All Things Zappa

[mttourpro]

Thought it might be fun to have a Zappa thread and get a feel for some of your thoughts on the Master.


Some things to discuss.....


Favorite album--pick one only---why?

Favorite show you were at? Favorite bootleg?

Best stunt guitar player??

Favorite band/tour/era?

Favorite quote/lyric?

Best keys player? bass? drummer? vocalist? dancer?

Have you seen him live? What's the sickest thing you saw? best experiences? life-changing events?

Do you trade shows??

Do you play any Frank?!

What's your favorite "epic" song?

What do you find most interesting, entertaining or bizarre about Frank's use of Conceptual Continuity?
Favorite piece/element of CC?



Do you have trouble getting Help I'm A Rock out of your brain at night when you're trying to sleep??

Do you have an Uncle named Meat?

Are you a Po-Jama person?

Would Frank have somehow saved the world?

Is there a big difference bewteen bending down and kneeling over? or are we just dumb all over?

Would Frank be President in a few months?

Does the poodle bite or does the poodle "chews it"?

and finally, Who are the Brain Police?


Questions, questions, questions on the mind of today's young people

[oconnors_35]

Not heavily into Frank, I love Apostrophe and Joe's Garage and a few other tunes. Saw him play two shows in one night in 1983 at EM Lowes in Worcester Ma.

I knew a lot of songs in the early show, and remember him saying "all the Zappa freaks should stick around for the late show". He must have played more hardcore Zappa tunes because I didn't know any of them except for the encore - The Allman Brothers "Whipping Post".

SeanO

[Tennessee Jedi]

I dont know Frank like I should.I find his music to be extremely creative funny and inspirational.
I love Frank the guitar guy.Usually I dont like one trick ponies like Frank but he so original I love him.
I say one trick pony because he does one thing with guitar - play leads and not much rhythm.
His guitar is basically modded for one sound - but its an awesome sound !Its his sound ..
He has guys like Vai and Ike Willis and many others who play the "guitar stuff".
But there is nothing like a Zappa guitar solo !
Stuff I like -
The keyboard/sax guy who sings the in the real high voice is amazing.
I love Ike Willis and another guy who plays some slide.Ike sings great too.
Terry F'ing Bozio is the sickest drummer in the world.
My fav album is the live one from Pittsburgh with Ring of Fire.
That band is sooooo awesome.
Live Frank is a treat.
But like everything else in the world it seems Frank is a love it or hate it type thing ...

[amyjared]

Used to LOVE Frank, but still enjoy him. Saw him a few times, best was at the Greek when he gave an enema to a blow up doll during the Illinois Enema Bandit! Best song I saw was his rendition of Stairway to Heaven or Whipping Post. Both thrilled me to no end.

So to answer some queries:

My fave album is Live in New York with Overnight Sensation a close second. I also really like Man from Utopia for Jazz Discharge Party Hats! My first band was called Sears Poncho, from the song Camarillo Brillo, which we "tried" to cover.

My favorite Zappa story: We were coming into Prague on the train, after drinking heavily at Oktoberfest for several days straight and hung over to beat the band. As we enter the city at 7:30am, unable to speak czech or German, trying to communicate was tough and exacerbated by our lack of patience due to the beer in our blood. At the main train station, there is a welcome center and (at least in '90) it was filled with brown/black/grey suits all sitting around looking dignified. Amidst the whole communist monochrome, out of place as all getout is that famous full-size poster of Zappa naked and on the toilet (side view)!! I look, then look around, then look again, rub my eyes thinking it might be a DT hallucination, and I say the name "Zappa" and they all look at me and start repeating it, nodding with enthusiasm. From there, all was well with the world.

[heavynylon]

I was a huge Zappa fan in my high school and collage years. I had many albums: Apostrophe, Zoot Alors, Uncle Meat, etc. I think my favorite was Joe's Garage. I got to see Frank live once in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre. Several of us drove up from Savannah for the show. It must have been around '79. Much of the music was from Joe's Garage.

I don't have my vinyl albums anymore and I hadn't really listened to that music in years. But Zappa Plays Zappa came through town earlier this summer. Ray White is in the band and they played a lot of the tunes from Joe's Garage and Seikh Yer Booty. They played very well and it was nice to hear this music again. Brought back lots of memories.

I'm not sure what live shows are available. Recent posts by Dweezil seem to indicate that they are not too kind to tapers or fansites that provide access to this music. I don't know how Frank was about that.

[mttourpro]

Nice story there amyjared. Even though it's kinda weird to answer one's own post, it is about FZ and I am weird--so here it is.

Favorite album out of the at least 25 possible canidates would be One Size Fits All. Inca Roads has always been my absolute favorite FZ song and everything on that album is excellent IMO. There's a lot of others I could say too, but the best thing about OSFA is that they now double package it along with Overnight Sensation so you can get both killer albums for the price of one.

My favorite show out of the 5 I was lucky enough to see was probably the Pittsburgh Syria Mosque in 88. He actually played the mosque twice that tour--once in feb and the other in march. I think it was the first show when there was a very heavy police presence. They were standing in front of the stage, backs to the stage, staring out at the crowd throughout the first set seemingly daring anyone to even flick a lighter. Apparantly FZ noticed this. During City of Tiny Lights, he totally shuts down the band and addresses the cops saying "do we really need this anarchist over-supervision?!" The cops seemed to figure out he was addressing them when the crowd cheered and started going nuts. The cops then proceeded to simply leave as far as I could tell. Zappa then said 1,2,3,4 and they were back in the tune exactly where they stopped. Fairly sick.

I saw the last night of the Beacon in 88 and some idiot spilled a coke in the mixing board from the balcony in the middle of the 2nd set. They somehow finished the show with some kind of feed from a truck outside the venue. It's a fairly well known piece of history. Dweezel came out and played Whipping Post---he was prolly about 16 at the time.

As for Boots, I do have about 70 of them. Most are not the best quality as FZ was highly unfond of the practice, but there are some good ones out there, especially from 88 tour. Of course you can get alot of stuff from you Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vols 1-6. I highly reccomend numbers 4-6. There's also some good ones floating around from other eras as well. I always liked DubRoom Special which is a video from a mixture of the OSFA 76 band and the 82 band with Steve Vai, Ike Willis and Ray White. Chad Wackerman is the drummer as well. If people are into the download thing, there's a really great FZ fan site called zappateers that has the most complete catalogue of live stuff and other info available to man. They have a Zappa-base and several forums as well.

Best stunt guitar player is Steve Vai IMO followed closely be Mike Kennealy. Favorite band/tour era for me was 88 simply cause I saw 3 shows that tour. All his bands were phenomenal.

Favorite quote/lyric is prolly "there's a big difference between knealing down and bending over".

Keys has to go to George Duke---it took 2 key players to replace him. Alan Zavod and Tommy Mars are close seconds.

Drummer has to be Bozio even though I really like Chad Wackerman's playing a lot. Vocalist goes to Ike Willis with Ray White, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Bobby Martin close seconds.

Dancer has to go to Napoleaon Murphy Brock. BTW, if you get a chance to see Project/Object you (hopefully) will catch both Ike and NMB. They've not been playing lately and I wonder if that's because Gail Zappa has threatened a lawsuit. I've also heard Ike is not doing well right now. They used to come around 2 times a year and most of the time, played 2 nights in a row at a very little club in Pittsburgh.

I generally trade shows with a buddy of mine who's a bigger FZ fan than me, but he now has all I have so I just get some new stuff from him occasionally.

I have tried to play Cosmic Debris, Bobby Brown and Uncle Remus. "Tried" is the operative word.

My favorite epic song is definitely Billy The Mountain off of Just Another Band from L.A.

As for conceptual continuity, I guess the whole "poodle" thing is the most funny/interesting.
I also like how he tends to weave a lot of similar musical motifs throughout various songs/years.

I do miss Frank.

[weirimpressed]

I got to see Zappa Plays Zappa at Rothbury, it was pretty crazy. I guess thats as close as Ill ever get. At least I can watch videos of him on youtube

[amyjared]

My favorite show out of the 5 I was lucky enough to see was probably the Pittsburgh Syria Mosque in 88.

I was at that show, Feb. 25th is what is says on my ticket. Thursday eve, 7:30 and it was only $16.75. The Jazz from Hell tour, I think and that was the Stairway to Heaven encore that kicked ass!!

[Tennessee Jedi]

I had a chance to see Zappa at Lehigh U. in 88 but no I punked out.

[pappypgh]

I had a chance to see Zappa at Lehigh U. in 88 but no I punked out.

I have that show on disc, if yer interested, Jedi. When I get your package, assuming it has a return-address on it, I'll pop it out to ya if you want! Then you can REALLY kick yourself in the ass!!!

Favorite album--pick one only--- JOE'S GARAGE. It was the first FZ album I listened to in its entirety. Dosed outta my skull at my fraternity house. I fell in love with it. The musicality of it, from the songs to how they're played. I think it's the best of the best.

Favorite show you were at? Favorite bootleg?
Never saw FZ...I regret that so badly. My favorite boot is probably either The Ahoy, Rotterdam 1980 or this great 1984 show that I cannot remember the venue at this moment....opens with Teenage Wind (missing from the recording), but then goes to Truck Driver Divorce. Has the "In France" used on YCDTOSA 3.

Best stunt guitar player?? Steve Vai. Hands down. BLOWS Keneally away, IMO. Truly, I'd put the Dweez before Keneally (eventhough he wasn't a "regular", he DID sit in quite a few times)

Favorite band/tour/era? 1976/1984, it's a tie. I just LOVE Ray White.

Favorite quote/lyric?

Best keys player? George Duke, for sure.
bass? Arthur Barrow
drummer? Bozzio
vocalist? Ray White, followed by Frank.
dancer? Napoleon

Have you seen him live? Nope...

What's the sickest thing you saw? ZPZ - it was as close as I'll ever get.

Do you trade shows?? Yup.

Do you play any Frank?! I've tried (just like you said, Tour Pro). I think we've pulled off "Bobby Brown" live pretty well with PBJ. DEFINITELY want to add Cosmik Debris to the repertoire. There is no reason why we shouldn't be playing that song. Would love to do a couple of others, too.

What's your favorite "epic" song? I'm sure your definition of "epic" is different than mine, but for me, I'd say "On The Bus"....great long jam. If you're looking for many movements, "King Kong" ain't bad, either.

What do you find most interesting, entertaining or bizarre about Frank's use of Conceptual Continuity? Can't find too many musicians who do that. It's awesome.

Favorite piece/element of CC? The Poncho.

[Tennessee Jedi]

I have that show on disc, if yer interested, Jedi. When I get your package, assuming it has a return-address on it, I'll pop it out to ya if you want!

Mocho gracias mi amigo !
I'm hunting down that show you were asking about ...
pretty sure my buddy has a copy.
My drummer loves Zappa.I should (try)to learn something harder than "Muffin Man" !

[CountryMile Cadillac]

Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a Dental Floss tycoon
yes I am
Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a mennil-toss flykune
I'm pluckin' the ol' Dennil Floss


---------------------------------

Why does it hurt when I pee?
I got it from the toilet seat
I got it from the toilet seat
It jumped right up
'N' grabbed my meat
Got it from the toilet seat
My balls feel like a pair of maracas

[mttourpro]

Random Zappa Lyric of the week---note the conceptual continuity regarding "Charlie","her enormous mouth" and being "a beautiful guy".....

Beauty knows no pain
So what you cryin about
Girl
Beauty knows no pain
So what you cryin about
Girl
Beauty knows no
Beauty knows no
Beauty knows no

Even if yer plain
You could be tryin it out
Girl
Even if yer plain
You could be tryin it out
Girl
Beauty is no
Beauty is no
Beauty is no
Beauty is a bikini wax n waitin for yer nails to dry
Beauty is colored pencil, scribbled all around yer eye
Beauty is a pair of shoes that makes you wanna die

Beauty is a
Beauty is a
Beauty is a
Lie

But you dont care if its a lie
cause you are such a beautiful guy
Your head is north, your feet is south
And you save the rest for charlies
Mouth

Your head is north
Your feet is south
And you save the rest for
Charlies enormous mouth...

[Hajimemashite!!!]

Never saw him, but he's one of the most amazing soloists on guitar. And his tone is godly.

I am partial to joes garage as an album. It perfectly mixes the humor and music. On the bus is such an epic solo. And i want to dance everytime i hear the intro to fembot in a wet t shirt. I remember hearing "Stick out your hot curley weenie WEENIE! WEENIE WEENIE WEENIE!" and bursting out laughing.

But watermelon in easter hay is probably my favorite zappa tune ive heard. so beautiful.

I think vai was great with zappa. Now I think he's a bit boring. But stevies spanking....when they would just go at each other...epic....

Vai played some interesting shit that was very technical, now I think hes lost some of that interesting stuff in place of shreddy stuff.

Im still getting into his stuff though. theres a lot of it.

In high school i drove 2 of my friends home every day, and they had different tastes of music, so they never knew wtf i was listening to, But i knew their humor, so i played them bobby brown.

The rest of the year we listened to it a minimum of 3 -4 times each ride. Jon would just hit the previous track button over and over. We laughed our asses off.


OH YEAH and the stairway cover with the horns playing pages solo is awesome. more awesome than zep.

OH YEAH AGAIN the song Duke of Prunes off orchestral favorites is fuckin great too.

Shiek Yerbouti is the most clever album name ever.
SHIT which reminds me of Yo Mamma....I love that song too.

edit: And i want to dance everytime i hear the intro to fembot in a wet t shirt i want ot get up and dance

wow Im dumb

[Hajimemashite!!!]

Hey mt is there any reason why frank didn't approve of taping? Am I missing something? It seems like he wouldnt care...