Frank Zappa: From Straight To Bizarre DVD

"Just what the world needs: Another record company." No, this is not the motto of Ripple Music, but the slogan that Frank Zappa used in 1968 to launch his record company Bizarre Records. Distributed through Warner Bros. because of a deal with Frank Sinatra's label Reprise, Bizarre and it's counterpart label Straight released some of the weirdest shit you've ever heard - Uncle Meat, Trout Mask Replica and Pretties For You are the three best known releases but there was a lotta other crazy stuff that's really hard to find.

If you like those records then you'll enjoy this DVD. If you don't, it will bore you to tears. It's about 2 hours long and pretty scholarly. Not surprising since it's narrated by and features interviews with British music journalists. American author/musician Billy James is also featured and has some interesting insights. He's worked on books with members of both Alice Cooper and Captain Beefheart. Although the commentary can be a bit dry at times, what makes it interesting is the first hand accounts from the artists themselves. I'm always interested in hearing Neal Smith and Dennis Dunaway talk about their time with the original Alice Cooper group. They both talk about how thrilled they were to get accepted into Zappa's orbit and confirm that due to a misunderstanding they went to Frank's house to audition for him at 9 o'clock in the morning, not 9 at night. They're also honest in their appraisal that they were unhappy with the way their debut album turned out but admire it's uniqueness.

The same goes for John "Dumbo" French and Bill "Zoot Horn Rollo" Harkleroad of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. Their work on Trout Mask Replica remains truly one of a kind. Like it or not, there's no other album like it and it never would have happened if Zappa didn't give Beefheart complete creative freedom. They also confirm the legends surrounding it - most of it was done in a single 6 hour session; Beefheart insisted on putting cardboard over the cymbals, etc. Zappa even bailed them out of jail when the hungry musicians got busted for stealing food from a grocery store. Those guys were pretty freaky looking back then, it's no surprise they got caught.

Jeff Simmons was signed to Zappa's label when he was a member of the band Easy Chair but they broke up before recording anything. Simmons wound up doing the soundtrack to a biker movie called Naked Angels and eventually put out the solo album Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up. These are some of the most obscure albums on the label but the two songs were later recorded by Zappa. "Wonderful Wino" turned up on 1976's Zoot Allures and "Lucille…" closed the first chapter of 1979's Joe's Garage trilogy.

Then there's the notorious Permanent Damage album by the G.T.O.'s. This might be even more difficult to listen to than Trout Mask Replica. The vocalists were all well known Hollywood groupies at the time that Zappa encouraged to write about their activities. Pamela Des Barres is the best known member but the other ladies were all linked to heavyweight musicians and actors. The years have not been kind to this record. Not even guest spots from Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Lowell George and assorted Mothers can make their out of tune wailing something you want to hear more than once or twice. The dialogue in between songs is still pretty funny.

Other artists that released albums through Bizarre and Straight were comedians Lenny Bruce and Lord Buckley. Zappa's manager Herb Cohen brought folk artists like Tim Buckley that are covered briefly. The Zappa family trust are very unwilling to work with outsiders so most of Zappa's own releases are not dealt with in detail. Too bad since Uncle Meat, Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Burnt Weeny Sandwich contain some of his greatest work. I'd love to hear stories about how he wrote the music and worked with the incredible Mothers of the late 60's. The label eventually ceased due to legal trouble with Herb Cohen and the amount of work that's required of dealing with running a record company but the Bizarre songs remain insane.


--Woody

Buy here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-frank-zappa-from-straight-to-bizarre/23171108?ean=823564527291&itm=1&usri=823564527291

My First Album - Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury

 

Who the hell gives a 7 year old a Frank Zappa record for Christmas?

My oldest brother Joe did. On Christmas morning in 1974 a copy of Zappa's latest album Apostrophe (') was under the tree for me. Joe and I used to love to listen to Dr. Demento on the radio and he heard "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" once and figured I would love all the poo poo jokes. I did. But I also loved the music. So about a year or so later when I found out that Frank Zappa was coming out with a new album I took the few dollars I hadn't spent on candy and went to the record store in the New Rochelle mall (can't remember the name of the place, but it wasn't a chain store). Ever since I was old enough to crawl I loved looking at album covers and my mother would drop me off at the record store so she could shop in peace for an hour or so. This time it was different. I wasn't going to just look, I was going to walk out of the store with something. (A few years later I got in A LOT of trouble for walking out of a store with a bunch of records I didn't pay for, but that's another story). It turned out to be Bongo Fury, a pretty insane album by most people's standards but one that made perfect sense to my 8 year old brain. The hippie at the record store counter (reeking of weeed, no doubt) seemed amused by my choice and was very patient as I pulled out my crumpled singles and loose change to pay for it.

My mother was already very annoyed that I loved to play Apostrophe (') all the time so she wasn't too thrilled to see another album by that Zappa creep entering the house. She also REALLY hated the fact that the band was called The Mothers. She thought the name was dirty as well as disrespectful to the institution of motherhood. And who was this jerk Captain Beefheart that was getting equal billing? She was convinced there was something horrible about the front cover photo of Zappa and Beefheart sitting at a table with an ice cream cone and a soda. In her mind, they had to have been high on drugs. I really didn't know what to make of the cover. It was just 2 guys sitting there. Zappa's looking into the camera and seems pissed off and you can't really see Beefheart under his hat. I was just excited that on the back cover it said that some of it was recorded live at a concert in Austin, Texas at a place called the Armadillo World Headquarters. I'd never been to Texas and thought it was cool that they played at some place that sounded like it was a zoo.

When I finally got a chance to listen to the album I realized right away I probably shouldn't play it too loud. I didn't understand the lyrics to "Debra Kadabra" or "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" at all but got a pretty good understanding that my mom would not find any of it amusing at all. The word "bitch" shows up about 30 seconds into the first song. I couldn't believe that someone could say that and not get in trouble. I loved it! The music really flipped my lid. "Debra Kadabra" opens up with a killer guitar riff from Zappa and big drum hits from Terry Bozzio but the whole thing gets weird pretty quick. Especially when Beefheart starts singing. It sounded to me like he was hurting himself as he barked out the lyrics. Being 8 years old with an extremely short attention span I loved how quickly the music changed and kept changing. Who wants to hear someone moan "like a rhinestone cowboy" over and over. I got the point! You're a rhinestone cowboy. Now what? Zappa, Beefheart and the Mothers were my new heroes. It wasn't until "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" that I was able to comprehend any of the lyrics when Zappa sang the line "she put a Doobie Brothers tape on, I had a Roger Daltrey cape on." To this day, those words make me crack up. It took many years until I had any idea what this song was about. Even now, I'm not so sure.

I used to really enjoy listening to Beefheart's two featured songs "Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top" and "Man With The Woman Head." They were so weird! Kiss would never let some guy with a deep voice scream "I wish I had a pair of bongos" on their live album. But my favorite song on the album has always been "Advance Romance." Clocking in at 11 minutes I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The lyrics seemed to be full of inside jokes and the guys in the band seemed to be trying to make each other laugh. They sounded like they were having so much fun! But I also really loved the music. It was probably the first time I had ever heard slide guitar and it really excited me. Denny Walley's solo is really raunchy and helped point me in the direction of the blues music that I was soon to fall in love with. Zappa's guitar solo that follows is insanely inventive. To my friends it just sounded like a bunch of noise but it made perfect sense to me.

The rest of the album was a little easier to share with the other kids. Songs like "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead," "Cucamonga," "200 Years Old" and, of course, "Muffin Man" were much easier for them to get a handle on. I'll never forget bringing the album to school once for show and tell. The teacher thought "Muffin Man" was the kids song but yanked it off the turntable almost immediately. As much as I wanted to share it with the rest of the class, her reaction was much better than I ever could have hoped for.

This album really helped point me in all the directions that I continue to refine to this very day - wild music, dirty lyrics, pissing people off, being weird and so on. Thanks Joe!

--Woody

Frank Zappa - Roxy & Elsewhere

Writing about the first album I ever bought with my own money (Zappa/Beefheart's Bongo Fury) set off a huge Frank Zappa LP listening frenzy that is still on-going. And the one that's been getting daily spins is Roxy & Elsewhere, a (surprise, surprise) double live album from 1974. In Zappa's huge and diverse discography, this is often mentioned as a real highlight and I'm inclined to agree that it is one of his best. The band he had at this time and their repertoire successfully combines rock, jazz and classical extremely well and is a great introduction to someone looking to get acquainted with his music.

Speaking of the band, this is truly one of the best units Zappa ever had. The players are all extremely skilled and can execute tricky written arrangements as well as improvise off of anything and transition between styles effortlessly. Joining Zappa on lead guitar and vocals is rhythm guitarist Jeff Simmons, bassist Tom Fowler, his brother Bruce Fowler on trombone, Napoleon Murphy Brock on saxophone and vocals, the incredible George Duke on keyboards and vocals, percussionist Ruth Underwood and the amazing double drum team of Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey. That is a serious group of players and Zappa wrote some incredible tunes that showcased all of them at the best of their ability.

Each side of the album starts off with a spoken introduction by Zappa engaging a rowdy crowd before launching into the music. Once the music starts all the songs flow together one after the other like a suite. There are definitely some edits here and there but Zappa was well known for having the tightest band around and could splice parts from one show to another and the tempos would be consistent. The majority of the album was recorded over a 3 night stand at the Roxy in Hollywood as well as shows in Illinois and Pennsylvania plus a bit of studio recordings. The Roxy shows were also filmed and some of the footage has shown up, hopefully a complete show will someday be released. Being able to watch this band in action is something I've always wanted to see. I know a guy who saw this band with the Mahavishnu Orchestra as the opening act play Brooklyn College in 1973 or 74 and he said it was absolutely the best show he ever saw.

Side one is possibly the most accessible. "Penguin In Bondage" is a racy tune with a great groove that doesn't go through too many time changes and flows right into the short "Pygmy Twylyte" and the hilarious "Dummy Up." If you can imagine a collaboration between Duke Ellington and Cheech & Chong, that will give you a good indication of what "Dummy Up" sounds like. Sides two and three are mainly instrumental but contain a catchy vocal tune like "Village Of The Sun" before the band really cuts loose. "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" is a dazzling jam that bears some Charles Mingus influence and seamlessly jumps through many styles. It's followed by the percussion highlight "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing." Most drum solos are kinda boring but this one is not. The two drummers trade solos before setting up a stomping groove for Zappa to play a burning solo over. "Cheepnis" is a funny song paying tribute to low budget 1950's monster movies before segueing into radically different versions of the old Mothers Of Invention songs "Son Of Orange County" and "More Trouble Every Day." The songs are slower than the original versions and have a funkier jazz and blues inflections. The drummers do some incredible work on "More Trouble Every Day" and a few years later when Chester Thompson went to go work for Genesis, some of the same drum fills showed up on their live album. Side four is dedicated to a single song called "Be-Bop Tango (Of The Old Jazzmen's Church)" that has some inspired improvisation and audience interaction. Unlike a lot of prog rock or jazz fusion, Zappa always got the audience involved and would often tailor the concert to who was in the crowd on that night.

Back when I was in high school a lot of the guys I hung around with were really into Yes and the Grateful Dead. Some of their parents were more lenient so we could hang out and smoke pot in their rooms without too much hassle. The only drawback was having to listen to Yes and the Grateful Dead for hours on end. It was pretty lame but better than doing nothing or standing around outside in the wintertime drinking Jack Daniels by myself. Eventually when they were really baked they'd let me play an album side and I'd usually pick one from this album. I figured they'd like the music when they were high but it was usually too overwhelming for them and after a few minutes it was back to Tormato or Europe 72 for the millionth time. A couple of those guys wound up with serious drug problems and suffered pretty hard lives. Some of them are no longer with us. Maybe all the crazy time and stylistic changes on this album kept me a little more awake. Either way, I've always loved this album and am very happy have it back in regular rotation.

--Woody

Only Living Boy - Hide Nothing

Who the hell do these guys think they are?  First they hit me with the damnedest Deep Purple sound with “Lonely Puppy Blues.”  Then, they make me wrap my mind around “Sunny Day Man” somewhere between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.  My ears were not ready for the next onslaught, “Hide Nothing,” the album namesake, a hard-edged electric blues power trio guitar hooked blast that approaches “When The Levee Breaks” deliciousness. Who the hell gives them the right to write and play the blues this well?  Damn it, who the hell are these guys and why am I just hearing of them?

Two parts of the “Demon Shuffle,” the first a dark soft acoustic piece, the second a dissonant mess, drink out of the depths of the Tommy Bolan and Blue Cheer shotglass.  Then, WTF happened?  I’m handed a “Bag of Bullets,” and the band seeks quietude in acoustic instuments and soft harmony that, save for the drums, probably would beckon a Ry Cooder to sit in.  You’re punk with “Ronny Rozoni,” a song that Johnny Rotten would love.  Where the H - E- double toothpicks did this band come from?

Things do get a little  nasty as they “Open You Up” and, as they sing  “dip my fingers in it.”  it’s like Dave Matthews singing for an effin’ Jeff Beck during his rocker days..  Look, I’m trying to roll with the punches but this damned band has got me by the throat. “I Hear Music” as they again get the Led out. WTF is going on here?  Who are these guys?

I got no answer, rather, just a weird dragging “Family Of Ghosts” as it rattles the chains and pulls at the bottom so deep that the bass player must be underground.  Wow, I think I may have lost my  “Marbles,” (but they sing to me that “they’re back in my pocket”)  which is a bi-polar song with bizarre theatrical changes that would have made Frank Zappa very proud.  I gotta know, what the hell is going on?  Have I fallen into early heavy blues heaven or is it merely a self-induced delusion?  No, really, is this a new band or did someone find a bunch of hidden obscure heavy rock from the Masters and just now release them under a fake pseudonym?

As I’m pondering that very thought “Priority One” is released upon me.  Did Blind Faith reunite and someone not tell me? Then the final push is “My Heart Is Burning.”  Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Honeyboy Edwards, they’re all there.  I swear.  Even sounds like Jimi Hendrix also dropped by.  I’m pretty sure I also heard John Entwistle and Keith Moon.  But, hey that’s just me.

So who is this band that blew me away so?  Is it the ghost of heavy rockers come back to life?  No, it’s Only Living Boy comprised of lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Joe Cirotti, bassist Eric Curley and drummer Trevor Newcomb.  They grabbed Scott Liss to sing and Anthony Chick to play percussion on “Bag Of Bullets.”  Paul Ritchie plays bass, Sam Bey plays percussion and guests Ron Franco and Mike Varina are featured on “Ronny Ronzoni.”

I still don’t believe it.  Try it for yourself.  Start at track 1 of Hide Nothing.  By the thirteenth track you’ll be  ready to play it straight through again.  It is ear candy tinged with the blues soul of heavy rock ‘n roll.  Now, who does that anymore?

- Old School