I've never really liked much outside of the first few Mothers LPs. Even in the 70's, when pretension ran rampant, Zappa was too pretentious for the room.
I heard dude ate his own shit and said it tasted like steak and potatoes.
The story we heard in the 70s was The MOI and Fugs were battling it out for the grossest band. Somebody from one band shit on the stage, somebody from the other band ate it. I never fully believed that story even when I was a kid. Isn't that the end of Pink Flamingos?
Related note: Is "The Divine Toe We're Both Dead Now, Alice Life Is Funny Grope Need Tuli, Visited By The Ghost Of Plotinus More Grope Need Robinson Crusoe" by the Fugs the longest song title ever?
Not true. He did not let Lowell play guitar in the group, just sing, because he didn't need Lowell's guitar. I would much rather listen to Lowell play than Frank, but Frank has him beat when it comes to chops. More importantly Frank had his own ideas about what guitar sounds he wanted in his music.
The first Little Feat record is all ex Mothers I think. They also did session work for Chico Hamilton and Nolan.
Not true. He did not let Lowell play guitar in the group, just sing, because he didn't need Lowell's guitar. I would much rather listen to Lowell play than Frank, but Frank has him beat when it comes to chops. More importantly Frank had his own ideas about what guitar sounds he wanted in his music.
The first Little Feat record is all ex Mothers I think. They also did session work for Chico Hamilton and Nolan.
Dan
atleast a few ex-mothers in little feat (roy estrada) they also backed john cale on Paris 1919 & robert palmer the story i heard was that george was fired for writing his own stuff as a mother he may have also played some flute for the mothers & his drug use could be a in his firing
Not true. He did not let Lowell play guitar in the group, just sing, because he didn't need Lowell's guitar. I would much rather listen to Lowell play than Frank, but Frank has him beat when it comes to chops. More importantly Frank had his own ideas about what guitar sounds he wanted in his music.
The first Little Feat record is all ex Mothers I think. They also did session work for Chico Hamilton and Nolan.
Dan
atleast a few ex-mothers in little feat (roy estrada) they also backed john cale on Paris 1919 & robert palmer the story i heard was that george was fired for writing his own stuff as a mother he may have also played some flute for the mothers & his drug use could be a in his firing
It is certainly true that George wanted to do his own music, and found the Mothers stiffiling. Maybe someone who read some Zappa books knows about his firing.
Maybe someone who read some Zappa books knows about his firing.
Dan
that would not be my illeterate ass i learned everything from zappa &/or feat freaks so it is more than a little sketchy
yo dan, are you naomi peterson's friend with a seattle store or was that rodeo records my mind is in a new york haze
I have a friend named Naomi, but I doubt her last name is Peterson, something more like Katz. I have a Portland store. I think Rodeo Records is in Billings.
Not true. He did not let Lowell play guitar in the group, just sing, because he didn't need Lowell's guitar. I would much rather listen to Lowell play than Frank, but Frank has him beat when it comes to chops. More importantly Frank had his own ideas about what guitar sounds he wanted in his music.
The first Little Feat record is all ex Mothers I think. They also did session work for Chico Hamilton and Nolan.
Dan
I love that first Little Feat LP, but I can't help but hate Frank Zappa. I don't hate all the Mothers stuff, but I also don't enjoy much of it. I must have problems.
In his autobiography (which, to be fair, is a fairly amusing read even if you don't like his music), he goes to some lengths to establish that he's a real dude who doesn't care about bullshit quotes from famous writers and brags about never reading books at all and that he has no use for them. I remember reading this, and then a couple days later listening to one of those "You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore" live comps he put out: in the middle of some 20 min epic story/concept song (Don't Eat the Yellow Snow or something), he breaks into a passage from Dylan Thomas' poem "Under Milkwood" as an aside, which probably went over everyone's head at the time. It seemed pretty impressive for a guy who dismisses (in print) pretty much all literature as being useless and phony.
At that point, given that my enthusiasm for the guy's music was on the wane anyway, I was like and gave up on "appreciating" his music and staggering talent in favor of just occasionally breaking out the few albums of his (all instrumental) that I enjoyed hearing.
But at the end of the day, it's almost impossible not to respect the guy on some level, be it for the sheer volume of his output, his testimony before the PMRC in the 80's, his guitar skills, etc. And this is a decent album of his "classical" stuff that I still enjoy [strong]HOT RATS[/strong]
well i've always thought of Zappa as the master of contradictions
music that's ridiculously silly while also massively complex and pretentious
anti drug but ridiculously trippy
hates rock, shreds effortlessly for 10 minutes +
one of my fave Zappa discs is a live bootleg from Toronto 1968 i beleive. there's shit on there that would make Can blush with some ridiculous motorik grooves.
that said i tend to either love or hate zappa's output.
yeah i can see how the pretentiousness can get annoying, but the great thing about him and his crew was how they were self parodying. dude had a great sense of humour, talking about how bass players are failed guitarists and the guitarist is the one who gets all the blowjobs and how a guitarists face during the solo was the definition of awful. if you're a zappa fan, check out babysnakes, great film. one thing though i can understand about him was his frustation about stuff, like his audience was basically a bunch of druggies while he didnt phuck with him. i think that can make you cynical, its kind of like your audience getting u for all the wrong reason, just ask dave chapelle. another thing that frustrated zappa was his move into the orcestra thing and all the beauracracy stuff associated with it. music need more mindsets like that pioneer. while i dont bug out too all of his stuff, (anyone that bugs out to 100% of anyone's stuff is lying or dickriding), but i can appreciate it. i was reading this interview about him in this songwriting book where he hates chords with stuff in between the I and V cause its not neutral anymore...
Comments
Not true. He squashes that rumor in his autobio. The closest thing he ever came to eating shit was at a Holiday Inn in Kansas, or something like that.
How may i ask does one get close to eating shit?
Okay, I'm ready to be banned.
[img]http://www.discoverstlouispark.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/shadowbox_full_image/Applebees Logo.gif/img]
Come on now! We all know it's Jack White.
j/k
w**** st***es =
The story we heard in the 70s was The MOI and Fugs were battling it out for the grossest band. Somebody from one band shit on the stage, somebody from the other band ate it. I never fully believed that story even when I was a kid. Isn't that the end of Pink Flamingos?
Dan
+
he fired lowell george for being too good ?
Not true. He did not let Lowell play guitar in the group, just sing, because he didn't need Lowell's guitar. I would much rather listen to Lowell play than Frank, but Frank has him beat when it comes to chops. More importantly Frank had his own ideas about what guitar sounds he wanted in his music.
The first Little Feat record is all ex Mothers I think. They also did session work for Chico Hamilton and Nolan.
Dan
atleast a few ex-mothers in little feat (roy estrada)
they also backed john cale on Paris 1919
& robert palmer
the story i heard was that george was fired for writing his own stuff as a mother
he may have also played some flute for the mothers
&
his drug use could be a
It is certainly true that George wanted to do his own music, and found the Mothers stiffiling. Maybe someone who read some Zappa books knows about his firing.
Dan
that would not be my illeterate ass
i learned everything from zappa &/or feat freaks so
it is more than a little sketchy
yo dan, are you naomi peterson's friend with a seattle store
or was that rodeo records
my mind is in a new york haze
I have a friend named Naomi, but I doubt her last name is Peterson, something more like Katz. I have a Portland store. I think Rodeo Records is in Billings.
Dan
I love that first Little Feat LP, but I can't help but hate Frank Zappa. I don't hate all the Mothers stuff, but I also don't enjoy much of it. I must have problems.
In his autobiography (which, to be fair, is a fairly amusing read even if you don't like his music), he goes to some lengths to establish that he's a real dude who doesn't care about bullshit quotes from famous writers and brags about never reading books at all and that he has no use for them. I remember reading this, and then a couple days later listening to one of those "You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore" live comps he put out: in the middle of some 20 min epic story/concept song (Don't Eat the Yellow Snow or something), he breaks into a passage from Dylan Thomas' poem "Under Milkwood" as an aside, which probably went over everyone's head at the time. It seemed pretty impressive for a guy who dismisses (in print) pretty much all literature as being useless and phony.
At that point, given that my enthusiasm for the guy's music was on the wane anyway, I was like
But at the end of the day, it's almost impossible not to respect the guy on some level, be it for the sheer volume of his output, his testimony before the PMRC in the 80's, his guitar skills, etc. And this is a decent album of his "classical" stuff that I still enjoy [strong]HOT RATS[/strong]
music that's ridiculously silly while also massively complex and pretentious
anti drug but ridiculously trippy
hates rock, shreds effortlessly for 10 minutes +
one of my fave Zappa discs is a live bootleg from Toronto 1968 i beleive. there's shit on there that would make Can blush with some ridiculous motorik grooves.
that said i tend to either love or hate zappa's output.
beefheart gets nothing but love though