13 years ago

[jerryskid]

I remember where I was when I heard...I was living on the west side of Columbus, Ohio and going through a rather rough divorce so it had been a bad couple of months. My cousin called and said he was taking me out for my birthday and I was excited to get away from the stress of my job and marriage. I got ready and when my cousin arrived, we settled in for a couple of fattys and the beers we had in the fridge. I kicked the stereo on and "You Are What You Is" happened to be in the player. We smoked and grooved for a while, then I turned on the tube to check the temp. "Heavenly Bank Account" was playing , when a picture of Frank flashed on the screen. That's how I learned that Frank Zappa died. It totally ruined my plans and I ended up just sitting alone at the house listening to "Joe's Garage"....RIP FRANK ZAPPA...YOU ARE VERY MISSED












(Thanks for letting me ramble).

[Grapestomper]

Thanks for rambling.

I got into Zappa fairly late: '88 I think, when someone lent me Joe's Garage... I never got to see him play live.

In any case, by '93 I was a full-on fan, and was very aware of his poor health. We all knew he was dying. We were all braced against the loss...

...but ultimately, you can't be. What a sad day, the day Frank died.

There's a portrait of Zappa that is the cover of "The Yellow Shark", the last album he worked on before he died. He was very sick and looked a hundred years old, but he also looked... hauntingly wise... He has eyes that remind me of Einstein. An amazing photograph.













So!

Zappa had more faces and phases than most musicians, and his 60 plus albums over almost 30 years is a vast body of work that is all over the musical map! Let's talk about our favorites!


Mike's guilty secret: I actually really enjoy "Thing Fish".





"Everything is healing nicely"
M

[jerryskid]

"Wars are very ugly,
they're dirty and they're cold,
I do'nt want nobody
to shoot me in the

FOXHOLE !

FOXHOLE !"
.....from "You Are What You Is"

[J.G.]

R.I.P. indeed, Sir Frank.

I sometimes go in the kitchen on mornings after those late-night dinners when I was too lazy to clean before hitting the sack and think/sing, the dannnnngerous kitchennnnnnn...

So many profound, (and profoundly silly!), musical and lyrical moments in that heavy's life. We're blessed with the ones captured.

If there was a cup o' joe on this post icon list, I'd use it here.

[jerryskid]

I had it on the wall in the kitchen of our rehearsal house:




"The dangerous kitchen
If it ain't one thing it's another
In the middle of the night when you get home
The bread things are all dry 'n' scratchy
The meat things
Where the cats ate through the paper
The can things with the sharp little edges
That can cut your fingers when you're not looking
The soft little things on the floor that you step on
They can all be DANGEROUS
Sometimes the milk can hurt you
(If you put it on your cereal
Before you smell the plastic container)
And the stuff in the strainer
Has a mind of its own
So be very careful
In the dangerous kitchen
When the night time has fallen,
And the roaches are crawlin'
In the kitchen of danger
You can feel like a stranger
The bananas are black
They got flies in the back
And also the chicken
In the dish with the foil
Where the cream is all clabbered
And the salad is frightful
Your return in the evening
Can be less than delightful
You must walk very careful
You must not lean against it
It can get on your clothing
It can follow you in
As you walk to the bedroom
And you take all your clothes off
While you're sleeping
It crawls off
It gets in your bed
It could get on your face then
It could eat your complexion
You could die from the danger
Of the dangerous kitchen
Who the fuck wants to clean it?
It's disgusting and dirty
The sponge on the drainer
Is stinky and squirty
If you squeeze it when you wipe up
What you get on your hands then
Could un-balance your glands and
Make you blind or whatever
In the dangerous kitchen
At my house tonight"




Thanks for reminding me JG.......:Thumbsup:

[Johnny]

Every time I hear "Doreen" I can't get it out of my head for days. In a good way.

I once had a lesson with Bozzio and kept hearing "I'm So Cute" in my mind the whole time.

Check out one of the "failures" in his book: music you would download through the phone line and somehow get the album art sent to you via cable TV. He thought this up in the early 80s.

[Drummerboy]

Rest in peace Frank. I don't care what my friends say; I love your music. And I'll continue to sing along that vocal solo in "Montana".

Interview with Frank (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKOI8QLO2Ds)

I will celebrate this day by smoking an awful lot of cigarettes and drinking gallons of coffee.

[Aardvark]

For all of his musical genius and multi-media clairvoyance, (200 Motels was just a bit ahead of it's time!) his best moments might have been when he testified on Capital Hill. He showed himself to be the total embodiment of a social, musical and cultural intellectual who was one of the finest spokesmen any musical generation could ever ask for...



...and he gave us 'Crew Slut'.:lol: :lol:




Cheers,
WillythepimpVark

[Johnny]

Frank, Dee Snider, and John Denver. Man, that was weird. But all three gentlemen rocked.

[magicchord]

I share his birthday - and it's coming up :Wink:

[otek]

I can't recall exactly where I was when I heard he was dead.

I do remember what happened a couple of days after, however, because I went to see Steve Vai play live at The Station in Orlando. Scott Thunes was also in the band.

Towards the end of the set, Vai announced that one of the greatest musicians the world has ever known, was dead. He then proceeded to play an absolutely amazing version of "Call It Sleep" and dedicated it to Frank Zappa.

As for naming a personal fave among his work, I'm at a loss - there are so many great tunes. The first Zappa Album I bought was "Them Or Us", back in 1985, so a couple of tunes from that album are special to me.

I also second Aardy's opinion that one of his finest moments was his testimony before congress. Seeing the video footage from that event, I can't help but marvel at his verbal prowess, his wit, dignity and wisdom.



Information is not knowledge,

Knowledge is not wisdom,

Wisdom is not truth,

Truth is not beauty,

Beauty is not love,

Love is not music,

Music is The Best.




R.I.P. Frank.

[Fulcrum]

For all of his musical genius and multi-media clairvoyance, (200 Motels was just a bit ahead of it's time!) his best moments might have been when he testified on Capital Hill. He showed himself to be the total embodiment of a social, musical and cultural intellectual who was one of the finest spokesmen any musical generation could ever ask for...

I liked his response when Mrs Gore chided him about his ridicule of the parental advisory stickers then prominent on albums and CDs:

"I wrote a song about dental floss, but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?"

[gbacklin]

Ahhh yes, Frank. I bought the Freak Out LP and was hooked ! I was fortunate enought to see him in 74 in Madison Wisconsin, hmmm warm up was Dion. Strange evening.... Frank was on the Apostrophe tour and it was a great show, I wish I could have seen him with Flo and Eddie, but alas never was able to work it out, but was not disappointed with Apostrophe at all !

He is truly missed, but fondly remembered !

Take Care,
Gene

[Fulcrum]

He would have been 66 today.

Don't forget to floss!

[graveleye]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/graveleye/ZAPPAPLEDGE.jpg

sorry this is the best copy of this I can find. The one I cut out of the paper yellowed and disappeared.

Thanks for reminding me. I dont have the words to describe how much I miss Frank. I really, truly miss him.

[PRobb]

The word "genius" gets thrown around a lot, but FZ was the genuine article. The man wrote a disco song with a 5/4 bar in it. And the fifth beat falls on the word "wrong"!

I'm gonna put on "Village of the Sun" from "Roxy and Elsewhere" now.


damn




RIP