Zappa plays Zappa
Here’s a show I wish I could attend (but can’t, due to a prior obligation): Dweezil Zappa revisiting the catalog of his father, Frank Zappa, in a live performance. Dweezil says he spent a year holed up at home studying his father’s compositions so that he could not only learn the pieces, but also understand them and gain the skill to be able to play them. (Nobody has ever had to say anything like that about, say, the Ramones’ catalog.)
I had several opportunities to see Frank Zappa when I was living near Philadelphia, and never took them. Then of course I never got the chance again because he died. I also didn’t see Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band on that reunion tour of a couple years ago, which I regret. (Once, at the urging of a then-somewhat-friend, I did see a Hall & Oates concert, which I also regret.) I hope that Zappa the younger does this show again or takes it on the road.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I was lucky enough to see Zappa numerous times. Used to take a bus from my parents’ South Jersey home into Philly and go to The Trauma, where you could touch the stage, and later to The Electric Factory. Once I had a friend take me to Zappa’s hotel room and I got to ride to The Factory with Frank and hear part of his rehearsal. I would have been there for the entire warm-up, except that Zappa gave me a few bucks and sent me out for coffee for the band.
Later I saw him at The Academy of Music and The Spectrum but, by then, the shows were less improvised and the atmosphere less intimate. A few years back my son Justin and I went to Philly, to The Trocadero, and saw a Zappa tribute band, Project/Object. They were excellent. Sitting in on sax was Ed Palermo, who has released two big band albums of Zappa. The latest is “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance.” What I didn’t like about the otherwise fine performance by P/O was that it lacked what Zappa used to call ‘eyebrows’. Just as eyebrows convey expression on your face, certain special touches add personality to music. Zappa used to conduct the group with hand signals. He staged spontaneous theater events and made comments. All that was missing from P/O.
So I’m hoping Zappa the Younger will honor his Dad’s music not just technically but in spirit as well. I know he’s going to include vets of the old bands whenever he’s in cities near where they live. Hey, maybe I’ll even get out to hear them.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
HOLY COW! Who knew?
Between your enormous influence on the history of Herbie Popnecker comic books, your 20+ years of spot illustrations in influential underground publications, and now this, your mark on pop culture is indelible.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Remember Frank Zappa?
August 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Alas, Joey, I’m afraid Zappa is being forgotten even as we speak. His music always suffered from the perception that he led ‘a comedy band’. When he was alive the only time I heard him on radio was at Halloween when he was given airtime for his novelty value. Now, at work, we have digital radio. Occasionally, when someone is feeling daring, they program it to a station called Deep Tracks, which plays infrequently heard cuts. Even then, I don’t recall hearing Zappa.
He was voted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame and a campaign was started to have him removed. While he gets some recognition for his exceptional guitar playing, he still gets much less acclaim than Clapton, Hendrix, Garcia and Santana. Maybe there will be a huge revival of interest at some point. Maybe not.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Joe is actually making reference to my play “Remember Frank Zappa,” in which a tight-lipped one-night lover relates to the woman he’s having sex with that Frank Zappa said the secret to his successful long marriage was that he and his wife never talked. (True story.)
I think the cause of Mr. Zappa’s declining fame is that his work is uncategorizable. (As iTunes helps to show.) His best advocate was himself — the media interviews, the personal appearances, the books, the tours, the new music — and without it, his reputation suffers. Perhaps he can be rescued in 20 years, as James Agee did for Buster Keaton. Without Agee’s 1949 profile of Keaton in Life magazine, the Keaton renaissance would have been postponed or forestalled.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Yes, it’s amazing how much difference one article can make. I believe it was Gore Vidal who similarly championed James Purdy. John Waters put in a few good words for JP as well. I even have a collection of Purdy’s short stories on my Amazon wish list.