The Real Frank Zappa Thread (WARNING: Politics, Religion, and Other Obscenities)

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Continuing with the Beat the Boots series in chronological order, here is Electric Aunt Jemima. It’s named after a track on the Uncle Meat album which has a lot of foundational music but isn’t the best produced of Frank’s albums. And this isn’t the best sounding of the Beat the Boots series. But it’s very interesting.

It’s sort of a psychedelic tour de force. It’s compiled from three different shows in ‘68. It’s all instrumental if you don’t count the vocal whoops and hollers. And it exhibits the same ideas that Steve Vai was talking about, how Frank’s compositional ideas would evolve and be recombined in various forms and expressions. On this recording we get various incarnations of Dog Breath, Dog Breath Variations, Pound for a Brown, a couple instances of King Kong, and a Little House I Used to Live In which appeared on the live Fillmore East June 1971 with Flo and Eddie and led into The Mud Shark.

There are so many of Frank’s songs that are compositions first and sometimes he adds lyrics to them. No lyrics on this album. (And we haven’t even gotten to tunes like Let’s Make the Water Turn Black, Harry You’re a Beast, and Oh No yet.)

Anyway, here’s the track list:

1 Little House I Used To Live In/Dog Breath Variations/Blue Danube Waltz/Hungry Freaks Daddy

2 whät

3 Dog Breath

4 King Kong

5 Trouble Every Day

6 A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)

7 English Tea Dancing Interludes/Plastic People/King Kong/America Drinks/Wipe Out

Here’s a link where you can see which tracks came from which shows:

https://www.zappa.com/music/beat-boots-ii-3-electric-aunt-jemima

And here are the shows:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNthIOWN7Nc

Edited October 12, 2022 by WhatTheBuck

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Wait, shit. I posted the wrong link for the third show, tried to edit it but it wouldn’t embed. So that’s the link to just the King Kong from Gruggahalle in Essen, W. Germany on 9/28/68. That’s track 4 on the disc, the only part of that show represented. It’s a killer version.

Here, let me embed it:

I’ve searched but can’t find a recording of the complete show.

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Up next from the Beat the Boots series: Our Man in Nirvana from Cal State Fullerton, 11/8/68.

https://www.zappa.com/music/beat-boots-ii-6-our-man-nirvana

Anyone want to get ahead of me on this one?

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

So...Man in Nirvana. This is an interesting release. It’s not a disc you’re going to play at a party. The sound isn’t great and the most significant part of the recording isn’t exactly radio friendly. But it’s an interesting historical document.

Here’s the track list:

1. Feet Light Up
2. Bacon Fat
3. A Pound For A Brown On The Bus
4. Sleeping In A Jar
5. The Wild Man Fischer Story
6. I’m The Meany
7. Valarie
8. King Kong

This a collection of excerpts from a show performed in a gymnasium at Cal State Fullerton. Someone actually recorded it on reel to reel. There are a couple breaks in songs when tape reels were replaced and you can hear the swoop in the sound/pitch as the new reel gets up to speed. That happens during both Pound For A Brown and King Kong, the two instrumental pieces on the disc. (Pound For A Brown > Sleeping In A Jar are played as a suite and are introduced collectively as “The String Quartet,” the title given to that pairing at the time.)

Feet Light Up isn’t a song. It’s a short track of Frank asking people to move away from in front of the speakers so people can hear, to explain the awful acoustics of a space designed for people to throw balls around in, and to instruct the audience to watch out for the cables on the ground so their feet don’t light up.

Bacon Fat is a cover of a 1956 tune by Andre Williams.

A Pound For A Brown On The Bus and Sleeping In A Jar first appeared, separately, on the Uncle Meat album. Sometimes labeled simply A Pound For A Brown, sometimes A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus), it’s an example of a composition that evolves over time. I’ve never taken the time to compare versions side by side and I doubt I have the chops to describe the differences if I did. But there are composed parts and improvised parts and those are the types of Zappa tunes I enjoy the most and probably the sort most people think about the least when they think about Frank’s music. A lot of people just think Yellow Snow and Valley Girl.

Now for the part that makes this an important historical archive. The Wild Man Fischer Story and I’m The Meany. Larry “Wild Man” Fischer was a genuinely crazy person and this recording captures the lone time that he performed on stage with Frank. Diagnosed as a bi-polar manic depressive, his family had him committed a couple of times in his youth. They washed their hands of him after he turned 18. On his own, he’d stand on the street in L.A. and offer to perform songs for a dime. His own stream-of-consciousness compositions, with no vocal talent, he was really out there and gained some notoriety. One day he wandered in off the street and met Frank. Frank being an aficionado of weird and freaky things, he produced an album of Larry’s work.

Here are Frank and Larry together with their record contract:

I can’t find the recordings with Frank on YouTube. The Wild Man Fischer Story is basically autobiographical. I’m The Meany is a new song he composed to express why he didn’t like the Beatles. The chorus is:

I’m the Meany
I’m the Meany
The Beatles talk about me in their movie, movie

(The Blue Meanies were villains in the film The Yellow Submarine.) There are two narrative passages in the song. One is about a girlfriend who told him she loved him and he punched her in the face. The other is about a girlfriend who told him she was pregnant and he punched her in the stomach. Nice, huh?

Wild Man Fischer was genuinely crazy and prone to violent outbursts. One day at Frank’s house, Fischer had an episode and threw a bottle which narrowly missed hitting Zappa’s infant daughter Moon Unit. That ended their relationship.

There’s a lot more about Wild Man Fischer online if you care to Google it. Here’s a sample of his work:

Moving on. The song Valarie doesn’t actually appear on this disc and that’s a shame because it’s a great song in a doo-wop style. This track cuts in during a storytelling passage which must have taken place inside the song because it closes out with the Valarie theme. During the story they’re in Valarie’s bedroom and she refers to her male guest as Ruben. Cruising With Ruben and the Jets was released that month so I imagine that’s the connection there even though Valarie doesn’t appear on that all doo-wop album. Anyway, here’s the original version by Jackie & The Starlites:

The disc closes with a massive King Kong. It’s over 30 minutes long despite the cut when the tape reel gets replaced and it still gets cut off before it’s finished. There’s a long jam at the end that doesn’t really get out there, it’s mostly just a groove. But there’s an early guitar solo by Lowell George that’s nice, then a keyboard solo by Don Preston, then horns. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest King Kong in the world but they’re all interesting. I keep coming back to the point that if Frank had a song that’s analogous to the Dead’s Dark Star, it’s King Kong. (And like the Dead with Dark Star, it seems that back in ‘67 and ‘68, Frank played King Kong most every night.)

Edited November 8, 2022 by WhatTheBuck

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Frank was always encouraging young people to register and vote. On his ‘88 tour he had booths set up at his concerts where members of the audience could register to vote. He even did PSAs on the subject.

So make Frank proud. Get out and vote.

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Happy birthday, Frank!

 

 

 

 

 

[dcbc 14487]

Happy birthday, Frank. 

 

Fuck cancer!

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

RIP, Tina.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

I tribute to the passing of Pat Robertson.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

I guess I shouldn’t stop there. This is a little more ecumenical in its ridicule, including the likes of Jim & Tammy and Jimmy Swaggart. A good chunk of Frank’s ‘88 tour was devoted to skewering the televangelists. He also had voter registration set up at all of his shows. It’s too bad he’s not around today to provide commentary.

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13585]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Zappa. This is, for me, his peak

Chop! A! Line! Now!

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13585]

I was originally gonna post this on my fav piano/keyboard thread cuz it could stand only as an instrumental but fits just as easily here.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28788]

Saw this car in the Kroger parking lot. I waited around for a minute or two, long enough to take a pic. If she’d returned to her car while I was there I would’ve asked her if she’s a Zappa fan.

 

[dcbc 14487]

On 8/1/2023 at 10:47 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

Saw this car in the Kroger parking lot. I waited around for a minute or two, long enough to take a pic. If she’d returned to her car while I was there I would’ve asked her if she’s a Zappa fan.

 

I'm willing to bet it's a total coincidence, but that's awesome!  A real Zappa fan would have done the Zappa 'stache in black around the car's grill.

Edited August 3, 2023 by dcbc

[atomheartbevo 89732]

Frank Zappa jamming with some non-drug-oriented psychedelic band and the drummer is wondering if he can roll Zappa up and smoke him.