Happy Birthday FRANK ZAPPA (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2nJn6rZdtI

http://lnmc.crooksandliars.com/bluegal/late-night-music-club-frank-zappa



Tomorrow marks the birthday of the late, great, Frank Zappa, and the end of the annual blogswarm known as Zappadan. There are many great Frank Zappa tunes posted for this festival, but since so many of us are dealing with winter weather, I thought "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" would be timely and appropriate.

Zappadan is headquartered at The Aristocrats. Until next year, Frank.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

1. Aw, he looks so young

. . . which led me here (first of four parts)--where he has NO MUSTACHE.

The first album I ever bought was Freak Out! I got my $5 allowance and jumped on my Stingray to head down to the record shop to get it (I think I was 7). To this day, Duke of Prunes and Sofa are all-time faves, my mom will still do a little harem dance if she's subjected to Help, I'm a Rock, and I suspect Ensemble Modern (you have to search the CDs--their Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions is amazing) will continue to embrace him as one of our greatest modern composers.

Not a bad legacy for a guy who didn't care if he left one at all.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. I think my first album might have been "Ruben & The Jets"...

...but very quickly after that my sister gave me "Freak Out" for my birthday. From that point on it was like knocking down dominoes...I just bought 'em all. Saw Frank three times in concert: with Flo & Eddie in Boston (opening act, Chuck Berry), at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos with the "Roxy & Elsewhere" band (Napoleon Murphy Brock & George Duke, opening act was a solo Tom Waits), and at the Berkeley Community Theater (the Bongo Fury tour, opening act Captain Beefheart, but...sadly...they never shared the stage for even a handshake).

I think one of the major reasons that Frank HAS such a legacy is that he DIDN'T care. People who aren't worried about how they will be remembered never let that influence their work, and in doing so, BECOME influential.

:toast:

[buzzycrumbhunger]

3. Very cool!

I was stuck in the Midwest and at that age, the best I could do was Ravi Shankar (toured our local college just after Woodstock). My brother was in HS and for some reason was allowed to hitchhike west one summer and even rushed the stage to kiss Janis. By the time I was old enough to really do what I wanted, it was Rush, Van Halen, Def Leppard, AC/DC, and all that good '70s and '80s stuff (IA is still headbanger central, I think). Closest I came to Zappa live was Bogus Pomp, a great cover band out of Tampa; Napoleon frequently appears with them. Their annual Zappaween concert is a scream. (Best winning costume was the year a guy came as Billy the Mountain.)

I've heard about the Captain Beefheart thing, but after seeing him on Letterman repeatedly, maybe he was just too far out there and Frank didn't want to deal with the unpredictability.

Dang. Now I've got to go crank some Be-Bop Tango and smoke a college diploma. :hippie:

[tekisui]

4. Listen to 'Frank on Fridays' every Friday from 12-1(noon) EST

on www.wncw.org

All Zappa for one hour, no commercial interruptions.

[martymar64]

5. Here's Frank playing Mike Nesmith . . . and vice versa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNJy-OgCzB0

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. That's an old favorite, especially because of...

...the "blink and you'll miss it" swipe at Davy Jones:

NESMITH (As Zappa): "I wanted to know where the soul of your music was. Is it on the one and seven, or is it on the one and the five?"

ZAPPA (As Nesmith): "The soul of YOUR music is on the one and seven, sometimes on the three and the five, The soul of OUR music, The Monkees, lies somewhere between the one and a half, the two and a half, the three and three quarters, and the giant C Major chord on the piano. I'll demonstrate for you."

In a previous episode, Jones had a segment in which he interviewed a "soul" musician, who attempted to explain the difference between "soul" music and "Monkees" music with terms such as "the one and seven, or is it on the one and the five," which CLEARLY went over Jones' head, even though he sat there with an ear to ear grin while spouting Davy-isms along the lines of "Yeah, man, I can dig it."

:toast:

[edbermac]

7. I miss FZ, he was one of a kind.

[Initech]

8. Zappa was fucking awesome.