Here’s a Saturday Morning of Zappadan piece:
1968
I’m discovering as I face brain surgery and it’s unknown consequences that I find myself asking questions about what I have and have not accomplished over the last 66 or so years. It’s not a pleasant experience, btw, only one that makes me realize how many things I REALLY wanted to do which will probably never be realized. I guess, however, that this is common to just about everyone.
(Sorry… this is much longer than I expected and it will not hurt my feelings if you sign out right now, – Bill)
Starting with the basics:
And just what did I do that I remember proudly?:
Museum of American Art, thanks to a contact I made with one of the most influential people in my life and someone who I am so proud to call a friend today, Berta Walker. Berta was working as the Administrative Assistant to Steve Weil at the Whitney and was looking for children’s programming. Ed and I suggested doing “Snark” which we had just started working on and now we had a reason for pushing through. We opened to great reception at the Whitney and, a little bit later on, Berta and I produced it for a few weekends at a little theater on the East Side of Manhattan. Following that, it was taken to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, a major museum which had been started by Berta’s grandfather, where it was also successful.
More recent years… “Things fall apart, the center does not hold” – TS Eliot.
Hagerstown, then Shepherdstown (our favorite) and now Harper’s Ferry. While I was living in Greenbelt, I got involved with two community theatres, the Laurel Mill Playhouse and the Greenbelt Arts Center. Amazingly enough, with the entrance to all of this I made by meeting Linda Bartash, I directed several plays and musicals. The highlight of these was a revival of “Ride The Winds” which I got John Driver to rewrite the second act for. It was well-reviewed in the Washington Post and local papers and I breathed a sight of final relief. I also, amid all the shows I did, had a really good production of that unusual musical “Urinetown” at Greenbelt, also a success.
became the House Electrician and ran lights on a bunch of shows, And then, can you believe it, I go to to do a revival of “The Hunting of the Snark” and Eddy, who was then living in Pennsylvania, came down from time to time to help my friend and music director, Ruth Raubertas, get our favorite opera for kids off the ground. Everyone seemed to like it, but this was my last chance to direct anything and I sank into an ongoing depression hoping I would get to do it again some day. I don’t think, now, that it will happen. I have to say, though, that I made a great friend of John Case who played the Butcher in that last production. John had a weekday morning radio show on WSCH 89.7FM on Shepherd
University’s radio station and originally he invited me on for an interview and eventually I was on every Friday, which John started promoting as “The Bill and John Show.” I guess I did OK, since a few months later the station manager, Todd Cottgreave, gave me a show of my own on Saturday mornings which I called “Talk To Me” and which I made into a call-in production. I think the radio shows really saved my intelligence and ability to carry on while under depression.
So those are things I’ve been thinking about. What I haven’t discussed here is this blog, which is the major occupation of an old, retired guy’s day. I hope I can keep it going for years (as you can see, I love to talk)… if it has to cease, however, someone will put up a final post.
Time to feed the dogs.
When the list of National Book Award nominees was revealed, I was pleased to see my old friend Cynthia Huntington nominated for her poetry book, Heavenly Bodies. Cynthia was a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown for two years while I was Director there in the 70s. I have kept an eye on her work for some time.
Published by the Southern Illinois University Press, Heavenly Bodies has been described as a blistering collection of lyric poems, which give an intimate view of the sexual revolution and rebellion in a time before the rise of feminism. Heavenly Bodies is a testament to the duality of sex, the twin seductiveness and horror of drug addiction, and the social, political, and personal dramas of America in the 1960s.
Echoing throughout are some of the most famous—and infamous—voices of the times: Joan Baez and Charles Manson, Frank Zappa and Betty Friedan. Jinns and aliens beckon while cities burn and revolutionaries thunder for change.
Cynthia Huntington is the author of four books of poetry, including The Radiant (winner of the Levis Prize), The Fish-Wife, and We Have Gone to the Beach, as well as a prose memoir, The Salt House. A former New Hampshire State Poet Laureate, she is professor of English at Dartmouth College, where she serves as senior faculty in creative writing. She served as chair of the poetry jury for the Pulitzer Prizes for 2006.
I congratulate Cynthia sincerely for her current achievement and look forward to reading Heavenly Bodies (and perhaps pass it on to John Case for his Monday morning poetry program.)
This is for all folks getting involved in politics and for women in particular. Gail Zappa calls up the spirit of her late husband, Frank Zappa:
Many of us have missed Frank for years and celebrate Zappadan every year. It’s nice to hear from Gail in this season of political madness.
“Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.”
John Huntsman, toiling at the bottom of the list in Iowa, is putting his effort into New Hampshire… and to do that he has released a video called “Unelectable” attacking Ron Paul (gee, you think he’d go after Romney instead of wasting his time on the Loser In Chief.)
Here it is:
🙂 🙂 🙂
Mothers Of Invention’s Jim Sherwood Dies Aged 69
by Paul Cashmere on December 27, 2011
Jim ‘Motorhead’ Sherwood from Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention died on Christmas Day at the age of 69.
Sherwood was the sax player and vocals and vocal sounds effects for the Mothers and played on the Zappa albums ‘200 Motels’, ‘Burnt Weeny Sandwich’, ‘Weasals Ripped My Flesh’ and ‘We’re Only In It For The Money’.
He also appeared in Zappa’s films ‘200 Motels’, ‘Video From Hell’ and ‘Uncle Meat’.
After the demise of The Mothers Sherwood occasionally got together with other ex-Mothers and performed as The Grandmothers.
Sherwood and Frank Zappa were childhood friends. They met in 1956. Jim was in the same class at school with Frank’s brother Bobby Zappa. Jim and Frank first played together in 1964 in Zappa’s very first band The Blackouts.
He joined the Mothers of Invention initially as a roadie and contributed sound effects to the first album ‘Freak Out’ in 1966. In 1967 he became a full-time member of the band.
Jim’s nickname was Motorhead, named because he was always repairing old cars, trucks and motorbikes.
Note: Motorhead also played tambourine on several pieces.
“King Kong-Legend of Golden Arches-Sleeping in jar” at The Beat Culb(Breamen,Germany,6 October 1968) Don Preston–keyboards Ian Underwood–keyboards and woodwinds Bunk Gardner–woodwinds Motorhead Sherwood–baritone sax Roy Estrada–bass and vocals Jimmy Carl Black–drums and vocals Art Tripp–drums and percussion Frank Zappa
Former Czech President Vaclav Havel died on Sunday in his country house in Bohemia… age 75. The artist/playwright who came into power on what was called the “Velvet Revolution” and created a democracy out of a Communist satellite was summed up by the NY Times:
A shy yet resilient, unfailingly polite but dogged man who articulated the power of
the powerless, Mr. Havel spent five years in and out of Communist prisons, lived for two decades under close secret-police surveillance and endured the suppression of his plays and essays. He served 14 years as president, wrote 19 plays, inspired a film and a rap song and remained one of his generation’s most seductively nonconformist writers.
All the while, Mr. Havel came to personify the soul of the Czech nation.
Many people, however, are either unaware or forgetful of the brief relationship between Havel and Frank Zappa. This from the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Havel was a life-long supporter of The Plastic People of the Universe, the Czech underground, nonconformist rock band that fought against the Czechoslovak totalitarian regime.
Under the communist regime, the vast majority of western music was banned, yet the country’s dissidents and its underground movement widely circulated prohibited music that focused on free expression and human rights, such as The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention, led by Lou Reed and Frank Zappa, respectively.
These two bands achieved huge fame in erstwhile Czechoslovakia despite being forbidden by the authorities, and they were favorites of Mr. Havel. The former president said these musicians were among his dear, personal friends.
In January 1990, Mr. Havel appointed Mr. Zappa as Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism, and cited Mr. Zappa as one of his many sources of inspiration. The two men were close friends before Mr. Zappa’s death in 1993, and the American musician was active in Czechoslovakia’s transformation back to a free-market economy.
Here are 4 Videos of the Zappa’s visit to the Czech Republic in 1990:
…and for today, here’s our music break … Frank Zappa is our Papa, recorded by Michael Kocab and musicians in Prague.
(Michael Kocab, composer of rock and classical music, singer, politician responsible for the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Czech Republic in 1991. Member of the Czech Parliament, adviser of President Vaclav Havel, Leader of group Prague Selection and Prague Selection II (Prazsky Vyber)was also a close friend of Frank Zappa.)
Frank Zappa performing in live MTV Halloween Concert in 1981…Montana:
Have a nice Sunday Evening… know I will.
Then we’ll have three more days of Zappadan.
From YouTube:
Frank talks about his upcoming release, his opinion on the synclavier and how he uses it to compose music . He talks with Charles Amirkhanian about his music and there is a small read done by Calvin the editor of the Pink Section of the San Francisco Chronicle about a small puppet show play written by Frank called “Fransesco” from 39.03 mins.
Enjoy that? Here’s today’s Music Piece:
From the album Francesco Zappa here’s Frank on the Synclavier doing Opus 1, No.4, 2Nd Movement Allegro:
This doesn’t come up in any of the Zappa commentaries I’ve read, but I was playing some Spike Jones collector pieces on YouTube last night and it dawned on me that they have much in common. Although Spike and the City Slickers were a big band comedy sound… and although Spike died just as Zappa was coming up, his presence on 50s television and in Movietone shorts would certainly have been experienced by Frank at some point.
Dancin’ Fool is one of the Zappa pieces that strike me as related to some of Spike Jones:
Someone commented on this one (12th Street Rag) by saying that Spike Jones was like a cross between Zappa and the Globetrotters. I like that comparison:
In 1966 before Zappa and The Mothers ( before they became the Mothers of Invention after signing their contract with Verve Records) came out with the Freak Out album, they recorded a song based on the Watts Riots called Trouble Coming Every Day (later renamed to Trouble Every Day.)
He later added it to the Freak Out album.
Here it is:
Lyrics:
Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guessSo I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin‘ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayWednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff
And chokin’ in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin’ ’round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin’ down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burnAnd I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayWell, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘N all that phony stuff on sports
‘N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-soAnd further they assert
That any show they’ll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat
And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They’ll send some joker with a brownie
And you’ll see it all completeSo I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayHey, you know something people?
I’m not black
But there’s a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I’m not whiteWell, I seen the fires burnin’
And the local people turnin’
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
And they say it served ’em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it’s the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
‘N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don’t appeal to him
(No matter if it’s black or white)
Because he’s out for blood tonightYou know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many live
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor
…as mentioned in his comment. Thd Freak Out version of How Could I Be Such A Fool:
…and here is the Ruben and the Jets version:
Here’s a Saturday Morning of Zappadan piece:
1968
On the 23rd of April 1975, Frank Zappa Lectured at the Gifford Auditorium, Syracuse University, along with George Duke and Captain Beefhart, about the Music Business and Music in general.
Fortunately it was recorded:
And here’s a song for the morning…
Can’t Afford No Shoes also from 1975 (from the last album made as the Mothers of Invention: One Size Fits All):
My involvement with Zappa and his music goes back a ways…
In 1968 I was in my Graduate year working on my MA in the Northwestern University Theatre Department (which I got in ’69) and I was looking for something to direct for the Spring shows. I had been working with Dr. Gus Rath in the Engineering Department and Jack Burnham in the Art Department on developing a Theatre equivalency to “Art and Systems”, something Jack had been writing books and articles about and running classes in…Gus was a systems engineer and together they were combining creative expression with systems engineering discipline.
–
That was the year I organized the first of several Systems Theatre companies which I would work with in Evanston, Chicago and New York City.
–
Needing to find something for the group to perform, I decided to to adapt Frank Zappa’s LUMPY GRAVY (which I had just been turned on to) for the stage. Now, 43 years later, I realize what a lack of knowledge I had… I tried getting hold of Zappa for permission to proceed and received no reply on several attempts… so I just went ahead and did it (something I must warn you theatre youngsters out there that you should NEVER do).
–
It was a successful production which was later repeated at Chicago’s Kinetic Playground (a major Rock N Roll hall – equivalent to New York’s Electric Circus) between live sets by Albert King and BB King, two of the world’s greatest bluesmen.
–
So that was my first Zappa involvement… and it just stuck.
–
Here’s the opening of Lumpy Gravy… a piece called Duodenum:
This was rereleased by Frank in 1984 with lyrics:
In our coverage of Zappadan, we begin on the anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death, Dec. 4th, and we’ll proceed to the date of his birth, Dec. 21. We’ll be working sort of backwards, so we’re going to begin with Frank’s son, Dweezil, and his band playing one of his father’s numbers: Black Napkins.
Also… here’s Dweezil’s upcoming schedule for those of you wanting to hear him live.
Hello Friends, We’ve been busy making touring plans for 2012. In the past the early part of the year has been downtime for us but not next year! We are happy to announce a special run of dates in February that take us up and down the west coast of California as well as a brief visit to Arizona. We’re excited to be playing some new cities on this tour and look forward to making the shows memorable for all of you.
Fri 10-Feb-12 San Luis Obispo, CA SLO Brew
Sat 11-Feb-12 San Diego, CA House Of Blues
Sun 12-Feb-12 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre
Tue 14-Feb-12 Anaheim, CA House Of Blues
Wed 15-Feb-12 Santa Cruz, CA Rio Theatre
Thu 16-Feb-12 Napa, CA Uptown Theatre
Fri 17-Feb-12 Chico, CA El Rey Theater
Sat 18-Feb-12 Sacramento, CA Crest TheatreIn our continuing effort to present the variety and depth within Frank’s musical compositions we are planning to premier more new material on this tour. More 60’s, 70’s and 80’s FZ! Of course we still have a good amount of the well known classics we’re ready to whip out as well! Please keep an eye open and an ear tuned for other special announcements about additional dates, new projects and music that is coming soon as well! If we are able to do everything on our list, 2012 is going to be a very busy year for us and a good year to provide the “World’s Finest Optional Entertainment”!
See you on the road very soon!
DZ
BTW: interesting fact about Dweezil c/o Wikipedia:
Dweezil’s registered birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa.[4] The hospital at which he was born refused to register him under the name Dweezil, so Frank listed the names of several musician friends. “Dweezil” was a nickname coined by Frank for an oddly-curled pinky-toe of Gail’s. At five years old, Dweezil learned that his legal name was different, and he insisted on having his nickname become his legal name. Gail and Frank hired an attorney and soon the name Dweezil was official.
…since I haven’t heard from John Case. Guess he’s still in Canada. Oh well, this will round out my week.
I’m going over blues music and such here tonite… and making a list of political stuff to talk about in case anyone calls in to the show (Mark or Dino or Ralph).
By the way… you can listen to the show on line. Just go to http://www.897wshc.org and click on “Listen to WSHC Live”. To call in to the show dial 304-876-5369 anytime between 7:30 and 9:00 AM when I’m on the air.
There’s also the chance that John will walk in during the show and I can turn over the reins and the door key to the real host of
the show (and get some sleep on weekday mornings!)
…playing City Of Tiny Lights from the Zappa Plays Zappa tour:
I hope you have all liked our Zappadan coverage this year and we will be back with more next December 4th.
– Bill
Here’s a 1980 version (10 years after the original) recorded at Salt Lake City:
And don’t forget… tomorrow is the last day of Zappadan and it would have been Frank’s 70th birthday.
Frank’s musicians comment on Zappa’s Conducting:
– and –
From October 1969, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd do INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE:
First:
The famous Mike Nesmith and Frank Zappa switcheroo from the Monkees:
then…
Inca Roads from the One Size Fits All album:
and finally… Here is the Zappa piece I use whenever I host the Winners and Losers show for John Case on WSHC, Elvis has Just Left The Building from the Broadway The Hard Way album:
(That’s my favorite.)
Don Van Vliet was an American musician and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12 studio albums. Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments. His music blended rock, blues and psychedelia with free jazz, avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition.
During his teen years in Lancaster, California, Van Vliet acquired an eclectic musical taste and formed “a mutually useful but volatile” friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated. He died after many years suffering from multiple sclerosis. He was 69.
Zappa and Beefheart: Orange Claw Hammer, Live 1975.
It’s 1968 and Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention are giving us an impression of a classic 50s Rock Band:
John’s been looking for Zappa’s TROUBLE EVERY DAY. Here’s the version from the FREAKOUT album:
…and for everyone else, here’s a rare one: Frank’s commercial for Portland General Electric… (ignore the French):
Zappadan only has 6 days to go… enjoy it while you got it.