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Blue Fairy Wren's avatar

There was one musician who slightly flummoxed him. In Australia in the 1970's Gary McDonald's comedy character Norman Gunston interviewed Zappa and jammed with him. At the end Zappa comments that he "went off key". The huge joke that was hilarious to Australians was that he had broken into the news theme of the national broadcaster, the ABC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mUQ00i9rH4

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beast.of.bourbon's avatar

well wasn't that a blast from a certain past? cheers!

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Blue Fairy Wren's avatar

As a kid, The Auntie Jack Show and, later, The Norman Gunston Show was the hot topic of conversation at school on a Monday morning. The Sally Struthers interview is also legendary.

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beast.of.bourbon's avatar

and Warren Beattie! NG was a true idiot savant.

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Blue Fairy Wren's avatar

Yes! He really got what NG was about.

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Travis Hartnett's avatar

" If it wasn’t for the borderline (or, let’s admit it, way-across-the-border) obscenity, one might even think him a prude. For the record, Frank Zappa eventually celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary with wife Adelaide Gail Sloatman—quite an achievement for any rocker, but especially for one who died at age 52."

As I recall, he had a mistress living in one of the guest houses in his compound for years, and Gail was just expected to deal with it. Moon has some very bitter stories about the era.

I can't recall the name of the mistress--I think she was one of 70's super groupies, but she's also written about how Zappa kept printing a mailing address on his albums in case you wanted to contact Frank, and this was how they reconnected and the live-in situation evolved.

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Anonymous's avatar

I watched the recent documentary film by Alex Winter last night and came here to say, yeah, Frank definitely had an 'alternative' lifestyle that only the '60s zeitgeist could have allowed.

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Harry Blatterer's avatar

Great! And by the way, FZ didn’t need an anthropologist to work out why Bobby Brown was so successful in Europe. I still lived in Austria in 1979 when the song made it to number 8 in the local charts. Upon its reissue in 1991 it reached number 2. Why? The groove, that voice, that melody! The words? We could sing along to every line (even my tween sister did!) But - and here it comes - we didn’t understand a word of it, because we were kids of miners, and railroad workers, and farmers. For all we knew, there once was an Arab Prince called Sheik Yerbouti.

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Tom Rhea's avatar

"By any measure, he was one of the great bandleaders of his era—with an emphasis on the word leader." Anybody else see the similarity between Zappa with Raymond Scott?

They both made "jazz" that decidedly was not jazz.

And . . . "Zappa was a strict taskmaster, demanding practice and perfection from his employees. You might even call him a martinet, a hardass, a workaholic—as his huge body of recordings testifies."

Scott's Quintette (which was actually a sextet, but he didn't like that word) was rehearsed until they were blue in the face, as Raymond dictated "improv" from his piano keyboard–which they rehearsed until they could play it back verbatim.

Zappa may have been channeling Raymond, except Ray always had a smile on his face in front of an audience–it was de rigueur (where are italics when we need them here) for his times–happy media days . . .

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Jim Dixon's avatar

What would Zappa's work have been like had he been about 12 years older, coming into his own as a musician in the mid-1950s? I'd love to know. Maybe as an autodidact guitar player he wouldn't have gone far, but maybe he would have been a Mingus or Gil Evans figure, or a latter day Raymond Scott. In some ways I think coming of age in the age of aquarius worked against his strengths as a musician and composer.

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Tom Rhea's avatar

Yup. The vagaries of where, and especially when we are born are a tremendous tide. Students who happen to fall into the "cracks" and start school earlier/later (I forget which) than their contemporaries have better outcomes! This is not anecdotal, but actuarial . . .

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robertjlamb's avatar

FZ did say he was going to stop making serious music when he turned 30, so Hot Rats is kind of the turning point (not sure which side of the divide!)

Fwiw, I don't rate him as a guitarist - he has one schtick which he deploys ad nauseam. And he doesn't ever swing: it's all bang on the beat. I saw the Zoot Allures tour in 77 and the first 3 solos were great after which it became a yawn fest. I think Dweezil is a much better guitarist than Frank. (and Stevie Vai is a league above both of them).

However - still a towering genius. Freak Out, Absolutely Free, and We're Only in it for the Money are all masterpieces. Trouble Coming Every Day - still absolutely on point.

My personal favourite is probably Grand Wazoo - because it swings!

One of FZs bon mots was describing rock journalism as "people who can't write writing about people who can't sing for people who can't think" (from memory...). Thanks to Ted for disproving that thesis!

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Jim Trageser's avatar

I'm surprised none of Jeff Beck's mid-'70s stuff made it into The Real Book. Beck in some ways was who Zappa wanted to be: He has the virtuoso skill set to actually break through the stylistic walls that Zappa like to tilt at.

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Thomas O'Neill's avatar

Inasmuch as I am a long-time fan and appreciator of Zappamusique, in all its kaleidoscopic and at times seemingly contradictory complexity, I am enjoying this series of "gnarly" essays. Has Ted read either The Real Frank Zappa Book, by the man himself (one chapter is tellingly titled Dada As A Lifestyle, the best capsule description of Zappa's career one could ever conjure), or The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play by Ben Watson (a slog of a read, and misses the mark but comes tantalizingly close to pulling off the neat trick of pinning down the unpinnably quintessential 20th century composer who refused to die - until prostate cancer had other ideas)?

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Richard Fenno's avatar

Excellent! Looking forward to the last part.

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Joel Harrison's avatar

I find this in depth look quite learned and, like Zappa's music, fun. I think it's important to remember that in large part Zappa mostly wanted to write "serious", long form classical music and maybe cared more what Boulez thought than Lester Bangs. At Pomona College in 1975 I learned that a 15 year old Frank Zappa had brought orchestra scores over to the music dept. years earlier for perusal. He was almost completely self taught. The teachers had no idea what to do with this weirdo boy genius. The auto-didact in him was a powerful force. Interestingly his long form orchestral works aren't nearly as compelling as his best jazz rock outings. (To me). One other note- it seems understandable to me that Zappa, Mitchell, Steely Dan were not called jazz artists. They were after something broader, another kind of fusion whose foundations were not jazz per se. However, all of them were FORMED by jazz, and jazz was clearly evident in their writing. The early 70's was a golden age for these new hybrids. Zappa led the way often and convincingly.

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George Neidorf's avatar

If you accept that Jazz is about improvisation and interaction of the musicians, then neither Zappa, Mitchell nor the Dan's were playing Jazz. Jazz influenced, yes, but the rhythm section parts were composed, not improvised. A soloist could improvise but the rhythm sections didn't improvise.

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Stuart Pyle's avatar

Big band had worked-out scores

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George Neidorf's avatar

Do you mean Frank's big band, or big bands in general? Well, either way, it would be true, but I don't see how that applies to my comment.

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Stuart Pyle's avatar

Big band music was jazz without the rhythm section improvising

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George Neidorf's avatar

I do know what big band music was/is.

Aside from specific drum parts, the drummer free to interpret the music as he heard it. The bassist and pianist, aside from specific parts, have chord charts and are free to choose how they play in those sections. At least it was that way in Dukes, Basie's, Belson's bands, to name a few of the past, and still true in Tommy Igoe's, John Beasley's, David Angel's and the many big bands that play around L.A. today. Zappa didn't leave much room for the rhythm section to improvise within the arrangements.

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Frank Hudson's avatar

For this reader: it's still flowing well, it's still insightful -- and no, it's not too long for those with an interest, far from it.

Interesting observation on the bifurcation of the Jazz Rock from the Jazz Fusion camps in the early 70s, which I remembered as being noticeable then. Part of the division (I think) was how important lyrics were to recordings. Zappa retained an interest in Dada poetry and vocal ensemble pieces that didn't fit with the predominant Jazz/Jazz fusion scene. Ditto for the lyrical talents of Fagen/Becker and Joni Mitchell obscuring what they were doing musically. If Zappa had done four or five Hot Rats in a row he might have broken through as Fusion. In some ways the Shut Up.... records were that as well as an attempt to get over with the electricc guitar virtuoso genre folks. But then Fusion largely died out after a fairly short era, and "Zappa's Comedy Music" became his was to get fluke hit penetration into wider culture.

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astroscribe's avatar

So far, this has been amazing accomplishment, but are you sure this is finished, Ted? I can see why this was so very hard, and why, perhaps, you'd be happy to see it out there, but...

There's a couple of shortcuts in this part 2 which scream out to be filled. When investing quite a few lines in the idea of Frank's lack of commercial success, why not mention Apostrophe? His all-time best-seller and number 10 on the Billboard 200!

Indeed, of the whole period between Flo and Eddie and Joe's Garage only the beginning is mentioned here in the context of his Jazz/Big Band work, and the later part is there to illustrate his legal struggles with Warner Bros. This deserves more attention. I would actually argue this was the most productive period of his life.

Those most astonishing 7 or 8 years in the history of recorded music culminated in Joe's Garage, which, more than anything, is IMHO his absolute masterpiece in terms of music production. Forget the story (Frank sure was lousy at endings), this very last of his all-analogue albums still sounds so amazingly great today, so innovative in every way, and absolutely fresh and sweet in all its aural qualities.

Anyway, no problem... Great to see others care as much as I have done. :)

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BigOinSeattle's avatar

Wow! What an amazing guy, truly a virtuoso. Thanks for these Zappa articles. I am really enjoying them and learning a lot.

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Jee El's avatar

Another outstanding piece of writing. Ted, you continually make me search for more.

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Bruce Phillips's avatar

In keeping with the Carlos Santana theme of 2-chord wonders, while Willie The Pimp (Hot Rats disc) builds on a different chord progression, it showcases Zappa's ability to make much of two chords. Personally, my top 3 Zappa are "We're Only In It For The Money", "Hot Rats" and "Chunga's Revenge". Of course, I'm old. And....With "Absolutely Free" being my favorite cut. My opinions are my own and not of my employer.

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Bruce Phillips's avatar

In keeping with the Carlos Santana theme of 2-chord wonders, while Willie The Pimp (Hot Rats disc) builds on a different chord progression, it showcases Zappa's ability to make much of two chords. Personally, my top 3 Zappa are "We're Only In It For The Money", "Hot Rats" and "Chunga's Revenge". Of course, I'm old.

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Bruce M Hunt's avatar

A complicated composer, sure. But that sort of creative "madness" which drives someone so hard to get whatever idea they have come up with out into the world can be an achilles heel, too. His disdain for simple pop music was obvious, and perhaps he honestly had no interest in writing in that genre. But a great pop song can also be difficult and challenging to write and arrange. Still, I think you have done our idea of him a service for exploring his music, both successes and not so successful, to try to see where they might fit in the history of the jazz rock field. Good stuff.

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