Relix Magazine's April/May '06 special on Frank Zappa - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 14:52, 25 April 2026

2026-04-25T14:52:22Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 19:13, 8 December 2021

2021-12-08T19:13:10Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 03:51, 1 December 2021

2021-12-01T03:51:47Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 14:20, 29 November 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 15:12, 12 November 2021

2021-11-12T15:12:08Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 13:54, 25 October 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 15:07, 21 October 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 20:04, 23 September 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 17:27, 21 September 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 17:56, 8 September 2021

2021-09-08T17:56:50Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:52, 25 April 2026
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 By Richard Gehr<br>
-With the ''Zappa Plays Zappa'' band about to enter a three-month rehearsal phase prior to a European tour, four recent releases ''([[Joe's Domage]], [[Joe's XMASage]], [[Imaginary Diseases]]'' and the ''[[Dub Room Special]]'' DVD), and a posthumous lifetime achievement award awaiting Frank Zappa at the April 20th Jammy Awards in New York City, things are humming along quite nicely at the Zappa family home near the top of [[Laurel Canyon]] in Los Angeles. The compound's business end is crammed with commemorative discs of every precious metal, original album artwork (hey, there's the ''[[Uncle Meat]]'' sculpture!), and other evocative ephemera. Something in the air suggests significant treats in store for Zappa fans, with the fabled [[The Vault|vault]] finally disgorging its treasures after a long dry spell. His wife, Gail, and official Vaultmeister Joe Travers, who will do double duty as ZPZ's drummer, promise as much, and a longtime fan can only ask:<br>
+With the ''Zappa Plays Zappa'' band about to enter a three-month rehearsal phase prior to a European tour, four recent releases ''([[Joe's Domage]], [[Joe's XMASage]], [[Imaginary Diseases (The Album)|Imaginary Diseases]]'' and the ''[[Dub Room Special]]'' DVD), and a posthumous lifetime achievement award awaiting Frank Zappa at the April 20th Jammy Awards in New York City, things are humming along quite nicely at the Zappa family home near the top of [[Laurel Canyon]] in Los Angeles. The compound's business end is crammed with commemorative discs of every precious metal, original album artwork (hey, there's the ''[[Uncle Meat]]'' sculpture!), and other evocative ephemera. Something in the air suggests significant treats in store for Zappa fans, with the fabled [[The Vault|vault]] finally disgorging its treasures after a long dry spell. His wife, Gail, and official Vaultmeister Joe Travers, who will do double duty as ZPZ's drummer, promise as much, and a longtime fan can only ask:<br>
 [[Image:Framewidth.jpg|frame|
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 '''Do you have a release schedule?'''<br>
-'''Gail:''' No, and this is what we're trying to work out. Joe and I have differences of opinion, but there's stuff we can announce, like the ''Roxy And Elsewhere'' DVD, which we know no bootlegger has. But ''[[Trance-Fusion]]'' should be the next Zappa Records release after ''[[Imaginary Diseases]].''<br>
+'''Gail:''' No, and this is what we're trying to work out. Joe and I have differences of opinion, but there's stuff we can announce, like the ''Roxy And Elsewhere'' DVD, which we know no bootlegger has. But ''[[Trance-Fusion]]'' should be the next Zappa Records release after ''[[Imaginary Diseases (The Album)|Imaginary Diseases]].''<br>
 The two concerts seen in the ''[[Dub Room Special]]'' DVD exist separately on video, and we're working on releasing one of them in surround sound. This also represents our first foray into another project I'm interested in, which is inviting certain well-known producers and engineers who never had an opportunity to work with Frank, but were well aware of, inspired by or interested in his work, to get their hands on a Frank Zappa project. In this regard, we turned over the 1974 KCET concert to Frank Filipetti. And we'll still release the ''[[A Token Of His Extreme|Token of His Extreme]]'' DVD by the same band.<br>
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 '''Gail:''' It's also one Frank carried around. And if ''Frank'' could stand to listen to it, I figured the audience could as well. If there's something about it you don't like, try this: Break your leg, sit in a wheelchair, learn how to play guitar in a cast. put that kind of band together, call all your friends, and try to play that shit. That's my advice. And if Frank could do it, what the fuck is wrong with you that you can't take the time to listen?<br>
-'''How did ''[[Imaginary Diseases]]'' come about?<br>
+'''How did ''Imaginary Diseases'' come about?<br>
 '''Joe:''' The first band I wanted to dive into after I was given my Vaultmeister hat was the Petit Wazoo, simply ''because'' it was largely undocumented and very rare. A huge mystery surrounded the band. I wanted to find out what was up with it and how it sounded, so I documented the shit out of all their 1972 tour tapes and put together two CDs with [[Spencer Chrislu]] (FZ's in-house engineer during the early '90s] from the original four-track tapes. This was the first tour Frank had the budget to record every show. Prior to that it was very spotty.<br>
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 '''Most of the bands would say they're not making much money at all playing Frank's music in public.'''<br>
 '''Gail:''' I think the biggest hit outside of Frank's own records has been the [[Gotan Project]]'s "Chunga's Revenge" [on ''[[La Revancha Del Tango|La Revancha del Tango]]''] — and they added lyrics without permission! What the hell's that about? It's always something. It was the same for Frank. Because when you have to deal with the day-to-day shit people dump on you, it is not fucking fun at all.<br>
-The most fun ''I'' have is sitting down and listening to Frank's music in the studio with Joe. And the most fun Frank had was making records or playing live. Like the jam with the audience at the beginning of ''[[Imaginary Diseases]]'' — he pretty much invented that. The downbeat happened when his feet landed on the goddamn floor of the stage, and then it just came at you like a fucking train — a whole bunch of them — rolling out of the station and right over you. And you're like, ''Help! What just happened to me?'' There's nothing like that, and there's never going to be anything like that, that doesn't take you right back to Frank Zappa.
+The most fun ''I'' have is sitting down and listening to Frank's music in the studio with Joe. And the most fun Frank had was making records or playing live. Like the jam with the audience at the beginning of ''Imaginary Diseases'' — he pretty much invented that. The downbeat happened when his feet landed on the goddamn floor of the stage, and then it just came at you like a fucking train — a whole bunch of them — rolling out of the station and right over you. And you're like, ''Help! What just happened to me?'' There's nothing like that, and there's never going to be anything like that, that doesn't take you right back to Frank Zappa.
 ==Absolutely Freaked Out==
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 [[Image:Framewidth.jpg|frame|"When Frank Zappa died, it occurred to me that I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd actually been "disappeared" by some official agency, not unlike other overly outspoken youth-friendly leaders. Zappa's one of the great seminal figures of both iconoclastic music and social commentary. He took up the mantel of contrarian naysayers like [[Lenny Bruce]] and continued, as [[Jimi Hendrix]] put it, to wave his freak flag high. He was scathingly honest about everything from government to consumerism, skewering sacred cows and generally getting up people's noses. Frank's musical genius was his ability to integrate his compositions into diverse arrangements, turning on a dime from the highest of high art to the dirtiest doo-wop, always with an amazing sense of humor."<br>
 – [[Gary Lucas]], ''Gods And Monsters'']]
-Snacks have been trickling sporadically from the vault thanks to [[Gail Zappa]] and tireless Vaultmeister [[Joe Travers]], whose hapless eardrums have been poked by an unfathomable number of audible oddities since snagging the gig in 1995. The bubbly new [[Zappa Records]] logo is a reassuring sight on first release [[Imaginary Diseases]], a collection of 1972 live performances selected and produced by Frank himself. Stuck in a wheelchair after a surprise collaboration with the bottom of a 15-foot-deep orchestra pit, the immobile, restless Zappa explored compositional efforts that year, resulting in [[Waka/Jawaka]]'s brisk jazz-rock fusion, the unreleased Hunchentoot sci-fi musical (likely napping in the vault somewhere), and the unmitigatedly audacious 20-member touring nightmare [[The Grand Wazoo]]. For the sojourn collected on ''Diseases,'' Zappa stripped the unwieldy collective to a crisp, ten-man machine billed as the [[The Mothers|Mothers of Invention]] but known to Zappaphiles as the ''Petit Wazoo.''
+Snacks have been trickling sporadically from the vault thanks to [[Gail Zappa]] and tireless Vaultmeister [[Joe Travers]], whose hapless eardrums have been poked by an unfathomable number of audible oddities since snagging the gig in 1995. The bubbly new [[Zappa Records]] logo is a reassuring sight on first release Imaginary Diseases, a collection of 1972 live performances selected and produced by Frank himself. Stuck in a wheelchair after a surprise collaboration with the bottom of a 15-foot-deep orchestra pit, the immobile, restless Zappa explored compositional efforts that year, resulting in [[Waka/Jawaka]]'s brisk jazz-rock fusion, the unreleased Hunchentoot sci-fi musical (likely napping in the vault somewhere), and the unmitigatedly audacious 20-member touring nightmare [[The Grand Wazoo]]. For the sojourn collected on ''Diseases,'' Zappa stripped the unwieldy collective to a crisp, ten-man machine billed as the [[The Mothers|Mothers of Invention]] but known to Zappaphiles as the ''Petit Wazoo.''
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 '''Zappa As Greasy Doo-Wopper'''<br>
-While [[Chuck Berry]] lit a fire under hordes of '60s rockers, Zappa's influences stretched back to early-'5Os rhythm-and-blues. He concocted a twisted version of oldies music, having over-the-top singers howl, moan and croon determinedly cheesy lyrics that might have made [[The Coasters]] blush. Such hilarious numbers as "[[Any Way The Wind Blows (The Track)|Any Way The Wind Blows]]" and "[[You Didn't Try To Call Me]]" from the Mothers' 1966 debut, [[Freak Out!]] would be reworked as more orthodox doo-wop fare on [[Cruising With Ruben & The Jets]] two years later. While the originals were ace parodies, the Ruben re-makes didn't sound as lively: the satire's cute but less biting, and it all sounded a little too lovingly faithful. Zappa's doo-wop shenanigans would reappear the following year on both March 1969's [[Uncle Meat]] ("[[The Air]]," "[[Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague]]") and December's [[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]] ("[[WPLJ]]," "[[Valarie]]") with just the right amount of kitschy fun.
+While [[Chuck Berry]] lit a fire under hordes of '60s rockers, Zappa's influences stretched back to early-'5Os rhythm-and-blues. He concocted a twisted version of oldies music, having over-the-top singers howl, moan and croon determinedly cheesy lyrics that might have made [[The Coasters]] blush. Such hilarious numbers as "[[Any Way The Wind Blows (The Track)|Any Way The Wind Blows]]" and "[[You Didn't Try To Call Me (1966 - Los Angeles)|You Didn't Try To Call Me]]" from the Mothers' 1966 debut, [[Freak Out!]] would be reworked as more orthodox doo-wop fare on [[Cruising With Ruben & The Jets]] two years later. While the originals were ace parodies, the Ruben re-makes didn't sound as lively: the satire's cute but less biting, and it all sounded a little too lovingly faithful. Zappa's doo-wop shenanigans would reappear the following year on both March 1969's [[Uncle Meat]] ("[[The Air]]," "[[Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague]]") and December's [[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]] ("[[WPLJ]]," "[[Valarie]]") with just the right amount of kitschy fun.
 '''Zappa As Wacko Maestro'''<br>

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 '''Zappa As Greasy Doo-Wopper'''<br>
-While [[Chuck Berry]] lit a fire under hordes of '60s rockers, Zappa's influences stretched back to early-'5Os rhythm-and-blues. He concocted a twisted version of oldies music, having over-the-top singers howl, moan and croon determinedly cheesy lyrics that might have made [[The Coasters]] blush. Such hilarious numbers as "[[Any Way The Wind Blows]]" and "[[You Didn't Try To Call Me]]" from the Mothers' 1966 debut, [[Freak Out!]] would be reworked as more orthodox doo-wop fare on [[Cruising With Ruben & The Jets]] two years later. While the originals were ace parodies, the Ruben re-makes didn't sound as lively: the satire's cute but less biting, and it all sounded a little too lovingly faithful. Zappa's doo-wop shenanigans would reappear the following year on both March 1969's [[Uncle Meat]] ("[[The Air]]," "[[Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague]]") and December's [[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]] ("[[WPLJ]]," "[[Valarie]]") with just the right amount of kitschy fun.
+While [[Chuck Berry]] lit a fire under hordes of '60s rockers, Zappa's influences stretched back to early-'5Os rhythm-and-blues. He concocted a twisted version of oldies music, having over-the-top singers howl, moan and croon determinedly cheesy lyrics that might have made [[The Coasters]] blush. Such hilarious numbers as "[[Any Way The Wind Blows (The Track)|Any Way The Wind Blows]]" and "[[You Didn't Try To Call Me]]" from the Mothers' 1966 debut, [[Freak Out!]] would be reworked as more orthodox doo-wop fare on [[Cruising With Ruben & The Jets]] two years later. While the originals were ace parodies, the Ruben re-makes didn't sound as lively: the satire's cute but less biting, and it all sounded a little too lovingly faithful. Zappa's doo-wop shenanigans would reappear the following year on both March 1969's [[Uncle Meat]] ("[[The Air]]," "[[Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague]]") and December's [[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]] ("[[WPLJ]]," "[[Valarie]]") with just the right amount of kitschy fun.
 '''Zappa As Wacko Maestro'''<br>

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 [[Image:Framewidth.jpg|frame|
 Fourteen Possible Instances Of [[Conceptual Continuity]]:<br>
-'''6) Two Chords from "[[Louie Louie]]" (part 1):''' See: between [[Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood|Motorhead]] monologues (''[[Lumpy Gravy]],'' 1967); the President of the United States (''[[Absolutely Free]],'' 1967); [[Don Preston]] at the mighty, majestic pipe organ at the [[The Mothers|Mothers of Invention]]'s 1969 [[Royal Albert Hall]] [[67/09/23 London UK Royal Albert Hall|debut]] ...]]
+'''6) Two Chords from "[[Louie Louie]]" (part 1):''' See: between [[Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood|Motorhead]] monologues (''[[Lumpy Gravy]],'' 1967); the President of the United States (''[[Absolutely Free]],'' 1967); [[Don Preston]] at the mighty, majestic pipe organ at the [[The Mothers|Mothers of Invention]]'s 1967 [[Royal Albert Hall]] [[67/09/23 London UK Royal Albert Hall|debut]] ...]]
 Pristine recordings and ferocious improv make ''Diseases'' as invaluable as any Zappa live document, especially since the low frequencies give live jams like "[[D.C. Boogie]]" a little extra, well, boogie. Zappa's half-dozen horn footers explode in pyrotechnic soloing on the 16-minute centerpiece, "[[Father O'Blivion]]." A trombone quavers like a theremin, a trumpet whines like a lonely dog and [[Apostrophe (')]] drummer [[Jim Gordon]] lays into his kit with crowd-pleasing crescendos — no heady chops wank, just heavily hammered discharge. An echoey live jam from Montreal resounds off the walls of the Quebec Forum during a gig that also featured [[Tim Buckley]] and [[wikipedia:Curtis Mayfield|Curtis Mayfield]] , terrorizing listeners with a groove heavy enough for the latter to love. Even funkier is the title track — exclusive to this tour and previously unavailable on any Zappa release — Zappa's booty-movingest moment since "[[Willie The Pimp]]." No wonder [[George Clinton]] loved the guy.

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 [[Image:Framewidth.jpg|frame|
 Fourteen Possible Instances Of [[Conceptual Continuity]]:<br>
-'''7) Four Variations on the "[[Little House I Used To Live In]]":''' Introduction published in the October 1969 ''[[Down Beat]]'' magazine ("a piano exercise dated approximately 1962"); intro, themes A-B-C (''[[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]],'' 1970); "[[Return Of The Hunch-Back Duke]]," containing themes B-C (''[[You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5]],'' recorded 1969); "[[Twinkle Tits]]," performed in 1970, contains theme C; "[[Concerto For Mothers And Orchestra]]," performed in 1970, contains intro motif.<br>
+'''7) Four Variations on the "[[Little House I Used To Live In]]":''' Introduction published in the October 1969 ''[[Down Beat]]'' magazine ("a piano exercise dated approximately 1962"); intro, themes A-B-C (''[[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]],'' 1970); "[[Return Of The Hunch-Back Duke]]," containing themes B-C (''[[You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5]],'' recorded 1969); "[[Twinkle Tits]]," performed in 1970, contains theme C; "[[70/05/15 Los Angeles CA US Pauley Pavilion, UCLA|Concerto For Mothers And Orchestra]]," performed in 1970, contains intro motif.<br>
-(Courtesy Michael P. Dawson's [http://www.example.com ''Biffy Page.''])]]
+(Courtesy Michael P. Dawson's [https://fzpomd.net/biffyshrew/house.html''Biffy Page.''])]]
 While fans hold their collective breath for gems like the complete Halloween 1981 concert, Travers has discovered ephemera offering all-important [[Conceptual Continuity]] Clues in candid cannisters Frank probably (frankly?) never intended to be heard. As one naysayer on the official FZ message board put it: "What's next? A tape of Frank and the family having a barbecue?" While [[Joe's XMASage]], a compilation of seemingly random 1962-64 recordings, has its share of goofing-around-as-socioanthropological-experimentation (i.e., Frank taping his buds), it also contains fascinating insight into his earliest work — gothy R&B, go-go bar jams and some of his most visceral electroacoustic experiments ever. Minute-long tape manipulations sound impossibly mature for stuff likely tweaked out on Studio Z's homemade five-track, with "[[The Moon Will Never Be The Same]]" sounding uncannily like his hero [[Edgard Varèse|Edgar Varèse]] and "[[Mousie's First Xmas]]" turning haunting clarinets and tape splices into a moody [[John Cage]] nod. And the regular-acoustic stuff is even better: "[[GTR Trio]]" adds a full nine minutes to the "[[Bossa Nova Pervertamento]]"-jam on [[Mystery Disc]], with Zappa picking and clawing his way through a riotous guitar solo, playing cement-fingered Latin jazz all gassed up on dirty blues and dirtier clothes.

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 '''8. [[Fillmore East, June 1971]]''' (1971)<br>
-Flo & Eddie ([[Mark Volman]] and [[Howard Kaylan]] from '60s group [[The Turtles]]) run amok as goof-ball musical theater kids. Their reggae version of their former band's hit "[[Happy Together]]" milks bombast and irony at the same time, while "Mud Shark" recounts the infamously disgusting Led Zeppelin groupie story.
+[[Flo & Eddie]] (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan from '60s group The Turtles) run amok as goof-ball musical theater kids. Their reggae version of their former band's hit "[[Happy Together]]" milks bombast and irony at the same time, while "Mud Shark" recounts the infamously disgusting Led Zeppelin groupie story.
 '''9. [[Apostrophe (')]]''' (1974)<br>

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 *[[Joe's XMASage]], [[Zappa Family Trust|Vaulternative]]<br>
-The only thing bigger than the legacy Frank Zappa left behind was his library: miles and miles of unheard music, tidily labeled and organized, stashed away in a climate-controlled vault somewhere in the fertile LA. soil. To say that anticipation of this unreleased material runs high — full albums mixed by Zappa and ready for release! Eons of immaculate concert audio! Secretive projects discussed only in whispers! — would be like calling the [[wikipedia:Ebola|Ebola]] virus "a nasty bug." The rumored stellar recording quality of this near-limitless output would make [[Dick's Picks]] seem like a school of water-damaged [[wikipedia:Compact Cassette|C-90s]] floating belly-up in a pool of bongwater.
+The only thing bigger than the legacy Frank Zappa left behind was his library: miles and miles of unheard music, tidily labeled and organized, stashed away in a climate-controlled vault somewhere in the fertile LA. soil. To say that anticipation of this unreleased material runs high — full albums mixed by Zappa and ready for release! Eons of immaculate concert audio! Secretive projects discussed only in whispers! — would be like calling the [[wikipedia:Ebola|Ebola]] virus "a nasty bug." The rumored stellar recording quality of this near-limitless output would make [[Grateful Dead|Dick's Picks]] seem like a school of water-damaged [[wikipedia:Compact Cassette|C-90s]] floating belly-up in a pool of bongwater.
 [[Image:Framewidth.jpg|frame|"When Frank Zappa died, it occurred to me that I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd actually been "disappeared" by some official agency, not unlike other overly outspoken youth-friendly leaders. Zappa's one of the great seminal figures of both iconoclastic music and social commentary. He took up the mantel of contrarian naysayers like [[Lenny Bruce]] and continued, as [[Jimi Hendrix]] put it, to wave his freak flag high. He was scathingly honest about everything from government to consumerism, skewering sacred cows and generally getting up people's noses. Frank's musical genius was his ability to integrate his compositions into diverse arrangements, turning on a dime from the highest of high art to the dirtiest doo-wop, always with an amazing sense of humor."<br>

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 American History 101: In the late '60s, a second American civil war erupted between the warmongering establishment and peace-loving hippies. Zappa found both sides equally rucked up and conformist. Years before the straight- edge movement, he adopted an anti-drug stance that extended to the Mothers themselves. Starting with "[[You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here]]" (from [[Freak Out!|Freak Out]]/) and "[[Plastic People]]" (from Absolutely Free), he even took the bold, uncommercial step of challenging his own audience s intelligence. He then used most of We're Only In It for the Money to attack mindless hippies ("[[Who Needs The Peace Corps?|Who Needs the Peace Corps?]]" "[[Flower Punk]]") and repressive government fascists ("[[Concentration Moon]]," "[[The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny|The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny]]").
-Zappa's allegiance lay instead with "the freaks." He championed a community of Southern California pre-hippie bohemians who dripped nonconformity and created instant parties wherever they went. Freak Out/ bears their name, starting with a threat from the weirdo masses ("[[Hungry Freaks, Daddy]]") and ending with their guest appearance on a noise concerto ("[[The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet|The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet]]"). On Money he championed their wild and fearless ways on "Absolutely Free" and "[[Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance]]."
+Zappa's allegiance lay instead with "the freaks." He championed a community of Southern California pre-hippie bohemians who dripped nonconformity and created instant parties wherever they went. Freak Out/ bears their name, starting with a threat from the weirdo masses ("[[Hungry Freaks, Daddy (1966 - Los Angeles)|Hungry Freaks, Daddy]]") and ending with their guest appearance on a noise concerto ("[[The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet|The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet]]"). On Money he championed their wild and fearless ways on "Absolutely Free" and "[[Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance]]."
 Though he shied away from both freak anthems and upfront social commentary for the rest of the '60s, Zappa insisted that social satire continued to lurk in his albums. Only instead of relegating it to lyrics, he was putting it in the music – e.g., Weenys elegant "[[Holiday In Berlin, Full Blown|Holiday in Berlin]]," which refers sardonically to a German student riot.