Gee, thanks. Fascinating vid.

I was just telling a couple of guys today about Trouble Every Day from the 1966 Freak Out album. I remember every word. Spoken rhyming lyrics decades before rap. Pentatonic riff in E minor. And the criticism of public media as true fifty years later as it was then: "You can bet I'll pull the trigger every time I hear them sayin', 'There's no way to delay, there's trouble comin' every day.' "

Has it really been 25 years since FZ's death?

 

In the summer of 1969, I went over to my friend's house to listen to a new Album,... Hot Rats, by Frank. That was a life changer. Real Fan from that time on. I'd heard M.O.I albums and really liked them but Hot Rats was really exceptional. Saw Frank in Nov'73 and ZPZ a few years ago. Two of the best concerts I've ever seen.

Call Any Vegetable, and that vegetable will respond to you.

 

Hot Rats... was a life changer.

Call Any Vegetable, and that vegetable will respond to you.

Ditto.

 

Two instrumentals of that era were seminal in my musical growth: East--West by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin. Both reshaped my notion of what a guitar solo and improvisation should be. Of course, we also made a point of memorizing all the lyrics to the MOI albums. "I remember too-too, I remember too-too, they had a swimming pool".

There is an accompanying video tour of Frank's office and workspace by Joe Travers, that includes a zoom-in on a letter of condolence Bill and Hillary Clinton sent to Gail after Frank passed. Typical of the pre-e-mail era, the letter has the Zappa's street address on Woodrow Wilson Drive in Los Angeles, so you can check it out on Streetview. Nice neighbourhood. Lush and green.

As I've noted here before, I had the pleasure of meeting and briefly interviewing Frank mid-August, the weekend of Woodstock. Two days later, he broke up the band, noting in the Montreal Star (where I first read about it on the Monday morning) that he said he was doing so because "people wouldn't know good music if it bit them on the ass". The band members I spoke with at the time noted that it had been a fairly grueling tour. A month and a bit after that, he released Hot Rats. Given how productive he was, and his penchant for constantly recording things (as the vault tour amply illustrates), I have no idea how long that album had been in the works, or whether it resulted from the band breakup.

Though the theme of Trouble Every Day remains true, the phrase "They'll send some joker with a Brownie, and you'll see it all complete" is likely not as transparent to millenials and younger. A "Brownie" was the cost-effective (i.e., cheapest) film camera marketed by Kodak; the lyric implying that newsmedia would send some junior reporter to cover such riots and take a few pictures.

 

Yup. As a matter of fact I changed "brownie" to "camera" yesterday for that very reason.

 

@mhammer PBBB first album and East-West. Two of my first very influential albums. Also after Hot Rats came out, I think I bought the next six albums, the instant I saw them.

 

Great band. Never saw any of the Bloomfield/Bishop incarnations, but did see them with the lineup that recorded the Live double-album, when Ralph Wash was the guitar player. I'll have to check if I still have it, but I know I did have a copy of Keep On Moving, with Buzz Feiten on guitar.

As for FZ, I think I have more of his music on 8-track, believe it or not, than I have on vinyl. Actually, pretty easy to believe. How many truckers are going to buy an 8-track of Waka-Jawaka? That's why it ends up in the delete bin.

 

How many truckers are going to buy an 8-track of Waka-Jawaka? That's why it ends up in the delete bin.

Another ditto.

I had all the records because I really liked it, and most people in my little hometown who bought an album hated it and gave it to me.

I like the early stuff the best and lost some interest at Overnight Sensation. Still got quite a bit of the later stuff tho.

Can I recommend Uncle Meat to anyone who wants to get into Zappa? That double album is the quintessential work for me: it contains all the elements of Zappa's entire career, IMO. (Disregarding the fact that I am a deluded old fart who recalls 1969-70 as the acme of my post-secondary bachelor life. Can't listen to that recording without sighing.)

 

'Tis. The band I was in during the 1970-71 period actually used to perform King Kong. We briefly had a sax player who used a Conn Multi-Vider, just like Bunk Gardner. I will certainly not say we did it nearly as well, but Zappa was kind enough to include the sheet music with the album. That was their most current album when I got to meet and speak with Frank. Five shows in three days. Quite the consolation prize for not going to Woodstock.

 

I had no idea he has been dead that long.

 

What a loss. I first heard Apostrophe at the end of high school and thought it was the weirdest, funniest most technically nuts music I had ever heard. From there Hot Rats followed. The one I listen to mpst, though, is Bongo Fury. Something about the uneasy marriage of Beefheart and Frank (as well as Terry Bozzio's perfect drumming) live just suggests sparks flying for me.

 

You thought he was a man, but he only was a puffin.

 

Love the outro solo on Muffin Man.

 

One of the true musical geniuses of the 20th century.

 

this is good

 

Let's not forget that while Frank was one of the great musical geniuses of the 20th century (and an amazing talent scout), he was also well-spoken and erudite when he took on the lyrics censorship group. He represented the musical class very well - and did many other musicians a huge favor.