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Frank Zappa


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Yeah, "Greasy Love Songs" is not a mistaken name. I have some of the MOFO Project CD sets, and they are really interesting. The Uncle Meat set, 'Meat Light", is one of the best, and contains some gems from the early Mothers which had not been released.

I find that the live recordings and previously unreleased recordings from the mid-1970s band, with George Duke, are also excellent. I love the 1988 big band recordings, especially "Make a Jazz Noise Here," and wish that more from that sadly short lived large jazz ensemble would surface.

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1 hour ago, Hot Ptah said:

Yeah, "Greasy Love Songs" is not a mistaken name. I have some of the MOFO Project CD sets, and they are really interesting. The Uncle Meat set, 'Meat Light", is one of the best, and contains some gems from the early Mothers which had not been released.

I find that the live recordings and previously unreleased recordings from the mid-1970s band, with George Duke, are also excellent. I love the 1988 big band recordings, especially "Make a Jazz Noise Here," and wish that more from that sadly short lived large jazz ensemble would surface.

Amen! I'd like to hear a full band version of Sleep Dirt. There was some sound check footage on YouTube of the '88 band playing that tune.

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9 hours ago, JSngry said:

They still insist on calling the original Cruisin' With Reuben and The Jets Greasy Love Songs, eh? Can't admit to a fuckup, sad. I'm ok with keeping the "re-do", it's not without its perverse charm, but give THAT one  a different name, ok?

 

6 hours ago, felser said:

They have been giving different names to all of the MOFO Project CD sets.  Interesting that some include the original versions and some don't, act purely as supplements.  Wish the original round of Ryko ones had been done right in the first place - what a mess those were.

IIRC the renamings were for legal reasons, a loophole that somehow allowed them to release MOFO, Lumpy Money, and Greasy Love Songs without breaching the agreement the Zappa trust had with Ryko/Warner.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Been spending the last 10 days or so going through this one very slowly and methodically, listening entirely for "compositional analysis", and finding much to fascinate, really brought into light just how connected the two albums were in terms of basic compositional/thematic cells/rows (still can't tell if it's an actual row being used or if it's a set of really targeted variations on the core intervals).

Also had forgotten how brilliant the whole Piano People things were. I better watch it or I'm gonna go off on a Firesign tangent, and I really don't have time for that right now.

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  • 6 months later...
2 hours ago, JSngry said:

http://www.zappa.com/news/frank-zappa-back-road-hologram-tour

I should not be the one posting this...

There is a  thread containing 337 posts, as of this minute, on this Zappa hologram tour idea, on the Steve Hoffman board. It has been discussed ad infinitum there. Most of the members of that board are negative to severely negative about the idea. Howard Kaylan (Eddie of Flo and Eddie) is quoted on that thread, He provides a blistering negative attack on the idea.

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2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

Can you give us the Cliff's Notes version? 

I will try.

Gail Zappa passed away and willed control of the Zappa Estate and the music to children Ahmet and Diva, excluding childen Dweezil and Moon. 

For over ten years Dweezil, who is a good guitar player, has had a band on the road, Zappa Plays Zappa, which plays Frank's music very well. I have seen them live and they are excellent. 

Ahmet has used his new control to bar Dweezil from using the Zappa name for his live performances, threatening legal action against his brother if he tries.

Ahmet is not a musician. As of this month, September, 2017, he is one of several principals of a business which will develop holographic images of famous dead musicians to be played in live performance.

The Hoffman board members generally see this as a crass cash grab by Ahmet, as he charges people to see an artificial performance of Frank's music while ruthlessly preventing his brother Dweezil from performing genuine, faithful  live music versions of Frank's music with excellent musicians.

Other points--Ahmet issued a press release which suggests that an array of famous musicians have signed on to perform with this hologram, when they have not done so. Some have in fact condemned the idea instead, such as Adrian  Belew. Only bassist Arthur Barrow seems to speak on the record as being in favor of being part of the band.

Current hologram performers--Elvis, Ronnie James Dio, are not very convincing. The holograms seem stiff and unspontaneous, especially when live musicians play along to them using a click track. The technology has not developed to the point where it could seem like a semblance of a real concert. This will seem phony, stiff and artificial, the opposite of a spontaneous, unpredictable Frank Zappa concert.

Frank never drew huge crowds when he was alive. This technology will be very expensive and where will this be performed? In 15,000 seat arenas with $75 and up ticket prices? Who will pay that to see Arthur Barrow playing next to a hologram? It seems very unlikely that this will draw 10,000 people or more to each concert. 

Other Hoffman members have opined that   this is just a silly or gross idea which would have been the subject of a Frank Zappa song ridiculing it, if Frank had heard of it while he was alive. Howard Kaylan (Eddie of Flo and Eddie, and the lead singer of the Turtles before they joined Zappa) has published a scathing attack on this Zappa hologram concept, agreeing with this point of view. 

A few Hoffman members have said that they never saw Frank live and would like to see this. They are in a distinct minority.

 

 

Edited by Hot Ptah
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1 hour ago, Hot Ptah said:

I Frank never drew huge crowds when he was alive.

Good summary of the dispute, but I only ever  saw Zappa in fairly  large venues:   once at a rock festival in the UK, once with BS&T at The Rockpile in Toronto and once at Maple Leaf Gardens with The Mahavishnu Orchestra and I think  (not really sure) The Mothers were the headliners in all three cases. ( 

Edited by medjuck
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2 hours ago, medjuck said:

Good summary of the dispute, but I only ever  saw Zappa in fairly  large venues:   once at a rock festival in the UK, once with BS&T at The Rockpile in Toronto and once at Maple Leaf Gardens with The Mahavishnu Orchestra and I think  (not really sure) The Mothers were the headliners in all three cases. ( 

I saw Frank Zappa live in 15,000 seat arenas which were less than half full.

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I know that Dweezil has been very vocal about his legal issues with Ahmet. Really sux for everyone, I'm sure. I saw Zappa Plays Zappa a few years ago, too. They were good.

I saw FZ three times. The first in '71 at Pauley Pavilion, UCLA when they recorded "Another Band from LA." Next in '74 in a gymnasium at UCSB with the George Duke version of the band. Lastly in '75 (probably the same band) at Winterland in SF with Capt Beefheart opening.

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Saw him/them at the Spectrum in Philly in the early 70's.  I think Spooky Tooth opened (the version with Mike Patto), then the original Mahavishnu Orchestra, who were amazing, then Zappa and Co., who were very good, but of course paled in comparison to McLaughlin and Co.

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Thanks, HP. 

I have to say that I agree with the consensus. I honestly do not get the whole hologram thing. I guess if I were sitting in the front row, and the hologram was incredibly detailed and well done, I'd at least marvel at the technology. But aside from that, it seems tacky and pointless. 

Ahmet Zappa is a singer, BTW. Many would consider that to be a musician. 

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I'd go see a touring band of Zappa alums, like the Band From Utopia, in a heartbeat.  But marketed as being 'led' buy holo-Fank, I do have to admit that THAT whole idea just seems nuttty.  Still, if Ike Willis was up front on lead vocals, and there were enough other members of that '88 touring band in the group, I'd definitely be temped (even if the hologram concept really puts me off).

That said, the Zappa family dispute (what I've read about it, any way, not super-closely, but some of it fairly closely from time to time)... ...the Zappa family dispute seems ugly in the extreme, and I have to say that I think Dweezil is definitely getting the shaft from the Zappa Family Trust side of the family.

So if the ZFT was (and as I understand, IS) behind the holo-Frank thing, then that would definitely deter me, perhaps no matter who was in the band.

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Don't want to get too much into discussing the unfortunate and unnecessarily public Dweezil / Zappa Family Trust conflict, but if you delve into the details a bit, it's not about ZFT prohibiting Dweezil to perform Frank Zappa's music. It's about Dweezil selling Zappa-themed merchandise at his concerts with proceeds not flowing to ZFT as they were supposed to as per old Dweezil / ZFT agreement. If I remember correctly, the ZFT offer was that if Dweezil honors the merchandise agreement he gets the right to use the Zappa name (trademarked by ZFT) to promote his concerts for a fee of one dollar per year.   

Edited by Д.Д.
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