REVIEWS
Albums
ORANGE CLAW
HAMMER: NEW BEEF DREAMS! (Clocktower Records, 2021)
Tracks: Pachuco Cadaver / Moonlight On Vermont / Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A
Man / Low Yo Yo Stuff / Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian / Abba Zaba / When Big
Joan Sets Up / Suction Prints / Alice In Blunderland / Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop / Kandy
Korn / Willie The Pimp (live)
Such a shame that we didn't get to see OCH (or anyone!) perform at Festival
MOO-AH! this year, but this album goes some way to easing that pain. Obviously
I hope there will be other opportunities to see them in action again soon.
Kicking off with a joyous romp
through Pachuco Cadaver, the album is
dominated by the fabtastic sax work of Essex boy Steve Kettley, but features
some seriously great guitar solos from Stuart Allardyce (check out his playing
on the elongated Woe-Is-A-Me-Bop) as
well as essential picking and slidey bits....can you call it rhythm guitar?
There are occasional vox (and jaw harp, on Kandy
Korn) from Steve. The rhythm section do a sterling job anchoring these
tricky tunes throughout (bassist Dave Beards even steps into the spotlight,
albeit briefly, on Abba Zaba and Suction Prints), and Des Travis, noted
for his sartorial elegance, hits things with elan. Some great unexpected
choices of songs to perform instrumentally here (eg. Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man, ) as well as great versions of
already great instrumental pieces, Semi-Multicoloured
Caucasian, Suction Prints and
(one of my faves) Alice In Blunderland.
Steve and the
boys have great fun stretching and breaking down Kandy Korn and Big Joan –
hoy, hoy! – and stamping their own indelible trout
mark on everything here. It all ends with a splendid live rendition of – for
many FZ fans – the Captain’s finest hour.
I should also mention the splendid oration
at the very start from The Magic Band’s stunt thereminist,
young Master Rupert Cocking.
This album is best bought (together
with their first) on a Bandcamp Friday!
PAULINE BUTCHER:
FREAK OUT! MY LIFE WITH FRANK ZAPPA, narrated by EMMA GREGORY (Jammer Audiobooks, RTL7820)
The audio edition of
Pauline's excellent memoir follows the text of a re-structured and slightly
revised version of her original book (which will hopefully be re-published in
this form later this year).
Narrator Emma Gregory does an amazing
job: her voices for the characters (Frank, Gail, the GTOs, Mick Jagger, Pam Zarubica, Tom Wilson
et al) are mostly spot-on, and she reads the story of the prim and proper
part-time model/typist, that Frank whisked from Twickenham
to Hollywood to be his secretary, believably well.
But it’s the story itself that is the
most compelling – and occasionally laugh-out loud funny. Pauline clearly didn't
see Frank as the God-like genius everyone else around him at the time seemed
to, which may have been one of the reasons he liked having her around. Like Zarubica, she did though love Frank – she just wasn’t in
love with him.
Available on 13 compact discs – or
via Audible, Kobo, Google Play, etcetera – this is 14 hours of unabridged
inside information about the true state of the log cabin and Gail & Frank’s
unconventional relationship.
After the paperback, the BBC radio
adaptation, Pauline’s stage play
and now this audiobook, the time has surely come (as
one reviewer rightly said) for Netflix to come a-knocking.
MATS ÖBERG: FRANKFUL (Annellssongs,
ANNCD70)
Tracks: Läther / Oh No /
Echidna’s Arf-Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? / Inca
Roads / The Black Page / King Kong / Zoot Allures /
Toads Of The Short Forest / Twenty Small Cigars / Uncle Meat / A Pound For A
Brown On The Bus / Ruth Is Sleeping / Outside Now.
This is an album of Zappa songs performed solely by Mats on a grand
piano. Now here’s a man who knows FZ’s music intimately and can improvise in
accordance with the maestro’s wishes.
Frank asked Mats to premiere Ruth Is Sleeping at Avery Fisher Hall in
February 1993. After receiving the Synclavier version, Mats struggled to learn
it all, and eventually had to call Frank and tell him he only had about 70% of
it down. Frank told him, “Play that and
then improvise. But, learn the last part.” Scott Thunes unhelpfully
suggested he stand up in the middle of the piece and scream, “Oh God! I’m blind!”, but the seed was
sown. As Mats writes in his liner notes, “I
wanted to make improvisations over Zappa-themes and do it my way, using my
imagination.”
As we all know, FZ wrote some
incredibly beautiful melodies, and this album only serves to highlight them –
whereas FZ would sometimes try to throw in something discordant (Toads Of The Short
Forest) or add provocative lyrics (Outside
Now): here, they are unfettered.
King
Kong on solo piano sounds particularly outstanding, perhaps because this
was the piece he performed with Morgan live on Swedish TV when he was just 10
(check out the video: https://youtu.be/5-MGGRypbvI)!
It’s nice to think that Frank at 80 would
be endorsing an album like this, and maybe even writing new pieces specifically
for Mats.
Try a piece here: Läther.
FRANK ZAPPA: HALLOWEEN 73 – Box Set (Zappa Records, ZR 20031)
Tracks: (Show 1) “Happy Halloween To Each And Every
One Of You” / Pygmy Twylyte / The Idiot Bastard Son /
Cheepnis / “Another Assembly Of Items” / The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue / Kung Fu / Penguin In Bondage / T’Mershi Duween / The Dog Breath
Variations / Uncle Meat / RDNZL / Village Of The Sun / Echidna’s Arf (Of You) / Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? / Montana /
Dupree’s Paradise / “Almost Up To Date” / Dickie’s
Such An Asshole,
(Show 2) “That
Greatest Of American Holidays” / Cosmik Debris /
“We’re Hurtin’ For Tunes” / Pygmy Twylyte
/ The Idiot Bastard Son / Cheepnis / I’m The Slime /
Big Swifty / The History Of The San Clemente Magnetic
Deviation / Dickie’s Such An Asshole / “Another New Event”
/ Farther O’Blivion – Part 1 / Farther O’Blivion – Part 2 / “Pervert’s Special Holiday” / Penguin
In Bondage / T’Mershi Duween
/ RDNZL / Inca Roads / Medley: Son Of Mr. Green Genes-King Kong-Chunga’s Revenge.
(Bonus Rehearsals)
The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue / Penguin In Bondage / T’Mershi Duween / Dog Breath / The Dog Breath Variations / Uncle
Meat / RDNZL / Magic Fingers / Inca Roads / Father O’Blivion
/ Cosmik Debris / Big Swifty.
Only the second venue
played by what would become one of the most beloved of all
the Mothers’ line-ups. Kind of odd to have this out so soon after The Roxy Performances, but it’s still a
treat to hear these earlier renditions. Of more interest to hardcore fans is
the rehearsals disc; this is nothing like the dull Joe’s Domage cassette but, rather,
professionally recorded, mostly complete performances (only Cosmik Debris is extensively broken down, while the exploratory Farther O’Blivion
ploughs on through Be-Bop Tango
land). The between song bants only adds to the fly on
the wall wonderment. Plus we get a rare outing of Magic Fingers sung by Napi, Frank and
George, with a bonus outro à la Anything You Wanna Do.
Unlike Halloween
77, this was released on four CDs, but – like Halloween 77 – in a limited edition costume box set replete with FRANKenZAPPA mask and gloves.
GURANFOE: SUM OF ERDA (Apollon Records, ARP-029)
Tracks: Eventide
/ Night's First Light / Karu Vatsarin
/ Etsinta Visions / Etsinta
Harvest In The Thar Sands.
The lads who opened
the very first Festival MOO-AH
in 2013 (as Gumbo Variation) unleash their first studio long player –and it's a
corker.
Having independently released their
own albums of rehearsals and live gigs, it's great to hear what they've come up
with within the confines of a studio. Opener Eventide includes guest Rob Milne on flute, lending it a 70s prog feel, and statightaway, the
dual lead guitarists display a fine understanding of 'the ancient art of
weaving'. Indeed, everyone plays well throughout the whole album, including the
other guest players on vibes, recorder and violin. But it's really about the Norvician four and the five instrumental compositions on
display here. With time signatures forever changing it's clear they have great
empathy and share a love of playing adventurous and exciting music, influenced
by the likes of Grateful Dead, Gentle Giant, Phish... and maybe even that
feller with the tash and jazz dot.
The cover art also evokes memories of
the 70s, but this is 21st century psych prog, man!
Etsinta Visons (the only track under seven
minutes) chills things out for a few minutes, before the epic closing track.
And then it's over too soon.
Pre-order your copy here.
FRANK ZAPPA: ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES – 40th Anniversary Edition (Zappa
Records, ZR 20030)
Tracks: Strictly
Genteel / Pedro's Dowry / Naval Aviation In Art? /
Duke Of Prunes / Bogus Pomp / Strictly Genteel (Keyboard OD Version) / Show
Start-Bogus Pomp Explained / Bogus Pomp / Revised Music For Low-Budget Symphony
Orchestra / The Story Of Pedro's Dowry / Pedro's Dowry / The Story Of Rollo /
Rollo / Black Napkins Instructions / Black Napkins / Dog-Meat / The Players /
Naval Aviation In Art? / “Another Weirdo Number”/ Lumpy Gravy
(Extract)-Improvisation / Evening At The Hermitage /
“A Special Guest Artist” / Duke Of Prunes / “Absolutely Disgusting” / The
Adventures Of Greggery Peccary / Strictly Genteel.
On March 28, 1977, FZ
handed the tapes for ‘Zappa Orchestral Favorites’ to Warner Bros. – no master
tone reel, credits or artwork. To Zappa’s chagrin, the company released the
album without recourse to him in 1979.
While he issued a re-EQ’d version in 1991, the Zappa Trust lovingly put together
this audiophile quality three disc anniversary edition nearly three decades
later.
At the same time, it released a
single vinyl elpee that mirrored the original
Warner’s album and excluded the bonus track on CD 1 (Strictly Genteel, with overdubs by Tommy Mars).
The second and third discs comprise
the almost complete concert from September 18, 1975. Sadly, the tape ran out as
special guest Don Van Vliet appeared on stage with
his sax, but Terry Bozzio includes a sketch of the moment in his liner notes.
Michael Zearott, the album’s conductor, passed away the month
before this set was issued.
FRANK ZAPPA: ZAPPA IN NEW YORK – 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Zappa
Records, ZR 20029)
Tracks: Titties & Beer / I Promise Not To Come In Your
Mouth / Big Leg Emma / Sofa / Manx Needs Women / The Black Page Drum Solo-Black
Page #1 / Black Page #2 / Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? / The Illinois
Enema Bandit / The Purple Lagoon / “The Most Important Musical Event Of 1976” /
Peaches En Regalia / The Torture Never Stops / The Black Page #2 / Punky’s Whips Intro (12-27-76) / Punky’s
Whips / I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth / Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like
Me / The Illinois Enema Bandit / “Two For The Price Of One” / Penis Dimension /
Montana / America Drinks / “Irate Phone Calls” / Sofa #2 / “The Moment You’ve
All Been Waiting For” / I’m The Slime / Pound For A Brown / Terry’s Solo / The
Black Page Drum Solo-Black Page #1 / Big Leg Emma / "Jazz Buffs and Buff-etts” / The Purple Lagoon / Find Her Finer / The Origin Of
Manx / Manx Needs Women / Chrissy Puked Twice / Cruisin’ For Burgers / The Purple Lagoon-Any Kind Of Pain /
“The Greatest New Undiscovered Group In America” / Black Napkins / Dinah-Moe
Humm / Finale / The Black Page #2 (Piano Version) / I Promise Not To Come In
Your Mouth (Alternate Version) / Chrissy Puked Twice
/ Cruisin’ For Burgers (1977 Mix) / Black Napkins / Punky’s Whips (Unused Version) / The Black Page #1 (Piano
Version).
Five CDs housed in a
metal tin, the first of which consists of the original 1977 vinyl mix as
butchered by Warners. The ‘unused’ version of Punky's Whips is relegated to Disc 5 as ‘Bonus
Vault Content’.
A 3-LP version was also released that
excises the ‘Bonus Concert Performances’ (Discs 2-4).
Oddly, three of the additional tracks on
the 1991 two-CD edition (Slime, Pound, Torture) remain unique to that set, all being recorded on different
nights to those on this iteration.
With two asynchronous piano versions of the
Black Page (#2 by Tommy Mars in 1978; #1
by Ruth Underwood in 2017), it’s a shame Frank’s Synclavier rendition isn’t
also included.
One of the additional musicians for Frank’s
four-night stand in New York was timpanist David Samuels, who went on to be a
member of Spyro ‘flippin’ Gyra and passed away the month after this excellent box set
was issued.
EVIL DICK: EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Track list: Way In/Keep Off The Grass/Sybil The Leek/One
Duck Down/A Whopping Great Hinkypunk/Mr Hedgehog/Three Fish in a Tree/A Rude Vegetable Catches
Its Reflection/Bernie Worrell's Prize-Winning Courgette/Alpho Does An Oxley/Melancauliflowers/Miniature
Railway Excitement/Resurrection Of The Fly Lord/Sabbatic Goat's
Cheese/Tiger-Rats/Bird House Construction Fail/A Bad Day For Baphomet/Sweets At The Till/Way Out.
The album name was
inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's artwork for Deep Purple's third album. Its full
title is ‘Evil Tends To His Garden Of Earthly Delights’ and, like the
afore-mentioned classic triptych, this CD is housed in a sleeve divided into
three sections. And that’s where all similarities (notably with Deep Purple)
end. On entering the garden, we are treated to a more or less straight-ahead
'rock' piece (Keep Off The Grass)
before Evil hits us with his more typical (for those familiar with the weird
genius’s previous All That
Glisters album, or his contemporaneously concocted take on
Frank's Wolf Harbor
on Mappa Zappa) experimental sax
strangling jazz improv (Sybil The Leek).
In One Duck Down, Conlon Nancarrow
meets George Formby tuning his uke by an ice cream van, with some environmental
recordings thrown in for good measure. A
Whopping Great Hinkypunk is an interesting, largely keyboard-derived
collage for bedroom orchestra that is no stranger than its title, as well as
being longer than anything else on offer here. Some lunatic axe stuntage ensues
before A Rude Vegetable Catches Its
Reflection (an up-tempo piece chockfull of electro squiggles). More
toe-tapping abounds with Bernie Worrell's
Prize-Winning Courgette’s talking synths. Melancauliflowers, an electric guitar/bass/drum set improv slows
things down before the excitement of, er, Miniature
Railway Excitement. Piano & clarinet bring about the Resurrection Of The Fly Lord, while Sabbatic Goat's Cheese is a gonzo theme
tune for an imaginary John Carpenter fillum. Tiger-Rats features improvised piano, scraping and drum set. There
follows more sax squonks, randomness, chainsaws and organ rising music than you
can shake a drum stick at before more street sound effects as we leave the
garden. Interested? Click the cover above, or visit http://evildick.co.uk/.
THE ED PALERMO BIG BAND: THE GREAT UN-AMERICAN SONGBOOK: VOLUMES I & II (Cuneiform Records, Rune 435/436)
Track list: Good Morning,
Good Morning/Open Up Said The World At The Door/We Love You/Eleanor
Rigby/Definitely Maybe/As You Said/Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two/21st
Century Schizoid Man/Send Your Son To Die/Edward, The Mad Shirt
Grinder/America-American Idiot/Beggar's Farm/Bitches Crystal/Wreck Of The
Hesperus/Diamond Dust/The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys/Fire/The Tourist/Don't
Bother Me-Nardis-Don't Bother Me (Reprise)/I Wanna Be
Your Man/Good Night.
Following last year’s
all-American penned One Child Left Behind
and the rise and rise of ol’ Trumpy
boy, Ed Palermo decided to put together this “love letter to the rockers who ruled the AM and FM airwaves in the
1960s via successive waves of the British Invasion”. And before anyone else
pipes up, he addresses the inclusion of musics
composed by Davis, Bernstein, Armstrong, Dirnt and
Cool in his liners. As for the inclusion of a Radiohead song, it just fits OK?
(Computer says, “Ho!”)
So, no Zappa this time
around? Well, quotes from the maestro abound: Oh No and Aybe Sea in Cream’s As You Said; Oh No
(again) in King Crimson's Larks' Tongues
In Aspic, Part Two; Keep It Greasy
and Hot-Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel in
21st Century Schizoid Man (over a King Kong riff, no less) and Traffic’s The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys has a Chunga's Revenge backing. And just for good
measure, Napoleon Murphy Brock sings Arthur Brown’s Fire.
So now you want it, right? Well you shoulda anyway as it’s a blast hearing all these old
familiars interpreted so well by this fine Big Band. Producer Bruce McDaniel
handles the bulk of the vocals, though half of the tunes are instrumental,
amply demonstrating what a talent Ed the lone-arranger is.
Mick Starkey sings the final two ‘Ringo’ songs, and Ed would have us believe that there’s
some relation there. All the way through there’s some amusing Beatle joke inbetweenies as well as a regally swinging hidden track
that’ll make you chuckle as much as the very English artwork (overseen by Ed’s
ailing sister in her final months - RIP Nancy).
Ed tells me he has “at least 3 CDs in the can for future release”, so let’s hope for
more volumes in this series. But meantime, how about a UK
tour to promote this fabtatsic album?
ORANGE CLAW HAMMER: COOKS THE BEEF (Clocktower
Records, CTCD001)
Track list: Hot Head/I Love You, You Big Dummy/Click
Clack/Ice Rose/Ant Man Bee/When I See Mommy, I Feel Like A Mummy/When It Blows
Its Stacks/Flavor Bud Living-Veteran’s Day Poppy.
When Edinburgh based
improvising quartet Ego Ergo Aggro played a one-off
concert to mark the passing of Beefheart in 2010, they didn't realise they'd have so much fun. And so, Orange Claw Hammer
were born.
This, their first physical release, is
sub-titled ‘Takes On The Music Of Captain Beefheart’, in case there is any
doubt. Yes, the band certainly cooks and, like our beloved Muffin Men, they are
not a tribute act so much as interpreters of their
idol’s music. The musicianship is top-notch, with Steve Kettley’s
tenor and soprano saxes to the fore. There’s also some lovely clanging bass
throughout, especially at the start of When
It Blows Its Stacks, a song which here builds to a lovely climax. Indeed,
both guitars interlock as befits the Captain’s tunes, and Kettley’s
voice is the right side of gruff without being a Vliet
sound-alike.
Nice to see a number of pieces not
committed to disc by either Fast 'N' Bulbous or the
reformed (and now sadly defunct) Magic Band, like Big Dummy, Ant Man Bee
and Flavor Bud Living. And as if to
prove they can play this well outside of the studio, there’s a bonus live track
tagged on to the end (Flavor Bud
Living-Veteran’s Day Poppy) which makes me even more excited about seeing
them in action at Festival Moo-ah at the end of March.
The only gripe here is that at around 40
minutes, it’s simply not long enough. More please!
EVIL DICK: ALL THAT GLISTERS
Track list: Cat-Cat's Band/All That Glisters I/All That
Glisters II/When Car Keys Go Missing/Drips And Drops/All That Glisters III/All
That Glisters IV/What's Brown And Sticky?/Bicycle Repair Man (Abridged)/All
That Glisters V/School Run/My Friend Tippy/Hat Nap/It's Bin Day/All That
Glisters VI.
Anyone who was at Zappanale in 2011, Festival Moo-ah in 2015, or
who has purchased one of the many Zappa cover CDs I have curated
for Cordelia Records will know of Evil Dick. Everyone else is a total mung bean.
On this new
all-instrumental album of all-original material (saxophonist Dave Jackson gets
co-composer credit on three of the pieces) the schoolboy song titles of old
make way for ones with more mundane domestic concerns. Except
one. And another is a Monty Python character/sketch. But whatever,
they're all still highly very. What larks, Dick!
Cat-Cat's Band reminds me of FZ's less abstract Jazz From Hell-era
Synclavier toons, which lures you into a false sense
of insecurity as you are expecting some utter madness from Evil, whose
semi-serious approach to composition and improv is
never boring. (Or should that be his serious approach to semi-composition?) The
electronic farts, squirts, belches, odd time
signatures and ambient out-there stuff come largely in the six parts that make
up the album's title.
Jackson's sax honks are
taken from extemporisations with Evil on a real drum set (see Car Keys, Bicycle Repair Man and School
Run), and are manipulated elsewhere by Evil who otherwise plays everything
- which is largely keyboard sounding gadgets, computer sequenced drums and some
occasional extreme stunt guitar. Ha!
Drips And Drops and What’s Brown And Sticky? have steadily
bonkers rhythms you could possibly dance to if you were that way entwined.
Other tracks reminiscent of Zappa’s less-meandering Synclavier compositions
include Tippy and Bin Day.
Jackson also contributes
to Evil’s version of Son Of Mr. Green Genes, which is not included here but will
be imminently available from Cordelia and will give you a glimpse of the
dazzling sounds that lurk in All That
Glisters.
Imagine if someone threw
The Faust Tapes into Wolf Harbor.
Hit it!
FRANK ZAPPA:
THE CRUX OF THE BISCUIT (Zappa Records, ZR20020) / FRANK ZAPPA FOR
PRESIDENT (Zappa Records, ZR20021)
Crux Trax: Cosmik Debris (4:21) / Uncle Remus
(Mix Outtake) (3:59) / Down In De Dew (Alternate Mix) (3:16) / Apostrophe’ (Mix
Outtake) (9:07) / The Story Of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow/St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast” (3:25) / Don't Eat The Yellow
Snow/St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast (Live) (19:26)
/ Excentrifugal Forz (Mix
Outtake) (1:34) / Energy Frontier (Take 4) (3:04) / Energy Frontier (Take 6
with Overdubs) (4:15) / Energy Frontier (Bridge) (8:23) / Cosmik Debris (Basic
Tracks - Take 3) (5:11) / Don't Eat The Yellow Snow (Basic Tracks - Alternate
Take) (2:12) / Nanook Rubs It (Basic Tracks -
Outtake) (0:42) / Nanook Rubs It (Session Outtake)
(0:48) / Frank's Last Words..... (0:16)
Prez: Overture To “Uncle Sam” (15:16) / Brown Shoes Don't Make It (Remix)
(7:27) / Amnerika (Vocal Version) (3:10) / “If I Was
President...” (2:34) / When The Lie's So Big (3:38) /
Medieval Ensemble (6:31) / America The Beautiful (3:27)
“I have no idea what they even are. I’ve heard about
them, but I don’t have anything to do with them. I don’t know what’s on there.” – Dweezil Zappa
The belated 4tieth
anniversary of Apostrophe audio
documentary features side one of that album as originally envisaged by Zappa, a
live performance from Sydney ‘73 (recorded the day before Australian Yellow Snow on the One
Shot Deal album), and various iterations of the piece initially titled Energy Frontier that Zappa split, edited
and released as Apostrophe and Down In De Dew during his lifetime.
All of the above, plus the stop/starts of Nanook, mean this
collection of alternate mixes and studio outtakes is clearly not an album for newbies. Even the cover photo used here was ditched by
Zappa!
A mystery flautist can be heard on takes 4
and 6 of Energy Frontier, but
acoustic bass player Dave Parlato says, “I don't recall
a flute live when we recorded.”
Also
includes excellent sleeve notes by the semantic scrutinizer, Simon Prentis, who also wrote the liners for the Rykodisc Läther CD.
President has been issued in the run-up to
the 2016 United States presidential election that sees Ahmet Zappa (now the CEO
of Zappa Records and executor of the ZFT) firmly behind the Democratic Party's
nominee, Hillary Clinton (whose husband FZ used to refer to as ‘Slick Willie’).
This Joe Travers compilation could be seen
as a sort of companion piece to the Zappa assembled Understanding America, though it is comprised of largely unreleased
performances – mostly on the Synclavier.
Uncle
Sam and Medieval Ensemble are
totally realised on ‘La Machine’, while Napoleon
Murphy Brock sings Amnerika
and Zappa tells us what he would do if he was President over its Synthesized backing.
When
The Lie’s So Big and America The
Beautiful (the final song Zappa would perform live on US soil) come from
the ‘Broadway The Hard Way’ tour, the latter having been previously issued on 2008's
download-only The Frank Zappa AAAFRNAAA
Birthday Bundle.
FRANK ZAPPA:
ROAD TAPES, VENUE #3 (Vaulternative Records,
VR 2016-1)
Track list: Tyrone
Start The Tape… (1:59) / King Kong (3:37) / Wonderful
Wino (4:47) / Concentration Moon (2:34) / Mom & Dad (3:25) / The Air (3:46)
/ Dog Breath (2:01) / Mother People (2:06) / You Didn’t Try To Call Me (4:10) /
Agon - Interlude (0:36) / Call Any Vegetable (7:59) /
King Kong-Igor’s Boogie (20:25) / It Can’t Happen Here (3:05) / Sharleena (4:59) / The 23rd “Mondellos”
(3:13) / Justine (1:46) / Pound For A Brown (5:07) / Sleeping In A Jar (3:37) /
Sharleena (5:49) / "A Piece Of Contemporary
Music” (7:03) / The Return Of The Hunchback Duke (including: Little House I
Used To Live In, Holiday In Berlin) (10:00) / Cruising For Burgers (3:44) /
Let’s Make The Water Turn Black (1:42) / Harry, You’re A Beast (1:29) / Oh
No-Orange County Lumber Truck (11:01) / Call Any Vegetable (11:29) / Mondello’s Revenge (1:46) / The Clap (Chunga’s
Revenge) (13:01)
For those reared on
the original Flo & Eddie-era albums, this is a bit of an eye opener in that
their parts are more constricted, allowing the musicians to fly much more. This
was before Jeff Simmons quit and the groupie routines became the norm; hearing
the pair sing many of the original Mothers’ songs is a real treat – especially
the with-words version of Holiday In Berlin.
Like Happy
Together on the Fillmore East
album, Justine is a song previously
performed by Volman and Kaylan
(né Kaplan) – but with prototype Turtles, The Crossfires, in 1963.
The
Nancy & Mary Music on the Chunga's Revenge
album was pieced together from parts of the performances of King Kong/Igor's Boogie and The Clap (Chunga's
Revenge), presented here in their lovely fullness.
Like Carnegie
Hall before it, this album is culled from two shows recorded on the same
day, so some tracks are duplicated.
FRANK ZAPPA:
ROXY - THE MOVIE (SOUNDTRACK) (Zappa Records, EAGDV050/CD)
Track list: Something
Terrible Has Happened... (1:19) / Cosmik Debris (9:54) / Penguin In Bondage
(8:22) / T'Mershi Duween
(1:56) / The Dog Breath Variations-Uncle Meat (4:14) / RDNZL (4:51) / Echidna's
Arf (Of You) (3:54) / Don't You Ever Wash That Thing
(7:02) / Cheepnis - Percussion (4:08) / Cheepnis (5:40) / Be-Bop Tango (Of The
Old Jazzman's Church) (17:32)
The DVD came with
this abridged soundtrack CD.
Having released ...By Proxy the previous year, it is surprising to see songs
duplicated here – but not Village Of The
Sun, meaning that Echidna’s comes
in with a jolt, bereft of its traditional joyous intro/segue. The Proxy rendition of Village is though inferior without the overdubs present on the Elsewhere album, which may explain its
celluloid exclusion.
The Roxy footage of Montana and Dupree's Paradise
shown before ZPZ concerts in 2006 are also omitted from the movie, but never
mind: this is one of Zappa’s finest ensembles and such quibbles pale into
insignificance given the forty year wait.
Cosmik
Debris was still slower than the studio version laid down several months
previous, but this band was adept at tempo changes.
Many were surprised by drummer Ralph
Humphrey’s contribution after Chester Thompson was chosen to join Genesis on
the strength of these shows.
FRANK ZAPPA: 200 MOTELS – THE SUITES (Zappa Records, ZR 20019)
Track list: Overture
(2:17) / Went On The Road (1:41) / Centerville (2:24)
/ This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (10:15) / The Restaurant Scene (4:23) /
Touring Can Make You Crazy (2:06) / What's The Name Of Your Group? (11:46) /
Can I Help You With This Dummy? (2:33) / The Pleated
Gazelle (21:00) / I'm Stealing The Room (13:44) /
Shove It Right In (7:26) / Penis Dimension (9:58) / Finale: Strictly Genteel
(11:14)
We can all argue
about the inclusion (and order) of certain items in the first 100 albums of the
Official Discography, but they all had some direct input by FZ. 200 Motels – The Suites however – as
co-producer Frank Filipetti states in his liner notes
– is entirely “as
envisioned by Gail Zappa and Kurt Morgan”.
As well as Ian Underwood (keyboard
1/electric alto sax) and Scott Thunes (electric bass), the album also features
Lou Anne Neill. Neill, who has been the Los Angeles Philharmonic's principal
harpist since 1983, was a part of the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra that can be heard on Orchestral Favorites and QuAUDIOPHILIAc,
and also contributed to Zoot Allures,
Zappa In New
York and Tinsel Town Rebellion.
Gail Zappa, who oversaw this production and
the one by the BBC Concert Orchestra/Southbank Sinfonia
at London’s Festival Hall six days later, passed away the month before the
album’s release.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS: ZAPPANALE
#26 (2015)
Disc One: Francesco-The
Treacherous Torture Never Stops (Drei vom Rhein)/Something Is Bleeding (Die Reise)/Advance
Romance-Pygmy Twylyte-Dummy Up-The Message (The
Peach Noise Experience feat. Napoleon Murphy Brock & Mats
Öberg)/Fundal-RDNZL (Panzerpappa)/Fünfzig Arten Schmerz-Doberaner Rennbahnfantasie-Robert Braun-Strandgut-Verarscht (Yellow Snow Crystals)/Chunga’s Revenge (String Trash).
Disc Two: Voodoo Chile (Maos & Wendt)/Phobia-King
Kong (Univers Zero)/Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask-Since I’ve
Been Loving You Crazy Diamond (Inventionis Mater)/Eat That Question-Crew Slut (ZAPPATiKA feat. Ike Willis, Denny Walley,
Craig ’Twister’ Steward & Jeff Hollie)/I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth-Punky’s Whips (Frank Out!)/Twenty Small Cigars-King Kong (Fried Dähn
& das Onomatopoeia Perturbation Consort)/Teenage
Wind-Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance-Excentrifugal Forz (Z3 feat.
Ed Mann).
Disc Three: Montana-Blessed Relief
(Stefan Hüfners ¡ZAPPATA!)/Ugly White Folks Funk (Arf Force One)/Dupree’s Paradise-Andy-Whippin’
Post (Banned From Utopia)/Heavy Duty Judy (Goodbye Session)/Willie The Pimp-Dirty Love (Jazzprojekt Hundehagen feat. Stephen Chillemi).
You were there? Now you can re-live it all with this li'l bundle o' joy. Welcome to the first proper Zappanale
CD release since the smash/flop that I compiled in 2007. After that, the Arf Society felt it wasn’t worth releasing physical discs
anymore because people prefer to copy and share music so much these days. But
now with Amaretto Mick Zeuner firmly back in the saddle, if fans of the
festival snarf this one up by the bucket-load, then
they say there will be another one. Every year. It's
in your hands.
This one features more
alums than ever: Napi! Ikey!
Denny! Eddie! Bobby! Ray! Tom! Albert! Twister! Jeff! (During Inventionis Mater's performance on the Mystery Stage we get
the added bonus of hearing Mr Hollie's saxamaphone from ZAPPATiKA's
soundcheck on the Main Stage!)
Drei
vom Rhein's auto-tuned Treacherous Torture monster-mash is a
highlight of the first disc, as of course is the mighty Napi
with the dynamic Peach Noise and Mats Öberg. Now I’ve
been to Zappanale for the last 15 years and am slightly embarrassed to say I
can barely speak a word of German. Thus it is that the Yellow Snow Crystals’
set is lost on me. While I’m assured that their amended Zappa lyrics are a
hoot, their delivery of them leaves something to be desired. To
these ears, anyway. The disc closes with album compiler Mick's cheez-trash bass-fest.
Many peeps were pulling
one off last year over Maos & Wendt’s Hendrix
tribute, but I’m afraid that also went over my head – so to speak. As an intro
to the second disc, this small dose is fine. Inventionis
Mater do a bit of crowd conducting during this extract
from their Prelude To The Afternoon Of A
Sexually Aroused Gas Mask. ZAPPATiKA's Crew Slut starts at a canter, but breaks
into a glorious gallop during the solos from Denny and Twister. Frank Out! do great things with two songs not on the Zappa Spielt Für Bach 2015 CD, while Fried Dähn
adds German lyrics to Twenty Small Cigars
to pleasing effect. The Z3 end disc two in grand style: they really are a funky
ball of teats – love the way they sashay their way so effortlessly through any
song from any decade.
Stefan Hüfners’ guys and doll (the great Mara Minjoli, that is) kick off
the final disc in fine big band style. Before the festival, Denny, Mats, Paul Hubweber (of The Yellow Snow Crystals) and Amaretto
conspired to play a surprise set together. Unfortunately, it didn't quite pan
out as planned, but Mick was able to quickly assemble an alternate jam band of
musical muckers in order to fill the void. And so, Arf Force One took flight, crashed and burned, never to be
heard again. But we get a mammoth 11½ mins of 'em here. They are followed by the indisputable highlight of
this compilation: the fantastic Banned From Utopia, with Morgan Ågren on the drum stool this time around. They are joined
by Morgan’s mate Mats on harmonica and keys on a lasciviously lengthy Dupree’s Paradise, which also contains a
wondrous work-out from Tom Fowler on bass. Robbie Mangano
and Ray White burn bright on Andy, and Robert Martin shows he’s still got it on Whippin’ Post. Albert Wing shines throughout.
The Goodbye Session and Jazzprojekt Hundehagen round things off in traditional fashion, with me
old China Stephen Chillemi helping out the fired-up
‘house band’ nicely on Dirty Love.
For those who didn’t
attend last year, redeem yo’selfs by buying one of
these sets. Now!
THE BIZARRE WORLD OF FRANK ZAPPA, LONDON PALLADIUM, 14 MAY 2019
Set-list: Cosmik Debris / Montana / More Trouble Every
Day / Penguin In Bondage / Apostrophe / The Evil Prince / Zomby Woof / #2 / Why
Does It Hurt When I Pee? / Peaches En Regalia / Stink‐Foot / Farther
O'Blivion / The Dangerous Kitchen / Dinah-Moe Humm / City Of Tiny Lites / Dirty
Love / Dead Girls Of London / Cheepnis / Camarillo Brillo.
Much tosh has already
been said and written about this tour, and I confess I was initially sceptical
about the concept. But the reality is clear and simple: outstanding musicians
playing some of the world's finest music with fun visuals.
What's not to like?
I was surprised that the so-called hologram
of Frank is not actually based on the unseen footage from the ‘DiscReet TV
Special’: his image was in fact digitally created from scratch using Ahmet's
facial expressions (while much of the audio does indeed come from said fillum).
But it’s a joy to behold ‘Frank’ singing and playing this way, whatever.
It was also great to see so many friendly
and familiar faces at the Palladium (semantic scrutinizer Simon Prentis, official
biographer Alan Clayson (the book has now left the runway!), former secretary
Pauline Butcher, Zappa Crappa snappa Robert Davidson and the musicians Dave
Gregory, Josh Freese, Carl Palmer, Nick Beggs and Steven Wilson were the
notable ‘celebs’ in attendance – plus tech guru and former video-obsessive
Thomas Nordegg, of course)
While the show was by no means perfect,
Ahmet is using this first run of shows to see how they can improve the
positioning of ‘FZ’ and generally tinker to make for an even better show for
all.
The set list was a little pedestrian for us
hard-core fans, but The Evil Prince,
the unreleased #2 and the amazing Farther O’Blivion more than placated us.
Keneally was especially amazing on the latter, but the band as a whole was just
utterly fab – with further special mentions for the vocals of Messrs. White and
Martin. Wow!
Ahmet and Diva came out for Dead Girls Of London, which Ahmet sang.
Diva cartwheeled across the stage before giving the
front row a slice of cake (it would be her brother’s birthday in a few hours).
During Ahmet’s band introductions, I was nearly blown out of my seat by Scott
Thunes rumbling bass, but overall the sound was great (far better than in
Manchester, by all accounts).
The idea that this is a cash-grab is
foo-eee: Ahmet and Eyellusion partner Jeff have invested heavily to make all
this happen. Neither is it a ‘fuck you’ to Dweezil. It’s optional entertainment
which, like Dweezil, I look forward to seeing again. And again.
HONEST BETRAYAL, HAMPTON HILL THEATRE, TEDDINGTON, 18 APRIL 2019
Part of the first (and
hopefully not sole) run of Pauline Butcher’s play, “set in
London over one week while Frank is suing the Albert Hall for cancelling his
concert four years earlier. It is now 1975 and Frank and Gail
are staying at a plush 5-star hotel in London. He auditions a young 19-year old
soprano for a part in his forthcoming film and tells Gail that he wants to take
her back to LA to live with them both. Gail has to somehow deal with this
dilemma.”
It is well known that FZ cheated on GZ, and also invited at least three
other women to live in their house: Nigey Lennon (unbeknownst to GZ); Lorraine
Belcher (who insisted on her own room); and Jenny Brown. The fictitious 19 year
old soprano is an amalgam of some of these, and more.
In The Real Frank Zappa Book, Frank states he was “forced to
sue the Crown for breach of contract” as a result of
them cancelling the planned 200 Motels
concert. Howard Kaylan however disputes this, saying it was all an elaborate
publicity stunt by Herb Cohen. Whatever the truth, all of these events conspire
to make for some interesting supposition. Honest
Betrayal is not in the least bit tasteless (as some naysayers felt it might
be), but a wonderfully written, engaging play based on the low-fidelity life of
FZ.
Here, Emily Tucker was superb as
Gail, as was Matt Houlian as a pompous Barrister, drunken priest and nutter with a gun.
Harry Harrington as Frank just about
pulled off the impossible: while not quite looking or sounding like FZ, that
didn’t matter after a while: he delivered his lines well (many of which will be
familiar to fans) and was convincing enough without straying into Groucho Marx
territory – like the guy in the UK production of 200 Motels–The Suites did a few years back.
Lucie Fletcher, as naïve soprano
Melanie, also gave a solid and engaging performance.
While making reference to real events
(but not necessarily in the right order!) and quoting from Frank’s interviews,
the script still managed to surprise and I gained a better understanding of
both Frank and Gail’s points of view on love and marriage. Afterwards, Mrs
Idiot said she would have kicked his arse out years ago, but clearly Gail
could/would not let go. The play’s ending also had a great twist.
Kudos to Pauline for writing
something far meatier and entertaining than the Beeb did with its afternoon
play based on her excellent book. I saw one of five performances at the Hampton
Hill Theatre, and Pauline is now busily re-writing some sections in the hope
that someone will pick it up and transfer it to London’s West End. Here’s
hoping.
ZAPPANALE #28, BAD DOBERAN,
GERMANY, 14-16 JULY 2017
ZAPPANALE #27, BAD DOBERAN, GERMANY, 15-17
JULY 2016
BRITTEN SINFONIA WITH GUEST STAR EDDIE GOMEZ (BASS), MILTON COURT,
LONDON, 18 NOVEMBER 2015 (by two special guest reviewers)
Geoff Wills: As part
of the London Jazz Festival, Britten Sinfonia
presented a concert of Third Stream music, ie. music that blends elements of classical and jazz. Star bass
player Eddie Gomez (ex-Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Steps Ahead) was a guest soloist on pieces by Claus Ogerman and Simon Bainbridge, and music by Igor Stravinsky
and Darius Milhaud was also played. Of special interest in the programme were two pieces by Frank Zappa, namely Igor’s Boogie and The Perfect Stranger, and these were immaculately performed. My
only complaint was that it was a pity that more Zappa wasn’t played (Igor’s Boogie only lasted a minute), but
overall this was an enjoyable concert, further demonstrating Zappa’s acceptance
in a jazz-related situation, and showing that, even if you can’t join the
mainstream, at least you can join the Third Stream.
James Richardson: First off, I’m a huge fan of the Britten Sinfonia.
Their energy and interpretation of all the compositions they perform leaves you
breathless. This evening was no exception.
As part of the London Jazz
Festival it was Eddie Gomez’s evening. He crafted his style of bass playing
with Bill Evans in the mid-60s and through most of the 70s. I first became
aware of him performing with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock in the 70s and it was thrilling to see him
(now 71) laying down all those musically acrobatic bass runs in Claus Ogerman’s Symbiosis
(1974) as well as featuring in the world premiere of Simon Bainbridge’s Counterpoints (2015). In my opinion, not
the fitting climax to the evening. A jagged and difficult
composition which never really did it for me.
However, the first half of the
concert was the thing. A beautifully balanced selection of
mainly Stravinsky and Zappa. The two Stravinsky pieces – Tango (for solo piano) and Ragtime
(for 11 instruments) – particular favourites of mine and were both beautifully played. They
were the bread to the sandwich filling of Frank’s Igor’s Boogie (1970). An elaborate new
arrangement by Philip Cashian. I’m so used to
the beautiful, and fairly simple Burnt Weeny recording that this new
arrangement, and the breakneck speed it was played at, left me a little
dazed…and thrilled. It only lasted for one minute. They should have played it
twice!
And so to
the main event …. Frank’s The
Perfect Stranger (1984). What a brilliant performance. The great thing
about the Britten Sinfonia is that they’re not shy in
showing off. I mean that in a good way. The Boulez recording we know so well
sounds polite and genteel compared with this performance. I loved the way the
harp took centre stage and swept everything else to one side as well as
bringing all the playing to a climax. A special mention should go to Jacqueline
Shave who is not only the orchestra director but also first violin. In her torn
black jeans and signature fetish leather boots, she played up a storm, not only
in The Perfect Stranger but also for
the whole evening.
I love The Perfect Stranger. This was a perfect performance.
It would be stupid not to
mention Darius Milhaud’s La Creation Du
Monde…again the Britten Sinfonia gave a terrific
performance of it. Tucked away between the two Gomez performances in the second
half, it wasn’t the star of the evening – that went to The Perfect Stranger - but it was a close second. Thrilling.
ZAPPANALE #26, HAMBURG/BAD DOBERAN,
GERMANY, 15-19 JULY 2015
ZAPPANALE #25, BAD DOBERAN, GERMANY, 17-20
JULY 2014
DALE BOZZIO with Keith Valcourt: LIFE IS SO STRANGE – MISSING PERSONS, FRANK ZAPPA,
PRINCE & BEYOND (Cleopatra Records, ISBN:
978-0-9972056-9-5)
Dale’s ‘kiss and tell’ memoir reveals an unusual upbringing: her mother walked
out of the family home when she was nine, her sole older sibling got banged up
shortly thereafter for robbing a bank, and so she was raised by her doting
father – who pretty much let her have everything she ever wanted. She became
determined to be a movie star, and felt becoming a Playboy Bunny was a good
first step.
She is upfront about her relationship
with FZ, who only ever kissed her on the forehead – almost like an uncle. Her
chance meetings with Frank (who encouraged her to sing) highlight issues with
the book’s timeline: things seem to be +/- a year or so: she says they first
met backstage at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston in Spring 1972, with John Smothers
in attendance – and she drove there in her mother’s 1978 Oldsmobile; her parts
for the Joe’s Garage album were
recorded with ‘the cute band’ in February 1976; and she places Zappa’s Universe in 1992. But these
things are relatively unimportant and not what the book is really about.
Dale tells us about her 40ft fall
from a Holiday Inn window (pursued by a potential rapist; she was nursed back
to health by the Zappas); how she met Prince (who proposed to her pretty much
on the spot – turns out he was a big Missing Persons fan); and her various
lovers, including singer John Waite, Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, Thin Lizzy’s
Scott Gorham (apparently Terry was considering joining the band at the time),
Dolph Lundgren, Duran’s John Taylor and the Jackson’s Jackie Jackson.
She is also upfront about her drug
use, which in part caused the break-up of her marriage to Terry and the
disbandment of Missing Persons – that, and the fact that she slept with Warren.
She says even after the break-up, when she was recording Thing-Fish, Frank wanted her to get back with Terry and start a
family. But that was never gonna happen.
Her (*cough*) strange relationship
with Prince ended when she decided to stay at the New England Medical Center
with her then 80 year old father, who was undergoing a quadruple bypass, rather
than go to Europe to promote Riot In
English, her debut solo album for the purple one’s Paisley Park Records.
When she phoned Prince from the hospital, he churlishly yelled, “You’re fired, because you don’t love me!”
and scrapped her planned three record deal with him.
Of her experiences with FZ, she
details her final meeting with him shortly before he died – it’s almost the
equivalent of Ruth Underwood’s Zappa
movie scene stealer. Frank was clearly a very special person in her life.
Perhaps surprisingly, given her
candidness throughout, she makes no mention of the time she served in jail for
animal cruelty. I guess it doesn't matter, any way: this is a fine, fine thing
to behold.
Her story effectively finishes about
two thirds through the book, which then ends with some of her poetry (including
poems written for FZ, Warren and Prince), sheet music, rare photos, fan art,
various other memorabilia and three pages of ‘thank yous’.
It comes as a lovely hardcover book
of 300+ full colour pages with a 7″ pink vinyl single with recut versions
of Destination Unknown and Frank
favourite Mental Hopscotch. To tie-in
with this publication, the Idiot has created a Spotify playlist.
MERCY FONTENOT with Lyndsey Parker: PERMANENT DAMAGE
– MEMOIRS OF AN OUTRAGEOUS GIRL (Rare Bird, ISBN: 978-1644281826)
Deemed a threat to
normalcy by Miss Pamela (who penned this book’s Afterword), Mercy wanted to
share some important music history with the world before she left it last year.
Here we read about her pill popping parents and her many near brushes with
death (taking acid cut with strychnine, floating far out to sea on a boogie
board aged nine, taking heroin from the same batch that killed Janis Joplin,
OD'ing on Desoxyn, and on and on).
At one time, she wanted to call this
book I'm With The Band Too, but that
would have been a little misleading as she was more interested in doing drugs
with rock stars than bedding them (indeed, she describes herself as a bisexual
with little interest in sex). Before hooking up with Shuggie Otis, she had a
relationship with Jobriath, the Morrissey-admired openly gay rock musician who
died of AIDS in the early 80s. She later shat in a bucket for Chuck Berry and
spurned the at-the-time unknown Al Green (until she heard him sing, and then
had an unremarkable one night stand with him). She also bedded Taj Mahal, had a
lengthy affair with Love's Arthur Lee, and –with pumping irony – laughed off
the young Arnold Schwarzenegger's advances, assuming all bodybuilders were gay.
Her marriage to Shuggie was fraught
from the get-go: he was prone to fits of jealousy and destroyed Mercy's
diaries, which FZ had planned to publish. This made the writing of this book
doubly difficult, and it's amazing she can remember the details of half its
contents as she seemed to be stoned out of her gourd for much of her life.
On first meeting FZ, she thought he
was a bit of a dingbat but ended up admiring and ultimately missing him.
Sadly, her relationship with Lucky,
the son she had with Otis – who in his youth she initially palmed off onto her
mother, and then the Otis family – remained estranged/unresolved at the time of
her death. It's hard to feel pity for her though – and she probably wouldn’t
want that, as she really didn't regret her wreckless behaviour – but she certainly lived a life and a half.
The book will be published on 24
June.
ERLAND BEKKLEUND with CEGE BERGLUND, MATTI LAIPIO, OLE LYSGAARD & SØREN
GADEN: FRANK ZAPPA – THE NORDIC STORIES (Absolutt forlag, ISBN: 978-82-999975-8-4)
First of all, I must
declare an interest here: as English is not the first language of any of the
authors of this book, I offered to cast an eye over their text to help ensure
it would read okay to denizens of North America. I don’t normally like to
review anything I have been too involved in, but since my role was to simply
fix some words, I think it’s worth making an exception here.
Outside of his home country (and,
surprisingly, Germany), Frank played more gigs in the Nordic countries than
anywhere else – from Gothenburg in 1967 to Stockholm in 1988. This book
illustrates – with previously unseen photos, interviews and eyewitness accounts
– all of these visits to Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and a heck of a
lot of fun stuff happened on these trips. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, FZ talks about a ‘unique moment’ on tour
in Sweden when two kids asked him to come to their family home and awaken their
brother, Hannes. This book contains a lovely memory
about that late night visit from Hannes’ twin sister,
Anne.
As well as set-lists, ticket stubs,
concert posters and other related ephemera, you will also find within: the two
reasons Frank gave for firing Ian Underwood from the band; why Frank had to let
Jeff Simmons ‘have it’; more details about Eva’s wedding and the Fornebu/Shaushish show; why Frank
wanted to hire an anthropologist to study Scandinavia; who the ardent fan from
Denmark is in the lyrics of the Don Preston song, The Eternal Question; the name of the Finnish bass player Frank
wanted in his band; an insight into Frank’s friendship with Norwegian composer
Arne Nordheim; and much, much more.
The first batch of 300 books sold out
in no time; the second print run adds a few more pictures, two new stories and
is available here.
CO DE KLOET: FRANK & CO (Haver Productions, ISBN:
978-90-821095-3-5)l
Essentially a collection
of verbatim interviews with FZ (from 1977 to 1990) – plus Pamela Zarubica, Jimmy Carl Black and Flo & Eddie – with
modern day interjections by Co, a Foreword by Dweezil and bonus blurb by Steve Vai. The book provides an interesting insight into Co’s
personal and professional relationship with Frank, as well as his deep love for
his music. As the Society Pages interviews proved, fans often asked the best
questions, and Co certainly did that in spades.
In the early interviews, Frank talks
disparagingly about the English and, in particular, London audiences. And yet,
the Hammersmith Odeon was the venue he played more than any other (with the
obvious exception of New York’s Palladium), and throughout his career he would
return to the city again and again – even living there for several months.
Similarly contradictory is Pam Z’s statement that she caught crabs from her
‘roommate’ while insisting their relationship was platonic (because she chose it to be). Pamela also tells
how she was the inspiration for a number of Frank’s early songs, such as You Didn’t Try To Call Me (which he apparently wrote
about her relationship with Phil Spector).
Along the way, Frank disses the Grandmothers and reveals the behind the scenes
problems with the 1984 A Zappa Affair
concert (with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and some life-size puppets) and
much else that will be new to many. Throughout their friendship, Co says a
number of strange happenings occurred, which may explain how one day he looked
over the wall of his garden and saw Kent Nagano strolling by! (Co of course
introduced himself and arranged an interview, also included here.)
There’s so much to commend in this
book – not least Frank's amusing modification of Roger Price's Droodle on Co's copy of the Ship Arriving... album! Seriously, if
you’re reading this review, you need this book. Be here now!
MICK EKERS: ZAPPA GEAR – THE UNIQUE GUITARS, AMPLIFIERS, EFFECTS UNITS, KEYBOARDS
AND STUDIO EQUIPMENT (Backbeat Books, ISBN: 978-1-5400-1202-9)
To a failed musician
with only a vague idea of how Frank was able to produce such glorious music, Zappa Gear provides many genuinely
fascinating insights and makes watching live concert footage of the man even
more thrilling. For those muso geeks who think they
know some about equipment, prepare to have your minds blown. Mick Ekers’ authoritative tome is meticulously researched, well
written, beautifully illustrated, and a must-have for all fans of Frank and
anyone with an interest in the technical side of great music making. As Ahmet
rightly says, “It’s fucking epic”!
The book reveals that not only did Frank
write the dots, but he also bought and owned much of the gear his musicians
played them on: it’s no wonder he so grudgingly gave out co-songwriting
credits. It also reveals the meaning of the word “Blurch.”
As many of you may know, Mick is a close
friend of mine who I have helped and encouraged these last ten years, so it is
very gratifying to be acknowledged in this extraordinary book.
For more insights, read my recent interview
with Mick here.
CHARLES ULRICH: THE BIG NOTE: A GUIDE TO THE RECORDINGS OF FRANK ZAPPA (New Star
Books, ISBN: 978-1-55420-146-4)
Wowie zowie – finally completed and out after
Charles (aka drdork) had been posing questions and sharing his findings at affz
and Zappateers for nearly 20 years! Given that there are still some unanswered
questions (eg. just who was Frank’s ‘friend’ who provides the first ‘sound
effect’ on The Torture Never Stops!?)
this cannot be called a definitive guide to FZ’s recordings. But with Frank no
longer around, this will probably be the closest we’ll ever get to it – and
Ulrich even gets to correct a number of falsehoods that FZ propagated while he
was around (eg. the Saints N’ Sinners was actually the Sinners & Saints).
Having said that, Ulrich himself has already set up a page of Big Note corrections at http://fzpomd.net/bignote/corrections.html.
While Ben Watson chose to group the albums
by label/genre/whatever in his Frank
Zappa: The Complete Guide To His Music, Ulrich has opted to review them
alphabetically. Though he explains the rationale behind this, it is still a
little disconcerting to read first about the Mothers’ second album, and lastly
about Zoot Allures – with Cruising With Ruben & The Jets
nestling next to Dance Me This in
between. (For those craving a straight chronological rundown, see my ‘little
dots’ in the forthcoming Zappa Tour Atlas!)
Surprisingly, for such a detailed book,
there is no traditional index for easy cross-referencing – though the inclusion
of one would likely have doubled the already astronomical page count!
Similarly, some of the track-by-track album reviews give very little insight
(eg. “FZ plays a guitar solo” on Pick Me, I’m Clean from Buffalo), hence there is an assumption
that most readers will be au fait completists. And I guess that’s about right.
There is also perhaps too much emphasis on
the Beat The Boots series, where most
fans are dismissive of said polished turds. But there are oodles of examples of
why this book is a must read (such as where some samples on Feeding The Monkies At Ma Maison appear
elsewhere in the canon); an astonishing amount of work and research has gone
into this that even the most hard-core will find something new. It really is
just so eye wateringly fascinating: I heartily endorse this event or
product!
If you haven’t already,
order your copy here.
CHARLIE FREAK: LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: A BOOK SERIES ON THE MOST IMPORTANT ROCK ALBUMS
IN MUSIC HISTORY - ALBUM #17: FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION, WE'RE
ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY (Charlie Freak Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-387-35981-3)
While Podmeister Scott Parker’s tome, Discorporate! Frank Zappa In The Studio
1966-1967, dissects the recording sessions for We're Only In It For The Money, Charlie Freak opts to focus on how
FZ’s lyrics (in conjunction with his music) attacks the carefully cultivated
hippy culture of 1967. And this is where some might find this book a little
challenging: like Oliver Stone, Charlie believes LBJ was involved in the plot
to assassinate JFK, suggests Tom Petty was bumped off by the CIA, and is
convinced that Charles Manson was a puppet of the real Nazis currently ruling
the planet.
While there is undoubtedly much to be said
for being suspicious of corporations, Governments, public education and the
media, I’m afraid I don’t quite share Charlie’s bleak worldview. I get the
feeling that – just as Frank found some of Ben Watson’s assertions in Poodle Play hysterical – he would also
have been hugely entertained by some of Charlie’s interpretations of his point
of view based on the first three Mothers’ albums. He would though have enjoyed
this book, fer sure. It is unquestionably an
essential and important read that is very far from being a typical analysis of
an album. Charlie’s conviction, plus the evidence he provides to back up his
assertions (including Frank's lyrics and quotes), has you questioning
everything you’ve ever believed in. Given that very little has changed in
corporate America since the Summer Of Love, it even makes you wonder if Frank realised his efforts to bring about change were futile and
he resigned himself to writing lyrics simply because “we
live in a society where instrumental music is irrelevant”. But it's not
something you need wrap a hot towel around your head while reading: he quotes
from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron
Burgundy, for example!
As I have never set foot inside America, I
am perhaps able to scoff from afar at the state of things there. I may be a
fool, but I have a little more faith in my own country. I am also very much
looking forward to seeing how Charlie addresses the almost wholly instrumental Hot Rats (album #69 in his chart) next. Bop bop bop!
YEAH! WHEEE!
DANIEL SCHRÖDER: FRANK ZAPPA - THE COMPOSER (Büchner ISBN
978-3-941310-85-8)
From the get-go, Schröder is clear about the aim of this book: he hopes to
plug the gap left by other scholars in analysing FZ's New Music and justifying his status as a contemporary composer. I
know a number of people have waited for such a book - that looks at Frank the
composer - but this is very much focused on his 'serious' orchestral work
rather than the whole of his oeuvre.
Along the way, Schröder
is fairly dismissive of Watson's Poodle
Play while praising Currier's (sic) Dangerous
Kitchen. Naturally, there's much on the output of Varese - and also
Stravinsky - and the conclusion seems to be that, while Zappa revered and was
inspired by the pair, his writing style did not really emulate either. Or anyone else, for that matter.
I did not appreciate that this book was
first published in German some five years ago. The translation here is
excellent, though the copious use of guillemets
rather than English quotation marks can be a little off-putting. As someone who
can't read music, no translation in the world could help me to fully appreciate
some of the detailed examination on show here, but I was surprised by the
emphasis placed on Music For Low-Budget
Orchestra, Moggio
and (in particular) Naval Aviation In
Art?, which seem to be cited as prime examples of Zappa's writing style.
There are a few factual errors - Schröder states that the soundtrack to 200 Motels was recorded by the LA Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta, and Ahead
Of Their Time was released posthumously - but these are minor distractions
from what is otherwise a very well crafted dissertation that very much achieves
its stated aim.
Perhaps the most insightful observation of
all about Zappa's compositional style comes from Ali N. Askin
(thanked for assisting in the preparation of this book) who in his liner notes
for The Yellow Shark (quoted here)
confirmed what we knew all along: Frank would jump from Louie Louie to Ligeti-like
clusters simply because it sounded good - not because he was following any
particular musical theory.
For those wanting to reach the outer limits
of Zappa's universe, this book (together with Wills' Zappa And Jazz) carefully transports us there.
BOB ZAPPA with Diane E. Papalia: FRANKIE & BOBBY -
THE REST OF OUR STORY (CreateSpace Independent
Publishing, ISBN 9781544258799)
Bob's first book
certainly left many of us wanting more - and now, here it is: the rest of his
time with Frank and beyond.
Picking up where Frankie & Bobby: Growing Up Zappa left
off, this volume initially sees Bob and his wife move to Stockholm (after his
brief tenure working for Frank in New York), where Bob studies sociology –
specifically deviant behavior, no less!
The first part of the book is largely about
Bob's married and working life, punctuated with Frank's helpful "snarky but caring" advice to his
younger brother.
Bob talks of his mother and siblings’
issues regarding their lack of contact with FZ once his career took off - which
he suspects Frank regretted towards the end of his life - but also of how
immensely proud they all were of his achievements.
There are some nice stories about Frank's
legendary bodyguard, John Smothers, and of Frank introducing Bob to audiences
in New Orleans, New York and New Jersey.
Each chapter starts with a salient quote
from Frank, but it's the latter part of the book that will draw most attention
where Bob talks about his poor relationship with Gail (the result perhaps of an
alcohol-fuelled argument about Vietnam he had with her father around the time
they first met in 1967) and speculates about her possible coercive control over
Frank in his final days.
Bob also ponders the mysteries surrounding Frank's
early death - such as what treatment he had undergone to fight his cancer, why
there was no autopsy and why was his unembalmed body
buried so speedily in an unmarked grave. Over ten years after his passing, Bob
even instigated a cold case investigation by the LAPD which confirmed some
irregularities but ultimately provided no concrete answers.
The current family rift is touched upon,
including Bob's happy but belated reunions with Moon and Dweezil in the wake of
Gail's passing.
All together, there is much of interest
here and the book, together with the first installment of the Frankie & Bobby story, provides
important clues for future Zappa scholars to investigate.
Once again, very enlightening and
well-written, this is a book most fans (like me) will read in one sitting!
JOHN CORCELLI: FRANK ZAPPA FAQ – ALL THAT’S LEFT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FATHER OF
INVENTION (Backbeat Books, ISBN 978-1-61713-603-0)
Firstly, I must
declare an interest: I was approached by Robert Rodriguez (the man who conceived
the FAQ Series) to write this book. My plan was to rope in my fellow ZappaCasters, Messrs Ekers and
Parker, to help me put it together. Sadly, I dillied
and I dallied too long - I was in the throes of finishing off my meagre-selling Beatles
The Easy Way book at the time - and never submitted my proposal. So Mr Corcelli got the job. And a
fine fist he has made of it too.
It's very well written indeed and touches
all the right bases (though we had proposed to say more on Frank’s scatological
lyrics, his forays into advertising, and the Z kids). But there's nothing here
that the hard-core FZ fan won’t already know (except possibly that The Lost Episodes album, compiled before
Zappa’s death, was intended as a piss-take of the Beatles' Anthology - launched two years after his passing!).
For those not in the know, this gives a
solid account of the man's life and work. But citing the book as the last word
on Frank (bolstered by Ed Palermo's claim in his foreword that if any facts are
wrong, he'd know) wasn’t a wise move. As with most Zappa books, there are a
number of factual (and a couple of spelling) errors - some minor (Corcelli erroneously states that Ahead Of Their Time was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall,
and that there were no opening acts on the Broadway
The Hard Way tour), and some howlers (he confuses Pamela Zarubica with Pamela Des Barres and YCDTOSA Vol. 2 is referred to as "The Stockholm
Concert"). Of course there remains much more to learn about Frank, else
IBS and the various Zappa fora would have shut up
shop long ago. But my trifling observations aside, there is much to commend in
these here pages.
BOB ZAPPA
with Bob Stannard: FRANKIE
& BOBBY - GROWING
UP ZAPPA (CRZ Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9964779-0-1)
“We shared
unique experiences that will disappear with me unless I make these stories
public,” says Bob in his introduction to this truly enlightening, well
written and revealing tome about the early life of our fave
composer.
We all know about the
Zappa family's nomadic existence, and this book strives to demonstrate the
affect this had on shaping Frank's later life. Bob believes the constant moves
caused the pair to grow up as misfits and led to them becoming fiercely
independent. Having said that, they were clearly very close and protective of
one another and, after they both fled the nest and went their separate ways,
Bob talks of the anger he felt at not being around to support his brother in Montreux and London in December 1971. He also speculates
whether his father's constant job changes were entirely down to his desire to
better the family’s existence and his career or were enforced by his various
employers. Francis certainly never fully explained the reasons for so many
moves, and also would never show any shortcomings in his make
up - either as a father or employee.
Despite their shared
experiences growing up together, Bob sheds some light on how the pair turned
out so differently and on what drove Frank to become the super-creative person
he was.
With siblings Candy and
Carl being that much younger than Frankie and Bobby, the constant moves during
the first two decades of Frank's life don't appear to have had quite the same
impact on them.
During the family’s time
in Lancaster (a particluarly bad period for the pair,
with troubles at school and an unsympathetic father), FZ became interested in
UFOs and necromancy, and later told Bobby mysteriously that he'd made a bargain
with the devil. We also learn that Frank never met his half-sister Ann from
their father's first marriage, and that he was to have produced an album by
Richie Havens but the singer-songwriter objected to his plan to name the album The Mad Gummer (Cal Schenkel
mentioned this in an interview a few years back, and Bob describes Cal's
planned artwork for the record).
After Frank became a
Mother, he invited Bob to join him during the run of shows at the Garrick to
act as his personal assistant. It was hoped he would wind up with a more permanaent role in his entourage. Frank was happy for Bob to
drive up to New York with a couple of his old Claremont friends, one of whom
was Dick Barber. Of course, it was Dick rather than Bob who wound-up securing a
job with Frank.
The book is illustrated
with many rare snaps of the family's early years as well as Frank's painting of
an urn (as seen on the History Detectives - see here) and
Edward Beardsley's companion piece to the painting used on the cover of Alice
Cooper's Pretties For
You.
There are so many
stories you won't find anywhere else about Frank's formative years and I won't
spoil things by detailing them all here: instead, grab a copy and read them for
yourself - you won't regret it.
GEOFF WILLS: ZAPPA AND JAZZ – DID IT REALLY SMELL FUNNY, FRANK? (Matador Books, ISBN 978-1-78462-391-3)
The basic premise of this book is to disprove Charles Shaar Murray’s assertion (in his otherwise excellent BBC
radio programme, Jazz From
Hell) that Zappa wasn’t a jazz fan. Many of us already know that Frank was
a chronic fibber-teller who would often belittle things he clearly admired (ie. The Beatles), and Wills sets out his case with aplomb,
successfully pooh-poohing Zappa’s Duke Ellington begging for $10 story along
the way.
Whereas the book might
get the casual FZ fan (are there any?) running to their Zappa collection, it
caused this casual jazz fan to Google-a-go-go and riffle through his meagre
jazz records wanting to learn more about the likes of Bird, Dizzy, Mingus, Rollins and Kenton. With his undeniable knowledge
on such matters, Wills’ is able to provide some incredible insights into the
copious Third Stream/Bebop/jazz waltz references in Frank’s canon, as well as
detailing how his music influenced 70s
jazz-rock.
So Zappa’s universe
continues to expand as Wills adds another dimension – all in an unpretentious
and readable way. Highly recommended.
Order your copy direct
from the publisher here.
DENNIS
DUNAWAY and Chris Hodenfield: SNAKES! GUILLOTINES! ELECTRIC CHAIRS! MY
ADVENTURES IN THE ALICE COOPER GROUP (Omnibus Press, ISBN 978-1-78305-993-5)
Having been a huge fan of the Alice Cooper group since 1971’s Killer album, I couldn’t wait to read
this bio by bassist Dunaway. The fact that Alice Cooper got its first big break
from FZ of course added to my interest in the band who, at one time, gave the
mighty Zep a run for their money in my teenage
affections.
While this book focuses
very much on the close-knit unit’s early struggles and eventual rise to fame
(there’s no mention of No More Mr. Nice
Guy in the all too brief section on the recording of the platinum Billion Dollar Babies LP, for example),
FZ’s involvement doesn’t merit too many pages. But it’s an interesting and
entertaining read nevertheless. Dunaway has a nice turn of phrase (on sexual
awakenings, he describes how “Sharon
galvanised the gonads of guys up and down school halls,”) as well as a
great eye/memory for detail - possibly because, unlike Alice and guitarist Glen
Buxton, he didn’t dive so deeply into the drugs and alcohol that became readily
available the higher the band climbed.
While influenced by UK
bands like the Yardbirds and The Who, Alice Cooper
started as a psychedelic rock band with a theatrical bent and Dada aspirations
that would invent glitter rock and slowly morph into the shock rockers the
world knew and loved. When Zappa took them under his wing, he wanted the group
to change its name to ‘Alice Cookies’ and have each track on their first album
as a separate biscuit-sized record, housed in a sealed can...until manager Herb
Cohen pointed out the likely costs. After the Pretties For You and Easy Action albums, Zappa’s interest dwindled and the band knew
they had to break away if they were to become a success. Hooking up with
managers Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg, they survived
for a time by selling copies of Dylan’s Great
White Wonder bootleg. Then they were introduced to the still teen-aged
producer Bob Ezrin, who loved what they were trying
to do and helped mould them into the mega-selling band they quickly became.
Their first collaboration (for Ezrin truly was their
George Martin), Love It To Death, was initially issued on the Straight label
until Warner Bros steamed and the band really took off. Warners
would release the subsequent albums, the next three (for me and many others)
representing the band’s finest hour – well, two years actually. There’s mention
of Cohen reappearing during this period, but Dunaway omits to explain that the
group continued to have business ties with Straight up until the School’s Out album.
Some while after singer
Vincent Furnier assumed the Alice name and mainstream
acceptance became an inevitability, the song writing credits started to be
divvied up, management and media started to home in on the front man, and the
rot started to set in. In 1974, with talks of solo albums and a ‘marriage
Sabbatical’, Alice would slope off with Ezrin and
return with what is generally accepted to still be his greatest solo offering, Welcome To My Nightmare. And then it was
“goodbye guys, maybe I'll see you around
some time.”
In spite of this,
Dunaway remained friends with his old school and track buddy, and he talks with
great affection about the original group’s reunion in 2011 for its induction
into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - sadly, nearly fifteen years after
guitarist Buxton had literally wasted away.
So, a bittersweet tale,
but one worth checking out if you have an interest in
the original (and best) AC group and tales of Seventies rock and roll excess. I
think Miss Axelrod would be much impressed.
JIMMY CARL
BLACK: FOR
MOTHER’S SAKE - THE MEMOIRS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF JIMMY CARL BLACK 1938-2008 (Inkanish Publications, ISBN 9781493588725)
Coming five years after his passing, the autobiography of the
original Mothers Of Invention drummer reveals his Native American heritage
(though posthumous research by the editors casts some doubts on the accuracy of
this), disparages FZ’s abilities as a driver, and contemplates how ‘the Indian
of the group’ managed to father five children with all the marital strife and
philandering that occurred as he pursued a career in music. The ‘memoirs’ part
of the book comprises a chronological series of vignettes as told to Muffin Man
Roddie Gilliard in the back
of a tour bus as they gigged their way around Europe between 1994 and 1997.
Aside from playing in one of the best American rock bands of the 1960s, JCB
also got to jam with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and
Stevie Ray Vaughan, appear in a film with Ringo Starr
and Keith Moon, paint houses with Arthur Brown, make doughnuts out in the west
Texas town of El Paso, and play Knebworth with
Captain Beefheart as part of his Magic Band with Elliot Ingber
and Bruce Fowler. These adventures are all relayed in Jimmy’s own inimitable
way.
A musician for all of
his adult life, his first love was R&B but he also tried his hand at black
gospel, disco and jazz. Inevitably his time with Frank takes up the bulk of the
book, but he also had an eventful life away from the Mothers. And he’s very
candid about the people he despised as well as those he had more time for.
Despite the way in which the Mothers were disbanded and the subsequent ‘Old
Masters’ lawsuit, Jimmy always retained a fondness for Frank and tells of the
tears he shed with Don Preston and Bunk Gardner mid-tour in December 1993.
Married three times,
Jimmy’s second wife died in 1995 after which the ‘recollections’ are skilfully
stitched together from interviews, album sleeve notes and the autobiographical
digest he wrote for his website. These are all Jimmy’s words, and his story is
one you’ll have a ball reading.
Available
in print or Kindle editions. Visit www.jimmycarlblack.com for more.
HOWARD KAYLAN: SHELL SHOCKED - MY LIFE
WITH THE TURTLES, FLO AND EDDIE, AND FRANK ZAPPA, ETC... (Backbeat Books, ISBN
978-1617808463)
Howard relays his life story with great wit and aplomb. The tale about
how he and Mark Volman avoided the draft, with cousin Herbie Cohen’s help, is
trouser-wettingly hilarious. He’s honest and open
about the drug use, his myriad infidelities and the bad business decisions that
conspired to split the Turtles up - and the fact that turning down Becker and Fagen’s offer to join their new band might have been an
error! Where else might you find out that Tom Jones named his penis Wendell? And if you didn’t already know who the ‘The Fabulous Musician’ was
that released a torrent of purple spew from an appealing blonde from the clues
in Champagne Lecture and The Real Frank Zappa Book, Howard lays
it out for ya. He’s also explicit about Nigey Lennon’s party piece, and he clarifies why Mark
started out as Eddie before becoming Flo when the photo on the duo’s first
album got reversed. (I was always a little confused as to why, in interviews,
Howard said he was the Phlorescent Leech in the
Mothers. Now I know.) After many years of lawsuits, Flo & Eddie won the
right to use the Turtles name and gained control over the band’s recorded
output. This enabled them to set the legal hounds on De La Soul when they used
a sample from You Showed Me on Transmitting Live From Mars (Interlude)
without permission (in what was very much a test case; many others therefore
have the dynamic duo to thank for the credit that automatically ensues from
such nefarious activity nowadays).
Given the book’s sub-title, I was a little surprised Howie didn’t mention the abortive rehearsals with Frank in
1987, but then he did help me cover that comprehensively in Zappa The Hard Way.
Nor is there that much on the legendary Hollywood Vampires, but that’s maybe
because none of them can remember too much about that ‘lost’ period!
Towards the end of the book, Howard ruminates on the demise of his
father, FZ and close friend Harry Nilsson, but ends on how he’s now happy,
content and clean. Very clean. Despite the many ups
and downs, it’s fair to say that, career wise, Howard has led a somewhat
charmed life.
Penn Jillette’s humourous
foreword essentially articulates Zappa’s view about high and low art all just
being entertainment, and kicks things off in fine style. All in all, one of the
best rock bios I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a few!). But on a point of order,
there’s no way you could have read Sounds
on your first transatlantic flight, Howard: it didn’t commence publication
until 1970. Sorry!
SUMMER '82: WHEN ZAPPA CAME TO SICILY (MVD Visual MVD0256D)
Finally readily
available to all and sundry, Salvo Cuccia’s four-year
old film had only previously been seen in this country at the Bangor Music
Festival in 2015.
The travails of Frank’s 1982 tour (as
previously commemorated on disc 2 of YCDTOSA
Vol. 5) is told through copious Thomas Nordegg video footage and the
reminiscences of Massimo Bassoli, Steve Vai, Tanino Liberatore
(of The Man From Utopia/FrankXerox fame) and members of the audience at the fateful
“last show of the last European tour” in
Palermo. The ZFT has also sanctioned the use of clips from both its official
film and music catalogues. All of this - plus the reflections of Gail, Moon,
Diva, Dweezil & Megan and Joe Travers - really make for a charming little
film. Cuccia’s story of his father driving him from
Germany to Palermo to see the final concert is a small but poignant part of it
all.
We see the Z kids seek out their Sicilian
roots, visiting their grandfather’s home in Partinico
(#13 Via Zammata’) and meeting long-lost Zappas, with
Massimo reprising his role as tour guide from 30 years ago.
Footage of Frank arriving at the sound
check after his own visit to Partinico sees him
describe the town as “total trash” and
possibly where the mafiosi conducted all of its
business from (at that time, Palermo was the Cosa Nostra’s main battlefield and Sicily was in the grips of
its Second Mafia War). Three days before the gig, Italy had beaten West Germany
3-1 in the 12th FIFA World Cup final and emotions on the island were running
high. Coupled with the concurrent festival of Santa Rosalia
and the authorities' ineptitude in hosting a rock concert, this all conspired
to ensure the gig ended disastrously, after just 65 minutes. As the riot
continued, we see Frank donning a bullet proof vest while searching for his
cigarettes in the bunker below the stadium.
Massimo was to have performed Tengo Na Minchia Tanta
with the band, and we do see footage of him rehearsing the song with the band,
but of course his role that night was limited to simply an appeal for calm.
Jumping back to the present, we see Via Zammata’ renamed Via Frank Zappa, Dweezil (and Moon’s
daughter, Mathilda) conducting the Orchestra di Fiati e Percussioni
during an improvised section of their FZ medley, Dear Mr. Frank Zappa, and Dweezil playing Treacherous Cretins with local musicians. My sole criticism of this
Blu-ray is the constant repeating of Dweezil’s 38
second Partinico Feedback over the bonus feature of previously unpublished behind the scenes
photos: I had to press the mute button. (Why couldn’t they have had Dweezil
prepare a seamless loop from his Palermo
Stream Of Consciousness instead?) Anyway, Cuccia has done an
excellent job piecing this ‘homecoming story’ together, and the film itself is
thoroughly engaging.
Seeing how emotional Dweezil, Diva and Moon
get when meeting relatives and talking about their dad gives us hope that all
four siblings will one day kiss and make up. In the meantime, enjoy watching
this footage of a family united in celebrating its ancestry.
FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: THE LOST BROADCAST – THE FULL
PERFORMANCE (Gonzo Multimedia DUKE101DVD)
Track list: Improvisations/Boogie Shuffle/King Kong/The
String Quartet/Instrumental/Uncle Meat/Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas
Mask/Lohengrin/Let's Make The Water Turn Black/Octandre.
Released in
conjunction with Radio Bremen, this is
as-official-a-release-as-we'll-ever-get-without-it-being-ZFT-authorised of the
full unedited performance of the Mothers at the Beat Club in Bremen on 6
October 1968 - and in better quality than that touted by Zappateers.
There is a warning that, for a small portion of the full rehearsal footage,
there are some sound dropouts and imbalances. These are a little annoying but
occur near the start and get ironed out while the band is playing King Kong - just after Motorhead has finished abusing a child's doll with a German
sausage and a bottle of Beck's (the local beer). The footage (which is in black
and white) starts with the band - FZ, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston,
Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black, Art Tripp, Motorhead
Sherwood - setting up and eating from a trolley of food wheeled out by the Beat
Club folk. After that, you can see Motorhead having
make-up applied, having his hair brushed and wearing grapes and a face mask.
Frank plays a little one-fingered piano on the instrumental track (just before Uncle Meat). And you can marvel at the
best effects the late sixties had to offer! Music promoter Fritz Rau can also
be seen, as well as four, er, go-go dancers (during Boogie Shuffle).
Also included is the 'Original Broadcast' -
only it's not the version shown on TV: it's merely the end portion of the main
feature (from around the 47 minute mark onwards), also in black and white and
with no screen credits or interview.
Definitely a worthwhile
purchase, despite some imperfections.
Perfect Partner: The Lost Broadcasts: Zappa On Zappa (Gonzo Multimedia, 2012)
FRANK ZAPPA 1969-1973: FREAK JAZZ, MOVIE MADNESS & ANOTHER
MOTHERS (Chrome Dreams, SIDVD580)
Largely a Hot Rats classic album slash analysis of
the Flo & Eddie years, this new film by Tom O’Dell does though touch on the
Grand Wazoo
and Roxy bands - with George Duke
describing Chester Thompson as “a grumpy old man”!
In addition to George, there are ‘new’ interviews with Aynsley
Dunbar, Don Preston, Jeff Simmons, Mark Volman, Max
Bennett, Sal Marquez, Ian Underwood and Tony Palmer (as well as writers Ben
Watson, Billy James and Mark Paytress); these are
what really make this documentary extra-special. Bennett tells how Frank placed
no real restrictions on the musicians during the recording of Hot Rats – he was given just the chord
changes, but no notes to play. He also tells the tale of how a strung–out
“Sugarcane” Harris turned up late for a session and started playing his violin
with a hairless bow. Underwood tells how Frank’s new post-Mothers jazz-rock
direction suited him just fine, with Watson weighing in to describe Miles
Davis’ In A Silent Way as soporific
while Frank was all about waking you up.
The film states that the Vaudeville band
came together by chance, with both Simmons and Dunbar expressing dismay at
Frank’s decision to involve Volman and Kaylan. They were both won over of course, because the pair
were “funny as hell”.
Paytress finds the seedy and salacious lyrics of this
period a little too much to stomach and infers that many at the time were
similarly dismissive - though Simmons says that everywhere they went everyone
seemed to love it.
Regarding 200 Motels, Palmer says he had to keep pressing to see a script,
and a few days before taping commenced Frank brought in a huge trunk full of
paper, proclaiming “There it is!” Presumably
because of Palmer’s association with Gonzo Multimedia, there are clips aplenty
from both this motion picture and The Lost
Broadcasts/Zappa On Zappa. Chrome Dreams has also
fearlessly included many other visual and audio clips, with most of the latter
being credited to Ryko. They have though commissioned
Chris Ingham to compose some Zappalike music.
After the movie came out, Volman repeats the notion that Frank may have felt
performing Divan brought on the
problems that culminated in the disbandment of this version of the Mothers in
December 1971. With Frank now recuperating and preparing for his next musical
adventures, Sal Marquez relays the story of how he came to work for him
transcribing the music for Waka/Jawaka, and before you know it, it’s all over. After a
mere 157 minutes! But that’s not it, no siree. We
also get a short extra titled On The Road: Mother Memories, with outtakes from the
interviews with Dunbar, Simmons, Duke (on ‘the booger bear war’) and Volman (saying how he wasn’t proud of the band’s off-stage
excesses). For anyone who’s seen Christopher Guest’s hilarious mockumentary, A
Mighty Wind, it’s uncanny how much Flo now resembles Eugene Levy’s
character, Mitch Cohen. A coincidence? I don’t think
so!
Anyway, if Chrome Dreams keep coming up
with the goods like this, I can’t wait till they get to the Broadway tour! A must-see.
MORGAN ÅGREN’S
CONUNDRUM: A PERCUSSIVE MISADVENTURE (Bend Bars/Lift Gates Films,
8-84501-99144-5)
As well as being a
supremely gifted drummer, Morgan is also a very likeable person. Thus a
documentary was obviously a great idea, so kudos to Carl King for making it a reality.
As well as numerous examples of Morgan’s prowess, we also get to hear Mike
Keneally say that after the 1988 Broadway
The Hard Way tour, FZ wanted to form a six-piece
band comprising: FZ, MK, Ray White, Scott Thunes and Mats & Morgan.
Wouldn’t that have been something (though Joe Travers strangely qualifies this
by saying that it may only have happened had Chad Wackerman
been otherwise engaged)?
What else? We see that Marco Minnemann is probably a better guitarist than a tennis
player, that Simon Phillips cares almost as much about coffee as his recording
equipment, we get fashion tips from Tosin Abasi (wow, I hope the sessions shown with he, Morgan and Janek Gwizdala result in an
album) and Morgan visits the Trout Mask
house.
As a non-musician, I am always impressed by
seeing the time, effort and thought that goes into musicians like Morgan’s art
- like how much of it is memorised rather than
improvised. But when it’s stuck behind a bunch of other musicians, all that
hard work can either go unnoticed or the music on top may just be rancid.
Happily, Morgan invariably plays behind other great musicians and when he’s in
front of you it’s hard to keep your eyes off him.
In spite of a couple of poncey
talking heads you’d like to smash together (and I’m most certainly not talking
about Dweezil or Devin Townsend here), this documentary will at the very least
make you want to go out and try some fermented herring. But more than likely it
will leave you wondering why the hell Morgan isn’t a household name.
THE LOST BROADCASTS: ZAPPA ON ZAPPA (Gonzo Multimedia,
HST109DVD)
Here is the full,
unedited, uncoloured, un-subtitled interview Horst Königstein (who did the translations for the two Peter
Gabriel German albums) conducted with Frank in Bremen for the Beat-Club. In
glorious living black and white, it's more like a surreal version of the Beeb's old Face To
Face interrogations than a normal 'pop' TV interview. Frank is asked how he
thinks people perceive him (a political rebel) and how he thinks of himself
(composer). Königstein makes notes as they go along
on a large blackboard behind them; when he runs out of room, FZ hands him his
cap to rub off some of the earlier chalkings. By the
end, it's quite a collage! Frank talks about how the Government and big
businesses control TV and how it impacts on the minds of young America; he
urges youths to stop demonstrating and become part of the media, military,
police, etc. to bring about change from within and to reach larger numbers of
people. Horst has Frank recite the lyrics to Concentration Moon, and Frank in turn has Königstein
read out the words to a Republican pop song (see here).
Also discussed are Bizarre Records, the GTOs, Rolling Stone magazine, film
editing, MGM's censorship of Absolutely
Free & WOIIFTM, the ‘Berlin
Survival’ story, and the members of the new ‘swinging’ Vaudeville band that had
been together just a fortnight at time of filming. Horst asks a few overly
complex questions, which FZ handles good-naturedly. Frank clearly enjoyed this
interview, as he asks for copy to show in the US. Your darling Harold Wilson
and Edward Heath also make brief cameos, the former having just lost the June
1970 General Election to the latter. FZ asks rhetorically, “What's he gonna do
now?” Well, he came back four years later, Frank. In the eight minute
sub-titled broadcasted interview (also included), it looks like Coy leaves the
green gels in the truss. But the full 86 minute thing is a joy to behold:
Frank, as you’d expect, comes across as witty and erudite – and Königstein manages to hold his own really well. Kudos to Voiceprint for another great archive release.
THE LOST BROADCASTS: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND
(Gonzo Multimedia, HST112DVD)
Track list: Mascara Snake (Bass Solo)/Click Clack
1/Click Clack 2/Golden Birdies/Band Intros/I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby 1/I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby 2/Steal Softly Thru The Snow/I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby 3.
Recorded
in a TV studio in Bremen (for the Beat-Club,
with no audience) in 1972, mid-tour between The
Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot
albums. The Mascara Snake (aka Hair Pie) bass solo starts with a blue screen before Rockette Morton (aka Mark Boston, looking like Dr. Jacoby
from Twin Peaks) appears - or rather,
primarily it’s his hands and bass we see. A portly Captain then strolls on to
impishly announce, “And this is the mascara fake!” Once the solo ends, the
camera switches to a monocled Ed Marimba (Art Tripp),
who appears to be wearing a small pair of psychedelic underpants on his head,
with a very animated and behatted Boston now on six
string and Roy Estrada out on parole. I mean bass. Click Clack 1 is largely focussed on the
Captain, his taped together mics and harp. And it
seems we’re getting everything that was filmed here, so a bit of a second stab
of that one too - which collapses shortly after the harp solo. Golden Birdies signals some visual
effects so beloved of 70s TV producers whereby Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) is superimposed on the rest of the band, etc.
Tripp appears to emit a short fart during Band
Intros, as the lens fails to actually capture exactly who’s who. Never
mind. There’s a fair bit of feedback during I’m
Gonna Booglarize
You Baby 1, and Beefheart seems a little distracted by a studio technician.
So he stops the song and walks off. The band start version 2 without him, but
he returns in time to warble as only he (and Howlin’
Wolf, and possibly some others) can. Or could. Steal Softly Thru The
Snow is played as an instrumental (with two basses), and sees Tripp and
Beefheart - on soprano sax - duetting for the song’s
thrilling denouement. I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby 3 signals
some more FX and is the only part of this performance that was actually shown
on the Beat-Club. Now, thanks to
Gonzo and Voiceprint, it’s readily available for all to marvel at. And well
worth the wait it was too. Great sound and picture quality
throughout. Oh, and by the way: the hirsute other former Mother, Winged
Eel Fingerling (Elliot Ingber), is fairly anonymous
behind his shades, with the camera really only dwelling on him occasionally,
and most notably when he’s not actually playing (when the miffed Beefheart
walks off).
FROM STRAIGHT TO BIZARRE: ZAPPA, BEEFHEART, ALICE COOPER AND LA’s LUNATIC FRINGE
(Chrome Dreams, SIDVD568)
The most professional
and well put together documentary film from these guys yet takes an in-depth
look at Frankie and Herb’s twin record labels. It features some exclusive new
interviews, with: Sandy Hurvitz (aka Essra Mohawk, on her bizarre relationship with FZ); Kim Fowley (making, um, prophesies about the future of Wild Man
Fischer); GTOs Mercy (the original Scary Spice) and Pamela (on Permanent Damage); a modest Jeff Simmons
(who expresses gratitude for people’s appreciation of his Lucille album, which he is more dismissive of); Drumbo
and Zoot Horn Rollo (on Decals, and the genesis, recording and release of Trout Mask). One recurring theme throughout
is how the future of many of the Straight/Bizarre releases hinged on FZ’s
reaction to different ‘incidents’ – eg. the Alice
Cooper group and the GTOs getting stoned/busted; Wild Man Fischer lobbing a
bottle at Moon Unit; Sandy Hurvitz asserting herself
in the studio. There’s many a nice quote - eg. Jerry Lawson
asking “Who the fuck is Zappa?” on being told of Frank’s interest in the
Persuasions - and some insightful ones, too (eg. Ben Watson’s comment
that looking at all of the Straight/Bizarre releases is to see Frank’s many
influences). Some nice extras also:
Lawson chatting about yellow snow, skinny chickens and listening to Frankly A Cappella
(released in 2000) with FZ! (if you think that’s odd, he also attributes Hot-Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel to
the Carnegie-era Mothers); and Harkleroad and French reminiscing about the Magic Band’s
arrest for shoplifting while living at the Trout House. Well worth a peek.
CHAD
WACKERMAN TRIO: HITS LIVE (Drum Channel DVD, DV10003801-H01)
This live performance
was filmed in the Drum Channel studio, with no audience - and, more
importantly, no electronic explosions triggered by clumsy stage hands! The
'concert' footage is interspersed with brief chats with the Trio (seems these
guys all met through FZ: Doug Lunn met Chad when he
auditioned for Frank in the early 80s; and Mike Miller was invited to play with
Chad in the Banned From Utopia by The Fowler
Brothers), with separate introductions to each song by a solo Chad. He
describes Balancing Acts as almost prog-rock, and indeed it is. Tell Me starts with a nice drum solo, as per the version on the
Zappanale #18 CD. Bang. The gentle Holland
is so gorgeous, I could wear it as a scrunchie. The City
also opens with a CW solo, as he channels his first NY visit, then builds to a
great McLaughlin-esque guitar solo. Twang. This must
be a great gig for MM, who gets to shape the tunes and play oodles of solos,
though he also has the job of replicating the missing vibe parts from Chad's
compositions. Throughout you see what fine, fine players these are. And unlike
Bozzio, Chad actually uses every bit of his kit, and
Doug plays all five strings on his fretless bass. Talk to me.
Although this is played totally live, with no studio trickery, some clips of
Chad appear to have been sped-up. But really, he's just super fast. Wow. The
bonus material consists of Mike's The
Good Guys, played as a tribute to the late Mark Craney.
It rocks. And Introduction, which has
possibly been relegated from the main feature because MM has to sight read for
most of it. I think the intimate studio setting suits them a lot better than a
field in Germany.
FRANK ZAPPA: THE FREAK-OUT LIST (Chrome
Dreams, SIDVD555)
The first 30 minutes
of this documentary focus on FZ's classical/orchestral influences, then it looks at his R&B
likes (some of the stuff that's featured on Chrome Dreams' excellent Frank Zappa's Jukebox CD), emphasising Johnny "Guitar" Watson's impact on Frank's guitar playing.
It's then on to doo-wop (including a present day interview with The Cadillacs) and, finally, jazz. We are guided through these
by an insightful Ben Watson (who, God bless him, bigs
up Jimmy Carl Black), various music professors, Don Preston (who boasts that he
introduced many of the classical remnants incorporated into Zappa's oeuvre),
author Greg Russo (who has his own extra, talking us through ‘Frank Zappa's
Record Collection’), GZ’s new best friend, Alan Clayson,
and (scooptastically) George Duke and Ian Underwood –
really nice to see them involved. Significant other things: crystal clear
snippets of one of the Saturday Night
Live performances (unlike those countless DVDs that flooded the marketplace
a year or so back) and Ensemble Modern rehearsing stuff for The Rage And The
Fury. One of the nice other touches is the Zappa-referencing excerpts from:
Wagner's Valkyrie,
performed by the RPO; Schoenberg and Rite
Of Spring, conducted by Boulez; Holst's Jupiter
by the LSO; and Once, At A Border
(Tony Palmer's film about Stravinsky). It uses the list on the inside cover of Freak Out! as a
touchstone, rather than taking us through it name by name – which would’ve been
deadly boring to watch. If you enjoyed Chrome Dream’s previous FZ & The MOI In
The 60s DVD, you’ll love this.
TONY PALMER’S FILM OF FRANK ZAPPA’S 200 MOTELS (Voiceprint Records,
TPDVD127)
I guess we can
forgive Palmer's lack of Zappa knowledge (for example, he doesn't know who Motorhead is, can't remember Jeff Simmons' surname, and
thinks Herb Cohen was Frank's only manager and they never had a cross word),
but not sure about his dismissal of Frank's orchestral works - especially when
he adds some thing about McCartney being able to get away with it because he's
a genius. Palmer does though point out some things you may not have noticed
before (his nod to his pal, Kubrick; how some of the effects were achieved) and
relays many interesting anecdotes from the making of the film. And it's really
his commentary that makes this a must-buy DVD - you wouldn't get this on a
ZFT-approved product, that's for sure. The quality of the film is maybe a
little better than my old Warner Bros VHS videotape, but there's no discernible
improvement in the sound. Shame. Also, the 16:9 aspect
ratio appears to mean they've squeezed the image
throughout so that little is chopped from the screen - so the camera adds more
than 10lbs.
THE DRUMMERS OF FRANK ZAPPA: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION AND PERFORMANCE (Drum
Channel DVD Collection: Vol. One, DV10005801-H01)
Track list: Terry’s Intro And Ralph’s Audition/How
Chester Got In The Band/Ruth’s Story Meeting Frank/More Stories And Chad’s
Audition/Discussion Of Other Player’s Audition/The Black Page Of Frank’s
Music/Playing In The Band/Performance. Total time: 140 min.
I imagine most folks
have seen some of this online, but it's wonderful to have the complete thing
collected together on one DVD - something I actually prayed would happen; thank
you, Drum Channel! In the roundtable discussion, Ruth Underwood is easily the
most endearing, and she brings along some of Frank’s sheet music for the others
to marvel at. Chester Thompson and Chad Wackerman are
both pretty modest, but have great tales to tell. Ralph Humphrey and Terry
Bozzio come across as very eloquent (which is not to say that the others are
dummies – far from it), and Terry keeps things moving apace. It's a real nice
mix of informal reminisces - about: the 'clash of the titans' (the Mothers Vs Mahavishnu); scary in-concert auditions; learning Kung Fu and Approximate; hanging with Frank; Ruth's cocktail version of Freak Out!; playing quintuplets LOUD;
Phil Collins trying to learn More Trouble
Everyday; and lots of other really entertaining stuff. Terry reveals that
the intro to The Black Page was
ripped off of Tony Williams on the Stanley
Clarke album. One of the highlights is undoubtedly when Ruth calls Chad “dear” (Chad told me, “Ruth is great. That's the first time I had
a chance to speak with her.”)! The 42 minute ‘performance’ part (featuring
all but Ruthie, sadly) is pretty cool: obviously Chester & Ralph built up a
great rapport back in the day, and Chad & Terry have done many duet
concerts together since; seeing all four men-in-black improvising together is
sure fine looking, man.