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August 17, 2007
Friday Frank: Alien Orifice; The Palladium, NY, 1981
By Deborah Newell Tornello a.k.a. litbrit
Over in my tiny, eponymously-titled island protectorate, located in the mid-left waters of Blogistan, we have a tradition known as Friday Frank. This regular four-minute (give-or-take) bit entails sharing the genius of the late Frank Zappa with one another and sometimes even dragging new listeners kicking, screaming, and quizzically eyebrow-raising into the fray, never again to look at a snowcone or stack of pancakes in quite the same way. Given that commercial airplay of FZ's music has, to the detriment of independent musical thinking everywhere, long been limited to a few of the humor pieces like Valley Girl and Dancin' Fool, far too many Americans miss out on the staggeringly broad and undeniably wonderful body of work Mr. Zappa left behind when he died of prostate cancer in 1993 at the age of 52.
You can't pigeonhole this sort of genius--neither the music nor the man. Frank Zappa was an Italian-American autodidactic musician, composer, and conductor; he claimed, in his autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book, that because he was self-taught and couldn't play absolutely everything, he didn't consider himself a virtuoso. Yet most devotees would argue he was that and more--he's certainly one of one of my all-time favorite guitarists. One of my favorite classical composers too. Politically, FZ was a conservative (yes, you read that correctly--conservative in the true, old-school, fiscal responsibility sense) who regularly encouraged his fans to register to vote and even run for office; in the last years of his life, voter registration booths were a fixture at Zappa concerts. He was also an ardent supporter of First Amendment rights, a man with whom Tipper Gore--wife of then soon-to-be Vice President and avowed FZ fan Al--famously tangled over the issue of labeling music with "offensive lyrics".
Anyway, to my ear, this piece--Alien Orifice--is signature Zappa, combining as it does the shifting time signatures, blasting brass, mellow vibes, and blistering guitar for which Maestro's music was and is beloved, forging a sound that's at once rock, jazz, and pure flowing-from-elsewhere inspiration. Enjoy.
(H/T Farksisten)
August 17, 2007 in Music | Permalink
Comments
Too weird not to share: Frank Zappa on the Mike Douglas show in the mid-70s, with apparent co-guests Jimmie Walker and Grizzly Adams.
I always like it when he went back to the roots, like doo-wop (his first bands in the early 60s were heavily influenced by this) and blues (Willie the Pimp, with Captain Beefheart on vocals and Don "Sugarcane" Harris on blues violin).
Posted by: norbizness | Aug 17, 2007 9:50:18 AM
norbizness--don't forget Johnny "Guitar" Watson!
Posted by: litbrit | Aug 17, 2007 10:10:51 AM
outstanding "first look" choice m'dear. the complexity of tempo and key, the technical difficulty of the piece, while at the same time keeping a sense of playful satire very much to the front is a signature zappa touch. he despised pretension and attacked it with gleeful precision.
brava.
Posted by: minstrel boy | Aug 17, 2007 10:38:06 AM
during the sixties, i had the good fortune to see frank zappa working in the recording studio.
....i had a dear friend who was also a well-known musician at the time with electra...and i was able to spend time in the recording studio.
......i remember walking in, and looking through the glass, and seeing frank zappa!
...it was a rich time to be living through!
Posted by: jacqueline | Aug 17, 2007 11:11:50 AM
I sometimes think that Zappa formed his political positions as a response to some of the wilder, perhaps naive political pursuits of other West Coast artists during the 60's and 70's. Zappa knew that he was addressing large audiences of reactionary, counter culture types, and even if he shared some of their sentiments he knew that it could be dangerous to give in completely to any kind of strict mindset. So he poked alot of fun at those people, as well as fundies and wingnuts.
Posted by: chowchowchow | Aug 17, 2007 11:54:17 AM
youtube.com/watch?v=5M9aY7hXjGU
Posted by: TLB | Aug 17, 2007 2:54:49 PM
Spring 1973--my new college roommate was an absolute Zappa fanatic--he introduced me to the whole shtik, including "Billy the Mountain", along with the foul-mouthed glory that was Flo and Eddie...then Zappa played *our own ficking college gym*, and the world was never the same.
Re Frank "pok[ing] a lot of fun at those people, as well as fundies and wingnuts": one has to note one particular episode.
Vaclav Havel was an enormous fan, who invited Zappa to visit Czechoslovakia as a sort of cultural ambassador. Zappa was quoted as saying to Havel how sorry he was that Havel would have to meet with Reagan, mincing no words about his opinion of Ronnie's intelligence.
In Zappa's retelling, in less time than it takes to blink, US officials roared into Prague to inform the Czechs, in no uncertain terms, that Frank would be have *no* part of *any* kind of meeting with Havel for *any* reason, under *any* circumstances...
Posted by: Captain Goto | Aug 17, 2007 3:14:56 PM
"would be having"
Posted by: Captain Goto | Aug 17, 2007 3:16:20 PM
I always knew that Frank was a visionary musician, and kinda knew that he was more "savvy" than most politically, but this "crossfire" thing blows my mind! The reference to America headed to a facist theocracy only a couple years into Reagan's administration (may he rot in the hottest ring of hell), for starting this shitstorm, only proves that my loyalty to FZ was not misplaced. I only wish he somehow could have been electable in the eighties!
Posted by: eddienutzak | Aug 29, 2007 1:49:56 PM
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Posted by: judy | Oct 11, 2007 7:47:25 AM
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