KiwiCoromandel
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Posts posted by KiwiCoromandel
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first class.....
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smoke on the water
catscratch fever
this flight tonight
tubular bells
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an excellent guitarist and vocalist...i love gov`t mule...
his version of " wandering child " with ben harper and gov`t mule is very cool.....
A Conversation With Warren Haynes
Warren: Yeah, I think most of my favorite players are also singers. I think to play your best, you really have to be singing through your instrument. More and more I don't focus on playing over the top as much as just playing soulfully. There's something about being able to sing what you're playing that makes your playing connect with people more. Not that it's only about connecting with other people. You have to connect with yourself first. But those are the kind of players that I like, the ones who are very lyrical sounding and very vocal. So I do feel that that's the case. My playing influences my singing and my singing influences my playing. A lot of people are probably that way. Obviously B.B. King is that way, and Bonnie Raitt. There are so many great musicians that are great singers as well. Sometimes you might think of Ray Charles as a singer and forget what a great piano player he is, and it's the same with B.B. There are very few people who can do both as well as B.B. King, or Ray Charles or Bonnie Raitt... I think it's going to help any guitar player to sing as much as possible. There's no question about that.
I've become friends with Leslie West and Corky Laing from Mountain. We've actually played together recently. I've read in the liner notes of their box set that Felix Pappalardi, (who produced Mountain and was their bass player), [said] that early on, when he first started producing Leslie, that Leslie was an amazing player… but that Leslie played over the top sometimes. Felix told him to play only what he could sing. "Don't play anything that you can't sing." And if you think of that amazing, fluid guitar style that Leslie has, it's very vocal, and it does sound like he is singing. That's something to remember. I mean, it's great to be able to play scales and modes, and have chops and technique. But most people who know will tell you that technique is just a tool. It's not who you are. You should never rely on your technique. It should be there when you need it, but it should always come from your heart first.
Tom Dowd, who produced the Allman Brothers along with so many other amazing records, always said that there's a big difference between practicing and performing. He would often tell people that they were still practicing and not performing. There is a big difference. Yet, at the same time, performing is the best rehearsal. Especially when you're in a band. If you're in a band that is somewhat improvisational, performances are worth ten rehearsals because you're under the pressure of being in front of an audience. It's a good type of pressure, but if you make a mistake you don't make that mistake the next time around. And when it works you're hyper- sensitive to why and when it's working, or why it's not.
CH: The Mule is willing to take a chance. You guys are not afraid to fall on your asses.
Warren: Yeah. That's part of it. If you want to play it safe you can only go so far. If you're willing to take the chance of falling on your ass then you can go further. With every show you do, you will learn and grow as a band. The Mule has done over 700 shows now, and each time we look back at previous tours and we can see what we're learning. We listen to the tapes, and the stuff expands and grows. I'm not saying it's always better, but different is good when you're a musician.
CH: I'm a gear head so I have to ask you about the Gibson Firebirds that you're playing these days as well as the Thunderbirds that Allen Woody is playing. I've also noticed that when you sit in you seem to go back to your Les Pauls. Is there a special reason for that or is it just working for you?
Warren: It's just working. [Laughter] The Firebird and the Thunderbird just sound really good together. It's just a different voice. I've been playing my Les Pauls for so long now. They're such a big part of my sound. But the Firebird is a nice change. It still has that Gibson meat, but it has more of a bite to it. I've been using the Firebirds when I work with Phil Lesh as well.
CH: What is that experience like? Are there some more dates in the works?
Warren: Well, we're just starting to do more and more. I'm going to do the month of October and I'm really excited to work with him. He's so open-minded and has so much knowledge of music, and music history and such a unique slant on playing the bass. There's nobody who can play like Phil. When you listen to him it's one thing, but when you play with him you start to understand him a little more. I've always admired his take on the bass as an instrument, but when you play with him… I've gained a new respect and appreciation for what he's doing. He's one of the most open-minded people that I've ever worked with, or ever met…. especially about music and what it is and what it should be. He doesn't put any pressure on what it is or what it should be. It's supposed to happen on a moment by moment basis… all of it is beautiful. Even the parts that are somewhat train-wreckish, it's still beautiful. You're not going to get to the amazing stuff without, again, falling on your ass sometimes. Thank God that the Grateful Dead audience, as well as the Gov't Mule audience - though they're somewhat different [and] yet somewhat the same - are very, not just tolerant, but very demanding of that. That's what they want. They want us to go as far out on a limb as possible.
CH: They have a demanding tolerance?
Warren: They want you to stretch out as far as you can stretch out. With Gov't Mule, that makes up part of our fan base, but some of them are there to hear the songs. We have jazz fans, blues fans, and psychedelic fans… We have some Mule fans who want to hear a thirty minute Afro Blue and we have some fans who want to hear Painted Silver Light. The Grateful Dead were a good example of that, as well as the Allman Brothers, of that fine line, or the right mixture of songs and improvisation. To be a great rock band, even in the improvisational forum, you have to have both of those things. You can't just rely on your performances, and you can't rely on your material. It's got to be both.
CH: You have one of the tightest bands in the world. I know that you played with Matt Abts (drums) in the Dickey Betts Band and Allen Woody (bass) in the Allmans. Needless to say, you are also one of the best slide players out there. How do you manage to play slide in a trio? How does that style differ from being a slide player in a larger band like the Allman Brothers?
Warren: Those guys are amazing… Playing slide in a trio is harder, especially in standard tuning. Especially when you try to break away from just straight blues/ rock type stuff. Our music is a combination of all of those different elements. It's easier to play slide in a larger band, especially the kind of slide that I play, which is based on a lot of a lot of single note application in standard tuning. So it's not open chord stuff. Although I am finding more and more ways of incorporating slide into our music, especially when we have people sitting in or I'm sitting in… I'm also writing more songs based around the slide, which is cool. The trio concept is hard. You have to utilize the space as much as you can. Space becomes your fourth member. Woody and Matt are so good at filling up the space but not going past it. They have to be more aggressive in a trio than they would be in a quartet or a quintet or anything.
One of the reasons that we started the trio in the first place is that we felt that nobody was doing it. When you listen back to bands like Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, that's where we are at. So we thought that kind of thing would be fun. But we also like adding to the picture…. like adding special guests to it. Instantly we change our approach, like we would in a larger band…. I started playing slide when I was about fourteen, but I wasn't as into it until I was in my early twenties. Somewhere in my mid-twenties I started getting really into it and realizing what a dying art it was.
CH: You and Ben Harper brought it back into the minds of a whole lot of young players. Not that it was ever gone, but it was hard to find.
Warren: Ben's a beautiful player. It was kind of a small part of rock music for a while… I love slide guitar because, even more than regular guitar, you can really emulate the human voice. The slide eliminates the frets so you can hit all those notes in between the cracks or the frets. You can go to or from any note at any time. Like singers do. You know, slide guitar is kind of emulating blues harp [harmonica] which is emulating the human voice. It all goes back to the human voice. Here we are again talking about singing through your instrument and how important it is to do that to whatever extent you can.
CH: If you could give advice to a beginning player, or frankly any player, what would it be?
Warren: Play as much as you can play. Play with as many different musicians as you can play with. Learn as many different types of music as you can, or at least listen to them, and figure out what's good and what's bad about all types of music. By good and bad I mean for yourself. There is no good and bad [in music]. People like what they like. I can't tell you what to like and you can't tell me what to like. That's part of the beauty of it. But the more you expose yourself, the more well versed you're going to be. Don't stick to mainstream music. Study the stuff that's out there on the fringes, not what the rest of the world is hearing… Also I think my advice would be to play in a band if at all possible. Play in two or three bands, whatever. Do whatever you've got to do, because playing in your bedroom is not like playing in a band or playing on stage. If you have aspirations to do that, then you've got to start doing it right off the bat. Each time you do you'll learn more about playing in a band and playing in a live setting.
CH: What are you listening to today?
Warren: Well, as far as music that's fairly new, and not classic music that most of the world would know about…
CH: Because you guys do some covers that are kind of unexpected…
Warren: [Laughing] Like Radiohead. We do two Radiohead songs now and it's because we think they're a great band. They write great songs. Thommy Yorke is a great singer. It has a lot more integrity than most music that I'm hearing these days. I love Jeff Buckley's record, Grace. I love the band Big Sugar out of Canada. I love pretty much everything that they've done. North Mississippi All Stars… obviously all of our friends, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews… Most of what I listen to is old music. I like Joe Henry's last record… All sorts of stuff really.
CH: The Mule has always been a band that allows taping of live shows. But these days the Internet is becoming a player in how those tapes are distributed. What do you think about the recent controversy surrounding the whole thing?
Warren: I think the potential is amazing. It's going to have to be figured out. How are the artists and songwriters going to get paid? The possibilities are limitless. At least as far as how you can get your music out there these days. The artist and the songwriter have the right to decide whether their music should be accessible for free or not, but I have confidence that it's all going to get worked out. Unfortunately it's not going to be without a little shake up…
But where we're coming from, you're allowed to bring your microphones and tapedecks and set up pre-amps and all that stuff. You're free to record and trade as long as there's no money exchanged. You can trade it all over the world. We don't care about that. But we don't allow people to go on line and say, "for thirty dollars I'll send you the Gov't Mule Halloween show". Bootlegging for profit is not a cool thing. That's one of the reasons we let the music get out there for free, because there's no need to buy it if it's free. At the same time, it annoys me that people go on eBay and sell stuff that they got for free of a band's music and make a profit on it. It's just something that's gonna have to be figured out. The whole Internet thing is going to be a great way to spread your music, but it's going to change the whole music business.
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very cool on saturday morning with the kids...we always watch the reruns..also " joe 90 , supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, etc, etc from the studios of gerry and sylvia anderson...used to watch them when i was a teenager.
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breakfast anyone?
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he`s getting on a bit now but i sure would have liked to have seen him in concert during his " them " days....there is a black and white video clip doing the rounds somewhere of them doing gloria....
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The Story of Them
(Van Morrison)
When friends were friends
And company was right
We'd drink and talk and sing
All through the night
Morning came leisurely and bright
Downtown we'd walk
And passers by, would shudder with delight
Mmmmmm! Good times
And there was this man
All the cats were there
Just dirty enough to say, "We don't care"
But, the management have had complaints
About some cats with long, long hair
"Look, look, look"
And the people'd stare
"Why, you won't be allowed in
anywhere!"
Barred from pubs, clubs and
dancin' halls
Made the scene at the Spanish rooms
on the falls
And man, four pints of that scrumpy was
enough to have you, outta your mind
Climbin', climbin' up the walls
Out of your mind
But it was a gas, all the same
Ummm! Good time!
Now just 'round about this time
With the help of the three J's
Started playin' at the Maritime
That's, Jerry, Jerry and Jimmy
You know they were always fine
And they helped us run the Maritime
Don't forget Kit, hittin' people on the head
An' knockin' 'em out
You know he did his best and all
Was something else, then
Ummm, Lord, good times
And people say
Who are or what are, Them?
That little one sings
And that big one plays the guitar
With a thimble on his finger
Runs it up and down the strings
The bass player don't shave much
I think they're all a little bit, touched
But the people came
And that's how we made our name
Too much it was
Umm, yeah, our good times
Wild, sweaty, crude, ugly and, and mad
And sometimes just, a little bit sad
Yeah, they sneered an' all
But up there, we just havin' a ball
It was a gas, you know
Lord, some good times
It was kinda bad for, Them
We are, Them, take it or leave it
Do you know they took it, and it kept comin'
And we worked for the people
Sweet, sweat and the misty, misty atmosphere
Gimme another drink of beer, baby
Gotta get goin' here
Because, it was a gas
We all had good times
Blues come rollin'
Down to all your avenue
Won't stop at the city hall
Just a few steps away
You can look up at, Maritime Hotel
Just a little bit sad, gotta walk away
Wish it well
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aerial view of the town i live in...waihi, new zealand.....the huge hole in the middle of it is the martha hill gold mine owned and operated by newmont mining.....luckily, i live on the rural edge of the town, and don`t feel the effects of the mine operation that many who live in the centre of town do....
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I think the kid(s) who did this were acting responsibly. Anyone agree?
ahhhh, that entrepreneurial spirit that makes america great...that`s what i call niche marketing...
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congrats mate...let`s see now....
BA in psychology....longtime membership of beatking and zeropaid.....hmmmmm...
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interesting interview dude-as........he obviously still has a problem with nolan bushnell and who could blame him.....lots of money, kudos and recognition involved...not to mention ego....
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here`s a pic of a hundred and twenty year old gold mining pumhouse that stands in the centre of our town...taken at nite with a cheapo...digitrex dsc-2100..
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i always liked that game...i love it when they kick the ball with their heads....
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i believe in preventative medicine and taking personal responsibility for my healthcare...i do not believe in the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff scenario...i therefore, have undertaken to smoke joints BEFORE i get any aches and pains...a sort of a pre-emptive strike on my body to make sure that i suffer as LITTLE pain and discomfort in my old age as is humanly possible....
" Commercial trials of cannabis indicate it could be a better painkiller than conventional drugs.
Four out of five people with multiple sclerosis or nerve injuries have reported improved results.
They have been using a spray containing cannabis extract.
Patients describe the treatment as miraculous and extraordinary.
Dr William Notcutt has been running the trials at James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth since last year with Home Office approval.
The drug is sprayed under the tongue and works in 30 minutes.
Dr Notcutt told the Daily Mail: "The results have been encouraging. A lot of the patients have a better quality of life and that's what it's all about."
1 September 2003
The Dutch government has started distributing cannabis as a prescription painkiller to pharmacies to treat chronically ill patients. The Hague had already been turning a blind eye to medicinal cannabis use, but now it's become the world's first government to supply the drug itself, in accordance with United Nations rules on narcotics.
Cannabis sativa has been used therapeutically for many centuries. Known to the Chinese as a strong herbal remedy around 5,000 years ago, it was introduced into European medicine in Napoleonic times. Its pain relieving and sedative effects soon became accepted by Western medical practitioners, who prescribed it on a wide scale. Britain's Queen Victoria is said to have taken cannabis tincture for menstrual pains.
Already in the latter half of the 19th century, cannabis use was as controversial as it was widespread, and not only because of its intoxicating effect. Amid doubts about its true medical benefits, cannabis fell out of favour in the 20th century because of lack of standardised preparations and the development of more potent synthetic drugs. Today, some experts warn that sustained cannabis use increases the risk of depression and schizophrenia.
These warnings haven't stopped people with cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis (MS) from taking the drug as a painkiller.
The Dutch Drug Ministry estimates up to 7,000 people in the Netherlands are using cannabis for medical reasons, buying it in coffee shops. The ministry expects the figure to double now that it's moved to regulate the cannabis supply, making the drug available from pharmacies in pure medical form.
The Hague stresses the supply is in accordance with UN regulations and says doctors should only prescribe cannabis as a final resort: when conventional treatments have been exhausted or if other drugs had side-effects.
Production is left to two official suppliers, who grow their cannabis not for coffee shops but exclusively for the government. One of the licences went to James Burton, an American expatriate, who grows his plants in laboratory-style conditions in his well-guarded greenhouse, surrounded by water and guarded by 39 cameras and security staff.
Every month, Mr Burton will sell approximately 10 kilos of medical cannabis to the Health Ministry, which in turn packages and labels the drug in small tubs to supply to pharmacies.
"Each plant is individually numbered," he says, "it has a starting date, an identification number and a pharmacy crop number, so that all the cannabis is recallable and traceable."
Mr Burton hails the plant's medical benefits, calling it "a miracle drug, because it works for many, many diseases." He has a special passion for the plant because it saved his eyesight. "All my family members have glaucoma on the male side, caused by a genetic defect, and they're either blind or legally blind. Had I not smoked cannabis at an early age in the military service, I also would have been blind."
As cannabis proved to work where conventionaltherapy had failed, Mr Burton became a research subject in America, where academic centres and hospitals studied the effects of government-provided cannabis on his eyes.
But the tide turned in the early eighties when Ronald Reagan came in as US president on his "just-say-no-to-drugs" policy. All research into medical cannabis was stopped, and James Burton resorted to growing cannabis for his own use. After he was arrested and his house and car impounded, he moved to the Netherlands - "the only place in the world at the time, where you could grow cannabis, and with one of the best eye-hospitals in the world located in Rotterdam."
Now after 20 years, Mr Burton has become an official cannabis supplier to the Dutch government. He finds it ironic that in this capacity he'll soon be exporting marijuana into the US for new research purposes.
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oh shit!!!!.....r.c..r.i.p...
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Honestly I feel very lucky that I still have both my parents in my life, and it is good to be able to help them as they have helped me.
my 77 year old mother lives right next to me and my family.....we bought the house next door to her when dad died, and, it`s wonderful..i go over and have a cup of tea with her every morning, and my wife looks after her every need.. when my two girls visit grandma, they just have to walk next door....my mum was very good to me, and it`s good to be able to return the favour after all these years.....aren`t mums cool.......good on you mate....
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nice one mate...the " beatking golden armour-piercing projectile " award goes to you....
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seems they found their " smoking cigar "....how pathetic
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all he really needed was a hand up......
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so britney won`t be able to kneel down for a while, eh?
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sad to see you go mate.......your balanced modding and comments were, as far as i could see, one of the more currently acceptable aspects of zp......
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HOT RATS
1. Peaches En Regalia
2. Willie The Pimp
3. Son Of Mr. Green Genes
4. Little Umbrellas
5. The Gumbo Variations
6. It Must Be A Camel
The only lyrics on this Hot Rats is "Willie The Pimp"
I'm a little pimp with my hair gassed back
Pair a khaki pants with my shoe shined black
Got a little lady ... walk the street
Tellin' all the boy that she cain't be beat
Twenny dollah bill ( I can set you straight )
Meet me onna corner boy'n don't be late
Man in a suit with a bow-tie neck
Wanna buy a grunt with a third party check
Standin' onna porch of the Lido Hotel
Floozies in the lobby love the way I sell:
HOT MEAT
HOT RATS
HOT CATS
HOT RITZ
HOT ROOTS
HOT SOOTS
HOT ZITZ
HOT MEAT
HOT RATS
HOT CATS
HOT ZITZ
HOT ROOTS
HOT SOOTS
fave zappa track?...." willie the pimp "
fave zappa album? " hot rats "
frank zappa is my god...i worship at his altar.
he wipes the floor with most world - ranked guitar players of the last 30 years...his writing and lyricsm (although at times somewhat anal), arranging and production abilities can hardly be surpassed in the latter half of the 20th century in terms of rock music....his political commentary and observation was brilliant....and he had a good time while he did it...you can`t ask more than that.....have i said enough....and he worked with some of the best....
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Steve Vai started working for Frank Zappa as a music transcriber in September 1979. Some of Steve's transcriptions were published in 'The Frank Zappa Guitar Book' (Munchkin Music, 1982). Shortly after Steve joined as a transcriber, '[Frank] asked me if I'd do some overdubs for 'You Are What You Is'. So I ended up redoing about 80% of the guitars on the album. He had me down to rehearsal, and I got the gig.'
'Going on the road with Frank Zappa at such a young age [20] was a bit traumatic...', remembers Steve. Tommy Mars recalled a particularly traumatic incident for Radio 1's 'Air Sculpture', the first part of a two part Frank Zappa documentary broadcast on 20 November 1994. Tommy: 'I remember one time that we were finishing up rehearsal; it was the second or last day of rehearsal when everything had to be memorized and it was a particularly difficult body of material that we were doing. And the show 'Entertainment Tonight' was filming us at the same time and Steve Vai was in the band and this was his first tour [the autumn 1980 US tour, from October to December]. I forget the tune we were doing but it was [an] incredibly difficult tune and we all had to have our music memorized. Well, they were up on Steve's hands and, you know, with the camera, and I don't think he had ever had the film crew next to him before. And it's - if you haven't had it - it's a little bit unnerving sometime and rather violating. Let alone the fact that this was his like first or second time he'd ever done it straight from memory and we're going out on the road in three days and we have this Halloween show that we're going to be doing live on MTV and so... Steve started to like forget some parts and he made a few clams.
'And Frank got really pissed at him and, like, devastated him and said, you know, "I don't even know if you're roadable" and, you know, "If you clam up on this little thing imagine what you're gonna do on 'Saturday Night Live'." And poor Steve revered Frank so intensely... And he didn't really screw up, he just made a couple of little clams. And I think maybe Frank was just feeling weird about something and he lashed out. And, I mean, it really was terrible on Steve. He, like, lost it and he said, "Frank, I'm sorry, I didn't want to disappoint you." And Frank, his retort to that was, "You know, I don't know if you're roadable." And this is like the kiss of death to Steve. To me, it was just like, "Well, paps [sic] isn't in a very good mood, Steve." So, you know, I talked to Frank after that. I says, "What were you doing? Do you want this kid to have a nervous breakdown tonight?" He says, "Why? Do you think he took it that hard?"'
Steve toured with Zappa and played on several albums including 'Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar' (1981), 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' (1981), 'You Are What You Is' (1981), Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch' (1982) and 'The Man From Utopia' (1983). Shortly after leaving Zappa Steve released two eclectic solo albums, 'Flex-Able' (1984) and 'Flex-Able Leftovers' (1984). Steve then replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz, recording an album entitled 'Disturbing The Peace' (1985), then made his infamous appearance in the film 'Crossroads' (1986). After leaving Alcatrazz Steve recorded two albums with ex-Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, 'Eat 'Em And Smile' (1986) and 'Skyscraper' (1988) then joined Whitesnake for the 'Slip Of The Tongue' (1989) album. Steve then released his solo instrumental album 'Passion And Warfare' (1990) and formed his own band, Vai, who released one album, 'Sex And Religion' (1993), before disbanding. Steve's latest release is a solo instrumental EP called 'Alien Love Secrets' (1995).
Steve made a guest appearance on the first night of the 'Zappa's Universe' concerts on 7 November 1991 which led to another concert of Zappa compositions in April 1995. 'Conductor Joel Thome had originally put 'Zappa's Universe' together in New York, and those shows were the basis for the record. I played several pieces on that, and received a Grammy for playing on 'Sofa'. Anyway, Joel has been trying to put it together again, and we have been working on five or six pieces of my own. When he arranged to do the Zappa music with the Seattle Symphony, I was really excited to do it.'
DJN: Do you think your technique is at its peak now [shortly after the release of 'Alien Love Secrets'] or were your chops sharpest when you were playing with Zappa? SV: Well, my technique with Frank was not nearly as good as it is now. Although I may have had more chops, you know... I mean they were sloppy chops. Maybe back with David Lee Roth during 'Eat 'Em and Smile' (1986) my chops were maybe at their height but right now my taste factor is so much better. My maturity as a musician and a guitar player are at their peak. DJN: There's a rumour that you transcribed the solo in 'Inca Roads' from memory while you were on the tour bus. SV: Oh, huh, huh. Where did you hear that? DJN: It was in a guitar magazine - 'Guitar World' from last year [April 1994, page 54]. SV: Oh, that's funny! I thought I only mentioned [it] to somebody once. But yeah, I did. I love that solo so much. DJN: Would you say it was your favourite Frank Zappa guitar solo then? SV: I'd say that's probably my favourite. It's between that, 'Watermelon In Easter Hay', 'Zoot Allures' or 'Black Napkins'.
DJN: What are your favourite musical memories of playing with Zappa? SV: We were doing 'Zoot Allures'... We were playing in New York and it was the soundcheck and we were doing it in the soundcheck and Frank did one of the most incredible solos I've ever seen him do, ever. He was just... He was just on and he was connected and he went for it and it was the most incredible solo I ever saw him perform. And believe me, I've seen and heard more than probably anyone else, you know. DJN: Was it recorded? SV: No. No. And I remember I had a dream once that it was recorded and we listened back to it. But it was just a dream [laughs].
DJN: What was the most challenging guitar playing that you did with Zappa? SV: Oh boy - I could write a book about that... Just songs that were really hard to play on the guitar execution-wise. You know - they weren't made for the guitar. Songs like, um, 'Moggio', and 'Envelopes' and 'Drowning Witch', umm, 'Sinister Footwear', uh, 'The Black Page'... Stuff like that was just like - woah! Stuff I really loved too like 'RDNZL' - we have this incredible version of 'RDNZL' [steve plays on 'RDNZL' from 'You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore Vol 5' (1992)] and 'Sofa' - he used to let me really, really play. DJN: You've said that you've had some of your most profound musical experiences playing with Zappa. Could you explain what you meant by that? SV: Well, with Frank, I mean...[sighs] I didn't realize it until afterwards when I saw how difficult it is to create and come up with inspiring things. I would flashback on Frank and like soundchecks and stuff where he would just sit there or stand there in front of the band with a smile on his face or breaking into laughter... He would just compose the wildest stuff right there on the spot. Really beautiful stuff and then throw these weird twists and turns in it. And the way that he manipulated the forces of music to do his bidding was quite a spectacle. There's your quote [laughs]!
DJN: The title of your 'Alien Love Secrets' album (1995) is almost the same as your widely misunderstood Guitar Player column from a few years ago ['Martian Love Secrets']. SV: Yeah [laughs]. Widely misunderstood, yeah. DJN: Is that where the title comes from? SV: Pretty much. I always liked 'Martian Love Secrets' and I wanted to use it some place else with more significance. But the word 'Martian' sounds so confining. You know, 'Alien' sort of gives it a bigger picture. But the actual phrase came from... It was written on the wall... 'Martian Love Secrets' - it was written on the wall of a toilet in the men's bathroom at the Record Plant in 1970 that Frank Zappa read. So there you have it!
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Frank Zappa was an American composer, guitarist, and satirist of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.
Zappa was, in no apparent order, a first-rate cultural gadfly dedicated to upsetting American suburban complacency and puncturing the hypocrisy and pretensions of both the U.S. political establishment and the counterculture that opposed it; a contemporary orchestral composer uncompromisingly rooted in 20th-century avant-garde tradition; a rock bandleader who put together a series of stellar ensembles both under the rubric of the Mothers of Invention and under his own name; an erudite lover of the most esoteric traditions of rock and roll and of rhythm and blues; an innovative record producer whose use of high-speed editing techniques predated the later innovations of hip-hop; and one of the premier electric guitar improvisers of a generation that included Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. One of the great polymaths of the rock era who, arguably, possessed a broader range of skills and interests than any of his peers, he was an instinctive postmodernist who demolished the barriers and hierarchies separating "high" and "low" culture.
Zappa was a prolific workaholic who released more than 60 albums in his 30-year career. His first release with the original Mothers of Invention, the conceptual double album Freak Out! (1966), was a key influence on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released the following year. By way of wry acknowledgment, the cover of the Mothers' third album, We're Only in It for the Money (1967), parodied that of Sgt. Pepper's, just as the music challenged the Beatles' visions of love and beauty with the deliberate "ugliness" with which Zappa assailed what he saw as the totalitarian philistinism of the establishment and the vacuous fatuity of many aspects of hippie subculture. Zappa was not a hippie, he claimed. He was a "freak."
After retiring the name the Mothers of Invention in the late 1970s, Zappa withdrew from explicit political commentary and released, under his own name, the enormously influential jazz-rock fusion album Hot Rats (1969), which featured a memorable vocal from his old friend Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart.
Throughout the 1970s Zappa released instrumental albums that featured orchestral music, jazz, his own guitar improvisations, and, later, synthesizers and sequencers. He also released rock-oriented vocal albums that, like most of his live concerts, specialized in jaw-dropping displays of technical virtuosity and crowd-pleasing exercises in misogynistic grossness such as "Titties & Beer" (1978) and "Jewish Princess" (1979).
In the 1980s, by contrast, Zappa was sufficiently angered by the policies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration to rediscover politics. He set up voter-registration booths in the lobbies of his concerts and memorably testified against censorship at the Parents' Music Resource Center hearings in 1985 in Washington, D.C.
In 1982 he had an unlikely hit single with "Valley Girl," which featured a rap by his daughter Moon Unit; and, shortly before his death from prostate cancer in 1993, he was finally recognized as a composer of "serious" music when his Yellow Shark suite was performed and recorded by Berlin's Ensemble Modern.
Zappa was posthumously honored when a set of his pieces was performed during the Proms festival at London's Royal Albert Hall. Considering that he had been banned from the Albert Hall in 1970 when the theatre manager objected to some of the saltier lyrics from Zappa's motion picture 200 Motels (1971), this was no mean achievement. Zappa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Frank Zappa
(in full Frank Vincent Zappa)
born Dec. 21, 1940, Baltimore, Md., U.S.
died Dec. 4, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.
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" FRANK ZAPPA is the most prolific composer and recording artist of the 20th Century. Besides his guitar mastery, Zappa’s ability of incorporating any style into his unique body of work is unprecedented! Even before his death in 1993, Frank Zappa attained artistic success and respect in the rock and classical worlds. In recent years, an increasing number of classical ensembles have included Zappa’s music on program including other great masters, such as Mozart and Rossini. "
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THE YELLOW SHARK consists of Frank Zappa compositions commissioned by the German orchestra Modern Ensemble in September 1992. The tracks included here are Zappa's reconstructions of these pieces, as well as early tracks and more recent songs.
Personnel: Frank Zappa (spoken vocals, conductor).
Ensemble Modern includes: Peter Rundel (conductor, violin); Hilary Stuart (spoken vocals, viola); Herman Kretzschmar (spoken vocals, piano, harpsichord, celeste); Jurgen Ruck (guitar, banjo); Claudia Sack (violin); Friedemann Dahn (violincello); Ueli Wiget (harp, piano, harpsichord, celeste); Wolfgang Stryi (bass & contrabass clarinets, tenor saxophone); Catherine Milliken (oboe, English horn, didgeridoo); William Formann, Michael Gross (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, cornet); Michael Svoboda (trombone, euphonium, didgeridoo, alphorn); Uwe Dierksen (trombone, soprano trombone); Stefan Dohr (horn); Thomas Fichter (acoustic & electric basses); Rumi Ogawa-Helferich (cymbalom, percussion); Andreas Bottger (percussion).
Includes liner notes by Rip Rense, Frank Zappa and Peter Rundel.
Frank Zappa was not only a great satirist, an incredible guitarist and eclectic bandleader, he was also one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His avant-garde instrumental compositions ranged from the ridiculously absurd to outright masterpieces. On a series of European concerts in 1992, the unique Ensemble Modern performed many of Zappa's works for contemporary orchestra as well as arrangements of some of his instrumental rock pieces and assorted sketches. The recorded result is the magnificent THE YELLOW SHARK.
This once-in-a-lifetime event is one of the few chances to hear Zappa's compositional genius performed by an ensemble that could execute such dramatic colors and textures the way FZ intended. The grandeur of the opening "Dog Breath Variations" sets the stage for the ensuing hurricane of sounds. The agitation of "Outrage At Valdez" and the dark string ensemble piece "Times Beach II" are balanced by lighter works like "Be-Bop Tango" and "Pound For A Brown." "Food Gathering In Post-Industrial America, 1992" and "Welcome To The United States" are ingenious combinations of narration and sound effects yielding hilarious results. Finally, the closing "G-Spot Tornado" is a powerful exclamation of Zappa's contemporary compositional design.....
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i`d take the other one out first...back with my new copy...very nice so far.....toolbar icons are much clearer for a start...the email icon actually looks like an email icon now...
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Firefox 0.9 RC....i`m downloading now...thanx method 77
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i`ve seen them live quite a few times (mostly in pubs in nz and oz) and while they could rock out i always found them a bit too commercial for my tastes.........