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Subject: Frank Zappa's birthday From: The Shambles Date: 21 Dec 06 - 05:56 AM Frank Zappa was born this day (21 December) in Baltimore MD, in 1940. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday From: Max Date: 21 Dec 06 - 10:50 AM Happy Birthday FZ! Big fan. Diamonds on velvets on goldens on vixen On comet & cupid on donner & blitzen On up & away & afar & a go-go Escape from the weight of your corporate logo! -FZ |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Wolfgang Date: 21 Dec 06 - 11:08 AM A musician and much more. Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: John MacKenzie Date: 21 Dec 06 - 11:14 AM I used have the ultimate bad taste poster from the 60/70s on my wall, that of FZ sitting on the toilet. Giok Crapper Zappa |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: catspaw49 Date: 21 Dec 06 - 12:35 PM Is this a real thread or a Sears thread? If there was ever an award for the most brilliant, musical and technical, rocker of all time.....Frank gets it. Without peer. No one was even close. Quad tracking euphonium trios............he was out where the buses don't run. And just as an aside, his book on being a father was one of the best and funniest pieces of work ever to have a cover. Did I like him? Yeah, I'd say that's true. May weasels rip your flesh Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: The Shambles Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:01 PM I remember when the Mothers were due to perform 2000 Motels at The Royal Albert Hall. It was announced that the management had cancelled the show for being too offensive. We had tickets and went to get our money back and found lots of others milling around outside not sure about whether the show was on or not Then Frank himself arrived and wandered out of his limo. We watched as members of the the crowd thinking that Frank would know what to do - started to follow him. Until it was clear to us anyway, that he was just heading to use the 'Gents' - with a long trail of adoring followers expectantly but unknowingly going into the 'Gents' after him. One of these followers may have even been a young George Michael...... |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: The Shambles Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:10 PM This is the story. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/1971A.html |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: GUEST Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:34 PM Yes indeed, here we are! At Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast Where I stole the mar-juh-reen An' widdled on the Bingo Cards in lieu of the latrine I saw a handsome parish lady Make her entrance like a queen Why she was totally chenille And her old man was a Marine As she abused a sausage pattie And said why don't you treat me mean? (Hurt me, hurt me, hurt me, oooooh!) At Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast (Hah! Good God! Get off the bus!) Where I stole the mar-juh-reen . . . Saint Alfonzo Saint Alfonzo Saint Alfonzo Saint Alfonzo Ooo-ooo-WAH . . . Wherever he ay be I hope he has a candle stuck in a pancake. Genius. Best thing to come out of the states. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: fat B****rd Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:41 PM All of the above. I saw The Mothers at Birmingham Town Hall in 1969. Great stuff. And possibly the biggest back catalogue in popular music. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Wesley S Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:55 PM Dweezil Zappa is currently on the road doing his dad's music with a show called "Zappa plays Zappa". I understand some of Franks old band are with him too. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: catspaw49 Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:09 PM And that band was TIGHT! I remember sitting with a friend for hours with a Girard turntable playing 10 second bits over and over and just being amazed at how together they were. Saint Alfonzo above ha some beautiful work in it.....runs so together you couldn't have blown them apart with a A-Bomb. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Cluin Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:17 PM That "Apostrophe" album was a classic. One of my 25 desert island records. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: GUEST Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:21 PM And FZ was an admirer of folk music too... at least, 'The Handsome Cabin Boy'. Or was there more? |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:27 PM The first date I went on with the young lady who would eventually be my first wife was a Mothers concert. It was in the fall of 1970 when Flo and Eddie, formerly of The Turtles, were doing vocals. Also, Frank's dad was a teacher at a private prep school/academy in my hometown during my high school days. I attended public school myself, but met a fair number of students from the academy at track meets. They all said Mr. Zappa was the easiest teacher in the world to sidetrack into wasting an entire class period talking about Frank's exploits instead of teaching history like he was supposed to be doing. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: GUEST Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:34 PM Yes I agree about Apostrophe. Probably ranks as my most played amongst the Zappa stuff I have, and I have a lot. Also from a girly perspective boy does he look hot on that cover or what?????! Although One Size FitsAll runs a close second. Wouldn't you just love to play Inca Roads to an approaching alien craft. I love the whole sound of that. Then there are gems like City of Tiny Lites and even Billy the Mountain that jump out from other albums to bite your ears off and demand you not only listen but you concentrate too! Saw him many times at Hammersmith Odeon and at the festival at Knebworth in '78. What a line up..The Tubes, Peter Gabriel, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Boomtown Rats at their earliest and not a drop of rain all day. He was probably the most mesmerising stage performer I have been lucky enough to see, he seemed to control the whole show from a flick of the hand and manage to puff on a Winston at the same time. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Wesley S Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:42 PM When I saw him some cretin sitting behind me kept yelling "ROCK AND ROLL" at the top of his lungs after every song. Eventually Frank stopped and asked "Do you know where you're at??" |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Lonesome EJ Date: 21 Dec 06 - 07:52 PM Oh in the Sky Roy Estrada doing what he did best. Frank using the Gibson SG to carve holes in the space/time continuum Oh Dem Peaches! |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: GUEST Date: 21 Dec 06 - 09:06 PM When Freak Out! came out way back when I wasn't old enough to understand the concept. It just made me wonder what had gotten into Suzie Creamcheese. Then later, not being a lyricist meself, some of the subtle and not so subtle wordplay went way over my head as in "Oh haha Frank's talking about tits and ass again." ... But as a guitarist and composer ....ahhhhh. (P.S. What's the time signature for this airy little tune? ...and incidentally, the orchestral version conducted by Pierre Boulez ain't half bad either) Might've been Mike Keneally - or someone like him - who said in a Guitar Player magazine interview a few years back, that Zappa was a master of cutting up a quarter note into odd divisions - like 5, 7, and 11 - instead of the usual eighth and sixteenth notes (and the occasional triplet or sextuplet). So, the essence of solos like "Soup and Old Clothes," and the Shut Up And Play ... series of title tracks, after long and careful deliberation, to me, seems to be: passion. ...As if he's making love with music. Gone way too soon. Rest to you, Frank - and thanks for the music. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: fat B****rd Date: 22 Dec 06 - 06:23 AM Thankyou Lonesome EJ. I got Hot Rats for my 23rd birthday closely followed by Burnt Weeny Sandwich. I never cease to wonder at FZs breadth of musical influences. |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: GUEST Date: 22 Dec 06 - 10:37 AM . |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: number 6 Date: 22 Dec 06 - 10:50 AM Has anyone ever read the transcipts of Frank's indency charge trial at Old Baily .... if not you should try to get a hold of it .... certainly one of the funniest things I ever read. Have a good one Frank where ever you are! Guest ... yeah I also have been wondering all these years .. what had gotten into Suzie Creamcheese? biLL |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: Steve Latimer Date: 23 Dec 06 - 09:53 AM 'Spaw, you beat me to it. Frank always surrounded himself with great musicians. Some of the tightest bands that I have ever heard. He was one of a kind. He did pose one of the greatest questions I've ever heard. "Who you jivin' with that Cozmic Debris?" I saw this on youtube. A very young, unknown Frank on the Steve Allen show. Zappa on Steve Allen |
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Subject: RE: Frank Zappa's birthday (21 December 1940) From: gnu Date: 23 Dec 06 - 12:55 PM Yes, Steve, and then... "So I snatched it all away from him, and I showed him how to do it right." He showed everyone how to do it right. The ultimate musical genius. |
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