Behold!

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

(Image copyright (c) 2010 Tom Williams)

Zappadan: Day Zero

I haven't been honoring Zappadan this year; by the end of the tradition last year I was having trouble finding songs I hadn't posted and I couldn't think of a follow-up this year.

But I will call this out: the Official Zappadan Cupcakes.

For some reason I think I'll pass.

Last Day of Zappadan

Party 'til morning.



Muffin Man, the Palladium in New York, Halloween 1977.



"Wind Up Working In A Gas Station," off of Zoot Allures.

And, what the hell, so very not safe for work, and so very wrong, but also so fun:



"Stevie's Spanking," at the same venue as the first video, but four years later, in 1981.

I'd like to think, if you notice Frank's guitar smoking, it's because of his mad skillz, but he really stuck his cigarette on there.

Happy Zappadan, everybody!

Zoot Allures

The title track off the album of the same name. The YouTube page says this was recorded at the Pier in New York in 1984.

Titles. Titles Are Good.

Via Aaron Williams, here's a little one-minute painting that I think comes off well:



And here's today's Zappa video:



Another track off of Zoot Allures. This is a fan video. Get a load of the rhinestone-coated lips around 1:11 or so.

Givin' The Bee Gees A Run For Their Money

I can't find which album this is on. Nevertheless, there was a studio version, because it showed up on the compilation album Strictly Commercial.

Outdated Figures of Your Mythology

Destined to be replaced with a circular motion:



To sum up, there's a waterfront hotel that lets you fish out of your sea-facing windows. A band took rooms there, and rented some fishing poles, and had a fun time with an ichthyoid and a willing young woman. And this was related to Frank Zappa at second or third hand, and he passes it on to us here.

Snow That, Despite All Your Efforts To Train Them Not To, The Huskies Have Pissed On

Bo Dee Oh Doh Doh Doh:



Another track from Zappa's solo album, Apostrophe.

Posted because Me Mum and Me Da have gotten the first Kentucky snow of the season.

Tomorrow: The Mud Shark that is destined to be replaced in your mythology!

"Dude, F----- My Parents," He Said

"'Cause they named me Adolph Hitler Campbell. Oh, meet my sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler. Man, do we wish we could divorce those jerks."

Or at least that's what I hope they say, twelve or so years down the line.

I need a drink. Or at least some Moon Unit:



She and Frank collaborated on this song, which got Frank widely recognized as a creator of "novelty songs." He hated that.

Montana

This is in Sweden, 1973. It's about someone who dreams of being a dental floss rancher, raising silkworms and riding a "pigmy pony" all along the borderline.

Montana is the last track on Over-Nite Sensation, which apparently is a well I'm going back to plenty of time without realizing it.

Apparently Tina Turner liked the rough cut she heard so much that she volunteered herself and The Ikettes to sing some backup lyrics on the album version. Unfortunately, she's nowhere to be seen on tour, which is a shame.

Barry Miles wrote a biography of Zappa (entitled, simply, Zappa) and states that Ike Turner was less than taken with the song. He listened to less than a minute of it and left the studio.

The Very Loud Threat To Our Children

This is Frank in Paris in 1980 performing the title track of his rock opera Joe's Garage, which is all about making music illegal. In keeping with the conceit that it's a public service announcement by the people who have made music illegal, Joe's girlfriend runs off with the roadies of a rock band and Joe falls in with Lucille, "who gives him an unpronounceable disease," leading to the second song in this video (which begins about 2:30 if you want to stop it).

Yes, that's right: Zappa went there. Later on in the opera, Joe keeps slipping into worse shenanigans. It's a sort of a "fatal glass of beer" story, with mad axe riffs instead of alcohol.

Kids! Eat Your Vegetables!

Dweezil and his band cover this song from Absolutely Free!, the second Mothers of Invention album. Unfortunately, a lot of the melody is carried by the keyboards, leaving not much of Dweezil in there.

Connectivity Issues Suck

Anyway, no video yesterday because the Intertubes got clogged.

So here's yesterday's Zappa video -- "I'm the Slime."




Harlan Ellison called it The Glass Teat.

If only it were so simple as turning off the television. We have to instill in future generations the will and motivation to go out and find things out for themselves, rather than sit at home vegging in front of the tube. That means we need energy. That means we need to be able to support ourselves, even the least among us, without working ourselves to exhaustion. That means overhauling our economy and, to a larger extent, our society.

Another track from Over-Nite Sensation. Some things just never lose relevance. As a song of its times, however, it anticipates the Central Scrutinizer of Joe's Garage, another implacable, all-controlling figure (not coincidentally the role that Frank reserved for himself in that odd little rock opera; the title role went to Ike Willis). Is this spectre of loss of freedom tying into the American legend, or is it part of the zeitgeist of the Cold War? Is the Slime, in other words, generic, or specifically Communist?

Well, It's *A* Zappa

Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai vamp during a rendition of "Dirty Love:"



"Dirty Love" was the third track on Over-Nite Sensation (1973), Frank's first gold record. It followed the blisteringly satirical track "I'm the Slime," which featured an implacable monster oozing out of the TV.

This is Zappa's eldest (with the Zappa-blazoned guitar) and his long-time collaborator Steve Vai at a tribute concert shortly before Zappa's death in 1993.

Pitted Fruit Instrumental

The album version of Zappa's Peaches En Regalia.

There are a few pieces of Zappa's work that spring instantly and readily to my mind. The quintessential riff of his is the eight-note vamp from Cosmik Debris, while the longer piece is this one, which is entirely instrumental. Sometimes I think Frank wrote lyrics as a framework (and, dare I say, an excuse) to hang his guitar work on. Apparently he never considered himself a singer, which is probably why a lot of his work is spoken.

So Close, And Yet So Far

I just found out from Zappa.com that Gail Zappa spoke in Lexington this past March.

See what I miss because the Intarwebs are so huge? I didn't even know there was a Zappa.com until last week!

Anyway, here's the next Zappadan treat:



This is the second track from the Mothers' first album, Freak Out! (1966). It had a number of oddly conventional love songs, setting the tone for a long and eclectic career. This is not one of them, in my opinion.

Zappadan, Day Three

"What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body," from We're Only In It for the Money (1968), an album conceived when Frank was irritated by all the attention Sergeant Pepper's was receiving as the first "concept album," when he'd already done a couple. It was expanded to include in its list of targets the larger culture of 68, including flower power and the conservative Establishment.

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, some lines got cut in some releases of the album, all of which I recall from the vinyl my folks have. Huh.

Of course, this being Wikipedia, perhaps all of this info should be taken with the Great Salt Flats.

Zappadan

The holiday of Zappadan was founded to celebrate the life and times of that prophet of rock'n'roll, Frank Zappa.

This prophet has not been dead twenty years, but he already upholds the truism that a movement's followers will schism after the founder is dead. There are two camps of Zappadan, the twenty-firsters, who say Zappa was born on December 21st, and the twenty-seconders, who contend he was born on December 22nd. Sadly, the twenty-firsters seem to hold sway both at Wikipedia and at frankzappa.com. Both camps do agree that the holiday begins on December 4th, the date of his death, in an all-night rock party beginning at sundown on December 5th and continuing until the sun comes up or the cops are called.

Observers refrain from cutting their hair for the duration; instead, the men cultivate their mustaches and goatees. Some go so far as to post videos on their websites, one every day of the observation.