REVIEWS
Albums
FRANK
ZAPPA: PHILLY '76 (VAULTernative Records, VR 20091)
Disc One: The
Purple Lagoon/Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture/Dirty Love/Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas
Station/Tryin’ To Grow A Chin/The Torture Never Stops/City Of Tiny Lites/You
Didn’t Try To Call Me/Manx Needs Women/Chrissy Puked Twice.
Disc Two: Black
Napkins/Advance Romance/Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?/Rudy Wants To Buy
Yez A Drink/Would You Go All The Way?/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy/What Kind Of Girl Do
You Think We Are?/Dinah-Moe Humm/Stranded In The Jungle/Find Her
Finer/Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man.
The ZFT has come up trumps again with this release:
although there are many familiar songs, we've not heard them before with Eddie
Jobson's fantastic violin (during an epic Black
Napkins), Bianca Odin's lead vox (Dirty
Love, an especially soulful You
Didn't Try To Call Me and Advance
Romance), or even FZ's upfront singing on the sequence of Vaudeville
band-era tunes (Flo & Eddie were scheduled to be the opening act and make a
guest appearance with their old boss, but their guitar player Phil Reed fell to
his death from a hotel window a few days before the gig and they naturally
scrubbed such plans). Although Frank sounds a tad shaky at the start of this
medley, things really get going when Bianca joins in. Indeed, one of the many
great things about this album are the vocals: as well as Frank and Bianca,
Terry Bozzio and Ray White get to sing lead (Tryin’ To Grow A Chin and City
Of Tiny Lites respectively) - and Patrick O'Hearn sings back-ups - which
all makes for a very varied set. During Tiny
Lites, we get to hear Ray's great scat singing and it's evident he and
Bianca have a great understanding (Lady B's insightful liner notes reveal that
'twas she who introduced Ray to Frank, so we have much to thank her for). On
first listen, I have to say I wasn’t crazy about Bianca’s vocal on the sacred Napkins, but it grows on you. The same
cannot be said of Eddie’s contribution to the piece, which is something I’ve
longed to hear officially released and loved from the first play. The track
clocks in at nearly 19 glorious minutes. I wonder if Frank would’ve had such an
abrupt intro though? Great to have an official release of Stranded In The Jungle too. During Advance Romance, O’Hearn’s first attempt to solo is quickly
curtailed as his bass rig packs in (Uncle Ian and I played our own low notes on
the way back from Wigan to make up for this temporary fault). How bluesy does What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? -
in which Alice Cooper is replaced by both Punky Meadows and Steven Tyler -
sound? Throughout these two discs, Frank plugs the imminent release of the Zoot Allures album (and why not?) and of
course plays some fine, fine solos (he was reaching his peak around this time,
right kids?). Chrissy Puked Twice is
of course the original tittie for Titles
& Beer. So why did the ZFT not go with the more well-known title, as
they have for Manx Needs Women
despite FZ clearly introducing it as Mars…?
Oh well, whatever. Keep these thrilling examples from less-documented line-ups
coming - give 'em to me right here in the trunk of your Fillmore.
FRANK
ZAPPA: THE INTERVIEW SESSIONS (Chrome Dreams, CTCD7502)
This has eleven tracks, all from different unlisted
sources. It starts with Steve Allen's interview just before Frank played
Candy’s bicycle. The longest track I recognized as being on that B&W
picture disc from a few years back, where FZ talks about his Cucamonga recordings
and early influences, from the comfort of a creaky metal chair. Another has him
telling very specifically what happened with John & Yoko at the Fillmore.
It runs chronologically, and we get to hear (in turn): his thoughts on categorising music; a little about the Baby
Snakes fillum and his then-current musical likes (The Slits, Lene Lovich);
that Thing-Fish (shock horror)
mirrors the AIDS epidemic; about laughing on stage and Frenchness; how Mr Sting
came to play with the Broadway band and how the Beatles Medley came to be; some
stuff about The Real FZ Book; and the
state of Czechoslovakia. The quality is fair, with the more recent naturally
sounding better, though some of these are phone interviews for radio. This is,
I guess, really for completists - though hearing Frank’s wit and wisdom would
make any non-believer sit-up and take note. Plus it adds nicely to the other
three Zappa discs Chrome Dreams have made available in recent years. Get yours here.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS: THE ROOTS OF FRANK ZAPPA (Snapper Music)
Track list: Space Guitar (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson)/Okie
Dokie Stomp (Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown)/Rock, Granny, Roll (Hank
Ballard & The Midnighters)/Head Hunter (Johnny Otis)/To The Aisle (The Five
Satins)/Little Star (The Elegants)/Ionisation (Edgard Varèse & Juilliard
Percussion Orchestra)/Hound Dog (Big Mama Thornton)/Koko Joe (Don &
Dewey)/Oh Yeah! (Guitar Slim)/Could This Be Magic (The Dubs)/Story Untold (The
Nutmegs)/Third Interlude (Maro Ajemian)/Moanin' At Midnight (Howlin'
Wolf)/Standing Around Crying (Muddy Waters)/Don't Start Me Talkin' (Sonny Boy
Williamson)/Work With Me Annie (Hank Ballard & The Midnighters)/Interpolations
from Deserts: Interpolation III (Edgard Varèse)/Florence (The
Paragons)/Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight (The Spaniels).
The obvious question: how does this compare to last
year’s Jukebox CD?
Well, as it only duplicates a few tracks, it’s a nice companion to it, and
sonically it sounds very good. But (unlike the earlier disc) there’s a distinct
lack of info about each track and their linkage to FZ, which the poorly written
liner notes don’t actually help to clarify. Still, much of the music is great
and you can hear some of the obvious influences on the young Frank. You’ve
probably seen previous Roots Of… CDs
by Snapper and their distinctively similar artwork. Given that MOJO and Uncut often give away similar compilations, I’d never bought one
before. But I’d say this is a must-have if you’ve already got and liked the
afore-mentioned Jukebox CD.
WARREN
CUCCURULLO (featuring Terry Bozzio): PLAYING IN TONGUES (Edel
Records/Barfko-Swill)
Track list: The
Definitive Magical Miss Tickle Backwards Alphabet Song/For The Masses I, II,
III/Wreckelection/Meem/Think Kartoonz/Zoomout/Raging Bullshit/Sid Arthur's
Message/Intermission Possible/(Part 1) ImagineOrkestra Rehearsal Absolutely
Free Form/(Part 2) Smile/(Part 3) They're Mintee/(Part 1) Evreedaze Halloween
Bash From Imaginon - Hello Spoky/(Part 2) Holographic Jesus And The Cee Gee
Alien Attack/Prophomation Confirmed/Weedew/Simple Man/We're All Targets.
For The
Masses I, II, III and (Part 2) Holographic
Jesus And The Cee Gee Alien Attack include references to Mylo's Destroy Rock & Roll (the latter even
samples Duran Duran’s Come Undone) -
something Warren once said he'd like to sample and use to introduce future solo
shows. I'd love to hear that (when are we gonna see you treading the boards
again, Warren?). Al Malkin, in his guise as fast-talking manager of many Grammy
award winners, Sid Arthur (“when I talk,
you listen”), amusingly refers to Warren as 'Cucamonga' and talks about how
he brought Shankar to the top during Zoomout.
This album really is quite unlike anything Warren has ever released before (and
older readers may recall I raved about Trance
Formed, The Blue, Road Rage and Thanks 2 Frank); it’s even better! Terry's drumming of course
impresses throughout, but there's many other fine musicians here - including
(notably, on We're All Targets) some
of the ZPZ guys and gal. And Dale Bozzio's in the mix, too. The album has an
Angelo Badalamenti/Twin Peaks feel
running through it, with lots of lyrical guitar solos (of which, Sid Arthur’s is probably the stand-out).
Yes, Warren's conspiracy concerns provide much of the album’s lyrical content,
but that all just adds to the feeling of this being something a bit special -
and you should be aware that Warren does possess a great sense of humour. What
time is it, Andee? Time to download this album.
FRANK
ZAPPA: LUMPY MONEY (Zappa Records, ZR 20008)
Disc One: Lumpy
Gravy (Primordial) - I Sink Trap; II Gum Joy; III Up & Down; IV Local
Butcher; V Gypsy Airs; VI Hunchy Punchy; VII Foamy Soaky; VIII Let’s Eat Out;
IX Teen-Age Grand Finale/Are You Hung Up?/Who Needs The Peace
Corps?/Concentration Moon/Mom & Dad/Telephone Conversation/Bow Tie
Daddy/Harry, You’re A Beast/What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?/Absolutely
Free/Flower Punk/Hot Poop/Nasal Retentive Calliope Music/Let’s Make The Water
Turn Black/The Idiot Bastard Son/Lonely Little Girl/Take Your Clothes Off When
You Dance/What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? (Reprise)/Mother People/The
Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny.
Disc Two: Lumpy
Gravy (1984 UMRK Remix) - Part One/Lumpy Gravy (1984 UMRK Remix) - Part Two/Are
You Hung Up?/Who Needs The Peace Corps?/Concentration Moon/Mom &
Dad/Telephone Conversation/Bow Tie Daddy/Harry, You’re A Beast/What’s The
Ugliest Part Of Your Body?/Absolutely Free/Flower Punk/Hot Poop/Nasal Retentive
Calliope Music/Let’s Make The Water Turn Black/The Idiot Bastard Son/Lonely
Little Girl/Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance/What’s The Ugliest Part Of
Your Body? (Reprise)/Mother People/The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny.
Disc Three: How
Did That Get In Here?/Lumpy Gravy “Shuffle”/Dense Slight/Unit 3A, Take 3/Unit
2, Take 9/Section 8, Take 22/“My Favorite Album”/Unit 9/N. Double A, AA/Theme
From Lumpy Gravy/“What The Fuck’s Wrong With Her?”/Intelligent Design/Lonely
Little Girl (Original Composition - Take 24)/“That Problem With Absolutely
Free”/Absolutely Free (Instrumental)/Harry, You’re A Beast
(Instrumental)/What’s The Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise/Instrumental)/Creationism/Idiot
Bastard Snoop/The Idiot Bastard Son (Instrumental)/“What’s Happening Of The
Universe”/“The World Will Be
As most people seem to agree, the first and last discs
are the ones to head for - all that unreleased wondrousness. But even disc two
has its moments (like the Thing-Fish sung opening to the finally available 1984
remix of Lumpy Gravy; makes you
wonder about Rip Rense's claim that, some sixteen years laters, Jerry Lawson
found a novel way to squeeze in the word "duodenum" on The
Persuasions' Frankly A Cappella vershum).
For my lumpy money, How Did That Get In
There? is the big highlight - a 25 minute FZ construction, some of which is
familiar from LG, but not all. Yes,
the original orchestral mono edit for Capitol Records that opens this whole
thing is wonderful, but the start of disc three is just a revelation. And that
particular disc gets better and better (though I could probably live without
the interview interruptions - they would be better placed at the very end, like
on MOFO, as they're listen once or
twice affairs): the instrumental tracks from WOIIFTM are absolutely belter – IBS
in particular. And how apt that this final disc should end with a few words
from God. More soon.
DON
Track list: I
Can't Breathe/How Are You Doing, Really?/Relentless Pursuit (Live)/Eyes Of The
Dead/A Private Lesson/Found Again/Silicone Hump (Live)/Not So Cute/The Eye of
Agamoto/See My Aura (Live)/Progress/The Milky Way/Mothersolo (Live)/Medulla
Oblongata/For Love of Bach/Amsterdam/Un Gawa/Sweet 15/Takeoff
(Live)/Aegospotamos/Acid Rain Pelting the Underground (Live)/What Should You
Do? (Live)/Sacrificial Smoke (Remix).
Following on from the re-release of Vile Foamy Ectoplasm and Works, this third
JIMMY
CARL BLACK: CROSSFIRE DOWNLOAD BUNDLES
Some while ago I posted this page about
Crossfire's JCB download-only packages, providing track and musician details.
What I didn't add was any notes about this joyous stuff. So here goes. Rarities
on Can I Borrow A Couple Of Bucks Until
The End Of The Week? include the immediately post-Mothers Tom Wilson
produced High And Mighty, the
unedited Eternal Question, the Big
Sonny single Love Me Two Times/Love
Potion #9 and Jimmy's 1980 single Albuquerque
Bound/Thank You, Mr. Bill. Where's My Waitress? includes both Black
Olive tracks with Sandro Oliva from 1993 (Take
Your Clothes Off When You Dance and Willie
The Pimp - the latter with Don and Bunk), a stereo remix of Mayonnaise Mountain (featuring a
magnificent vocal from Ray Collins), some live and studio Geronimo Black
tracks, some Holzhaus, Black and Terrazas live material, a couple Jack &
Jim tracks, and the ultra-rare Lo Boys single from 1976 (Play Your Music/Funny Money).
My personal favourite of these downloads, If
We'd All Been Living In
FRANK
ZAPPA & SPECIAL GUESTS: AAAFRNAAA FZ BIRTHDAY BUNDLE (Zappa Records, iTunes
Plus)
Track list: Dancin’
Fool (Disco Version)/More Trouble Every Day/Gorgeous Inca/Ancient
Armaments/America The Beautiful/You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch/Saturday Girl/Alice/Espanoza/Dumb
All Over/Twenty Small Cigars/Lacksadaisial/Dirty Love.
Nice to have the original edit of Ancient Armaments in the official digital domain at last, if still
not on a conventional CD. More Trouble
Every Day by the 88 band smokes – with Frank soloing over a 13-like vamp;
this, and the gorgeously laid-back Inca
solo from 79 are the two maion reasons why you should invest in this. Diva’s
two songs (Alice and Espanoza) are, again, pretty terrible.
When I interviewed Joe Travers back in 01, he said “I
don't write music, I just play everyone else's.” Well, this now sees his debut
as a composer: his Lacksadaisial (sic) features Scheila Gonzalez on sax and reminds me
a lot of Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein. His cover of 20 Small Cigars is pretty spiffy too.
More details can be gleaned here: http://www.zappa.com/fz/aaafnraa/2008aaafnraaa.html
JON
LARSEN: THE JIMMY CARL BLACK STORY
Disc One: En Route/Hi
Boys And Girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black/An Early Glimpse Of Planet Ruth/Spaceship
Bigear III/Turn It On, Elliot/A Helping Hand From Unca Mickey/Opal, You Hot
Little Bitch/Jimmy Carl Black's Dachs Reduction/Mayday From Space/First
Encounter In Space With A Real Martian/Oh No, She's Trying To Rip My Spacesuit
Open/A Creature Is Lurking In The Shadow/Jimmy-As-A-Ghost.
Disc Two: My
Name Is Jimmy Carl Black/The Atomic Gadget On Anthony-That Happened In Our
Little Town/No Trumpets In Rock'n'roll-The Keys/California In 1964-In Walked
Roy Estrada-The Soul Giants/Then We Went To Hawaii-LSD/Back To LA-Frenchy's A
Go-Go-The Original Suzy Creamcheese/San Francisco And Fillmore West-Freak Out
Comes Out-Turn It On, Elliot!/New York City-Absolutely Free-Off-Off-Broadway At
The Garrick Theater/Europe 1967-Barbarella And Roger Vadim-Zappa Food Poisoned
In Italy/He Didn't Like Hippies-Jammin' With Jimi Hendrix/Miami Pop
Festival-Freak Out At The Cast Away Hotel-Arthur Brown/Captain
Beefheart-Dealing With Herbie-Linda Ronstadt/Back To California 1968-The
Mother's Second European Tour-Royal Festival Hall/Janis Joplin-Grace
Slick-Jefferson Airplane/Donuts In Austin 1973-New Mexico-Big Sunny And The
Little Boys-Bandidos/Albuquerque-Clearly Classical-The Blob Shaped lp/Zappa Music
Again-The Austin Grandmothers 1988-Settlement With Frank/Eugene
Chadbourne-Germany-Dreams On Longplay/Meeting Moni-Not On Sunday, Not In
Bavaria/The Grandmothers 1998-Eating The Astoria-Leukemia.
The first disc has some great harmonica, marimba and violin
dominated, mainly mid-tempo, pieces. Spaceship
Bigear III is a bit of stand-out for me – quite dreamy. Yum. Occasionally,
the ghost of Jimmy Carl Black – the first Indian on Mars - turns up to help
narrate the continuing the story of Captain Zurcon’s exploration of the dark
side of our solar system. And the guitars are rightly a little more upfront
this time. Dach’s Reduction, Mayday and First Encounter are from the unabbreviated JCB sessions for the Strange News From Mars disc, and
additionally feature Tommy Mars. Otherwise, it’s Mr Larsen and his local crew.
The sprightly Oh No, She's Trying To Rip
My Spacesuit Open reminds me of the Austin-era Grandmothers, while A Creature Is Lurking has a Sexual Harrassment feel to it. The
second disc is a whole other other: basically just JCB rapping ‘bout his actual
life. If you listen closely, you’ll hear yer actual Stones playing. As noted in
my review of our
FRANK
ZAPPA: JOE’S MENAGE (VAULTernative Records, VR 20081)
Track list: Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me?/The
Illinois Enema Bandit/Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy/Lonely Little Girl/Take Your
Clothes Off When You Dance/What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?/Chunga's
Revenge/Zoot Allures.
Peeps
be saying they can’t hear Norma Jean Bell (who makes this ‘a less documented
line-up’), but she warbles on Chunga’s
and toots her alto a bit elsewhere. So there is some evidence. This includes
yet another Enema Bandit but it’s
early and fresh, and I also like the funky Honey.
But it really is a crying shame that we didn’t get Swallow My Pride or a proto-Any
Downers instead of the Mothers medley that’s pretty much the same as FZ:OZ (though Andre Lewis has trouble
with his organ at the end of Ugliest Part,
sending Frank into some Wizard Of Oz and
It Can’t Happen Here references).
Also, even
ZAPPATIKA:
THE SHORT BUT LEGENDARY FLIGHT OF THE DODO (FreakOutProduktionz, 2008)
Track list: The Secret Word/Music Is The Best/Wino
Willie’s Montana Hop/Gregor The Swami/Snakeman/Dirty Animal/Finally Got It
Right/The Short But Legendary Flight Of The Dodo/Mysterious Masala/Frankie’s
Tune/Joe’s Cajun Garage/Heavy Shark/Indian Joe/I Don’t Think So!/Deception In
The Night/Age Of Megabot.
Must admit I was a little slow cottoning on to
ZAPPATiKA, who hail from my homeland. But when I finally did, I thought: this
is the way! They’re “a very badly disguised” FZ tribute band, who incorporate
lots of ‘fat’ beats, modern noises, and long airy multi-overdubbed guitar lines
– as well as copious FZ references - to create their own unique sound. My
favourite track so far is actually a non-Zappa slow guitar instrumental piece.
Originally titled Boris The Jazz Dog,
band leader and guitarist McInnes wrote it a long time ago, and always had a
sound in his head for the lead guitar melody which he could never quite
capture. Until now – “I finally kind of got it the
way it is in my head!” he exclaimed. So, now the song is simply
known as Finally Got It Right. I
think you’ll agree. Where to start with the Zappa references? Well, just a
quick scan of the track list will give you a good idea. They crop up all over.
But as I say, there’s also much originality on display here. No straight
covers. Indeed, only Joe’s Cajun Garage
is actually credited to FZ, though the band readily admit that the debt is
large. Looking forward to big things from these guys. Check out the album promo
here: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44773211
J21:
YELLOW MIND:BLUE MIND
Track list: Within The Space Of 7 Breaths/The Truth
Behind The Veil/Earthspiritual Surgery/Felicidad/On The Shores Of The Cosmic
Ocean/The Edge Of Now/Yellow Mind:Blue Mind.
Experimental guitar player J21 (aka Joseph Diaz, who
put together the Eyeinhand Sampler CD a few years back) has produced a great
debut album here. Mixed and produced by former T-Ride, Snake River Conspiracy guitar
god Geoff Tyson, and featuring performances from Trey Gunn, Graham Bonnet and
Ed Mann, it's essentially a guitar-based rock album, but has lots of nice
spacey interludes and acoustic playing. The CD can be bought from J21's website
(www.lawof21.com) as a digital download, and the
booklet (with some great artwork) can be downloaded for free from there also.
The album's title comes from Don Preston. "I
did an email interview with him for the Arf-Dossier 10 years ago,"
says Joseph, "My last question (not published
in the mag) was if he could gave me a title for my next album. He answered me
"Yellow Mind:Blue Mind".
For some years, I forgot about it, and then when looking for a title for the
record I remembered it, and I really think it is perfect for the record. I
tried to contact Don recently to tell him about it."
VARIOUS ARTISTS: FRANK ZAPPA’S JUKEBOX – The Songs That Inspired The Man (Chrome
Dreams, CDCD5023)
Track list: Riot In Cell Block No. 9 (The Robins)/Louie
Louie (Richard Berry)/Work With Me Annie (Hank Ballard and the
Midnighters)/Ionisation (Edgard Varese)/My Starter Won't Work (Lightnin'
Slim)/Okie Dokie Stomp (Clarence Gatemouth Brown)/Leavin' It All Up To You (Don
& Dewey)/I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) (Howlin' Wolf)/The Closer
You Are (The Channels)/Your Cash Ain't Nothing But Trash (The
Clovers)/Louisiana Blues (Muddy Waters)/Song (Cecil Taylor)/Bacon Fat (Andre
Williams)/Rubber Biscuit (The Chips)/Bagatelle (opus 9) (Anton Webern)/Symphony
(opus 21) (Anton Webern)/W.P.L.J. (Four Deuces)No No Cherry (The Turbans)/Out
There (Eric Dolphy)/The Story Of My Life (Guitar Slim)/Three Hours Past
Midnight (Johnny Guitar Watson)/Directly From My Heart (Little
Richard)/Stranded In The Jungle (The Cadets)/Rite Of Spring (extracts) (Igor
Stravinsky)/Nite Owl (Tony Allen).
Way back a long time ago, before I’d heard Edgard
Varese or the Them Or Us album
(mainly because it had still to be recorded), I tuned into FZ being a
fraudulent disc jockey on BBC Radio 1’s Star
Special. He announced “I think that it's
appropriate to make this segue because these are two of my very favourite
records and I think they should be heard as a pair. The first is The Closer You Are by The Channels, and
this will lead directly into Hyperprism.”
What I then heard made me instantly see where Frank was coming from. Well, this
album does that in spades. Hear Lightnin’ Slim exhort Lazy Lester to “blow your harmonica son”. Hear the originals of
songs Frank actually covered over the years. Hear the songs he frequently
referenced in interviews. During the above-mentioned radio show, he also played
I Asked Her For Water by the Howlin'
Wolf (“another person with exquisite diction”).
This CD is really well researched and put together by Derek Barker, whose
excellent liner notes reveal that Richard Berry sings both the first two tracks
on this compilation. This is a must-have for any self-respecting Zappa fan. And
we have more to look forward to from Chrome Dreams: they’re part-way through
the production of a Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention Under Review 60s documentary DVD, having
already filmed interviews with Billy James, Art Tripp, Bunk Gardner and Don
Preston.
FRANK
ZAPPA: ONE SHOT DEAL (Zappa Records, ZR 20007)
Track list: Bathtub Man/Space
Boogers/Hermitage/Trudgin' Across The Tundra/Occam's Razor/Heidelberg/The
Illinois Enema Bandit/Australian Yellow Snow/Rollo
Well, the release of this was kinda curious, but at least it’s here and
now we can see and hear what the ZFT has excavated from the Vault for us. As
Gail notes, it’s like a sandwich with Occam’s
Razor (that’s the On The Bus solo
kept simple, stoopid) the meat in the middle. And a tasty little treat it is for
sure. One of the things that leapt out at me (and I really should know this by
now, having purchased Roxy &
Elsewhere shortly after its release) is what an inventive bass player Tom
Fowler. Bathtub Man is a blues with
atypical Duke and Brock (FZ’s co-composers on this one) silliness that extends
into great solos from George and Frank. Space
Boogers has Chester keeping straight 16ths on the hi-hat, a little like
Dummy Up, while George and Frank squirt notes at each other. It sounds like
it’s from a soundcheck. Trudgin' Across
The Tundra is part pf a 30 minute improv by the Petite Wazoo called Seven, the second half of which appears
in edited form as D.C. Boogie on Imaginary Diseases. It features some odd
sheep-like bleats from the horn section. Then follows that mighty full
unfettered Inca solo with a slightly
controlled but still amazing Vinnie. Heidelburg
is A Solo… from The Guitar World According To FZ cassette (so that just leaves the
MIKE
KENEALLY: WINE AND PICKLES (EXOWAX 2409)
Track list: 2CTV/Feelin' Strangely/Li'l/Backwards Deb
(3rd person)/Bubble Creek/Never Ever Wrong/Unused Hum/I Heard About What You
Said/Inhale (with Lyle Workman)/4S/Skull Bubbles (uncut)/Stop For Flashing Red
Light, Part One/Lonely Man (studio)/Selfish Otter (uncut)/A Concise Piano
Statement/AeroDef/Kevorkian 3/Thou Shalt Not Kill/Paloma (alternate
version)/Kevorkian 17/The Endings Of Things.
Comprising mainly outtakes from Dancing, Dog and Nonkertompf, this is a fine MK sampler
showing off the many facets of this multi-talented
guitarist/keyboardist/composist. His vocals are oddly reminiscent of Rufus
Wainwright on Feelin’ Strangely
(which features some nice guitar work, including from Rick Musallam)…and like
Roy Estrada mid-Stop For Flashing Red
Light. Li’l is just a wondrous
instrumental that gives me the same sit up and beg for more feel that most of
the Guitar Therapy CD does. Thou Shalt Not Kill would sound at home
on Wooden Smoke, and The Endings Of Things is a great, great
outtake; sounds like he couldn’t get the vocals just right, but it’s a
beautiful song. This disc provides a great overview of the many talents of MK,
so go get it.
JIMMY CARL BLACK: FREEDOM JAZZ DANCE (Azzurra Music, TBP11473)
Track list: Happy Metal/Taste Of Snakes/Freedom Jazz
Dance/Like A Virgin Queen/The Bad Wolf.
I hadn’t fully appreciated what a busy king bee JCB
had been in the run-up to his 70th birthday, what with tours with the Muffin
Men, the JCB Band and Eugene Chadbourne, his collaboration with Jon Larsen, the
commencement of Crossfire’s reissue campaign of his back catalogue, the release
of the How Blue Can You Get? and Hearing Is Believing CDs, and this.
Recorded in May 2007, it marks a bit of a change musically, being performed
without any guitars, three blow monkeys, two babes (on keys and percussion),
and one DJ T “The Thief” on electronics. Having said that, the first track is
not such a radical departure, being an R&B workout with typical oration and
rock steady drumming from the Indian of this happy metal band. Track two
follows a similar pattern – opening and closing vocals (this time by Valentina
Black – no relation, “but I wish she was!” quippeth Jimmy), with a lengthy
horn-led mid-section – but it’s a more up-tempo spacey psychedelic affair. Dr
Chadbourne comments that Bruno Marini’s organ is dripping with pesto on the
cover of Eddie Harris’s title track. Perhaps they should have renamed it Freedom Jazz Discharge for this outing. Like A Virgin Queen is perhaps the most
atypical thang here – a flute propelled disco platform underpinning airy vox
from Valentina. The Blacks duet on the final track, obviously influenced by
Neil Jordan’s The Company Of Wolves
and starring Valentina as Little Red Riding Hood, Jessica Fletcher as the
Grandmother, and Jimmy Carl Black in the title role. Oh yeah. I like it. I like
it a lot.
ZAPPA
PLAYS ZAPPA: SOUNDTRACK EXCERPTS FROM THE ZPZ FILM (Razor & Tie, 7930182993-2)
Track list: Tell Me You Love Me/Florentine
Pogen/Cheepnis/Cosmik Debris/I’m The Slime/Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow/St. Alfonzo’s
Pancake Breakfast/Father O’Blivion/Black Page #2/Peaches En Regalia/Zomby
Woof/The Torture Never Stops.
With no visuals, you’re able to focus on the
sounds and here you note the differences from the original recordings –
noticeably, Scheila’s back-up vocals, Aaron’s keyboard fills, and the
re-arranged ‘almost Chinese’ part of Cheepnis.
You also hear the amazing playing of percussionist Billy Hulting and Jamie
Kime’s subtle contributions. Did Dweezil really not realise that Napi was able
to pull off his amazing performances as special guest because of his five
year’s of ‘rehearsals’ with Project/Object and the Grande Mothers? There’s a
couple of great guitar solos here: the first from Steve Vai during Zomby Woof (he makes the song his own),
and then young Dweez’s on Torture,
which starts slowly until he flicks a switch and burns the house down. Possibly
because of the way I’m The Slime and Black Page #2 segued into another piece
or a Dweezil rap (he says “thank you very much, everybody” a few times on this
disc), the audience cheers sound a little odd at the end of these pieces, but
that’s a minor quibble: ZPZ are the best FZ tribute band around at the mo’.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS: 20 EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS – THE IDIOT BASTARD SON (Cordelia Records,
CD043)
Track list: The
Idiot Bastard Son as interpreted by:
Die Beistelltische, Jerry Outlaw, The Vegetarians, Oldgreygoat And His Girls,
Ensemble Ambrosius, Freedom In Hats, Evil Dick & The Banned Members, The
FoolZ, John Tabacco, DOOT!, Nigey Lennon, The FrazKnapp Fusion Project, The
Thurston Lava Tube, Project/Object, Pojama People, Bogus Pomp Orchestra, Todd
Grubbs Group feat. Bo Smith, The Wrong Object Vs The Friendly Dogs, The Whip It
Out Ensemble and Gamma.
What can I
say? Well, it wouldn’t be right…but maybe I can quote Simon Prentis (Frank's
Semantic Scrutinizer)’s email to me after the London Grande Mother’s show: “…back to Gamma's and your immaculate IBS extravaganza.
Now THAT'S how it should be done. I'm sure Frank would have LOVED it, but
regardless, it does it for me fer sure. I think you've just found a template
for 'exploiting the back catalogue' so to speak. Each and every one of the
different versions comes at the song from a different angle, mining something
unique from the mother fractal without 'fetishing the commodity' in any way
whatsoever (always the downside with 'tribute bands' as far as I'm concerned).
What a great concept. What a great selection. What a great bunch of bands. And
what a wonderful way to revisit and celebrate the work without resorting to
nostalgia for the old folks. Respect!”. High praise, indeed. Read some
more-a here. And there’s a proper review (plus
interview with yours truly, and an exclusive Bonus track) at http://www.davemcmann.com/reviews.html
FRANK
ZAPPA: TRANSMISSIONS (Special guest reviewer: Dave from G&S Music – who isn’t stocking this item!)
Track list: I'm The Slime/Purple Lagoon/Peaches En
Ragalia(sic!)/Dancin’ Fool/The Meek
Shall Inherit Nothing/St Alphonso.
Transmissions is just about as bad as you might imagine it could be. Like the Music In Review DVD, you get a
"book" and a disc in one package, but which is CD case size. The book
is a short biography written by Jeff Perkins, who I hadn't heard of before. His
qualification for the job appears to be that he likes Frank's music and works
in journalism. He's written 20,000 words which are mostly his opinion on a few
CDs and a potted history, mostly of the early Mothers. A quick read through
didn't show up any glaring errors of fact but no insights either. The CD has
six tracks (all taken from the December 76 and October 78 Saturday Night Live
shows): audio and "enhanced video" versions of each. The audio runs
exactly 20 minutes. The video plays in Quicktime and, initially, I couldn't get
it to work. I lost interest at that point. The sound quality is poor as well.
In a word, avoid. Put out by the people that Gail should really be after.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS: ZAPPANALE #18
Disc One: "The
psycho I've become..." (Larry "Wild Man" Fischer)/Pärt
Preston (Don Preston’s Akashic Ensemble)/Help, I'm A Rock-It Can't Happen Here
(Don Preston’s Akashic Ensemble)/Reggie Don't Sweat It (Monty & The
Butchers)/Apostrophe (Monty & The Butchers)/Tapas Nocturne (Christophe
Godin And Mörglbl)/Pygmy Twylyte (Christophe Godin And Mörglbl)/Uncle Meat
Suite (I Virtuosi Dal Pianeta Talento)/Village Of The Sun-Echidna's Arf (Of
You)-Don't You Ever Wash That Thing? (Project/Object)/Filthy Hobbits
(Trigon)/The
Disc Two: "GOD!"
(Paul Green Kids)/Electricity (Kimono Draggin' featuring Stephen
Chillemi)/G-Spot Tornado (Octafish)/Sofa (Sex Without Nails Bros)/"He screwed me..." (Larry
"Wild Man" Fischer)/Whales (Space Debris)/Grandchild of Mr. Green
Genes (Polytoxicomane Philharmonie)/Dog Breath Variations (The Great Googly
Moogly)/Debra Kadabra (Wolfhard Kutz featuring Lol Coxhill)/Meeting Of The
Spirits (Jazzprojekt Hundehagen)/Petrushka-Muffin Man (Harmonia Ensemble)/"Nice talking to ya..." (Larry
"Wild Man" Fischer)/Tell Me (Chad Wackerman Trio)/I'm The Slime-Dumb
All Over-The Message (Finale).
Bonus Disc: "I'm
famous in Germany..." (Larry "Wild Man" Fischer)/Central Community
Crisis (Don Preston’s Akashic Ensemble)/Any Downers (Monty & The
Butchers)/Février Afghan (Christophe Godin And Mörglbl)/Andy (I Virtuosi Dal
Pianeta Talento)/Big Swifty (Project/Object)/Zeitgeist Related Accidents
(Trigon)/Let's Get Bizet (Kimono Draggin)/Nothing (Octafish)/Uncle Remus (Sex
Without Nails Bros featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock)/Flight 858 (Polytoxicomane
Philharmonie)/Fifty-Fifty (The Great Googly Moogly)/Black Napkins (Jazzprojekt
Hundehagen)/King Kong (Harmonia Ensemble)/Eat That Question (Finale).
Can you imagine the feeling of walking away from the
Zappanale with the hard-drive of all that weekend’s music tucked under your
arm? Frickin’ gorgeous. John and I soon set to marking up the tracks to be
included on these discs, but were beset by technical problems. We eventually
overcame them, and this is what finally transpired. Friggin’ gorgeous. Shame it
couldn’t have been a 3-CD set, but with the Bonus disc it kinda is. I figure
the main aim is for these to be a souvenir of the event as well as a sort of
sampler so that you then go check out more of the featured bands’ material (and
of course listen to the ‘riginal sources; I personally finally went out and
replaced my old Bird Of Fire vinyl
with a 5-CD Mahavishnu box set). After a lengthy period of time, and for no
apparent reason, I played these discs again recently and they actually blew me
away. I guess I shouldn't blow my own trumpet, but it's really the musicians
that make it what it is. At times ragged, this is mostly a very fine selection
of finely played fineness. Shame there probably won’t be a similar souvenir for
#19.
ZAPPANALE #20: BAD DOBERAN, GERMANY, 14-16 AUGUST 2009
ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON, 14
JUNE 2009
Set list: Apostrophe/Montana/Village
Of The Sun/Echidna’s Arf (Of You)/Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?/Cosmik
Debris/Inca Roads/The Black Page Drum Solo-Black Page #1/Black Page #2/Wind Up
Workin’ In A Gas Station/Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy/Peaches En Regalia/Son Of
Orange County/More Trouble Every Day/The Grand Wazoo/Outside Now/Bamboozled By
Love.
Encores: Don’t
Eat The Yellow Snow/Zomby Woof/Willie The Pimp.
“The
gal I love is up in the gallery. The gal I love is looking now at me. There she
is, can’t you see, waving her handkerchief, as merry as a robin that sings on a
tree.” Yes, boys and girls, Gail was in attendance, sitting
up in the balcony right alongside Mr Noel Fielding and his Mighty Boosh co-star, L’il Missy Diva. And how proud she was to be
gazing down upon her eldest boy and his chums. Dweezil later said he thought
this “was one of the most fun shows we've played
from any tour we've ever done. Amazing audience…” Pity that the set
consisted of nothing released after 1979 or any MOI originals (with the
exception of More Trouble Every Day’s
lyrics, I suppose). And though the new singer, Ben Thomas, has a good strong
voice, he didn’t actually get to use it to lead too many of the tunes presented
here: the overworked Scheila Gonzalez sang lead on Village Of The Sun and Son Of
Orange County and Joe Travers sang Cosmik
Debris, while a number of songs featured unison singing. So it would be
nice to see Dweezil’s born-again vision of a non-FZ associated band performing
more like one in future - and covering a less-narrowly focused crowd-pleasing
era of his father’s music. Having said that, they played what is – in the
parlance of our times - still great material very competently and looked like
they were really enjoying it on a number of occasions. Dweezil himself seems a
lot more relaxed as the front-man these days, though his cringe-worthy attempts
at emulating Frank (eg. his spoken word intro to Black Page #2 and use of hand signals to conduct the band/audience)
should be binned. While ZPZ do now seem to be attracting a young and more
diverse audience, it was heart-warming to see a couple of coves invited up on
stage to dance during Willie The Pimp
festooned in Zappateers/Zappanale apparel (Ob & Evil Prince, be they you?).
So, what else to report? Echidna’s
featured many soli, including a great one from the under-appreciated Jamie
Kime. Having industriously plunked her keys through the mid-section of Inca, talented Ms Gonzalez failed to
hook her horn up in time and missed a beat. Lacksadaisial? Hardly. It didn’t
really matter. Son Of Trouble Every Wazoo
had a bunch more solo spots, with DZ doing his hand-jobs and Ben showing off
his fine musical powerhorn technique and Nordestino Brazilian Rap meets Afro
Cuban Vocal thang (thanks, Gary!). Oh, and Diva jumped up for the Black Page #2 ballet lesson. Click this
pic to make it come to life (you might wanna turn your volume down/off first):
ZAPPATiKA,
THE PLOUGH INN, WALTHAMSTOW, 18 MARCH 2009
First set list: Spanish
Highwayz/Wonderful Wino Man/Scarlet Pimp/Sexual Harassment In The Workplace/Space
Flip/Rainy Dayz/Santani Variati/Leroy/Bamboozled By Love/The Torture Never
Stops/Lazy Gun/City Of Tiny Lites (a-la-rapido).
Second set list: My
Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama/Sleep Dirt/My Little Pony-Dark Room/Thru The
Wormhole/Crocodile Smile/Watermelon In Easter Hay/Titties & Beer/Cosmik
Debris/Black Napkins/Bobby Brown/Dirty Love/Muffin Man/I’m The Slime.
I first encountered front-man McInnes at Zappanale
last year, and he’s quite some dude. He
really bigged-up his band of merry men and so I very much looked forward to
seeing them in action. And here was my first opportunity. The Plough is a
little out of the way place, but Uncle Ian and I found it easily enough and had
time for a few beers and a play with the pub moggies. The band were a little
late starting as their young bassist had mislaid his passport. Emergency
arrangements were made, and... to punish him, they played one of their songs
extra fast. Poor lamb! So. Gamma, having counted them in, they were away. Many
of their own songs are sprightly little instrumentals with some pretty obvious
influences (guess what Santani Variati
sounds like). Leroy, though, has fun
lyrics about wanting to be a rock star and tonight quoted Michael Jackson’s Beat It. The FZ stuff was pretty faithful,
though McInnes’s spacey lead lines spiced things up. And while the Keltik
minstrel is indeed a great front-man, his band should not be overlooked: Bongo
Fury on percussion and “odd noises” adds much, but I think the laid-back second
guitarist, Zomby Woof, is their secret weapon – ably doubling up on lead
(notably on Tiny Lites) and playing
some solid rhythm. Sadly no Dr Lau on keyboards tonight – perhaps he’s really
just a shadow? And what a shame more folk didn’t turn out to witness this. I
myself couldn’t stay to the bitter end and so missed loads of classic Zappa
(which Princess Helen assures me was rockin’). But to miss it all for no reason
at all? Special thanks go to Mr Bean who gifted me a bottle of Lagunitas WOIIFTM beer. I’m not worthy, etc. But I
sure as hell didn’t say no! Why would I? Tell me why.
FIVE
PEACE BAND: ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL,
Set list: Stella
By Starlight/Raju/The Disguise/New Blues, Old Bruise/Hymn To Andromeda/Dr.
Jackle/Señor CS. Encore: In
I was most surprised to see all of the gear set up so
closely together on what is a fair sized stage. And Vinnie’s kit, compared to
Mr Bozzio’s, looked miniscule - but what a joyous racket he made on it (which
made you ponder why Terry Ted has such a huge one). First out were the two
stars of the Five Peace Band, Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, for a duet on
Victor Young’s lovely old jazz standard, Stella
By Starlight. Then came the rest of the band: bassist Christian McBride,
alto-saxophonist Kenny Garrett, and one Vincent Colaiuta hitting things.
Throughout, Vinnie was the most animated – applauding his colleagues and
looking genuinely thrilled to be part of this band. But he has every right to
stand/sit shoulder to shoulder with these great players. Chick explained that
they’d be doing two sets so that we could compare one with the other. I have to
say I found the first to be generally a little more accessible, with it
building to a right old frenzy with a busy VC on McLaughlin’s New Blues Old Bruise; unlike the Industrial Zen album version, this one
didn’t fizzle out in a drizzle of electronic frippery. The second set was a
little less fusion-y, though again was filled with some great playing.
Christian McBride played mainly stand-up acoustic throughout the night, and was
just wondrous. I guess if there was anything to be disappointed about, it was
the lack of solos from McLaughlin. Sure, he did a few fine runs, and burned
bright as Señor CS built to its
thrilling denouement. But I think I was hoping for a little more from him. Of
course, Chick was on good form, switching between Moog and grand. And the fact
that the two stars let Kenny, Christian and Vinnie share the limelight was a
measure of how much respect exists between these five great musicians – who
we’ll probably never see play together again. Shame.
A
CONCERT FOR JIMMY: BRIDGE HOUSE II,
Well, what a strange venue – as Ben Watson noted, “like visiting a club
on the moon”. This concert was suggested by Dave McMann when we were trying to figure out how we could help the
ailing Jimmy Carl Black following
the diagnosis of his inoperable lung cancer in August. We were both deeply
affected by Jimmy, who managed to touch us just by being himself. A cursory
scan of the various Zappa fora following Jimmy’s death on 1 November shows that
we were far from alone. I first talked with Jimmy in October 1993 when the Jack
& Jim Show played at The Swan opposite Fulham Broadway tube – yeah, right near
the home of football drinking beer with an idol of my youth. Nirvana! I was
with Fred Tomsett, the editor of T’Mershi Duween, who was doing most of
the talking, having met Jim before. I just bought them the odd beer. Months
later, the Grandmothers played Dingwalls near Camden Lock. There’s me sat in
the middle of this darkened room with the late Paul Mummery, when up pops Jimmy
– singles me out, comes over, says, “Hi Andy, how
are ya?”, puts his arm round me. How special did that make me feel? And
thus started our friendship. I last spoke with Jimmy in August after that
devastating diagnosis, as he was preparing to leave hospital. He said he
actually felt OK, but had been told that he wasn’t. It seemed that it was just
the chemo he’d been undergoing these past few years for his leukaemia that made him “feel like shit”. So a
concert to raise funds for his mounting medical bills seemed a perfect idea. So
who’s the obvious choice to play such a concert in the
MIKE
KENEALLY (plus special guest, Dave Gregory): RIFFS BAR,
Set list: Hello/Ankle
Bracelet/1988 Was A Million Years Ago/Potato/Thanksgiving/Joe/Song Of The
Viking/Airport-Hallmark/Tranquilado/Desired Effect/Floppy Hat/2001/Sleep
Dirt/Skull Bubbles/Cowlogy/The Idiot Bastard Son/Paranoid Android/Splane/Live
In Japan/Aye Aye Monster/Skies Of LA-Improv-Cold Hands/Pride Is A Sin/Father’s
Day/Inca Roads/Rosemary Girl.
I think this was only the second solo visit by Mike to
ZAPPANALE
#19: BAD
THE 3RD
INTERNATIONAL ZAPPA CONFERENCE: PARIS, 5-6 JULY 2008 – special guest reviewer:
Evil Dick
ICE-Z 3, ICE-Z 69 or The 3rd International Zappa
Conference…what was this conference called?
As it turned out, it was called all three things depending on who you
spoke to. This time it was the turn of
MUFFIN
MEN: THE BOARDWALK,
Set list: Willie
The Pimp/Plastic Factory/Road Ladies/Great White Buffalo/Pygmy Twylyte/Jones
Crusher/San Berdino.
King Kong/Big Leg Emma/The Indian Of The Group/City Of
Tiny Lites/Wino Man/Zoot Allures/Yellow Snow/Black Napkins/More Trouble
Everyday/Flower Punk/My Guitar.
Train. Uncle. Drive.
BEN
WATSON AND DIDIER MERVELET ON 1968,
MUSIC, CAPITALISM: CONWAY HALL,
Before this lecture, Didier (Sécrétaire Generale of
Les Fils de l’Invention) confided in me that this would be Ben reading a paper
and "I’m supposed to add (improvise) some entertaining interpolations".
And he did. Say what you like about Ben, he’s an engaging performer – though he
claimed he had to stick to his script because of nerves. But as someone pointed
out during the subsequent Q&A/discussion, he was just as lucid, interesting
and charming when improvising. And the interventions from Didier throughout
were no different. It was during the subsequent discussion that Ben spoke of
the reasons for his avid interest in Zappa over the MC5, Sun Ra, Hendrix, et al
(because of the wider references to music of all kinds, mainly). So what was
the crux of their biscuit? Ben provided a critique of anniversaries and
sectarian attempts to carve up the past by referencing May 1968 (the time of the student protests and
general strike in
ZAPPATEERS
NL FESTIVAL, 14-15 MARCH 2008
THE
GRANDE MOTHERS:
Set
list: Hungry Freaks Daddy/Let’s Move To Cleveland/Lonely Little Girl/Take
Your Clothes Off When You Dance/Chunga’s Revenge/Call Any Vegetable/The Idiot Bastard
Son/Uncle Meat/Obligatory Drum Solo-T’Mershi Duween/Pygmy Twylyte.
Peaches
En Regalia/Montana/Big Swifty (interpolating
I Come From Nowhere and Evelyn, A Modified Dog)/I’m The Slime/In The
Sky/Let’s Make The Water Turn Black/Harry, You’re A Beast/Oh No/Son Of Orange
County/More Trouble Every Day/San Ber’dino/Sofa No. 1/I’m The Slime.
Encores:
Little House I Used To Live In/Merely A Blues In F/Mother People.
I was
lucky enough to meet the guys backstage beforehand and presented Don with a
copy of the 20 Idiot Bastards CD
(after all, it’s his logo on the back – see top of this page too). Napoleon and
VINCENT BAKKER: THE GANGSTER OF LOVE – JOHNNY “GUITAR” WATSON:
PERFORMER, PREACHER, PIMP
More appreciated outside his native US; never fully crediting his
musicians; Andre Lewis was once a band member; guitar not his first instrument;
influenced by the rapid fire, multi-note guitar shuffle style of Clarence
“Gatemouth” Brown; died too soon, before his mother…yes, Johnny “Guitar” Watson
had a few things in common with Frank. And it’s all detailed here in the first
ever comprehensive biography of The Gangster Of Love. It’s important to note
that English is not the author’s first language (he’s from Amsterdam), which
means you occasionally have to re-read things to get their true meaning
(something he acknowledges by relaying an interview he conducted with curmudgeonly
pianist, Eddie “Gip” Noble), but Vincent’s enthusiam for his subject more than
makes up for this. If you look, you will discover: Watson was a long-time
friend of Obie Jessie (composer of Mary
Lou); Watson played guitar on Chuck Higgins’ Pachuco Hop (“let me twirl you!”). Yes, there’s much of interest
here, including a whole ‘Zappa on Watson’ chapter that reveals how JGW “never
got into” Frank’s music, and why he didn’t go on tour with his friend. More to
follow, as I’m still reading it. But meantime, why not check out http://www.myspace.com/johnnyguitarwatsonbook
and order yourself a copy?
SCOTT
PARKER: THE ZAPPA SUPPLEMENT ONE - A BOX OF HISTORY AND THE MUD SHARK SAGA (SPB
Publishing)
I wasn’t sure that a book looking into The History And Collected Improvisations Of
The Mother Of Invention and all the Mud Shark bootleg elpees would hold the
same sort of appeal as Scott’s two slightly-broader The Recordings Of Frank Zappa series of books. But I does! I didn’t
know Frank ‘wrote’ two different pieces called Kung Fu, did you? What about the uncredited (string) bass player on
Burnt Weeny Sandwich. It’s all in
here, but it’s kinda hard to review properly coz it’s so engrossing.
SCOTT
PARKER: STRICTLY GENTEEL The Recordings of FRANK ZAPPA and the Mothers of
Invention - Volume Two 1970-1971 (Parker Books)
And so, the second of a possible eight volumes of
Scott’s ‘Recordings of FZ’ series. This covers 1970-71, which for many is both
a period that got them into Zappa and one which is probably less revered than
it deserves to be. Especially in terms of released material (Burnt Weeny, Chunga’s). Once again, the level of detail included is outstanding.
Talk about guilty pleasures – you know you want to see the Hebrew lettering on
the Israeli pressing of Weasels and
song titles translated into Spanish. I note that Barfko-Swill is now selling a
t-shirt featuring the famous bowler-hat photo
from Volume 1. Here’s hoping they do similar with the lovely photo on the cover
of this volume. More soon.
PAMELA
DES BARRES: LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER - BACKSTAGE SECRETS OF ROCK MUSES
AND SUPERGROUPIES (Helter Skelter Publishing, ISBN 1-905139-17-9)
Miss Pamela’s new book is based on interviews she
conducted with self-proclaimed groupies, rock wives and others. In it we learn
of Gail Zappa’s psychic powers: she’d see major world events before they
happened and, in 1964, she knew that an important person was to enter her life
and so screwed around for a few years waiting for him to happen along. As a
young girl, seems our Gail felt different from everyone else and believed
the Stones’ Out Of Time was about her. Before Frank, she turned down Tom Jones,
broke The Who in America, had an ‘uninteresting’ relationship with Jim Morrison
(who she met, age 5), blanked Bob Dylan, and got a couple of Lovin’ Spoonfuls.
We also discover that: Tura Satana taught Elvis how to shimmy and orally
pleasure women (both upstairs and downstairs); Cherry Vanilla did publicity
balling for Bowie and Vangelis; the artist formally known as Yusuf liked Patti
D’Arbanville to dress as a schoolgirl.
SCOTT
PARKER: HUNGRY FREAKS, DADDY The Recordings of FRANK ZAPPA and the Mothers of
Invention - Volume One 1959-1969 (Parker Books)
Imagine someone picking up where Norbert Obermann’s
Zappalog left off and correcting the entire bootleg track list errors left be
by the Torchum Team, and you’ve got an idea of what this book’s like. Add to
that some helpful narrative along the way and you’d best zip your anorak’s up
tight ‘cause you’re in for a thrilling ride. Scott doesn’t try to emulate Greg
Russo’s detailed tome, but it is similarly a labour of true love - from the
detailed breakdown of the component parts of the unreleased Capitol Records
version of Lump Gravy to the corrected bootleg track lists. Check out Scott’s
website for more info, including ordering details: http://www.scottparkerbooks.com.
AHMET
ZAPPA: THE MONSTROUS MEMOIRS OF A MIGHTY McFEARLESS (Puffin Books, ISBN
0-141-38309-7)
Review coming just as soon as I’ve read the thing...but
obviously you’ll wanna know stuff like this: the main character (Minerva
McFearless)’s mother’s middle name is the same as Gail’s first (Adelaide), and
her father is played by Ahmet himself in the book’s accompanying illustrations;
a painting of Minerva’s great-great-great-grandfather (Maximillius McFearless)
is based on a Them Or Us/True Glove-era photo of FZ (see below); and another
illustration uses the pic of Frank from the rear of the Lumpy Gravy sleeve.
KELLY
FISHER LOWE: THE WORDS AND MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA (Praeger Publishers, ISBN
0-275-98779-5)
Although Miles’s tome appears to have been generally
well received, it seems most of the recent FZ books have been more academic
studies of his work rather than straightforward biographies like Barry’s. Well,
who really needs another bio? But I was still a little sceptical about this after Kevin Courrier’s scholarly effort. However, it’s
actually very readable and thought provoking. It sets its stall out early on
and Lowe doesn’t come across as no smart
arse, though he’s clearly very knowledgeable - both about
Frank and the pitfalls of rock journalism. And I like the way he’s dismissive
of hard-core anal-retentives
who crave every slightly different version of Frank’s
recorded output (but, yes, I freely admit to feeling like Waylon Smithers when Malibu Stacey gets a new hat, and will of course avidly fetish
Charles Ulrich’s Project Object book once it’s finally baked). It doesn’t
actually get off to a good start, referring to Joe’s Garage and a ‘Fender
Camp,’ on the first page...it gets better, though.
Vids
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”! 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.
STEVE VAI: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (Favored Nations,
FN2610-9)
Disc 1: Paint Me
Your Face/Now We Run/Oooo/Building The Church/Tender Surrender/Band Intros/Fire
Wall/The Crying Machine/Shove The Sun Aside/I’m Becoming/Die To Live/Freak Show
Excess/Apples In Paradise/All About Eve/Gary 7/Beastly Rap/Treasure
Island/Angel Food/Earthquake Sky.
Disc 2: The
Audience Is Listening/The Murder/Juice /Whispering A Prayer/Taurus
Bulba/Liberty/Answers/For The Love Of God.
I think we finally have THE live Vai doovdé. Much as I
loved the Astoria and Sound Theories discs, and Steve’s
performances in the G3 fillums, at times these all lacked a little extry
something. This one seems to have it all for me: it features a great band
(enhanced a goodly deal by the two violinists, whose Apples In Paradise duet is a delight) and is
beautifully/professionally filmed; Steve doesn’t come across as too cloying or
insincere, as he sometimes can (he even apologises for his James Brown jiving);
and much humour is added by the between song sub-titles. Unlike many so-called
music videos, you get close-ups of the band’s hands here, so all you musos can
check what’s really going down (eg. on Steve’s delicate little solo that is I’m Becoming). And the sound is
phenomenal. I saw this band live in London, and was lucky enough to be in the
front few rows. This video puts you even closer to the band, and really makes
you get up out off your seat and shake your thang – especially during Die To Live and Freak Show Excess, wherein Steve’s long-time on-stage foil, Dave
Weiner, perfectly duplicates his master’s every note, and Keneally’s bass-boy,
Bryan Beller, gets to strut his stuff. The fact is, these guys make it all look
so easy and, perhaps more importantly, enjoyable. How anyone can smile and
dance while actually performing this music is quite remarkable. The half-naked,
heavily tattooed Jeremy Colson is also fun to watch: a bit like Placebo’s new
drummer, he’s kinda cartoony. But an amazing player - his left arms swings
mesmerize me. Treasure Island - an
acoustic duet, with Jeremy wearing his portable kit - will make you smile. And
the preceding Beastly Rap allows for
some Frank-inspired banter. The truly great thing about Steve is that he takes
his music very seriously and is always changing tack - simply refusing to rest
on his laurels. Yes, we get some old favourites along the way, but they are
always presented in new and interesting ways (aside from the violins, Zack
Wiesinger adds his lap steel during the encores). The whole thing last over 3½
hours. Phew!
FRANK
ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION IN THE 1960s (Chrome Dreams, SIDVD545)
This includes the last filmed interview with Jimmy
Carl Black (sadly, I think I was the last person to actually interview him),
plus new ones with Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Art Tripp, Billy James (ANT-BEE),
Alan Clayson and Ben Watson. The archive footage used of Frank & the
Mothers in the 60s is just shortish clips, used legally under review and
criticism fair dealing provisions present in both European and American
copyright acts. This, plus the professional editing and narration, make this a
cut above the Music In
Review DVD or any of those Edgehill/Classic Rock things. Yes,
it's not an official ZFT-sanctioned documentary. But it's also not 'complete
and utter bullshit', as someone who hadn't even seen it claimed at the Zappa
Forum. In fact, it's really well put together and includes some footage I'd
never seen before - of a young, clean-shaven FZ with Ray Collins - plus short
extracts from a really good 'print' of the Steve Allen show when Frank played
sister Candy's bicycle. Watching that, you can see the amazing resemblance
between Frank and his oldest son.
FRANK
ZAPPA: THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS (Honker Home Video, HHD 1221)
Track list: Black Napkins/Montana/Easy Meat/Beauty
Knows No Pain/Charlie's Enormous Mouth/Fine Girl/Teen-age Wind/Harder Than Your
Husband/Bamboozled By Love/We're Turning Again/Alien Orifice/Flakes/Broken
Hearts Are For Assholes/You Are What You Is/Mudd Club/The Meek Shall Inherit
Nothing/Dumb All Over/Heavenly Bank Account/Suicide Chump/Jumbo Go
Away/Stevie's Spanking/The Torture Never Stops/Strictly Genteel/The Illinois
Enema Bandit.
Extras: Teen-Age Prostitute/City Of Tiny Lights/You
Are What You Is (promo).
Review coming soon. But it’s good!
THE
MUFFIN MEN: MUFFINZ MOOVIES (2004-2005) VOLUME THREE
The saga continues, though this time there’s less chat
and more music. The documenta’y part covers two action packed years, and starts
with Roddie’s 50th birthday party which saw some old faces return
for a one-off gig in Liddypool. Fun to see Bammo, Rhino and Jumpy on stage
together again. There’s a return to
STEVE
VAI: VISUAL SOUND THEORIES
Track list: Kill
The Guy With The Ball/The God Eaters/The Murder Prologue/The
Murder/Answers/Lotus Feet/I'm Becoming/Salamanders In The Sun/The Attitude
Song/Gentle Ways/Liberty/For The Love Of God/Shadows And Sparks/Frangelica Pt.
I & II.
Bonus features include: an Orchestra-only performance
of Bledsoe Bluvd./an interview at De Oosterpoort
with Steve Vai/feature length commentary with Steve, Michael Mesker and Jason
Feinberg.
Oooo!
ZAPPANALE
#18
Friday
-
Saturday
- August 04, 2007: chen unst (Germany); Team Zappa (Norway); Octafish
(Germany); Kimono Draggin’ (USA); Sex Without Nails Bros. (Austria); Space
Debris (Germany).
Sunday
- August 05, 2007: Polytoxicomane Philharmonie (Germany); The Great
Googly Moogly (Sweden); Jazzprojekt Hundehagen (Germany); Harmonia Ensemble
(Italy); The Chad Wackerman Trio (USA); Good Bye till 2008 Session (all
musicans).
Photos: From artists, crew, backstage, audience & festival ground.
From Christophe Godin And Mörglbl’s set (wrongly
credited to Kimono Draggin’), they’ve included a snippet of his excellent Village
Of The Sun outro (practically a new song in itself) and his wacky take on
AC/DC’s Highway To Hell. This
hopefully contrasts nicely with the CDs (see above).
FRANK ZAPPA: MUSIC IN REVIEW (Ragnarock Films, CRP2569)
Ben Watson told me, “They paid me a derisory fee [£150] to sit in front
of a drum set and answer questions read out by an accomplice paid a slightly
less derisory fee. I suspect a torrent of ‘opinion’ by second-string talking
heads in the manner of most current cheap docus. On the other hand, it does
have ME in it so it's obviously highly collectable.” Indeed. While
there is much to condemn about this (the fact that it only covers the period up
to Apostrophe (’), for starters),
there’s also much to commend it. Certainly I’ve seen worse; the Zeppelin Making Of A Supergroup DVD springs to
mind. And unlike that, there’s at least some ‘talking heads’ whose opinions you
actually respect and want to hear (hi
Ben!), as well as actual clips of yer actual subject (albeit grainy ones
from the Saturday Night Live 76 and
78 shows, Stockholm 73 and 68’s Colour Me
Pop). Melody Maker writer Chris
Welch met Frank in the late 60s, but otherwise has never exactly been a
prominent fan – indeed, he
inadvertently lets slip comments about “inflicting” this “dreadful”
music on people. He also slams the 200
Motels film as a “disaster”. Gem Howard-Kemp apparently worked for Frank
for three months on an early
ZAPPA
PLAYS ZAPPA DVD (Strobosonic, STROBO-D-100)
Disc One: Andy/Call Any Vegetable/Tell Me You Love
Me/Florentine
Pogen/Cosmik Debris/I’m The Slime/Pound For A Brown/Don’t Eat The
Yellow Snow/St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast/Father O’Blivion/Inca Roads/Eat That Question/I’m So Cute/Tryin’ To Grow A Chin/Punky’s
Whips.
Disc Two: Black Page #1/Black Page #2/Regyptian Strut/Peaches En
Regalia/Montana/Village Of The Sun/Echidna’s Arf (Of You)/Zomby Woof/Black
Napkins/The Torture Never Stops/Oh No/Son Of Orange County/Trouble Every
Day/Sofa. Bonus Material: Cheepnis/Interview with DZ.
Filmed with 12 HD cameras at the Rose Auditorium in
FRANK
ZAPPA: CLASSIC ALBUMS APOSTROPHE (‘)/OVER-NITE SENSATION (Eagle Rock
Entertainment, EREDV625)
The first time I watched this I nearly dribbled, I was
concentrating so hard. It’s a definite must-have DVD, featuring some tantalising - and not nearly enough! - studio footage (you can see them recording
Zomby Woof and parts of the Yellow Snow suite); sped-up on the road shots;
black and white film of a rehearsal with Ponty (playing Zomby); a short clip of
Bianca Odin singing Dirty Love live in 1976; Kerry McNab in the studio now and
then; and on and on. There’s lots of stuff not used on the records (vocals,
studio chatter and such) heard when Joe Travers and Dweezil dissect certain
tracks, and a wondrous segment of Ruth Underwood today showing us Frank’s beautifully
handwritten score for Rollo Interior and playing a small part of the Idiot
Bastard and an almost perfect section from St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast on
her marimba. Gail and three of the kids appear, so we hear Moon parley about
being embarrassed by her father’s lyrics. David McMacken talks about designing
the Over-nite artwork, and many of the musicians who played on these two albums
(Ruth and Ian Underwood, Napi, Ralph Humphrey, Bruce Fowler, George Duke) look
back at those times. Dweezil claims you can find “every aspect of Frank’s music squeezed into
[these] two perfectly formed records”. The bonus material features
longer extracts of Joe and Dweez at UMRK, highlighting the Ikettes
contributions and a whole bunch of the ‘cool little elements’ from Dirty Love,
Nanook Rubs It (including an edited out section) and Dinah-Moe Humm (where they
both look amazed to hear Frank espousing the concept of the pigmy pony - so
they maybe haven’t listened to the version on Have I Offended Someone?).
There’s also the Zappa Plays Zappa band competently playing Camarillo Brillo in
Joe’s Garage (with Napi resplendent in red Prawns With Horns t-shirt) and
Montana from the Roxy (as per at zappa.com) and I’m The Slime by the In New
York band from Saturday Night Live in 1976. If you’re still waiting for your
copy to arrive, you’re in for a real treat.
ED
SEEMAN PRESENTS FRANK ZAPPA & THE ORIGINAL MOTHERS OF INVENTION, 1967-1968
(Personal DVD)
A 40 minute psychedelic excerpt from 14 hours of
footage shot be Ed, this includes the Mothers (Billy, Roy, Don, JCB, Ian, Bunk,
Motorhead, FZ) live (at the Garrick Theater and Royal Albert Hall), in
Apostolic studios, and hanging around in London with Suzy Creemcheese (Pamela
Zarubica), groupies and Tim Buckley’s manager. There’s a nice sped-up piece of
Cal Schenkel making a Zappa dummy for the WOIIFTM sleeve with Gail and Ed. Like
Muffin Moovies 2, there’s also a meeting with Arthur Brown. There’s some nice
clips with Gail and baby Moon in Frank’s
MUFFINZ
MOOVIES TWO & THE MUFFIN MEN LIVE @ ZAPPANALE,
The documenta’y picks up where the last one left off
and is indeed a very worthy sequel. I guess some might criticise the fact that
there are very few complete live performances of songs, so for them there’s the
entire performance from Zappanale #14. Also, this is precisely why Ben Watson’s
contention that nobody really wants us talking heads (yes, me and him is both
one) misses the point, because it is the heads that effectively tell the story
of the band. Includes a segment on the excellent When Worlds Collide which can
be viewed on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzUk9-McXs4
. Moovies includes a few bonus items, like the
travelling to and from Zappanale, as well as a chunk of their set with Jimmy at
the festival. There’s also a highly amusing interview by an unknown fan when
Jimmy met his old pal Arthur Brown on tour. The Arf Society’s Bands DVD from
Zappanale #14 used a very dark camera for much of the Muffin’s segment;
“luckily we had Esther (Leslie) standing in practically the same place, so we
replaced all the duff camera with our shot, plus we added an audience bootleg
camera for the odd angle or two” Roddie told me. And now this looks really
nifty. In all the excitement of hooking Napi up with the boys and travelling
all day to see them together in
UBin
Twinz presents dErailRoaDed - InsiDe tHe MiNd oF LarRy ‘WILD MAN’ FiScHeR
(Plexi Limited, 802 plexi)
I first saw this at the National Film Theatre in 2005,
where we were treated to a Q&A session with the film’s producer, Jeremy
Lubin. Jeremy told us that the project came about the day Fischer approached
him in a restaurant, stared into his face and proceeded to tell him: he’d been
named ‘Wild Man’ by Solomon Burke; had appeared on Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In; made an album with FZ; recorded a further three for Rhino Records;
and sung a duet with Rosemary Clooney. Following such an intriguing
introduction, a semi-believing Lubin (and his partner, the film’s eventual
director, Josh Rubin) had a Google and found it was all true. They realised his
story would make an interesting documentary and were amazed that no one had
done it before. They later realised that no one else would have had the time
and patience to complete it (as was the case with HBO). The mentally ill are
not known for their predictability, after all. Filmed over a three-year period,
this film shows Larry in his 60s convinced that Steven Spielberg wants him dead
and others want to cut his dick off and throw it in the ocean. He remains
convinced he’s the best rock singer in the world, while his mild mannered
brother disagrees. The Wild Man Fischer Story is used to good effect at the
start of the film - listening to that really had my bemused kids laughing. At
one point, Larry claims that FZ wanted a son just like him but, having
discovered him, Frank disowned him the day he smashed a bottle near baby Moon.
Despite the subsequent acrimony (we see puppets re-enacting the scene when Dr
Demento played an enraged FZ Larry’s song Frank live on his radio show),
Fischer says the highpoint of his career was the concert he played with the
Mothers at the Rosebowl. And footage of FZ (who Larry describes as a ‘good
businessman’) from 1970 pops up a couple of times - as well as a more recent
interview with Gail. It is indeed an interesting and engaging film, but it only
scratches the surface of why Larry turned out a paranoid schizophrenic. He’s no
Syd Barret-type drug casualty but, ironically, drugs are responsible for
enabling him to lead a comparatively normal life these days - though robbing
him of any artistic urge (or his ‘pep’). Whatever the reason, The Ubin Twinz
should be applauded for their persistence. Long may this continue, but it looks
like we’ll have to wait for a future special edition to hear Fischer’s initial
reaction to the film (seems he’s still to pluck up the courage to watch it), as
the audio commentary with Larry on this DVD is just some spliced together phone
conversations with the Man. But there’s 49 minutes of bonus footage, including
‘Weird’ Al Yankovic singing Merry-Go-Round, and a nice extract from Dennis P.
Eichhorn’s comic book. Now check out the Derailroaded MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/derailroaded)...
BRUCE
BICKFORD:
Firstly, I’m glad to report to fellow European
denizens that this disc being encoded in the NTSC video format does not prevent
me from playing it on my way old Region 2-only DVD player. So, yeah - it’s
really region free, really free, really really free, really me...er. Anyone who
saw Keane’s Bedshaped video will know that the influence of the amazing Mr
Bickford lives on. Like me, Bruce has a thing about miniature things- Julie
Sexburger says, ‘Just as well. K-yuk! K-yuk!’ But one of my favourite places on
earth is the model village at Babbacombe. Fact - and so I can empathise with
his love for the little guys he creates. And the smaller the better, so it
would seem. He sincerely believes that animation is the single most important
thing in the world. Here he states that Bill Gates should be ploughing his
millions into animation studios, and that we should be making films about wars
rather than actually fighting them. Sound. Computer generated animation appears
to be beyond Bruce’s means, so it’s all really painstaking stuff. But he’s
truly passionate about what he does, and what he does he does brilliantly. This
film obviously features much of his work (with a great soundtrack by Shark
Quest), but the subject of it is he and his father, George - a retired
aerospace engineer suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease - who took
his son to see Bergman’s Wild Strawberries when he was a kid and interviewed
him about it the next day. (Bruce thinks you should just watch films - not
discuss them.) Filmed at the turn of the century, in a way this reminds me of
Crumb - though not so shocking or perverted, It is actually a delightful, at
times quite profound, little film. Now pray with me that Bruce outlives the
255-year-old Chinaman; George passed away at the end of 2005 (so sadly me and
Bruce have something else in common). This DVD has been released by Bright Eye
Pictures in his memory. It features a bunch of extras, including deleted scenes
and some previously unreleased BB animation clips. To get your juices flowing,
here’s a photo from the Andre Cholmondeley Collection (circa. 2004), showing
Bruce’s handiwork - ladies and gentlemen, it’s the 1973-74 band. [This is NOT
featured in the DVD, but...]
