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| November 22nd, 2010 05:06 PM |
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| Jason Penick |
Quote:
Chris D. wrote:
Anyone know why there was no anniversary box for Absolutely Free?
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I believe because the band found their studio budget cut in half after the commercial "failure" of Freak Out, they had very little time to experiment in the studio when it came to cutting Absolutely Free. In other words, the tracks were pre-rehearsed and they just went in and cut them-- no real outtakes per se. |
| November 22nd, 2010 05:12 PM |
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| S Giacomelli |
Quote:
Leo K wrote:
I'm a nostalgic, sentimental-romantic listener who never understood sarcasm that well.
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You've got the Grand Wazoo vinyl, right? Try the last track on side two. |
| November 22nd, 2010 06:12 PM |
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| Leo K |
Wow, thanks guys! That is some amazing help right there.
I won't worry about the CD mix then, and I'll just pick up a copy soon. I wanted to go back to the shop tonight after work, so they may have it.
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| November 22nd, 2010 06:16 PM |
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| Leo K |
Quote:
S Giacomelli wrote:
You've got the Grand Wazoo vinyl, right? Try the last track on side two.
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I ended having to pick and choose certain Zappa LPs on that visit, because I was also picking up the Concord pressing of Radio City. I almost bought Grand Wazoo and Absolutely Free, but ended up deciding on Uncle Meat, Crusin with Ruben, and Chunga's Revenge. I shoulda just bought the whole lot!
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| November 22nd, 2010 06:26 PM |
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| S Giacomelli |
Cool. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Uncle Meat/Cruising with Ruben! |
| November 22nd, 2010 09:35 PM |
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| IanWagner |
Chronology 1965 Part 2-1966 Part 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/un0zgt
The genesis of The Mothers Of Invention began in a suitable low-rent manner. In late 1964, Native American drummer Jimmy Carl Black was pawning his cymbals in order to get food money for his family. He had posted a notice in the pawn shop that his drumming services were available. Another pawnee was bassist Roy Estrada, a former Pachuco. They decided to form a group entitled The Soul Giants, with Davey Coronado on sax, and a guitarist and vocalist.
Shortly, they were hired to perform at a club called The Broadside in Pomona. One of the carpenters who had built the club was none other than Ray Collins, who had temporarily sidelined his singing carer.
Collins became a club regular, and jumped up on stage to sing with the Giants. Shortly, he became their new lead singer. The guitarist did not get along with Ray, and left the group.
This coincided with Frank Zappa's release from jail in April 1965. Desperately needing a new guitarist, so the Broadside gigs could continue, Collins called in a favour to his old friend. But Zappa would be the one to ultimately benefit.
Zappa duly joined the Giants, and the group played the Broadside on weekends, sticking strictly to the dance cover material the rowdy patrons demanded. But very quickly, Frank informed the group that if he were to stay, they would have to begin performing the original material he was beginning to write.
Though Frank had already vacated the Studio Z premises and was staying with various friends, he managed to sneak the group back into the location for rehearsals. Coronado told the rest of the group that the new Zappa material would never go over in the clubs they were playing. Needing a steady job, he left the group, and the Giants were now down to four members, Zappa, Collins, Estrada and Black.
Sure enough, Coronado was right. As soon as The Soul Giants tried an original song on stage, they were fired. In late April through early May, the group briefly changed their name to the delightful moniker Captain Glasspack and his Magic Mufflers.
On May 9th, they officially became The Mothers.
Needing money, the group briefly returned to their cover-song sets, and again played The Broadside. One of their sets in May was recorded by Zappa, and a short excerpt of the group jamming on Muddy Waters' Louisiana Blues was released later on Mystery Disc. A slightly longer excerpt was played by Zappa during a radio DJ spot in the 70's.
This recording is brief, but we can easily hear the group's facility for this type of music, and one can assume they went over well with their tough audiences, when they stuck to non-original material. Interestingly, already Frank and Ray are duetting on vocal duties.
Another, longer excerpt from a club set of this era, most likely also from The Broadside, has been available on the archival collection Joe's Corsage.
The tape begins with a fine version of The Righteous Brothers' My Babe, sung by Ray and Roy. Frank plays a fine solo, and the group sound to be nothing more, nothing less than a very good bar band.
The most adventurous song choice on the tape, by far, is an instrumental medley adaptation of two folk melodies, Wedding Dress Song and The Handsome Cabin Boy, than Frank had learned off of albums borrowed from his school library. He had a great fondness for these tunes, and the medley would remain in The Mothers' playbook for a few years hence. The version here is short and comparatively rudimentary.
The final track from this recording is a version of a song that was likely to be in every bar band repertoire of the era, Marvin Gaye's Hitch Hike. The Mothers' version is OK, featuring a good Collins vocal, but nothing remotely inspired. This is a good example of exactly the type of thing that Zappa wanted to escape, whereas the other members of the group were content to play this type of material, as long as it provided beer and food money.
But Frank's plans were greater, and involved the Big Move, to Los Angeles, where a musical and cultural revolution was underway. He moved back to the neighborhood he had lived in previously after he had left his parents, Echo Park. This was a tiny cottage in a bad neighborhood, but it would have to do.
Looking for some extra money on the side, Frank accepted a job from friend Del Kacher, who had his own studio in LA. This was the theme song for a very low-budget science-fiction short film, written by and starring little-known actress Florence Marly.
Marly also wrote the cracked title song, and "sang" it as well. Kacher played guitar and bass, and Zappa played drums and orchestrated the whole mess.
For lovers of ultra-bizarre, outsider 60's music, Space Boy is a gem, and easily one of the weirdest and most obscure items in the Zappa history. The film itself wasn't released until 1973, and the theme has only been made available on the collectors' circuit from a crackly test pressing source.
During this time, Frank even tried a day job at Wallich's Music City, working in the singles department, naturally.
When Frank checked out the new LA scene, he was astounded to discover the enormity of what was happening. Teenagers and hip adults alike were flocking to the Sunset Strip to see The Byrds, a group so hip, so in-crowd, they were immediately accepted as the local Beatles. Sortly, more groups, such as Love, would siphon off some of this prestige and rabid fan following. Zappa knew that somehow, he had to infiltrate this world, and make a name and reputation for himself.
He had wanted to become a serious composer, but that wouldn't pay the bills. Now the world of rock was turning serious, and Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone let Zappa know that a hybrid of R&B, pop, rock and roll and serious lyrics just might work as the type of musical compromise he could live with.
But there was a serious image problem for The Mothers to contend with. Whereas in straight working-man locales such as Pomona and Cucamonga they were seen as long-haired degenerates, in LA they looked positively straight with their above-the-shoulders hair. This simply would not do. Their hair would have to grow, to be accepted as hip in Hollywood.
For Zappa, living in Los Angeles, this was no big thing. But for the rest of the group, still living in Centerville USA, they had to drive home and risk being lynched if their hair got any longer, as well as fired from their day jobs.
Eventually, a compromise was reached where on off-hours, the group would tuck their long hair under their shirt collars, then let it loose with The Mothers in LA.
But in the interim, in order to even get gigs in Hollywood, a strange hair-covering image scheme was concocted, where the group wore large Homburg hats, which made the group look like European immigrants from the 1920's.
Through a recent artist acquaintance, The Mothers got the job of providing musical entertainment at the wrap party for an exploito-mentary entitled Mondo Hollywood. This film, though mercenary at times, was nevertheless an important document of Los Angeles at a time when the "true" hippies were about to take over, as hair was growing out and minds were beginning to open. An interesting note is that Zappa's future wife, Gail, can be seen in the film following around her then-boyfriend, LA singer Bobby Jameson, who would work with Frank in 1966.
A primitive recording was made of The Mothers' jam that night, and about two minutes of the recording have been released officially on Mystery Disc. This features some truly explosive guitar playing by Frank, and a molten rock-blues groove from Estrada and Black.
Some encouraging screams and shouts from the dancers and audience present show that the group was roundly accepted in this super-ultra-hip environment.
The party was also filmed, and a bit of the footage was inserted into Mondo Hollywood. The music was redubbed by film producer Mike Curb's house band Davie Allan and the Arrows, but the approximate two seconds that one can sight the group marks the first available visual document of the band.
A sort of coming-out party for The Mothers, the occasion was most important in that the group were witnessed by tough local manager Herb Cohen. Very impressed by the power of the band, and Zappa's commanding presence, Cohen immediately accepted the role of their manager.
Cohen is an under-recognised figure in Zappa history, and his importance in getting funding and a spotlight for Zappa's bizarre art is fairly incalculable.
In the careers of legendary artists, usually there is the man behind the scenes, the ruthless wheeler-dealer who is feared by those in the business that have to negotiate with them. For The Beatles, this was Brian Epstein. For The Stones, Andrew Loog Oldham. For Elvis, Tom Parker. For Dylan, Albert Grossman. For Led Zeppelin, Peter Grant. And for Zappa, this role would be taken by Herb Cohen.
The new manager prompty got the group a regular job at the Action club. There, the infamous dance-scenester collective known as Vito and the Freaks, popularly associated with The Byrds' live shows, got acquainted with The Mothers and began to regularly visit their Action shows. And where Vito and Freaks went, the hip followed. The Mothers' reputation was established.
And the Freaks were also extremely important as the inspiration for song lyrics on, and the very concept of, The Mothers' debut LP the following year.
Some of the new material that Frank was writing was so pointed and wordy that he would have to sing it himself, as Collins was more comfortable with the poppy and bluesy material. Where Frank had not dared to sing live before because of the limitations of his voice, the current popularity of "non-singer" Bob Dylan gave Zappa confidence to voice his own messages.
The problem with this was that Frank had trouble playing and singing at the same time, similarly to BB King. Live, this meant that when Frank sang, the guitar dropped out entirely, not such a good move for a three-piece instrumental ensemble. So Frank quickly began looking for a second guitarist.
For a man so often tagged (both fairly and unfairly) as a misogynist, it is telling that the very first person Frank offered this job to was a talented local folk player who just happened to be female, Alice Stuart. Though Frank would show hostile feelings toward women in his song lyrics, when a woman was musically talented, he treated them as an equal onstage. This would eventually see its greatest showcase in the virtuosic form of Ruth Underwood in the 1970's Mothers lineups.
Stuart's time as a Mother wouldn't be long, however. Zappa said that he fired Stuart, because although she was quite adept at more complicated material, she could not manage to execute the simple three-chord pattern of Louie Louie. Stuart hereself contends that she was so embarrassed by a major element of The Mothers' show at the time, Zappa's protracted Pachuco-style spoken raps, that she quit.
One of the major events of the summer of 1965 was the uprising in Watts, California, where an entire community burned down and looted its own neighborhood, as a supposed protest against ghetto conditions.
Zappa stayed away from the physical troubles themselves, but he saw the coverage on local TV station KTLA and was so disgusted by their sensationalistic slant that he wrote a long, very wordy talking-blues protest song that he dubbed, simply Watts Riot Song. The Mothers began performing it as a highlight of their sets, and for once, Zappa was totally in tune with the popular musical style of the times.
On November 15th, just as the group were moving from The Action (as well as their first trip to San Francisco) to a residence at the world-famous Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Strip, a new guitarist entered The Mothers' lineup.
This was Henry Vestine, a brilliant player who impressed Frank with an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure R&B to rival his own.
This new combination worked out well from the evidence of the only available recording of this lineup, a four-song demo laid down at an unknown studio, possibly at Original Sound with Paul Buff at the board. This first studio Mothers recording was later made available on Joe's Corsage.
All four songs were originals, and three were new Zappa compositions.
Motherly Love functioned as a type of theme song for the group, a tongue-in-cheek advertisement proclaiming the sexual virtues of the specific band members. This take on the song features some Byrds-jangly guitar picking, a shared vocal lead between Collins (chorus) and Zappa (verses) as well as Black's very erratic timing, speeding up and slowing down at various points.
Plastic People was a perversion of Louie Louie with new Zappa lyrics, and was presumably the song that Alice Stuart could not master. This song, when eventually reworked for the Absolutely Free album, would become an attack on the more shallow LA scene-denizens, but this earlier version is clearly a reflection of Zappa's time in all the straight suburban communities he had served time in. Again, for this song, Zappa takes the verses (with Pachuco affectations) and Collins is the main voice for the chorus.
Any Way The Wind Blows was a perfect choice for resurrection from the Pal Studios days. Now sounding like a Beatles-inspired (check the final chord), very accessible proto-power-pop item, it is the main vocal spotlight for Collins in this demo session. From later Zappa interviews, Blows was apparently the song that was hardest for 4/4 backbeat-reliant Jimmy Carl Black to learn, especially the dynamic turnarounds that lead back into the verses.
The true anthem from these sessions was I Ain't Got No Heart, a song that was clearly a product of Zappa's recent divorce and arrest record. He had decided to close himself off from the world in terms of verbal expression, and his personal life, his psychic wounds still fresh. I Ain't Got No Heart is a declaration to the world directly from Frank Zappa, and it would be a song he would remain fond of, tellingly.
This early arrangement is very different from what would later appear on Freak Out, with a few straight blues-groove section that highlight Vestine's guitar talents. The vocals, a Zappa-Collins duet, are nowhere near as polished as the later recording. This is the most genuinely progressive item on the demo tape.
Predictably, the demo was rejected by every label it was sent to, even small independents. Clive Davis, A&R head at Columbia, would provide one of the most popular Zappa catchphrases in his rejection: "No commercial potential".
Sometime during the Whisky stand near the end of 1965, producer Tom Wilson (who had produced many cornerstone Dylan recordings, including Like A Rolling Stone) saw The Mothers, and was extremely impressed by the Watts Riot Song, hearing some commerical potential in it. After the show, he approached the band to say he would make a record with them, then disappeared. Zappa wouldn't hear any more from Wilson for at least another two months.
The same Mothers club-residency routine continued into 1966. At the end of January, the group played an engagement at new hotspot The Trip.
As the group's musical confidence grew, Zappa began giving them material that was stranger, and more complicated. Henry Vestine, a rock-blues purist, decided it was all too strange for him, and left the band, declaring he was going to start a blues band. With two other hardcore blues collectors, Bob Hite and Alan Wilson, this band, Canned Heat, wold be formed, and its commercial success would far eclipse that of Zappa.
A shortlived replacement for Vestine was James William Guercio, who only lasted a few shows, Guercio would shortly give up his performing career to become the producer of The Buckinghams, and then the logo megaband Chicago.
For a time, The Mothers again numbered four.
A rehearsal tape from this era, recorded at a space on Seward St. in downtown LA, was later excerpted for release on Mystery Disc (a longer version of the first section is also available, from the same radio source as the longer Broadside excerpt).
The banter and goofing around that begins this recording is the first example we have of the goofy, brain-dead humour that the non-Zappa members of The Mothers would become known for, and it shows what attracted Zappa to them. These guys were just as goofy as Motorhead Sherwood and the Williams brothers, and they would provide an essential inspiring ingredient in Zappa's work, besides their musical contributions.
In this dialogue section, Roy, Ray and Jimmy fool around with the lyrics of Rock Around The Clock, then begin an impromptu song about the sandwiches they are eating.
A runthrough of Zappa's new composition How Could I Be Such A Fool follows. This song, a great showcase for Collins' wonderful voice (backed by Roy), was one of the most lyrically heartfelt and emotionally open Zappa songs. A simple and direct reflection of Frank's feelings after the breakdown of his marriage, this song is exactly the type of material that he would avoid after the Freak Out album, with the exception of the style-driven Ruben And The Jets project.
It is remarkable to hear a song so straightforward, tuneful and touching from the Zappa pen, and this early rehearsal shows the arrangement already close to the form it would take on Freak Out.
Another demo was recorded during this four-man lineup era, again at an unknown studio, most probably Original Sound.
Three songs from it would be released on Joe's Corsage.
The most startling of these is a unique take on the Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance melody that had previously been recorded twice at Pal Studios. This 1966 version contains totally different lyrics, and is entitled I'm So Happy I Could Cry.
This surprisingly straightforward and straightfaced pop song (with another Beatle final chord), with a great Collins vocal and even some ultra-pop backing vocal harmonies, is a real lost gem. It is surprising that it did not make the Freak Out album, but maybe it was just too "straight" for Zappa's taste. When it would reappear in final form on We're Only In It For The Money, the lyrics would be just as hopeful, but of a topical variety.
Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder was a new collaboration between Zappa and Collins, the duo's best aping of the doo-wop ballad genre in years. This song is clearly tongue-in-cheek in large measure, but some element of Zappa's post-divorce bitterness still creeps in. Again, Collins does a marvelous job on the vocal, and Zappa does his patented Pachuco-rap thing on the intro, break and outro. This type of thing was specific to The Mothers and Zappa, a major element of their identity.
How Could I Be Such A Fool follows on the demo, and is slightly more polished than the earlier demo, with some stinging lead guitar on the choruses, and a heavy usage of reverb.
These versions of Shoulder and Fool are in some ways more reminiscent of the Ruben And The Jets takes, then they are of their first-released forms on Freak Out.
A version of Watts Riot Song, slower than it would later appear on Freak Out, was also laid down. A small excerpt of this was later released on The Making Of Freak Out Project/Object set, combined with excerpts from a later live performance at The Fillmore.
Reportedly, two more songs, the new composition I'm Not Satisfied and another take on I Ain't Got No Heart, were also recorded for this demo, but these have not been made available.
Zappa claimed this demo tape was also shopped around to labels, and was another round reject.
Possibly due to this lack of success, Ray Collins then left the band, the first of many departures from the emotionally erratic singer. Collins was always mindful of financial difficulties, as well as a lack of affinity with Zappa's stranger material.
Now desperately needing a second guitarist so he could sing all the group's material in live performances, Zappa hired blues player Steve Mann for the job. But Mann quickly departed, unable to deal with the more complicated material.
Greater success was found in the person of guitarist Elliot Ingber. Less of a flashy presence than Vestine, the mellow, troubled, talented Ingber would provide a much-needed stabilising presence in this crucial period for The Mothers.
In February, Zappa finally heard from Tom Wilson, who had just established a production base with MGM Records' formerly jazz-oriented Verve subsidiary. Herb Cohen established negotiations with the corporate behemoth.
Using this bait, Zappa was then able to lure the sorely-needed Ray Collins back into the group, and the Freak Out lineup was finally complete.
On March 1st, the group were signed by MGM and Verve. It would seem unlikely that such a mainstream, safe multimedia conglomerate such as MGM would take a chance on a band like The Mothers (or, shortly, The Velvet Underground), but that is just how much cachet that Wilson had after his successes with Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. MGM wanted success in the serious-rock field, and Wilson was a man they trusted.
The five Mothers and Wilson entered TTG studios in Hollywood just eight days later, with a small three-session-man complement of Eugene DiNovi on paino, Gene Estes on percussion and Neil Le Vang on additional guitar.
The album was originally envisaged by Wilson and MGM as a quickie, low-budget affair to be recorded in a few days' time. Anticipating this, Zappa clearly had to have rehearsed the band within an inch of their lives, as on this first days, no less than eight songs were recorded, only one of which would require further overdubbing work.
The most performance-tested and basically-arranged songs in The Mothers repertoire were recorded this first day, with one notable exception. The backing tracks were all recorded live in the studio.
Any Way The Wind Blows, already a Mothers standard, as up first, and showcased Gene Estes on vibes, a favourite Zappa instrument. The backing track for this song was later released on The MOFO Project/Object. Vocals for the song were to be recorded two days later.
Second in line was a major product of the sessions, the song that would open the Freak Out album and introduce Zappa to most of his listeners, the new composition Hungry Freaks Daddy.
This song took deadly aim at straight society, addressed as an open letter to "Mr. America". Zappa's early lyrical stance is neatly summarised here, openly confrontational and contemptuous. Mincing no words, and taking a certain amount of cue from Dylan's most angry songs, he informs the older generation of "the emptiness that's you inside", of the worthlessness of their institutions.
Zappa would, of course, maintain a similar attitude throughout his life, but there was one crucial difference in this era. Where Zappa would later become the ultimate iconoclast, at this early stage he felt a direct solidarity with the counterculture youth movement, or at least the form of it he had experienced in Los Angeles.
The term "freaks" had come directly from the unit of dancers-happening-makers led by Vito Paulekas, and this song was meant as a type of theme for them, as an example to the rest of American youth, and a warning to the older generation. There was deep empathy in Zappa's views of this time for those young people that the system had railroaded, in his eloquent term "the left-behinds of The Great Society".
Hungry Freaks Daddy, an announcement of ominous intent that had an eerie congruence with statements later made by psycho-musician Charles Manson, was very strong stuff, expertly concocted and expressed.
The backing track, later issued on MOFO Project (2-disc edition), is also direct, with a punchy garage-blues fuzzy feel. The bridge sections take off into more melodic and sophisticated territory.
Another mix of the backing track, created in 1970 for an unknown purpose, highlights the session men's contributions on piano, vibes and extra guitar.
The very first vocal overdub take for the song appeared on MOFO. This reveals the close blend of voices between Zappa and Collins, which on the record sounds at times like a double-tracked Zappa effort. In actuality, Collins adopts Frank's monotone approach in fine fashion.
In 1969, when compiling the MGM-mandated compilation album Mothermania, Zappa took the opportunity to remix the Freak Out tracks that were included. In the case of Hungry Freaks, this resulted in a less airy, more dense and compressed sound that closely resembled the original mono mix.
Next was another new Zappa composition, the brilliant, progressive and truly frightening Who Are The Brain Police? This song featured Zappa's buzzword of the moment, plastic, used to refer to anything deemed phony and superficial, from people to objects.
The verses ask three rhetorical questions of his straight lyrical target:
What will you do if we let you go home,
And the plastic's all melted,
And so is the chrome?
What will you do when the label comes off,
And the plastic's all melted,
And the chrome is too soft?
What will you do if the people you knew
Were the plastic that melted,
And the chromium too?
These sections have a Brian Wilson-esque bounce to them, with a spotlight usage of vibes.
The chorus is merely the ominous and paranoid title phrase appended to the ends of the verses, drenched in echo and apocalyptic demon-fuzz guitar and bass.
The middle section is a fast, scorching rave-up that sounds very similar to the jam they had played at the Mondo Hollywood party, with the addition of Estes on tympani, and chanted, "I'm gonna die" vocals.
Perhaps the greatest achievement in Zappa's career to this point, the doomy Brain Police was a truly bracing and innovative work that was unmerciful, uncompromised, uncommercial and stunning.
The changes and transitions betwen sections that the song required were still beyond the capability of The Mothers, so the backing track was recorded in three sections. The opening and closing verses-choruses were taped first, then the middle raveup last.
The MOFO Project contained some riveting audio evidence of how the final track was created.
An alternate take of the rave-up Section B is heard. Zappa's adventurous tape-collage methods on his albums began when he used a portion of this take as an interpolated section on the master of another Freak Out track, I Ain't Got No Heart.
The backing track highlights the ingenious nature of the composition and arrangement, as well as Eugene Di Novi and Gene Estes' work. A 1970 remix of the backing track features the three sections in their original isolated form, with the slates and count-ins included.
A unique mono mix of the song, with emphasis on the vocals (another layered Collins-Zappa duet, this time leaning towards Collins), would be released as a single, and this would be reissued on the 2-disc version of The MOFO Project.
Brain Police was another track remixed by Zappa for the Mothermania compilation in 1969.
Legend has it that this track was the one that so impressed Tom Wilson that he adjusted the scope of the project. Clearly, Brian Police announced the arrival of a major talent and social commentator. But the other five tracks recorded over the rest of the day's session weren't exactly filler either.
(Edited by IanWagner) |
| November 23rd, 2010 12:39 PM |
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| Jason Penick |
Just awesome, Ian. I'm loving these essays, and I always seem to pick up little bits of knowledge about Frank I had missed before. Like for instance, I never knew about his early inability to play and sing simultaneously (or B.B. King's for that matter!). This is something I struggle with myself from time to time, so it's sort of inspiring to know that one of my musical heroes went through a bit of the same thing.
I remember a quote from one of the early Mothers, might have been Del Kecher, where he said Frank was constantly adding lead guitarists because he wasn't very good at the instrument yet. Yet upon hearing the Broadside tapes, it's clear FZ was more than capable, so I like your explanation better. (And who knows, that original quote was probably taken out of context anyway.) |
| November 23rd, 2010 02:45 PM |
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| Chris D. |
Great work Ian. Like Jason said, you're filling in some gaps. I don't know a lot of Frank history.
Considering how developed Zappa's albums are, it's interesting to see how haphazardly Freak Out! seemed to come together. I'm sure in his head he had various ideas, and once they started proper recording he had to know what he wanted. But the way you write about it, it seems like a miracle any of this came together.
I'm very impressed by Zappa's drive. His ideas and ambitious were complex and he never gave up, even when struggling. What was his relationship with his parents like over the years? That seems to be the biggest difference between him and Brian Wilson, at least that I can see. Zappa felt supported enough to realize his ideas when the stage was there for him. Brian didn't have the support even when he started getting success from his experimentation.
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| November 23rd, 2010 03:10 PM |
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| halleluwah |
Very, very good, informative stuff, Ian and Jason. It's always been kind of fascinating to me how Zappa was able to just hijack a straight-up, unremarkable bar band and within a year turn them into one of the most revolutionary rock groups of the whole decade. To be able to convince a bunch of weekend warriors who play for beer money to abandon that and instead start playing things like Who Are the Brain Police is kind of astounding; Zappa must have had just an eerie amount of charisma to be able to do that. Like, a Charles Manson level of charisma (how fortunate that he chose to use it for good). Because generally, if one member of a band like that tries to drag the others into something that obviously non-lucrative, that member will promptly be fired under most circumstances. Easier just to find another guitar player than to deal with some asshole who wants to be an "artist" instead, you know. I love the fact that the other members of the band actually went along with it.
I've always wondered how befuddled the other musicians in the band were by Zappa's songs. These were after all guys who were just used to playing What'd I Say and Twist and Shout and whatnot. You mentioned that Ray Collins had a lack of affinity for some of Zappa's farther out material (strange that he would be the biggest holdout, seeing as he was the one who had previously known Zappa, and presumably knew what he was getting himself into when he brought him into the group). Are there any interviews out there with Jimmy Carl Black or Roy Estrada where they talk about what their initial first reactions were to the change in material? I'd be interested to know what it was about those songs that convinced them that yes, we're going to go along with this guy. |
| November 23rd, 2010 03:42 PM |
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| Jason Penick |
Quote:
Chris D. wrote:
Great work Ian. Like Jason said, you're filling in some gaps. I don't know a lot of Frank history.
Considering how developed Zappa's albums are, it's interesting to see how haphazardly Freak Out! seemed to come together. I'm sure in his head he had various ideas, and once they started proper recording he had to know what he wanted. But the way you write about it, it seems like a miracle any of this came together.
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Thanks, Chris. Hopefully you caught my previous post re: the schizo nature of Freak Out!, but there's something I'd like to add that I only started considering after Ian's last essay. This is going to be a somewhat long-winded response to your post, but bare with me!
Based on the quote I provided previously, I have always considered that Frank was consciously, intentionally attempting to create an album that was deliberately all over the map; or as he put it, something that would appeal to people from 8 to 80. And while this is probably true on some level, I now think what we're hearing, particularly on that first album alone, is the type of artistic growth it usually takes bands three or more albums to achieve.
Think about it. I mean I can't say with certainty since I wasn't there, but I imagine that when the Mothers first started adding originals to their cover set list in 1965, that it was mostly innocuous stuff such as "Any Way the Wind Blows" or "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder" that they tried to incorporate. Then maybe next came "Plastic People", their first topical song. Then come songs like "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" or "I'm Not Satisfied" where Zappa maybe first learns to write great lyrics, but with a much more negative slant than what was currently happening on all other musical fronts. Then "Trouble Every Day" and from there it's on to "Hungry Freaks Daddy" and "Who Are the Brain Police", which combine forward-thinking musical motifs with lyrics that savagely torch mainstream America, but with none of the overt dumbness found on something like "Plastic People".
It's beginning to seem to me that Freak Out!'s haphazard nature is more an issue of its sequencing than anything. If you start off with "Any Way the Wind Blows" and save "Freaks" and "Brain Police" until the end of side three, prior to "Help I'm a Rock", it might not make for a better listen, but I think it really shines a light on just how fast this band was evolving. Or to lamely tie into your next point, it would be like a Beach Boys album that started off with "Surfin' USA" and ended with "Cabinessence" or something.
Quote:
Chris D. wrote:
I'm very impressed by Zappa's drive. His ideas and ambitious were complex and he never gave up, even when struggling. What was his relationship with his parents like over the years? That seems to be the biggest difference between him and Brian Wilson, at least that I can see. Zappa felt supported enough to realize his ideas when the stage was there for him. Brian didn't have the support even when he started getting success from his experimentation.
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Great point. Although one might be able to look at it from the opposite perspective too, as to the best of my knowledge, Frank's dad didn't offer his son much in the way of help in getting his band's career started. You have to factor Brian's mental illness in as well. But one thing I dug about Ian's last piece is his observation that both musicians were big fans of things like "Gee" and "Riot in Cell Block #9". To extrapolate, I think around 1966 people like Anderle and Parks were hipping Brian to the more avant stuff Frank had been into since his youth. I listened to a version of Varese's "Ionisation" for the first time last night, and it reminded me of nothing so much as Brian's "Fire".
(Edited by Jason Penick) |
| November 23rd, 2010 04:07 PM |
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| Jason Penick |
Quote:
halleluwah wrote:
Very, very good, informative stuff, Ian and Jason. It's always been kind of fascinating to me how Zappa was able to just hijack a straight-up, unremarkable bar band and within a year turn them into one of the most revolutionary rock groups of the whole decade. To be able to convince a bunch of weekend warriors who play for beer money to abandon that and instead start playing things like Who Are the Brain Police is kind of astounding; Zappa must have had just an eerie amount of charisma to be able to do that. Like, a Charles Manson level of charisma (how fortunate that he chose to use it for good). Because generally, if one member of a band like that tries to drag the others into something that obviously non-lucrative, that member will promptly be fired under most circumstances. Easier just to find another guitar player than to deal with some asshole who wants to be an "artist" instead, you know. I love the fact that the other members of the band actually went along with it.
I've always wondered how befuddled the other musicians in the band were by Zappa's songs. These were after all guys who were just used to playing What'd I Say and Twist and Shout and whatnot. You mentioned that Ray Collins had a lack of affinity for some of Zappa's farther out material (strange that he would be the biggest holdout, seeing as he was the one who had previously known Zappa, and presumably knew what he was getting himself into when he brought him into the group). Are there any interviews out there with Jimmy Carl Black or Roy Estrada where they talk about what their initial first reactions were to the change in material? I'd be interested to know what it was about those songs that convinced them that yes, we're going to go along with this guy.
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More very good points-- thanks Jason. I'm annoyed at myself for constantly paralleling the Mothers with the Beach Boys at the moment, but please forgive this one final analogy by way of comparison:
Frank = Brian
Ray = Mike
Jimmy = Dennis
Roy = Carl
Henry/ Elliott = Al/ David
I think you dig where I'm going with this. Both bands have a genius for a leader who more or less started writing basic pop songs but quickly progressed to creating musical masterworks that were giving a mixed reception at the time by their fellow band mates. You've got two lead singers, both big time r'n'b fans, who started off on a more or less equal footing with the "band virtuoso" but who progressively lost musical influence as it became apparent who the real straw that stirred the drink was. Then a drummer and another supporting musician who were maybe a little more sympathetic to the artistic vision of the main dude then the singer was. And finally, a shifting fifth slot of guys whose opinions on the music, valid though they might be, probably mattered little in the scope of things at first.
Where am I going with all this? Well it kind of speaks to your first point of how Frank was able to convince his guys that he had the right approach. My guess is, as with Brian around Pet Sounds/ SMiLE, he presented his ideas and some of the guys dug it and some didn't to different degrees, but ultimately he was the leader and made the decisions. It's not a perfect comparison by any stretch, but again there are similarities I just can't overlook.
Ditto the Manson thing. You and Ian both raised the issue of Frank as a kind of anti-Manson. So much to expound on there: I often thought of Vito as the anti-Manson, but after hearing some stories from those who were there, I think there may have been more in common between the two than I previously would have liked to have thought possible, plus also some intermingling of the tribes as it were. [NOTE: Please don't anyone infer that I'm labeling Vito and his Freaks as a bunch of murderous fiends. I'm just saying it wasn't all happy times dancing at Ciro's with that set.]
Add two of the most charismatic rockers (lead actors?) of all time to the mix in Dennis Wilson and Frank Zappa-- neither dark nor light figures, both shaded in gray-- and you have the basis for one of the most influential and bizarre chapters in modern history.
Sorry, I've wandered way off track with my last two posts. I'll try to get re-focused, but god damn is this stuff interesting to me. |
| November 23rd, 2010 05:25 PM |
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| Leo K |
Great stuff guys!
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| November 23rd, 2010 06:07 PM |
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| the captain |
Quote:
halleluwah wrote:
Zappa must have had just an eerie amount of charisma to be able to do that. Like, a Charles Manson level of charisma (how fortunate that he chose to use it for good).
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I think you'd find few-to-no truly legendary pop music artists who don't fit that description. It's probably one of the biggest keys to being great. |
| November 23rd, 2010 06:45 PM |
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| IanWagner |
Chronology 1966 Part 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/s73a2p
The fourth song cut during the marathon first Freak Out session on March 9th, 1966, was another new Frank Zappa composition, You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here.
This song was another bracing attack on straight society, but this time not leavened by the assurance of the advancing freak army. In Probably Wondering, an astounding level of disgusted, patronising and dismissive disregard is displayed, one which even My Generation-era Pete Townshend and Positively Fourth Street-era Dylan would blanche at.
Just as much as you wonder
'Bout me bein' in this place
That's just how much I marvel
At the lameness on your face
You rise each day the same old way
And join your friends out on the street
Spray your hair
And think you're neat
I think your life is incomplete
But a self-aware admission follows:
But maybe that's not for me to say
They only pay me here to play
A deathless reference to Zappa's club days in desert suburbia is inserted here when he bellows:
I WANNA HEAR CARAVAN WITH A DRUM SOLA!
Just as much as you wonder
'Bout me starin' back at you
That's just how much I question
The corny things you do
You paint your face and then you chase
To meet the gang where the action is
Stomp all night
And drink your fizz
Roll your car and say "Gee whiz!"
You tore a big hole in your convertible top
What will you tell your Mom and Pop?
"Mom, I tore a big hole in the convertible!"
Just as much as you wonder
If I mean just what I say
That's just how much I question
The social games you play
You told your Mom you're stoked on Tom
And went for a cruise in Freddie's car
Tommy's asking
Where you are
You boogied all night in a cheesy bar
Plastic boots and plastic hat
And you think you know where it's at?
The chorus is a simple statement of angry defeat:
You're probably wondering
Why I'm here
And so am I
So am I
The song ends with a knockout punch challenge:
Not that it makes a heck of a lot of a difference to ya!
The placing of this song at the end of the "song" half of Freak Out gives it an extra air of importance and immediacy. Frank wanted his listeners to pay close attention to this message, and to wake up.
The backing track for the song (highlighting the insistent qualities of the comparatively simple arrangement) was released on The MOFO Project/Object, as well as the first two tries at the vocal overdubs. On the second of these breakdown takes, Frank starts out with a funny parody of Sonny Bono's hilariously earnest spoken intro to his protest hit Laugh At Me. Frank and Ray duet on the choruses, and Ray takes the first half of the verses solo, with Frank injecting some stoopid-rock "YEEEEAHHHHH"s. Ray and Frank also overdub their kazoo/nose solo at the end of the intro at this stage.
The song was also remixed for the Mothermania compilation by Frank in 1969, another sign of the song's importance to the composer.
The Zappa/Collins collaboration Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder was recorded next. This version was a bit brighter and poppier than the demo recorded earlier in the year, but it still remained fairly basic.
The backing track was issued on The MOFO Project, as well as the second take of the vocal overdub. Collins gives one of his finest performances on this song, with a strong backup from Frank, singing in a much higher register than one might think he could reach. He also performs the bass vocal, and the classic Pachuco raps sprinkled throughout, perhaps the finest example of such in Zappa's work. The ending rap on the second take is very different to the one on Freak Out, ending with this line: "Maybe it was the sticker on the back of my black Cadillac limousine that says Mary Poppins is a junkie".
Wowie Zowie was a new Zappa composition, inspired by the verbal exclamations of his close friend Pamela Zarubica. Frank took this phrase to create one of the few truly sarcastic moments on Freak Out, a satire of the typical bubblegum-pop love song of the era.
The two funniest lines in the song are undoubtedly:
Just the other day I got so shook up
I had a flash in the afternoon
and:
I don't even care
If your dad's the heat
The backing track, remixed in 1970, was made available on The MOFO Project. Without the verbal humour, the song is revealed as a pretty canny and straight example of 60's pop, with fine spotlight usage of xylophone.
The big bluesy blowout on the song that had gotten them signed followed, now retitled Trouble Every Day, probably to make it more accessible when it was issued as a single.
The basic track for the song, released on The MOFO Project, featured a live vocal from Zappa. As a piece of on-the-spot documentary reportage and social commentary, the song remains a remarkable and fairly unique example of protest music (in the commonly accepted definition of the term) in Zappa's career.
The only dated moment in the song is the spoken exclamation:
"I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white!"
That is an embrassingly earnest, and very uncharacteristic moment in Zappa's verbal canon, and thankfully one that was not repeated.
The backing track is very different to the polished pop/rock confections recorded to this point in the session. Trouble is a searing blast of fuzz/garage bluesrock power, with intense and blistering guitar work from both Zappa and Elliot Ingber. Roy Estrada's insistent bass line is also memorable, as is
Jimmy Carl Black's club rave-up drums. One can imagine how powerful the extended jam versions played in The Mothers' live sets of the era must have been, and it is understandable that producer Tom Wilson would have been compelled to sign them as a result.
The song was edited down to just over two and a half minutes for The Mothers' second single release, in a unique mono mix. This highlights the excellent double-tracked Zappa vocal, as well as the overdubbed, wailing harmonica that is reminiscent of Brian Jones' work on early Rolling Stones tracks. This mix was reissued on The MOFO Project.
The last song cut on March 9th was Motherly Love. Besides Wowie Zowie the most openly satiric/sarcastic song on Freak Out, this boasting theme song was one of the most musically straightforward works of the sessions.
Frank brought his own mono machine into TTG Studios and patched it into the main mixing board, to have his own reference tapes for home study. From this source, a longer rough mix of the master vocal overdub was released on The MOFO Project.
For this song, both Frank and Ray were doubletracked to form a Mothers-mutant-choir effect. On the backing track, Vincent Di Novi's rock and roll piano was notable, as well as another usage of kazoo.
Directly after the recording of Who Are The Brain Police and a discussion between Frank and Tom Wilson, the producer called MGM headquarters to request extra funding for the project. Frank had managed to convince him that the album should be rock's very first double-LP release, and that the following day's session should feature a full complement of string and horn session players. Wilson was trusted by MGM, and the money was furnished and session players booked.
No less than 17 extra players showed up to TTG on March 10th. Included among this large crew were Di Novi and Gene Estes who had worked on the previous day, as well as Wrecking Crew stalwarts Plas Johnson on sax and flute, and Carol Kaye on 12-string guitar.
These players would not, in the usual Hollywood tradition, replace The Mothers' own musical efforts, but complement them, playing right alongside the group, live in the studio. Zappa had completed arrangements for the large ensemble, in hopeful advance of Wilson and MGM's financial OK.
Four songs were recorded at this session. The first was I'm Not Satisfied (completed this day), which was demoed in an unheard form earlier in the year.
Satisfied was another of Frank's more personal songs, about the period following his divorce and arrest, amid the lonely squalor of his Echo Park cottage.
Shockingly direct lyrics such as these leave little to the imagination regarding the specific reasons for Zappa's dark worldview and emotional reserve:
Got no place to go
(I'm tired of walking
Up and down the street all by myself)
No love left for me to give
(I tried and tried
But no one wants me the way I am)
Why should I pretend I like
To roam from door to door
Maybe I'll just kill myself
I just don't care no more
Because
I'm not satisfied
Everything I've tried
I don't like the way
Life has been abusing me
Who would care
If I was gone
(I never met no one
Who'd care if I was dead and gone)
Who needs me
To care for them
(Nobody needs me
Why should I just hang around?)
Why should I just sit and watch
While the others smile
I just wish that someone cared
If I was happy for a while
Because
I'm not satisfied
Everything I've tried
I don't like the way
Life has been abusing me
If that is the way one feels about their life, one tends to want to get the permanent jump on those one feels rejected by, to shut them down with knowledge and attitude.
A rough mono mix of the master 2nd vocal overdub for the song appeared on The MOFO Project. Accentuating the personal nature of the song, Zappa took the tough doubletracked lead vocal himself, with sparing harmony support from Collins.
The musical backdrop begins in a basic rock-blues form, with sophisticated chord voicings and another nice showcase for Di Novi's piano work. On the chorus, the horns and strings enter the picture, shadowing the insistent melody. The second and third verses contains some striking horn punctuations, to the fore on the mono rough mix.
A perfectly successful integration of Mothers and session players, I'm Not Satisfied demonstrated Zappa's talent and sophistication, already on the level of a Wilson or Spector on his very first album.
Zappa remained fond of Satisfied, and a totally different approach to the song would be taken on a rerecording for the Cruising With Ruben And The Jets album in 1968.
Another new song from Zappa's prolific pen was You Didn't Try To Call Me. This composition is a compelling example of the warring instincts between the cruel mind of Zappa and the heart that he denied the existence of.
The melody and chords of the song have an undeniable beauty to them that perfectly complement the lovelorn and heartfelt lyric. When Zappa got to a certain point with this arrangement, he must have felt it was too straight and "soppy" for his taste, and decided to subvert it with another long, comic Pachuco rap at the finale. But this gambit does not destroy the song and the straight emotions it expresses, it merely makes them more three-dimensional in character. Humour does not negate pure emotion, it is an intrinsic part of the human emotional nature.
The backing track eventually released on The MOFO Project is a wonderful showcase for Zappa's rarely utilised gifts as a
craftsman of pure pop. The lovely, lyrical and wistful lead guitar at the top leads into a straight-pop verse section. On the second verse, the soaring, swelling string-horn arrangement begins, with special emphasis on Plas Johnson's flute. The ambitious bridge section, truly astounding to hear in isolated form, is the most advanced compositional work on the album, fully the equal of Brian Wilson's much more vaunted work on Pet Sounds and David Angel's arrangements for Love's Forever Changes.
Ray Collins gave another wonderful lead vocal performance on the song, and Zappa's closing rap, when combined with the florid arrangement, is pure double-sided genius.
For the later Crusing With Ruben And The Jets version of the song, it would transform into a straight R&B ballad.
The third song recorded was I Ain't Got No Heart, which had been a fairly basic rock and roll number in its earlier demo incarnation from the previous year. The addition of the string and horn arrangement had an incalculable effect on the composition.
On the backing track included on The MOFO Project, we hear on the verses a spotlight usage of vibes and typani. As the song moves into its second section, the strings and horns execute truly beautiful sustained lines. The bridge and final verse and chorus arrangement is absolutely startling in terms of assurance and mature expression, turning the song from an arresting black-and-white square box construction into a full-colour widescreen spectacle that never crosses into territory less than perfectly tasteful.
The last song cut at this session was How Could I Be Such A Fool? Again, the song's earlier demo and rehearsal versions were quite fine in their own right, but the enhanced Freak Out
take took the composition to another level entirely.
Again, The MOFO Project contains the backing track. The first verse is gentle, with fine, mellow piano and vibes accompaniment. The second verse contains twirling-waltz guitar figures, accentuated by Carol Kaye's 12-string. The dramatic chorus introduces the strings and horns, building to an ecstatic release into the following verse. The held, Hollywood-score finale contains some funny Ferrante and Teicher-styled piano glissandos.
One has to imagine that Tom Wilson, who had thought he had scored merely an excellent LA club band, was astonished to find that he had in fact gotten not only that, but a genius at the highest level of progressive pop expression in that contemporary golden age.
Zappa and Mothers had proven themselves, in just two days, to be the pop-jangle equal of The Byrds, the tough-garage equal of any LA outfit, the sophisto-pop equal of The Beach Boys, Spector and yes, even the mighty Beatles.
March 11th, the third day of the sessions, was devoted to overdubs of vocals and Gene Estes' percussion work.
The first song adorned was Anyway The Wind Blows. An early alternate take of Ray Collins' fine lead appeared on The MOFO Project. Completed on this day, Blows would see a radically reworked rerecording on Ruben And The Jets.
You Didn't Try To Call Me was completed next.
I Ain't Got No Heart was third in line. Zappa's rough mono source of the master overdub of Frank and Ray's vocal was included on The MOFO Project. This song was another of Zappa's favourites among his own compositions, re-entering his live setlists in the 1980's (and included on Tinseltown Rebellion in that form), even stretching to his very last concert performance.
How Could I Be Such A Fool was the last song of the day, completed by an excellent harmonised Zappa-Collins vocal duet. A unique mono mix of the song was released as The Mothers' first single, and was reissued on the 2-disc edition of The MOFO Project. The song would reappear on Ruben And The Jets, with a straightened-out chorus arrangement.
The Mothers had a classic album in the can already, which could have formed an LP that would have been somewhat lengthy for the era, but still shy of Dylan's epic Highway 61 Revisited.
But Zappa wasn't done. He intended to add another entire layer of stylistic endeavor, the avant-experimental tradition that he had been working in for years on his own. Working this into the rock field was another major Zappa innovation. For the March 12th session, the composer would be relying upon his personality and intuition to shepherd a wild, improvisational session that could then be pruned with editing into comprehensible tracks for the album.
Zappa wanted to provide an aural microcosm of the freak-scene that had inspired the album's overall concept. The people he invited to take part in the freewheeling session were very diverse, but very considered by Zappa.
Besides the usual Mothers, and Gene Estes, these included a major part of The Mothers' then-entourage, Vito Paulekas, Carl Franzoni and their contingent of noisy, dancing Freaks. Legendary scenester and producer Kim Fowley was invited, along with another, less flamboyant of the same ilk, David Anderle. Zappa's friend Motorhead Sherwood was invited along to incite some mayhem, his first appearance on a Mothers recording. Session piano man Mac Rebennack (later to transform himself into Dr. John) was then being briefly considered for a spot in The Mothers, and was also invited. Zappa's habit of inviting any notable players who happened to also be in town was instituted this day, when Zappa brought along Paul Butterfield and the great jazz piano player Les McCann. One of the few early female followers of The Mothers, Jeannie Vassoir, was also on hand to voice a newly Zappa-created character.
The first of the pieces recorded today, and the more organised of the two, was Help I'm A Rock. Although this track is thought of today as solely satiric, in fact it reflects Zappa's serious interest in modal forms of Eastern music, a love he picked up when borrowing records from his high school library. Another element was his then-fondness for vocal chants, a love shared by fellow LA producer-composer Brian Wilson, who would record many similar pieces in 1966.
The piece was subdivided in three movements. The first, Okay To Tap Dance, was built around a tough, stuttering one-chord guitar riff over which variations of the title phrase and other sundry modal vocalisations were chanted, moaned and screamed by the motley assemblage in the studio. Rebennack's piano is clearly heard in this section. During this, Zappa cuts in a section of the Brain Police rave-up, which was also cut in to I Ain't Got No Heart elsewhere on the album.
Zappa's main vocal contains a rap which mentions the popular Hollywood freak gathering spot Ben Frank's, as well as jabs at cops and mayors. He adds in another important bit of personal autobigraphy:
Always wondered what I was gonna be when I grew up, you know
Always wondered whether or not . . . whether or not I could make it
You know, in society, because,
You know, it's a drag when you're rejected
This plays into the concept of the gathering that were recording the piece, a unity among the societally disenfranchised, achieving a common, freaky goal.
To capture this movement, different improvisations were taped, given separate titles on the tape boxes by Zappa, to later be selected and edited.
One was titled Vito Rocks The Floor (Greek Out!) and was later included on The MOFO Project (a small portion of it was also utilised on the 2-disc edition, as part of that set's variant of the track "Low Budget Rock And Roll Band"). This was not used in the final Help I'm A Rock, but is quite interesting, an energetic jam with Paul Butterfield's harmonica to the fore and the gathered freaks doing their thing on the studio floor. Eventually, the tempo slows down and becomes more chaotic, before building again.
Another similar version, also featuring Butterfield, was titled Freak Out Zilofone and released on the 2-disc edition of The MOFO Project. This features someone chanting the word "Zilofone".
A variant edit of the first movement was released on The MOFO Project. This contains some sections edited out of the final master.
A 1970 Zappa remix of this movement was released on the 2-disc edition of The MOFO Project.
The second, brief bridging section of Rock was titled In Memoriam Edgard Varese, and is built around an improvised section of free percussion and vocalisations, particularly some orgasmic moans from Jeannie Vassoir. This was likely an interpolation from sections originally recorded for the second piece recorded at this session.
A non-Zappa-created edit of the final Rock master, beginning at the Brain Police interpolation and concluding just before the third movement, was later released by MGM on their mercenary compilation The Worst Of The Mothers in 1971.
The third movement of Help I'm A Rock would be created entirely from vocal chants and an iconic contribution from Jeannie Vassoir. |
| November 23rd, 2010 10:00 PM |
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| andy rooney |
took me all day but i finally read everything in this damn thread. it's a motherfucker for the ages!
mid-nineties in college meant ryko frank zappa. i was paying my own way through school and felt no guilt whatsoever in blowing most of what i had on cd's and records.
i went on weekly sprees grabbing handfuls of albums that rolling stone gave five stars. grabbed "we're in it for the money/lumpy gravy," and then i noticed one with a cover that made me laff. "RZZZZZZZZZ." i grabbed that one too.
he looked eerily like me at the time.
it was "weasels ripped my flesh" that i listened to first, having heard zero zappa prior. any album with a song called 'my guitar killed your mama' must be heard first , and at maximum volume. i figured it must have just been coincedence that my mother died the very next day.
'didja get any onya' pretty much did the job of converting me into a zappa fan. this stuff was so jazzy and weird and hilarious, toads of orange county, glandular arousals of gas masks, dwarf nebula barbeques. at the time i didn't even know that richard penniman was little richard and the 'orange county lumber truck' reminded me of the tv show 'the odd couple.'
and then that last track. RZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
i mean, i was fresh from van halen, to led zeppelin, to jimi hendrix, to bob dylan, to pink floyd, to ......whatever else was next. turned out to be frank zappa.
i think 'weasels' pretty much informed me of all the music i'd eventually love the most. little richard down this aisle to the right. eric dolphy down this aisle to the left. 'weasels ripped my flesh' right around the corner, past the merzbow and metal machine. at the time i wanted to hear the opposite end of the spectrum from normal, from what i'd been listening to, and frank fit the bill. he made sounds i wanted to hear, and that nobody else around me wanted to hear. i was alone again. like back when all i listened to was van halen. it was great.
from 'weasels,' i got the impression that frank's joking was in self-defense. that maybe he didn't want to be taken too seriously, otherwise he'd start taking himSELF too seriously and then suddenly there would be a way to fail, since suddenly he'd be aware of his own fear of being taken seriously and then ah fuck this shit.
i like his work ethic. his tenacity. he did have a balance to him, seems to me. uncompromising vision requires a compromising mind. because without compromise, it's a one man band. and the humor. the human tumor. humor means you're human. and what's more human than having to poop and then farting accidentally.
also, great mustache. fantastic mustache.
got 'lather' after those first two. 'lather' made me think i could throw up in a record store and splash a zappa album i would love. i was never bored by frank zappa. and i doubt i ever will be. grabbed all six of the downloads thus far (already had penick's from months ago), and i'm looking forward to listening to them in hawaii next week. i'll be MIA for two weeks, but i'm sure you'll manage!
really enjoyed reading all this stuff, thanks for the time and effort, all, as always.
(Edited by andy rooney) |
| November 23rd, 2010 10:17 PM |
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| andy rooney |
Quote:
Jon wrote:
One of these days I'm going to erase every tape in the world. The world. Tomorrow I may do it. All the Frank Zappa masters into nothing. Blank. Empty Space. That's what they are now. Blank. Empty. Space. I can see him sitting in there, in the control room, listening to every word I say, but I really don't care. Mph. Hello Frank Zappa.
ERRRUH! |
i heard ERRRUH perfectly when you typed that.
Quote:
tomorrow I get to do another frank zappa creation . . . and the day after that . . . and the day after that . . . also at the same time I get to work with the velvet underground which is as shitty a group as frank zappa's group |
frank zappa got me into the velvet underground. if they were shitty like frank and the mothers i had to hear'em. turns out i already had one of their cd's, the "vu and nico album." i bought it because i liked the cover of the album, PLUS rolling stone gave it five stars. but at the time i was too into pink floyd to bother with it.
Quote:
hi, boys & girls, i'm jimmy carl black, and i'm the indian of the group |
this is still how i choose to introduce myself whenever i'm forced to do so. it rarely goes over well. except with that one guy in the corner who looks drunker than i am. turns out he's half siuslaw.
(Edited by andy rooney) |
| November 23rd, 2010 10:24 PM |
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| IanWagner |
Alright, Andy! Great stuff, and I knew that if anyone would bother to download and discuss the material I have uploaded (folks, the writing is fine and all, but it is just an excuse to GET YOU TO LISTEN), it would be you. Have a great time in Hawaii (that's where Zappa wrote Absolutely Free). |
| November 23rd, 2010 10:36 PM |
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| andy rooney |
thanks ian.
stuff i haven't heard yet is my favorite music these days. |
| November 23rd, 2010 11:31 PM |
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| the captain |
Ian, mostly one big "yeah." But ... Quote:
IanWagner wrote:
But a self-aware admission follows:
But maybe that's not for me to say
They only pay me here to play |
I disagree completely that this is anything that more than superficially resembles a self-aware admission. If there is one thing we understand in my hometown, it's passive-aggressiveness. The narrator is quite certain where he stands on he issue. But that said, if I can quickly add a serious shout-out:
Quote:
IanWagner wrote:
The only dated moment in the song is the spoken exclamation:
"I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white!"
That is an embrassingly earnest, and very uncharacteristic moment in Zappa's verbal canon, and thankfully one that was not repeated. |
My biggest stumbling block to this day. |
| November 23rd, 2010 11:33 PM |
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| andy rooney |
i don't know what the big deal is. i think it's funny. especially in context.
EDIT: nah, you're right, it's dumb. sounds like there should be a big WHA WAH right after. totally falls off the end of the earth there, total silence. right after he says it it's like, "did i just say that?"
(Edited by andy rooney) |
| November 24th, 2010 12:08 AM |
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| the captain |
It never struck me as an attempt at being funny. More like it was an attempt at some deep serious point that nobody else had quite thought of. But it just came off, 30 years later, as boring, like "I don't see color" or "we're all the same" or whatever. Bo-ring! |
| November 24th, 2010 01:06 AM |
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| IanWagner |
Quote:
the captain wrote:
Ian, mostly one big "yeah." But ... I disagree completely that this is anything that more than superficially resembles a self-aware admission. If there is one thing we understand in my hometown, it's passive-aggressiveness. |
Yeah, I know what you mean. I guess I just mean self-aware in the general sense of popular musicians struggling with the concept of how many truth-messages they should put out, when folks just want to be "entertained". In a way, I think Zappa is referring specifically to his club days cranking out dance covers. |
| November 24th, 2010 01:08 AM |
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| IanWagner |
Quote:
the captain wrote:
It never struck me as an attempt at being funny. More like it was an attempt at some deep serious point that nobody else had quite thought of. But it just came off, 30 years later, as boring, like "I don't see color" or "we're all the same" or whatever. Bo-ring!
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I feel so embarrassed for him when he says that, I always either turn down the volume for a few seconds or put my fingers in my ears. Sterling Morrison really nailed him for that in one interview, and I had to agree. |
| November 24th, 2010 03:01 AM |
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| G2 |
Do you guys have the Bobby Jameson/Burt Ward/AF session mixes (there's only like 4) covered? I've got a massive collection of interviews/guest DJ spots starting with December 1966 ready to share as well. |
| November 24th, 2010 10:22 AM |
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| MoogDroog |
No time to comment properly now but i listened to the first batch this morning and the Zappa / Beefheart first recording sent shivers down my spine. Had no idea such a thing existed from that early.
Ian - some of your best ever writing on the board. I normally find "early years" chapters in biographies to be pretty dry, but that was a great read. |
| November 24th, 2010 11:01 AM |
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| IanWagner |
Quote:
G2 wrote:
Do you guys have the Bobby Jameson/Burt Ward/AF session mixes (there's only like 4) covered? I've got a massive collection of interviews/guest DJ spots starting with December 1966 ready to share as well.
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It's all covered, but thanks! |
| November 24th, 2010 11:29 AM |
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| G2 |
Excellent! |
| November 24th, 2010 11:45 AM |
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| IanWagner |
Actually, Giaco, do you have Vols. 17 and 18 of the GSW Project? |
| November 24th, 2010 12:05 PM |
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| S Giacomelli |
I'm 99% sure I do. I'll check on my lunch break in a couple hours. Hoopla! |
| November 24th, 2010 12:09 PM |
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| IanWagner |
Awesome, my friend, thanks! |
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