Digging this Zappa Performance

[ajish4]

Wow,

Let me say, I'm REALLY diggin this thread. HONESTLY.

We all have varied beliefs, thoughts and opinions. I for one could never understand why people can't have a difference of opinions, yet not be able to get along. I ENJOY hearing this kind of discussion but I realize it could be a tinder box to launch it into something else.

Let me raise the DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON sign to try to keep this thread from going way off into THE TOPICS THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED.

While I'm the first person who would love to talk about faith and God, let me just remind everyone....that RELIGION is a topic that ALWAYS generates a strong emotional response. I realize Dane is only using it as an example, I'm letting all stand as is for now, but PLEASE everyone, this thread is TOO GOOD to have me edit or delete anything. Lets just not take it to a place that makes me put on my moderator hat, and try to keep this one on the history books.

I enjoy hearing other peoples thoughts & beliefs so long as they don't attack me for mine.
OPEN discussion about Frank Zappa has apparently been a HOT TOPIC for years, judging from that Youtube video Dane posted from the news talkshow, and apparently is nothing new. Lets keep it clean and above the belt folks!

I now return you to your regulary scheduled thread!

[kiramdear]

I just don't see why someone would work so hard to fail at their expressed intentions - to create tirelessly so much art and so many manifestations in time that so many people would never forget, truly, if it was at the root of one's thinking to remain undistinguished or anonymous. He didn't have to make so many great records, which by definition are frozen memories, or play so many unforgettable concerts (who could forget a Zappa show?). Maybe he wanted to be remembered as someone who didn't need public approval or acclaim for his art (and that I would buy), or maybe he wanted his art or his message and not his personality to be remembered, but to make such a broad claim as not wishing to be remembered, period, when that is clearly not going to happen after dozens of albums and thousands of shows, just isn't rational. It's not like he ever swore off working and repented his public life, changed his mind about being an artist, etc. Maybe I just need to hear the full quote in context, or I'm missing some piece of information here ... I'm not convinced we're really arguing here.

[wayang]

Well, m'dear, I guess we need to explore the distinctions between two scenarios. One, where Frank might have been asked "Do you want to be remembered?" and may have answered "No, I don't", and the other, as did happen in the interview in question, where Frank was asked "How do you want to be remembered?", and he replied "I don't care". I think it's akin to the way he seems to have lived his life and would have responded to anyone saying to him "I don't like you" or "I don't care for your music". Frank didn't care. He wrote, recorded and performed music that he wanted to hear and wasn't hearing anywhere else. This is what artistic pioneers do. They're gratified if some people enjoy it, and not too concerned if a lot of other people don't. I think Frank, in addition to being an artist, was an entertainer who accepted the challenge to show paying customers a good time...but not at what he would have considered the expense of the art itself. But I also think, and here's where we get into existentialism, that he enjoyed the immediacy of life...what Baba Ram Dass referred to as "being here now"...and wasn't so concerned with a supposition of "being here later"...

Which leads me to address Tony's kind remonstration concerning discussions of 'religion'. They ought to be avoided in this Forum, because they can lead to a sharp outlining of our differences, and quite possibly to confrontations, which we all get more than enough of just trying to get around town in heavy traffic. I'm thankful to Tony for recognizing that I was referring as obliquely as possible to differences of faith as an example of how impossible it is sometimes to 'get where someone else is coming from', but I do recognize that even as small a foray as that can be like skating on thin ice while carrying an anvil...

Don't put on your moderator hat if it can be avoided, Tony! I like you better in the beanie with the propellor on it...it matches mine really well. I could never see 'gettin' into it' with you, brother. It would be like a fight breaking out between John Lennon and Dom Deluise...

[cjj]

I can certainly understand being appreciated for what you've done, and enjoying performing it for people. I can also understand not giving a flip about what people think of you or your art once you're gone...

[ajish4]

Don't put on your moderator hat if it can be avoided, Tony! I like you better in the beanie with the propellor on it...it matches mine really well. I could never see 'gettin' into it' with you, brother. It would be like a fight breaking out between John Lennon and Dom Deluise...

[winston]

Dane you know me all too well. Yes of course I am reading this thread. I happened to like the work of Frank Zappa and the discussion has been very interesting thus far.

[FretlessOnly]

I guess I unintentionally started a hot topic. I just thought the groove and guitar solo was hot.

Anyway, as to the "not caring how he was remembered" concept. Frank was very real. Out there and well-grounded at the same time. My take is: You can't be remembered until you're no longer here, so why care, if you're no longer capable?

I realize there's a distinction between caring now and caring then, but I think Frank was taking an abstract approach. How unusual.

Anyway, keep the discussion going, but Tony's correct, you know. My wife and I are polar opposites politically, and we have a great marriage. Of course, sometimes we get deep into it and think each other supreme fools, but at the end of it, we agree to disagree and have that much more respect for each other. But there's no need for that here, because frankly, I won't be going to bed with any of you tonight.

And thanks for the other viddies. Liking some very much.

[kiramdear]

Nah, no hot topic here, just yours truly making sweeping generalizations before I had the whole story, sorry about that. I always felt that FZ was the kind of "celebrity" I could enjoy meeting in person, which is a rare thing for me to say, indeed. And I do love his art; it is however an experience that demands my full attention in its apprehension, which these days is a diminishing commodity and getting harder to muster at will. I will always remember him as an artist of the highest caliber whether he cares or not, and his integrity and courage are an example for me to live up to in my art and my life.

[cjj]

I think maybe that's really the whole point. Make the most of what you have while you can. Once you're gone, it really doesn't matter any more, not to you at least...

[goofyfoot]

Observation: There are NO mistakes in art.

Peace, out..........Goofyfoot.

[bottom4]

Big fan of Frank’s I was fortunate enough to see him a few time in NYC – once or twice on Halloween eve. One of the benefits of living near the City you get the opportunity to see all different acts.

I my mind an underrated guitar player



I’ll knock all the jockeys off the rich people’s lawns and before they get up I’ll be gone

[wayang]

Observation: There are NO mistakes in art.

Peace, out..........Goofyfoot.

That's exactly right, Goofyfoot...

...however, there have been one or two times when I went out to see or hear some art and felt like maybe I had made a mistake...

pigs off campus!.........wayang.

[atomic_punk]

Keep in mind when interviewed Frank was asked about that and he wanted to make a point about how politicians "want to be remembered" and carefully craft their legacy to suit them. He wanted no part of that, in my mind.
I think he was also sickly at the time of the interview and there was nothing they could do for him by that point, so he might have felt resigned to what was inevitably going to happen to him.

His career was an uphill struggle all the way, in order for him to do what he wanted to do and express himself the way he did, it was not easy, and very costly for him to make that music and produce it and make it available for consumption. He toured to make money so he could make another record. He did all of this himself. But he could do it his way and he didn't have to deal with record companies (after the Warner Bros. fiasco). And that was probably worth all the trouble, to express his art in the way he wanted to express it.

[goofyfoot]

Observation: There are NO mistakes in art.

Peace, out..........Goofyfoot.

That's exactly right, Goofyfoot...

...however, there have been one or two times when I went out to see or hear some art and felt like maybe I had made a mistake...

pigs off campus!.........wayang.

I hear you, bruddah. That thought creeps into your cranium beckoning you to ask for a.......



Peace, out.......Goofyfoot.

[just_bassics]

One of my Zappa memories was a radio interview, late 70's where he said he was angry at his record company and no one should buy his newest record. Instead. he recommended that we all tape it off of the radio! True Artist! Maybe someone here has more details about that period and could shed some light. Dane?