. He always wanted more airplay and media exposure. One idea he discussed in his book was a late night news show, which would analyze the news according to his iconoclastic lights, and not only perform relevant songs out of Zappa's back catalog (consider if public discussions of the media consolidation debacle all had "I'm the Slime" as a soundtrack!) but also SNL-style skits designed according to Frank's sense of the absurd. I firmly believe that Jon Stewart has read and understood that chapter of Frank's book, and maybe Letterman too, and I certainly hope the people planning this new librul radio network have too.

Brian Eno is as insightful about contemporary society and how badly it works, but he lacks the level of snarkiness, and the reputation for intelligent outrage, that Zappa used to (sometimes) insert his commentary into the body politic.

For new music, Zomby, I hope you're following Mike Keneally.

[sendero]

49. My recommendations...

.... for anyone reading who would like an intro into Zappa would have to be the "Overnight Sensation" and the much sillier "Apostrophe" albums.

I also paradoxically enjoy his later "Jazz from Hell", where he works over a Fairlight (I think) to great effect.

As for Eno, I am also a big fan of his but I see little comparison between Eno and Zappa. Eno is certainly a socially aware commentator, who has written some insightful essays, but I've never known him to express himself in that way through his music. Whereas Zappa expresses his social opinions mostly through his music.


It was sad how Frank died, and I heard a couple interviews in which he made no bones about how angry he was at his doctor for letting the cancer get so far along before it was diagnosed. Apparently, he had complained of symptoms that any good dr would have investigated, but his didn't. Once you hit 50, get a PSA test EVERY YEAR and if you have symptoms that your doctor wants to wave off, get another doctor.

[Squeech]

51. Thanks for the story about his doctor

I hadn't heard that. I did hear that, by the time they did catch on, they decided he wasn't a good risk for surgery, both because of the spread of the disease and because, as a heavy smoker, Zappa was not a good risk for anesthesia.

Eno's a different kind of musician-- you can't even really call him a composer, certainly not in the sense of a Stravinsky. More than anything else, Eno's work is all about setting up situations and systems where he thinks interesting things should happen. Of course Zappa did that too; his situations were his various bands, as well as jam sessions with people like Jack Bruce. But for Zappa the music itself was the goal, as witness the 60-plus albums he released, whereas Eno doesn't so much want to make artifacts as to figure out what kinds of systems and inputs and contraints yield the most interesting results. That's why Eno calls himself a non-musician and (when he's really bursting his buttons) a cybernetician.

Also Eno loves to read and write, which Zappa frequently admitted to doing only when he had to.

I have often wondered why no publishers have collected interviews by the likes of Zappa and Eno. I'd buy them for sure. I bought the first book I saw about Eno, Eric Tamm's Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound, and the best parts of it were Eno's own statements.

[sendero]

58. Eno

I am a huge Eno fan since the 70s (yes, I'm old :)). I have the Tamm book, the More Dark Than Shark book, and perhaps the most interesting Eno book, A Year with Swollen Appendices, which is basically 1994 or 1995's diary entries in a book.

If you haven't read "A Year...", GET IT. It reads like a real diary with little regard given to the fact that it is to be published. In fact, I don't think that was the original intention. He says some pretty outrageous and interesting things. :)

Apologies to the thread starter for the non-Zappa content. I will atone by mentioning that the crux of this biscuit was Eno. :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

52. The Steve Allen show - I have that clip

No facial hair at the time, but he is in a conventional suit with thin tie. Very 1950s. His mature voice is there (not as deep as it ended up after the attack, but it's very much his voice already at such a young age). Kinda fun to watch him being nervous, too. He hadn't quite gotten his authority yet.

He also mentioned that "The World's Greastest Sinner" is coming out in a few weeks, and talked about the orchestration and instrumentation of the score for a while.

The whole segment is about 6 minutes long.

I was going to post it, but it's 65MB, so I'm not. Sorry dudes.

[Drifter]

53. Thanks Zomby ...

I wish Frank were here to see AWOL.

Despite the fact that he hated touring (at least at the end), I believe he would have once again put all his shit in a truck, and gone out on the road again.

I love listening to the 88 tour CDs. Everything he bashes Bush I about can easily be translated to AWOL.

Cheers
Drifter

Remembering Frank Vincent Zappa - American Composer: 1940-1993

[Beetwasher]

54. Think I'll Go Home and Listen to Joes Garage Tonight

To Frank!

:toast:

[Drifter]

57. Anyone ever hear of Project/Object ? ...

They are a Zappa cover band. Great bunch of very young, very talented musicians, who have the passion to keep his music alive.

They are so good that Ike Willis (dynamic male vocalist) tours with them regularly. The last time I saw them (2 months ago), they had Napolean Murphy Brock, and Don Preston. Kick freakin ass show.

I recommend you check them out and see them if you can. How old are these guys. I remember a show about 2 years ago where one of the players was celebrating his 24th birthday (and they had been around for a couple of years at that point).

Cheers
drifter

[DinahMoeHum]

59. "Remember, there is a difference between kneeling down. . .

...and bending over" - "Heavenly Bank Account"

Where are you, Frankie, now that we need you ??? God Bless !!

:kick:

[geniph]

61. Amen, brother.

Peace, Frank. May he live forever in our memories.

[Hawkeye-X]

63. Kick for the Zappa fans

May your music be forever in our hearts...

(I like Zappa too - having heard his music, never the lyrics though)

Hawkeye-X

[FarLeftRage]

64. My Zappa memory

I remember my older brother listeing to the vinyl version of "Freak Out!" in early 1966. I was 7 at the time and already very much into music. I thought it was pretty cool to have a somewhat different take on music at that time and to be culturally critcal at the same time. As I got older, my interest in Frank's words and music has never waned.

[Terwilliger]

65. my old friend's birthday is December 21st

didn't know he shared it with Zappa

[paulk]

67. I only got to see him live once

It was during the "Apostrophe" tour.

Somebody dropped a beer on my head from the balcony. Things were blurry for a couple of songs.