Thank you OP. I had spent too much time away from Uncle Frank. Been grooving to Roxy & Elsewhere this morning.
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Any Frank Zappa fans here?
- Thread starter Andy Coconut
- Start date
Thank you OP. I had spent too much time away from Uncle Frank. Been grooving to Roxy & Elsewhere this morning.
Saw him twice, in '77 @ the spectrum in philly on halloween night and in '80 @ the capital theater in n.j. for the "Mothers Day" show. Great shows and some of the best musicianship I've ever witnessed.
Big time Zappa fan here! Not just his music but also his biting wit, humor and sarcasm. At age 66, I would not be the same person that I am today without having listened to Frank back in the late 1960s!
He had a very big influence on my thinking and viewpoint.
He had a very big influence on my thinking and viewpoint.
I had Montana on repeat play yesterday ... each play I focused on a different element of the song. Such an amazing composition. A couple of years ago I saw a television news feature on Zappa, I think it was 60 minutes but not sure. They visited with the musicians that worked on all those great songs and the woman that played the xylophone still had her sheet music from Montana. It was a sea of black notes. She said Frank always hand wrote the music charts for the players.
saw him 12 years at the Halloween shows in NYC.... awesome. couple times he had 2 bass players.
Was that when Tom Fowler had a broken arm and had a stunt bass player and Tom had a big board with note on it and he would point to the notes with a wand he would have played for his solo and have the other bass player play them, that time?
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I heard the Mothers at the Waterbury Theater in 1974. I only really remember three things about the concert.
First, I almost got killed by being pressed up against the glass entrance doors when the general admission crush became unexpectedly out of control. Actually pretty frightening. My first mob mentality experience.
Second, the bass had this commanding tone that was distinctly non-Fender.
Third, the bass player I later learned was Tom Fowler playing what turned out to be the first Alembic I had seen and heard. It was a long scale Series I. As I said above, the tone was fabulous.
I don’t remember all that much about the music. Sadly. Zappa was pretty cultish at the time. You had to know his material. The whole thing was a bit like the Rocky Horror Picture Show later developed into. The bass, though sounding great, didn’t leave a whole lot of impact on me, and I never really followed up on their later work. Interesting show. Guess I felt a bit the same about the act as the Dead, who also escaped my interest. Just not my thing at the time, but highly creative.
I’m listening to Civilization Phase III at this very moment.
My first exposure was “Roxy and Elsewhere”. I was like “yea, ok” until Echidna’s Arf/Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? started. Blew me away.
My first exposure was “Roxy and Elsewhere”. I was like “yea, ok” until Echidna’s Arf/Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? started. Blew me away.
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When I was about 10 my friend and I learned to recite/sing all the words to 'Billy the Mountain' from Just Another Band from LA, which we thought was hysterical. That began a long devotion to Zappa, who was pretty much beloved by all the musos (and freaks, geeks and sneaks) in our town. Because we were close to NYC we got to see the infamous 'Halloweenie' shows where Zappa held a residency the last week of October at the Palladium on 14th Street. Not sure how long he did that, but I distinctly remember a great show in 1978. Fantastic live act in addition to all the great recordings -- no one else to compare him and his band to, really. I still listen to him often as his catalog is so varied and excellent that there's always something to play that's appropriate for what's going on. So, yes, there are Zappa fans here on good ol' TB.
- Sep 4, 2010
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Grand Wazoo, Only In It For The Money, Lumpy gravy and Uncle Meat would be my personal faves. They have (to me) the best combination of uncompromising composition, performed by a group of musicians managing to get some of their own individualistic voices through into the performance.
Yeah, I guess what I am talkin' about happened back in the 70's my bad. Old man here, remembering my past, not yours
20 minutes and 40 seconds of Frank Zappa scratches that itch for a good long time. I love what he does, but I'm not the most patient listener. Small doses. I can definitely see the genius in it.
Wish he was still alive. I'd vote for him to be POTUS
