collin wrote:I tried....I really did. I just couldn't make it through that whole video. I guess Zappa is just not "my bag." I like some of the other stuff--Joe's Garage etc, but even then......he's only mildly amusing, not really amazing.
Thanks for your honesty, Collin, but you probably could've stopped at 'just not "my bag"'. I know Frank's not for everyone, and some are just not going to 'get him'...or will find him 'only mildly amusing'...
I mean, after all...there are some people who think Red Skelton's hilarious, and Donnie and Marie are gifted musicians...
collin wrote:I tried....I really did. I just couldn't make it through that whole video. I guess Zappa is just not "my bag." I like some of the other stuff--Joe's Garage etc, but even then......he's only mildly amusing, not really amazing.
Thanks for your honesty, Collin, but you probably could've stopped at 'just not "my bag"'. I know Frank's not for everyone, and some are just not going to 'get him'...or will find him 'only mildly amusing'...
I mean, after all...there are some people who think Red Skelton's hilarious, and Donnie and Marie are gifted musicians...
Different Stroies for different folks I guess....
I have to say I REALLY enjoyed this Dane. This is cool that I'm being exposed to different forms of music I normally wouldn't listen to. I ONLY knew Frank's "Don't You Eat That Yellow Snow" song from my bass mentor, who happened to be named Dane as well. MANY, MANY......MANY moons ago!
I NEVER knew Frank was as sharp as he is, and I must say I never really did get the whole ZAPPA thing until just now.
I really liked that solo piece and will make a point to TRY to not be so PROGRESSIVELY minded!
But LETS NOT CROSS the line with Donny & Marie, OK?
collin wrote:I tried....I really did. I just couldn't make it through that whole video. I guess Zappa is just not "my bag." I like some of the other stuff--Joe's Garage etc, but even then......he's only mildly amusing, not really amazing.
Thanks for your honesty, Collin, but you probably could've stopped at 'just not "my bag"'. I know Frank's not for everyone, and some are just not going to 'get him'...or will find him 'only mildly amusing'...
I mean, after all...there are some people who think Red Skelton's hilarious, and Donnie and Marie are gifted musicians...
sure, sure. I didn't mean to insult the guy---just sharing my reaction to it!
taste is the most subjective thing there is.......after all, I think that Gallagher guy who smashes watermelons is funny!
wayang wrote:Okay, OKAY...Donnie and Marie are mildy amusing, too. Kinda...sorta...
Ok, I'm better now!
Well, I was VERY YOUNG.........and I found this Hussler Magazine in the lots behind the school, and see, there was this cartoon of her........Ya know, I have a picture of Marie where she is..........................ah, oops....sorry! .........ah, you get the idea!
Hmmm, I wonder where I put that thing........................
Haha, but back on topic - as much as I love and appreciate Frank, he can be a little hard to take if I'm not in just the right mood for him. I must admit that he is the least often played of my favorite artists - I must be ready to pay full attention in order to "get" the full effect of his art, and these days that is asking a lot.
If you don't tune into Frank's frequency you are actually tuning him out. I can't think of any other way of saying it. That's why he did not care if people would remember him or not after he died. It was not about entertaining you it was about expressing a thought or a mood. You either got his message or you didn't.
He wrote about what was on his mind. Much of it was whimsical and in that context he was more often than not, very funny.
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
winston wrote:If you don't tune into Frank's frequency you are actually tuning him out. I can't think of any other way of saying it. That's why he did not care if people would remember him or not after he died. It was not about entertaining you it was about expressing a thought or a mood. You either got his message or you didn't.
He wrote about what was on his mind. Much of it was whimsical and in that context he was more often than not, very funny.
Well said. I felt his vision was very singular and was not ever really trying to appeal to a wide group of people. The "hits" he had were almost accidental. People tuned into him because they wanted to hear what he had to say.
If I had started with Frank by listening to Lumpy Gravy or the Grand Wazoo, I would not have liked him that much. Lucky for me, my teenage mind and Joe's Garage Parts 1,2, and 3 (along with my next purchase, Tinseltown Rebellion) were the perfect combination, and I opened my mind to accept and enjoy every other album (to varying degrees) in his collection.
Thank God for used record stores.
"They make great f***'n basses". - Lemmy, NAMM 2009
Here's a clip from 1974...this is from the same tour as the show that I saw...
Frank had a Lenny Bruce/George Carlin/Lewis Black fascination with the power of words. Who but Frank could write lines like:
"She was the daughter of a wealthy Florentine Pogen
'Read 'em and weep' was her adjustable slogan"
For the record, a Florentine Pogen is not an upper class Italian, as the phrase seems to suggest, but a kind of Swedish cookie. But more than the words, it was all about the music...for likewise, who but Frank could have put together a band like this? From the jazz world, George Duke on keys and vocals and Chester Thompson on drums (I later got to see Chester playing with Weather Report); from the band It's A Beautiful Day, Tom Fowler on bass; from Ithaca College and Juilliard, Ruth Underwood (nee Komanoff) on mallets; and from the planet Mars, Napoleon Solo Brock on woodwinds and vocals. They rehearsed this material for something like eight months before going out on tour. Please note that no one on stage is reading music...everything's been memorized. Keep in mind that while they were doing this, the culture was awash in three-chord yawnfests like Bad Company's I Can't Get Enough Of Your Love. In my own case, the particular cultural millieu I stepped out of to see this spectacle was Mesa Freaking Arizona...yikes. Not entirely coincidentally, this show was the second time I smoked ganja and the first time I got really high. (The guy sitting next to us was a rolling and passing 'joint factory' for the entire concert.) Halfway through Duke's solo keyboard spot (and I know you're reading this, Brian), my 'rear end' fell off...
Just another note on the vagaries of adolescence (I was eighteen at the time, after all): while all the other young men I knew were putting up posters of Farah Fawcett on their bedroom walls, I was slowly but surely falling in love with Ruthie...
Ah, Frank...you may not have cared about being remembered, but some of us will never forget you...
In my humble opinion, any artist who says they don't care if they are remembered is full of it. I think if he really meant that then we wouldn't be having this discussion now. There wasn't the artist ever born who didn't consider their legacy and their legend on some level, otherwise none of what they're about makes any sense to me.
Wow, Kira...every now and then we don't agree. Not very often, though...
Granted, it's difficult for any particular individual with a given set of beliefs to fully comprehend a radically different set...or, for that matter, a lack of beliefs on any given subject. For example, 'true believers', or adherents to a particular 'faith', frequently think that we agno/atheos are lying when we say we don't believe in a god or an afterlife. But we're not...in my case, as an agnostic, I don't rule out these possibilities, I just don't 'believe in them'. Likewise, it's tempting to think that Frank might be 'showboating' when he says he doesn't care about being remembered, but I don't rule out the possibility that he's telling the truth...especially when it's practically a 'deathbed confession'. Like, okay, Frank...now's your big chance: how would you like to be remembered? He was such a 'here and now' kind of guy, the kind of guy who could open a concert with the statement "The theme of tonight's show is: it's so f*****g great to be alive", that I think it's quite possible he didn't in fact care what happened concerning his 'legacy' after he was gone. We'll never know for sure...
In my humble opinion, every artist is 'full of it', whatever 'it' might be...
wayang wrote:
In my humble opinion, every artist is 'full of it', whatever 'it' might be...
And on this point we agree completely, Never met one who wasn't, and especially I. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - it's what makes us want to turn our dreams into art.
.........ah, you get the idea! 
