Orchestral Maneuvers - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 15:56, 11 August 2026

2026-08-11T15:56:46Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:55, 9 August 2026

2026-08-09T20:55:58Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 23:51, 11 September 2021

2021-09-11T23:51:39Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 02:48, 22 July 2021

2021-07-22T02:48:15Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 02:45, 22 July 2021

2021-07-22T02:45:35Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:04, 17 November 2020

2020-11-17T20:04:45Z

Spider of Destiny at 15:12, 21 December 2010

2010-12-21T15:12:41Z

Fishbrain: Updated link to London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)

2007-11-27T13:17:25Z

Updated link to London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)

Maroual at 23:57, 30 January 2007

2007-01-30T23:57:22Z

Propellerkuh at 19:12, 29 January 2007

2007-01-29T19:12:19Z

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 Phase Two occurred in February 1983, when Zappa shared the baton with maestro [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1243510-Jean-Louis-LeRoux Jean-Louis LeRoux] for a 100th anniversary celebration of the music of [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] and [[Anton Webern]], which was performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the city's War Memorial Opera House.
-Zappa's burgeoning interest in symphonic works continues. This past January, three original Zappa chamber compositions were performed by conductor [[Pierre Boulez]]'s prized chamber orchestra, the [[Ensemble Intercontemporain]], with Boulez himself conducting the proceedings at the Theatre De La Ville in Paris. An album on EMI Records is forthcoming.
+Zappa's burgeoning interest in symphonic works continues. This past January, three original Zappa chamber compositions were performed by conductor [[Pierre Boulez]]'s prized chamber orchestra, the [[Ensemble Intercontemporain]], with Boulez himself conducting the proceedings at the Theatre De La Ville in [[Paris]]. An album on EMI Records is forthcoming.
 Last spring, Nagano and his Berkeley Symphony presented the world premiere of Zappa's "[[Sinister Footwear]]," a ballet performed by the Tandy Beales Company and featuring the puppet creations of Ron Gilkerson.

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 By Bill Milkowski<br>
 Modern Recording & Music, August 1984<br>
@@ Line 18: / Line 17: @@
 All this from the man who brought you such irreverent rock classics as "[[Don't Eat The Yellow Snow]]," "[[Dinah-Moe Humm]]," "[[Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit|Illinois Enema Bandit]], "[[Half A Dozen Provocative Squats (The Track)|Half A Dozen Provocative Squats]]", "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," "[[St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast|Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast]]," "[[My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama|My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mamma]]" and the notorious "[[Stink-Foot|Stink Foot]]," to mention just a few in his discography of hundreds of recorded compositions.
-Zappa has not abandoned his rock career. He's just put it on the back burner for a while. This summer he plans to release [[Them Or Us]], the 36th album of his career. Besides featuring his regular band of [[Steve Vai]] and [[Ray White]] on guitars, [[Chad Wackerman]] on drums, [[Bobby Martin]] and [[Tommy Mars]] on keyboards, and [[Scott Thunes]] on bass, it will be something of a family affair. His oldest son [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] will be making his debut with daddy, playing some insanely wicked wang-bar riffs on "[[Stevie's Spanking]]" and a reggae remake of "[[Sharleena]]," a love ballad that originally appeared on Zappa's [[Chunga's Revenge]] album. Daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]] will also make an appearance on the new LP, offering up a [[Valley Girl]] rap for a mock aerobics tune called "Hoznia." And Zappa's youngest son [[Ahmet Zappa|Ahmet Rodin]] actually penned one of the tunes, "[[Frogs With Dirty Little Lips]]," which is a little ditty he dreamed up at the age of six and sang around the house every day. [[Johnny "Guitar" Watson|Johnny Guitar Watson]] also makes an appearance on the new album. Other tunes include "[[Baby Take Your Teeth Out]]," "[[In France]]," "[[He's So Gay]]," "[[Won Ton On]]" and "[[Planet Of My Dreams]]."
+Zappa has not abandoned his rock career. He's just put it on the back burner for a while. This summer he plans to release [[Them Or Us]], the 36th album of his career. Besides featuring his regular band of [[Steve Vai]] and [[Ray White]] on guitars, [[Chad Wackerman]] on drums, [[Bobby Martin]] and [[Tommy Mars]] on keyboards, and [[Scott Thunes]] on bass, it will be something of a family affair. His oldest son [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] will be making his debut with daddy, playing some insanely wicked wang-bar riffs on "[[Stevie's Spanking]]" and a reggae remake of "[[Sharleena]]," a love ballad that originally appeared on Zappa's [[Chunga's Revenge]] album. Daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]] will also make an appearance on the new LP, offering up a [[Valley Girl]] rap for a mock aerobics tune called "Hoznia." And Zappa's youngest son [[Ahmet Zappa|Ahmet Rodan]] actually penned one of the tunes, "[[Frogs With Dirty Little Lips]]," which is a little ditty he dreamed up at the age of six and sang around the house every day. [[Johnny "Guitar" Watson|Johnny Guitar Watson]] also makes an appearance on the new album. Other tunes include "[[Baby Take Your Teeth Out]]," "[[In France]]," "[[He's So Gay]]," "[[Won Ton On]]" and "[[Planet Of My Dreams]]."
 And as if that weren't enough ... there's also a [[Them Or Us (The Book)|book]] in the making and a Broadway musical in the offing, a production called [[Thing-Fish|Thing Fish]], which Zappa has been working on for some time now. While in New York recently, Zappa talked about his music, his career and where he's headed.
 ----
-'''I understand that you had a harrowing experience in Palermo, Italy, the last date on the last rock tour you did. Was that something that turned you off to touring?<br>
+'''I understand that you had a harrowing experience in Palermo, [[Italy]], the last date on the last rock tour you did. Was that something that turned you off to touring?<br>
 I would say so, yes. What happened in Palermo was ... we were working in a soccer stadium, it was the last concert on the tour, and I had been looking forward to playing in Sicily because my father was born there. And that afternoon I had taken a drive over to his hometown, this horrible little village called Bartenicco. So I checked that out, you know, getting into the Sicilian vibe of it all. There's this Italian schmaltz connected with Sicily for all people of Italian extraction.
@@ Line 48: / Line 47: @@
 '''I understand you had a number of problems in getting this orchestral project together. What happened?<br>
-Wanna know why we didn't do this thing in the United States? Besides the bad attitude we encountered, it was a money situation. We were originally going to record this with the Syracuse Orchestra with Christopher Keene conducting, and it was going to be premiered at Lincoln Center in New York City. We had made a deal with the Syracuse Orchestra and within a matter of days they managed to double the price. It started out at $150,000 for the whole project and then somebody in the orchestra union had found a whole bunch of extra rules that brought the cost up to $300,000. So I said no way.
+Wanna know why we didn't do this thing in the United States? Besides the bad attitude we encountered, it was a money situation. We were originally going to record this with the Syracuse Orchestra with Christopher Keene conducting, and it was going to be premiered at Lincoln Center in [[New York]] City. We had made a deal with the Syracuse Orchestra and within a matter of days they managed to double the price. It started out at $150,000 for the whole project and then somebody in the orchestra union had found a whole bunch of extra rules that brought the cost up to $300,000. So I said no way.
 '''This project has gone through a lot of sidetracks along the way. You mentioned that at various times it was going to be done with the ''Krakow Symphony Orchestra,'' then the ''Mexico City Symphony,'' then Syracuse. How did you end up with the ''London Symphony Orchestra?''<br>
@@ Line 57: / Line 56: @@
 '''What were the problems you encountered with the Krakow and Mexico City orchestras?<br>
-I went to Mexico City and actually conducted their orchestra for a little while. They were very interested in doing the project, then after we had the rehearsal and we got down to what it would cost, the guy I dealt with added it up and wanted $400,000. He had somehow gotten a hold of what the scale would have been if I had done it in New York City. And there was no way that they were as good as the New York Philharmonic and no way that I was gonna give them $400,000... so I said, "Thank you, goodbye."
+I went to [[Mexico]] City and actually conducted their orchestra for a little while. They were very interested in doing the project, then after we had the rehearsal and we got down to what it would cost, the guy I dealt with added it up and wanted $400,000. He had somehow gotten a hold of what the scale would have been if I had done it in New York City. And there was no way that they were as good as the New York Philharmonic and no way that I was gonna give them $400,000... so I said, "Thank you, goodbye."
-As far as the Krakow Orchestra goes, they had been after me for years and at one point last August, right at the end of a European tour, I was supposed to go from Sicily to Warsaw to start this project. It had all been set up at the beginning of the tour. Two weeks into the tour, martial law broke out in Poland and all this other crap was happening over there. So I said, "I don't think I want to take my recording truck into Poland next to the tanks. It's crazy to do that." So we passed.
+As far as the Krakow Orchestra goes, they had been after me for years and at one point last August, right at the end of a European tour, I was supposed to go from Sicily to Warsaw to start this project. It had all been set up at the beginning of the tour. Two weeks into the tour, martial law broke out in [[Poland]] and all this other crap was happening over there. So I said, "I don't think I want to take my recording truck into Poland next to the tanks. It's crazy to do that." So we passed.
 '''Can you tell me about the problems you encountered in dealing with the orchestra unions in America?<br>
-You have problems with the unions because of the way the union scale works and the cost per musician to do these projects and the further entanglement of union regulations that you have to wade through in order to do the project. That's only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the attitude of the people on the board of directors of the various orchestras as to what they will or will not program. Then you have the economic constraints placed on the orchestral business in the United States by the concertgoers themselves. Concertgoers will only buy tickets to certain types of events because they haven't been educated to new music. Most concerts of orchestral or chamber music in the United States are devoted to regurgitation of artifacts left to us by dead people from another country. That's classical music in the United States. If you're not dead and you don't come from someplace else, then obviously you're no good and your music shouldn't be played. That pretty much sums up the attitude of the people who make the decisions as to what orchestras play. And part of that decision is based on how many tickets they can sell to the concert.
+You have problems with the [[unions]] because of the way the union scale works and the cost per musician to do these projects and the further entanglement of union regulations that you have to wade through in order to do the project. That's only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the attitude of the people on the board of directors of the various orchestras as to what they will or will not program. Then you have the economic constraints placed on the orchestral business in the United States by the concertgoers themselves. Concertgoers will only buy tickets to certain types of events because they haven't been educated to new music. Most concerts of orchestral or chamber music in the United States are devoted to regurgitation of artifacts left to us by dead people from another country. That's classical music in the United States. If you're not dead and you don't come from someplace else, then obviously you're no good and your music shouldn't be played. That pretty much sums up the attitude of the people who make the decisions as to what orchestras play. And part of that decision is based on how many tickets they can sell to the concert.
 The economics of the business are totally different from what people think of in rock'n'roll. I'll give you an example: If by some strange coincidence you are a composer and an American orchestra wants to play your piece, something that you may have worked on for five years, in order to just get the parts copied for the orchestra it might cost you thousands of dollars. And do you know what you receive from the orchestra for playing your music? $300 to $500 for the rental of the materials to play it. That's how great the business is from a composer's point of view. The only time a composer has a chance to earn anything above and beyond that is if the piece gets recorded and he gets publishing royalties from those records. But those records don't sell in the huge quantities that rock records do, so the publishing royalties aren't that great. The other way composers stay alive in the United States is with grants or with teaching positions. But it's very difficult to see why anybody who is studying music now would ever want to become a composer. It's pretty much a dead-end street in the United States. And if you become a composer, you have to know in advance that what you're doing will probably never be played. The only person who will ever hear it is you, in your head.
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 '''I've heard stories about the unions being so strong in some American orchestras that they were able to keep musicians who were completely incompetent due to alcoholism and were just faking it on stage. hidden within the orchestra. I understand that these people can't be fired because they are under binding contracts, yet the London Symphony Orchestra has no contracts and forces players to maintain a high degree of competence or else get booted.<br>
-''The London Symphony Orchestra'' owns itself, it's an associative orchestra. The members own the orchestra, they hire their own conductor, they run their own business and they share in the profits. Consequently, an average guy in the ''London Symphony Orchestra'' will play 90 recording sessions a year while the average guy in the ''Boston Symphony Orchestra,'' for example, will only do 17. See, the union scale in England is lower than in the United States so it costs you less to do a project with a British orchestra. And they're eager to do work, whereas the US orchestras want to raise their pay scales up to the point where it's so sky-high that they're really not doing very many recording sessions. So ultimately their gross at the end of the year is less than what the British orchestra is going to get. On top of that, the attitude of an American orchestra seems to be: the smaller the amount of work you do, the better it is. It's really a lazy mentality, and it's the same kind of mentality that exists in other unionized industries like the auto industry. I mean, it makes me laugh when people complain about, "Hey, Japan is kicking our ass!" Yeah, they're kicking our ass because the American workers are getting all these benefits and big prices per hour for doing work, and they don't care about their job. All the quality control is gone. Craftsmanship isn't a part of your life anymore, you just want to get as much as you can from the evil capitalist pig who owns the factory, you wanna rip off the management, give them the big hose job, go on strike all the time and then when the stuff that you don't do well on the assembly line turns out to be a lemon and people don't buy it anymore and the company has to shut down, you just cut your own throat.
+''The London Symphony Orchestra'' owns itself, it's an associative orchestra. The members own the orchestra, they hire their own conductor, they run their own business and they share in the profits. Consequently, an average guy in the ''London Symphony Orchestra'' will play 90 recording sessions a year while the average guy in the ''Boston Symphony Orchestra,'' for example, will only do 17. See, the union scale in England is lower than in the United States so it costs you less to do a project with a British orchestra. And they're eager to do work, whereas the US orchestras want to raise their pay scales up to the point where it's so sky-high that they're really not doing very many recording sessions. So ultimately their gross at the end of the year is less than what the British orchestra is going to get. On top of that, the attitude of an American orchestra seems to be: the smaller the amount of work you do, the better it is. It's really a lazy mentality, and it's the same kind of mentality that exists in other unionized industries like the auto industry. I mean, it makes me laugh when people complain about, "Hey, [[Japan]] is kicking our ass!" Yeah, they're kicking our ass because the American workers are getting all these benefits and big prices per hour for doing work, and they don't care about their job. All the quality control is gone. Craftsmanship isn't a part of your life anymore, you just want to get as much as you can from the evil capitalist pig who owns the factory, you wanna rip off the management, give them the big hose job, go on strike all the time and then when the stuff that you don't do well on the assembly line turns out to be a lemon and people don't buy it anymore and the company has to shut down, you just cut your own throat.
 '''By no putting back in.<br>
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 '''''The Minneapolis Symphony'' went on strike earlier this year.<br>
-Yeah. I can just see it: ''"We will now withhold culture from the entire Minneapolis area until we get more pay for fewer concerts."'' More orchestras have this cold what-can-I-get-outta-this attitude today. ''The Chicago Symphony'' is an exception. But you have to recognize that the ''Chicago Symphony'' is generally regarded as the best in the world. They sound good and they play like they really mean it, whereas, most of the other orchestras in the United States are not really serious about doing it. I mean, just because you have a tuxedo on doesn't mean that you're into something. They wear tuxedoes in Las Vegas ya know.
+Yeah. I can just see it: ''"We will now withhold culture from the entire Minneapolis area until we get more pay for fewer concerts."'' More orchestras have this cold what-can-I-get-outta-this attitude today. ''The Chicago Symphony'' is an exception. But you have to recognize that the ''Chicago Symphony'' is generally regarded as the best in the world. They sound good and they play like they really mean it, whereas, most of the other orchestras in the United States are not really serious about doing it. I mean, just because you have a tuxedo on doesn't mean that you're into something. They wear tuxedoes in [[Las Vegas]] ya know.
 [[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]
 [[Category:1984]]

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 Phase One of Zappa's new career began last year with the release of a digitally-recorded album of his ambitious contemporary symphonic pieces, performed in concert by the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|London Symphony Orchestra]]. That program was conducted by 31-year-old [[Kent Nagano]], of the Berkeley and Oakland symphonies. The recording session was produced and engineered by Zappa for his own Barking Pumpkin label.
-Phase Two occurred in February 1983, when Zappa shared the baton with maestro [[Jean-Louis LeRoux]] for a 100th anniversary celebration of the music of [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] and [[Anton Webern]], which was performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the city's War Memorial Opera House.
+Phase Two occurred in February 1983, when Zappa shared the baton with maestro [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1243510-Jean-Louis-LeRoux Jean-Louis LeRoux] for a 100th anniversary celebration of the music of [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] and [[Anton Webern]], which was performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the city's War Memorial Opera House.
 Zappa's burgeoning interest in symphonic works continues. This past January, three original Zappa chamber compositions were performed by conductor [[Pierre Boulez]]'s prized chamber orchestra, the [[Ensemble Intercontemporain]], with Boulez himself conducting the proceedings at the Theatre De La Ville in Paris. An album on EMI Records is forthcoming.
-Last spring, Nagano and his Berkeley Symphony presented the world premiere of Zappa's "[[Sinister Footwear]]," a ballet performed by the [[Tandy Beales Company]] and featuring the puppet creations of [[Ron Gilkerson]].
+Last spring, Nagano and his Berkeley Symphony presented the world premiere of Zappa's "[[Sinister Footwear]]," a ballet performed by the Tandy Beales Company and featuring the puppet creations of Ron Gilkerson.
 And there's more. Zappa has been invited to guest conduct at the prestigious Magghio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, and has also been asked to guest conduct for the Honolulu Symphony 1984/85 season and to conduct his own music and selections from [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] at the University of Buffalo in 1985.
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 '''And throughout your career it's been trial-and-error with the various projects you've undertaken?<br>
-Yeah. I don't think I've mastered any of the techniques but I've gotten to a point where I'm severely competent. And in order to master the things that I've set out to master, the main thing that stands in my way is the budget to do it, because the stuff I'm working with is all expensive machinery and expensive personnel and things like that. I mean, I'm at the stage now where in order to do the things that I need to do, it requires resources beyond what I'm capable of providing for myself. Remember, it's my money that makes these things. I'm not funded by grants or foundations or anything. If I get a sales of a concert ticket, part of that money goes back into buying equipment and the airplane tickets for the next tour and paying the salaries of the people who go out. And the costs of making records keeps going up too. So I operate just like any other small business. The capital comes in to keep the business running so that people can consume it. I mean, I don't stick the money up my nose and I don't buy a yacht. It goes right back into the music. It's like converting the income I made from "[[Valley Girls]]" into this orchestra album. But I see no way in the future that I can continue funding such projects. This orchestra album is as much as I can spend, and it's kind of a dead-end project at that because we only pressed 6,000 copies of the album and it cost so much to do it that it's already a net loss as a project. So that gives me a number of problems for future projects.
+Yeah. I don't think I've mastered any of the techniques but I've gotten to a point where I'm severely competent. And in order to master the things that I've set out to master, the main thing that stands in my way is the budget to do it, because the stuff I'm working with is all expensive machinery and expensive personnel and things like that. I mean, I'm at the stage now where in order to do the things that I need to do, it requires resources beyond what I'm capable of providing for myself. Remember, it's my money that makes these things. I'm not funded by grants or foundations or anything. If I get a sales of a concert ticket, part of that money goes back into buying equipment and the airplane tickets for the next tour and paying the salaries of the people who go out. And the costs of making records keeps going up too. So I operate just like any other small business. The capital comes in to keep the business running so that people can consume it. I mean, I don't stick the money up my nose and I don't buy a yacht. It goes right back into the music. It's like converting the income I made from "[[Valley Girl|Valley Girls]]" into this orchestra album. But I see no way in the future that I can continue funding such projects. This orchestra album is as much as I can spend, and it's kind of a dead-end project at that because we only pressed 6,000 copies of the album and it cost so much to do it that it's already a net loss as a project. So that gives me a number of problems for future projects.
 '''I understand you had a number of problems in getting this orchestral project together. What happened?<br>

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 Last spring, Nagano and his Berkeley Symphony presented the world premiere of Zappa's "[[Sinister Footwear]]," a ballet performed by the [[Tandy Beales Company]] and featuring the puppet creations of [[Ron Gilkerson]].
-And there's more. Zappa has been invited to guest conduct at the prestigious Magghio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, and has also been asked to guest conduct for the Honolulu Symphony 1984/85 season and to conduct his own music and selections from [[Edgar Varèse]] at the University of Buffalo in 1985.
+And there's more. Zappa has been invited to guest conduct at the prestigious Magghio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, and has also been asked to guest conduct for the Honolulu Symphony 1984/85 season and to conduct his own music and selections from [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] at the University of Buffalo in 1985.
 All this from the man who brought you such irreverent rock classics as "[[Don't Eat The Yellow Snow]]," "[[Dinah-Moe Humm]]," "[[Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit|Illinois Enema Bandit]], "[[Half A Dozen Provocative Squats (The Track)|Half A Dozen Provocative Squats]]", "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," "[[St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast|Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast]]," "[[My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama|My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mamma]]" and the notorious "[[Stink-Foot|Stink Foot]]," to mention just a few in his discography of hundreds of recorded compositions.

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
-After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, [[Frank Zappa]] was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, Zappa decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.
+After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, [[Biography|Frank Zappa]] was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, Zappa decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.
 Phase One of Zappa's new career began last year with the release of a digitally-recorded album of his ambitious contemporary symphonic pieces, performed in concert by the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|London Symphony Orchestra]]. That program was conducted by 31-year-old [[Kent Nagano]], of the Berkeley and Oakland symphonies. The recording session was produced and engineered by Zappa for his own Barking Pumpkin label.
-Phase Two occurred in February 1983, when Zappa shared the baton with maestro [[Jean-Louis LeRoux]] for a 100th anniversary celebration of the music of [[Edgar Varèse]] and [[Anton Webern]], which was performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the city's War Memorial Opera House.
+Phase Two occurred in February 1983, when Zappa shared the baton with maestro [[Jean-Louis LeRoux]] for a 100th anniversary celebration of the music of [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] and [[Anton Webern]], which was performed by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the city's War Memorial Opera House.
 Zappa's burgeoning interest in symphonic works continues. This past January, three original Zappa chamber compositions were performed by conductor [[Pierre Boulez]]'s prized chamber orchestra, the [[Ensemble Intercontemporain]], with Boulez himself conducting the proceedings at the Theatre De La Ville in Paris. An album on EMI Records is forthcoming.

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
-After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, Frank Zappa was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, Zappa decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.
+After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, [[Frank Zappa]] was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, Zappa decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.
 Phase One of Zappa's new career began last year with the release of a digitally-recorded album of his ambitious contemporary symphonic pieces, performed in concert by the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]. That program was conducted by 31-year-old [[Kent Nagano]], of the Berkeley and Oakland symphonies. The recording session was produced and engineered by Zappa for his own Barking Pumpkin label.
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 And there's more. Zappa has been invited to guest conduct at the prestigious Magghio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, and has also been asked to guest conduct for the Honolulu Symphony 1984/85 season and to conduct his own music and selections from [[Edgar Varèse]] at the University of Buffalo in 1985.
-All this from the man who brought you such irreverent rock classics as "[[Don't Eat The Yellow Snow]]," "[[Dinah-Moe Humm]]," "[[Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit|Illinois Enema Bandit]]," "[[Half A Dozen Provocative Squats]]," "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," "[[Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast]]," "[[My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mamma]]" and the notorious "[[Stink Foot]]," to mention just a few in his discography of hundreds of recorded compositions.
+All this from the man who brought you such irreverent rock classics as "[[Don't Eat The Yellow Snow]]," "[[Dinah-Moe Humm]]," "[[Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit|Illinois Enema Bandit]]," "[[Half A Dozen Provocative Squats]]," "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," "[[St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast|Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast]]," "[[My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama|My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mamma]]" and the notorious "[[Stink-Foot|Stink Foot]]," to mention just a few in his discography of hundreds of recorded compositions.
-Zappa has not abandoned his rock career. He's just put it on the back burner for a while. This summer he plans to release [[Them Or Us]], the 36th album of his career. Besides featuring his regular band of [[Steve Vai]] and [[Ray White]] on guitars, [[Chad Wackerman]] on drums, [[Bobby Martin]] and [[Tommy Mars]] on keyboards, and [[Scott Thunes]] on bass, it will be something of a family affair. His oldest son [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] will be making his debut with daddy, playing some insanely wicked wang-bar riffs on "[[Stevie's Spanking]]" and a reggae remake of "[[Sharleena]]," a love ballad that originally appeared on Zappa's [[Chunga's Revenge]] album. Daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]] will also make an appearance on the new LP, offering up a [[Valley Girl]] rap for a mock aerobics tune called "Hoznia." And Zappa's youngest son [[Ahmet Zappa|Ahmet Rodin]] actually penned one of the tunes, "[[Frogs With Dirty Little Lips]]," which is a little ditty he dreamed up at the age of six and sang around the house every day. [[Johnny Guitar Watson]] also makes an appearance on the new album. Other tunes include "[[Baby Take Your Teeth Out]]," "[[In France]]," "[[He's So Gay]]," "[[Won Ton On]]" and "[[Planet Of My Dreams]]."
+Zappa has not abandoned his rock career. He's just put it on the back burner for a while. This summer he plans to release [[Them Or Us]], the 36th album of his career. Besides featuring his regular band of [[Steve Vai]] and [[Ray White]] on guitars, [[Chad Wackerman]] on drums, [[Bobby Martin]] and [[Tommy Mars]] on keyboards, and [[Scott Thunes]] on bass, it will be something of a family affair. His oldest son [[Dweezil Zappa|Dweezil]] will be making his debut with daddy, playing some insanely wicked wang-bar riffs on "[[Stevie's Spanking]]" and a reggae remake of "[[Sharleena]]," a love ballad that originally appeared on Zappa's [[Chunga's Revenge]] album. Daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]] will also make an appearance on the new LP, offering up a [[Valley Girl]] rap for a mock aerobics tune called "Hoznia." And Zappa's youngest son [[Ahmet Zappa|Ahmet Rodin]] actually penned one of the tunes, "[[Frogs With Dirty Little Lips]]," which is a little ditty he dreamed up at the age of six and sang around the house every day. [[Johnny "Guitar" Watson|Johnny Guitar Watson]] also makes an appearance on the new album. Other tunes include "[[Baby Take Your Teeth Out]]," "[[In France]]," "[[He's So Gay]]," "[[Won Ton On]]" and "[[Planet Of My Dreams]]."
-And as if that weren't enough ... there's also a [[Them Or Us (The Book)|book]] in the making and a Broadway musical in the offing, a production called [[Thing Fish]], which Zappa has been working on for some time now. While in New York recently, Zappa talked about his music, his career and where he's headed.
+And as if that weren't enough ... there's also a [[Them Or Us (The Book)|book]] in the making and a Broadway musical in the offing, a production called [[Thing-Fish|Thing Fish]], which Zappa has been working on for some time now. While in New York recently, Zappa talked about his music, his career and where he's headed.
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 '''I understand that you had a harrowing experience in Palermo, Italy, the last date on the last rock tour you did. Was that something that turned you off to touring?<br>

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−	After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, Frank Zappa was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, ~~Zapper~~ decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.	+	After 18 years of playing practically every concert hall and hockey rink in the free world, Frank Zappa was nearly ready to call it quits. Disgusted with the whole exhaustive prospect of touring and playing before legions of rowdy, potentially violent fans, Zappa decided to shelve his rock career in order to concentrate on other pursuits, namely, symphonic music.

	Phase One of Zappa's new career began last year with the release of a digitally-recorded album of his ambitious contemporary symphonic pieces, performed in concert by the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]. That program was conducted by 31-year-old [[Kent Nagano]], of the Berkeley and Oakland symphonies. The recording session was produced and engineered by Zappa for his own Barking Pumpkin label.		Phase One of Zappa's new career began last year with the release of a digitally-recorded album of his ambitious contemporary symphonic pieces, performed in concert by the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]. That program was conducted by 31-year-old [[Kent Nagano]], of the Berkeley and Oakland symphonies. The recording session was produced and engineered by Zappa for his own Barking Pumpkin label.