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Frank Zappa

Lewk

By Lewk,
in General Discussion

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BassTractor Grand Master

BassTractor

Posted
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Ah! Long list of faves, many already mentioned. Additionally, I'm very weak for The Grand Wazoo, Ship Arriving Too Late, The Mothers of Prevention (US edition) and Jazz From Hell. Was The Yellow Shark mentioned? I think maybe it was.
As to live bands, the one with Mike Keneally smoked as well. I think this must have been late eighties or so.

bert

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Wil Rising Star

Wil

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I'm a fairly recent Zappa convert. Definitely far prefer his early stuff, Freak Out, We're Only in it for the Money, Hot Rats especially. I like some of his later stuff (Inca Roads for instance) but I'm still not a fan of the late 70s/early 80s, more satirical stuff, especially in terms of production (tried to get into Joe's Garage and Sheik Yerbouti (spelling?) but didn't really enjoy them - I quite like a few tracks off You Are What You Is though).

Now I've listened to a fair bit of his back catalogue I can hear his melodic influence in more and more modern music, particularly video game music. He really had a wonderful sense of melody :)

Edited by Wil
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Doctor J Grand Master

Doctor J

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Grand Wazoo has posted exactly the two videos I would have posted :lol:

My very first memory in life is listening to my mum's Absolutely Free and We're Only In It For The Money records and probably the reason why anything goes, musically, in my brain (apart from jazz-funk). Call Any Vegetable was a big hit with the three year old me and it still is. Invocation And Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin is still one of my favourites, almost at the same level as King King, just brilliant.

Hot Rats would probably be my absolute favourite album, definitely a desert island disc if I had to make that choice.

I would urge everyone to give this twenty minutes of their lives, at least once

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PhkCRTK2jQ[/flash]

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Pinball Mentor

Pinball

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[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1335527324' post='1632620']
He was certainly pretty amazing live as were his band.
[/quote]
+1 on that. I saw him in the late 70's and the sound and standard of play was amazing. I saw lots of bands back then and Zappa ACDC and Alex Harvey stand out as exceptional in my memories.

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paul torch Enthusiast

paul torch

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[quote name='andyonbass' timestamp='1335594777' post='1633469']
Even his covers are bloody great B)

Taken from the film "does humor belong in music" which is what first got me into FZ



[u][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TItmXT8DkM[/media][/u]
[/quote]

this is an awesome version. loved this video but can't play it anymore as I no longer own a VCR.
:(

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andyonbass Experienced

andyonbass

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[quote name='paul torch' timestamp='1335602527' post='1633540']
this is an awesome version. loved this video but can't play it anymore as I no longer own a VCR.
:(
[/quote]


[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frank-Zappa-Humor-Belong-Music/dp/B0000CAPTX"]http://www.amazon.co...c/dp/B0000CAPTX[/url] ;)

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Grand Wazoo Proficient

Grand Wazoo

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I know I am a bass player at heart, however I appreciate talented guitarists, I have also played guitar myself in some of my earliest bands in Italy, and FZ's guitar parts are impossible to play, you've got to give credit to the fact that Zappa resulted in hiring some of the worlds most talented guitarists (Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, Warren Cuccurullo, etc) for his live gigs where he himself couldn't virtually play at the same time, all the guitar parts he recorded, all this while singing and directing his band just like an orchestra, without a baton, but with a series of hand gestures he adopted that every member of his band was taught to understand, you know weird things (which I read in one of his books) like him waving his elbow to the right meant that the two Fowlers brothers Tom and Bob had to play the theme over his guitar solo, crazy stuff like if he wanted the drummer to play a different tempo he would lift his palm and motion his hand to his chin, these strange signs all meant a different thing and if you didn't do as he directed you were in trouble.

Steve Vai was interviewed a few years ago when Zappa died and described how getting through an audition to play for Zappa was one of the hardest thing he ever had to go through.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cplMM3d_Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cplMM3d_Q[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sfu1WrNjB4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sfu1WrNjB4[/url]

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BottomE Rising Star

BottomE

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I remember seeing a video of him with Johnny Guitar Watson who FZ cited as one of his influences. It always struck me that they were very different - Johnny loved the "high" life and didn't have the technical competence of Zappa but they were both fantastic showmen who knew the business.

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paul_5 Grand Master

paul_5

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[quote name='andyonbass' timestamp='1335603631' post='1633560']
[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frank-Zappa-Humor-Belong-Music/dp/B0000CAPTX"]http://www.amazon.co...c/dp/B0000CAPTX[/url] ;)
[/quote]
That'a a superb video. I had it and lent it out and never got it back.
:(
Now I'm sad.

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1335527324' post='1632620']
He was certainly pretty amazing live as were his band.
[/quote]

which one! :o

its not just the individual band members in any given line up - he had a sense of synergy of knowing which musicians to pick who would work well together with the sum of the parts being massively greater than the individuals - if you just threw all his band members into a hat and picked out names at random to form a fresh band id wager that you might end up straying into that 'dull and uninteresting supergroup' territory

he is often criticised for being a but of a control freak but he was a superb band leader and he had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and knew how to go about it - how many musicians could honestly say they would turn down the zappa gig if they were offered it? if you did then you would run the risk of being compared with the record company that turned down the beatles

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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as for the music imo the best pieces are the ones which are subtle and sublime with that underlying sense of pathos such as oh no i dont believe it (no tthe victor meldrew cover version) and son of orange county

i just cant believe, you are such a fool :D

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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Posted

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1340818653' post='1710114']
Yeah I had noticed the cost of the rereleases, unnecessarily expensive. Even if they charged the usual £9.99 a cd I can't see the Zappa family struggling.

I'm a pretty big Zappa fan, but come on.




Dan
[/quote]

does Gail get any say at all in the pricing structure?

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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Posted

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1340818653' post='1710114']
Yeah I had noticed the cost of the rereleases, unnecessarily expensive. Even if they charged the usual £9.99 a cd I can't see the Zappa family struggling.

I'm a pretty big Zappa fan, but come on.




Dan
[/quote]

ive used t[b][url="http://www.gandsmusic.com/"]hese[/url][/b] before :)

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bassninja Proficient

bassninja

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Been a big fan for ages. I always think part of his genius was in being a catalyst for superb, hungry musicians by pushing them beyond what they thought they would be able to do.

I still find some of the solos hard to listen to, some of his humo(u)r a bit puerile and some of his shtick annoying.

That said, some of his solos are beautiful 'air sculptures', some of the humo(u)r is rapier-like and some of his shtick is inspiring.

It's a bit like an intellectual wrestling match. With bald dwarves. In glittery pig sh!t.

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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[b]
[size=4]"If you end up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mum, your dad, your teacher, your preacher, or some guy on the television telling you how to do your sh1t, then you fcking deserve it." - Frank Zappa[/size][/b]

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BassTractor Grand Master

BassTractor

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[quote name='bassninja' timestamp='1340823798' post='1710210']
Been a big fan for ages. I always think part of his genius was in being a catalyst for superb, hungry musicians by pushing them beyond what they thought they would be able to do.

I still find some of the solos hard to listen to, some of his humo(u)r a bit puerile and some of his shtick annoying.

That said, some of his solos are beautiful 'air sculptures', some of the humo(u)r is rapier-like and some of his shtick is inspiring.

It's a bit like an intellectual wrestling match. With bald dwarves. In glittery pig sh!t.
[/quote]

This deserves to be repeated.

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Dad3353 Grand Master

Dad3353

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Posted

[quote name='bassninja' timestamp='1340823798' post='1710210']
Been a big fan for ages. I always think part of his genius was in being a catalyst for superb, hungry musicians by pushing them beyond what they thought they would be able to do.

I still find some of the solos hard to listen to, some of his humo(u)r a bit puerile and some of his shtick annoying.

That said, some of his solos are beautiful 'air sculptures', some of the humo(u)r is rapier-like and some of his shtick is inspiring.

It's a bit like an intellectual wrestling match. With bald dwarves. In glittery pig sh!t.
[/quote]

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steve-bbb Mentor

steve-bbb

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yes the solos can be quite challenging

start off with an easy teenage new york version type solo or something a bit more musically accessible - 'watermelon in easter hay' perhaps

then once you got the hang of what he is doing with his solos try perhaps the sheikh yerbouti version of 'yo mama'

personally i like the written solo lines as much as franks improv - some of the lines he wrote for steve vai and mike keneally are just staggering and technically way surpassing anything that steve vai has subsequently written for himself imho

his influence is profound especially with his ex band members - check out any of mike keneallys solo material and the 'less commercial' vai stuff - one particularly nice solo track is warren cuccurrullo's tribute 'thanks to frank'

[url="http://youtu.be/Q5aOXKVD0nU"]http://youtu.be/Q5aOXKVD0nU[/url]

unfortunately the solo at 2:02 has been edited and cut short but it gives you the idea that he is total master of the sublime guitar solo (this band line up is pretty amazing too)

[url="http://youtu.be/usC2msFdX94"]http://youtu.be/usC2msFdX94[/url]

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