Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood
(Euclid James) Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, a.k.a. Larry Fanoga (Arkansas City, KS, May 8, 1942 - December 25, 2011) was an American singer, saxofonist, dancer and tambourine player. He was a member of The Mothers during the late 1960s. The nickname "Motorhead" was coined by fellow Mothers member Ray Collins, who observed that Sherwood always seemed to be working on repairing cars, trucks or motorcycles, and joked that "it sounds like you've got a little motor in your head".[1]
Early biography
Sherwood met Frank Zappa in high school in 1956. As he explained himself: "Frank used to sit out on the front lawn at the high school...when I was a Freshman and he was [a] Sophomore...and play guitar most of the time. I found out later on that Bobby Zappa was in one of my classes. Bobby found out that I collected Blues records and he introduced me to Frank."
Sherwood joined The Blackouts. He stayed with Zappa in Studio Z for about six months, before joining The Mothers, first as a roadie for the Garrick Theatre, eventually as a musician. In 1963 his girlfriend Sharva inspired the song Charva.
The Mothers of Invention
Sherwood provided soprano & baritone sax, tambourine, 'snorks', and/or vocals for Freak Out!, We're Only In It For The Money, Lumpy Gravy, Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Uncle Meat, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, You Are What You Is, Thing-Fish, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5, Ahead Of Their Time, Civilization Phaze III, Läther, and Mystery Disc (playing guitar). He can also be heard on the Beat The Boots series disks The Ark, 'Tis The Season To Be Jelly, Electric Aunt Jemima, and Our Man In Nirvana.
His performances can be seen in the Zappa movies 200 Motels, Uncle Meat, The Amazing Mr. Bickford, Video From Hell and The True Story Of 200 Motels.
Sherwood can be heard during the tracks Bored Out 90 Over; Almost Chinese ("Good bread, 'cause I was making, uh... $2.71 an hour"), Switching Girls and the monologue in At The Gas Station on Lumpy Gravy (1968). [2] He also voices Larry Fanoga on the same album.
Sherwood can also be seen in the sleeve and the back cover of We're Only In It For The Money, posing with a piece of paper, while the other band members stand with their backs to the camera and Zappa makes mysterious hand signals.
Quote
"Motorhead Sherwood was the hit of the evening - he did this weird dance called 'The Bug', where he pretended that some creature was tickling the fuck out of him, and he rolled around on the floor, trying to pull it off. When he 'got it off', he threw it at girls in the audience, hoping that they would flop around on the floor too. A few of them did." - Frank Zappa, about a performance by The Blackouts in the 1950s, quoted in The Real Frank Zappa Book.
