I Am All Day and NIght: The Music of Frank Zappa
Inside The Music Series
Produced by CBC
Frank Zappa
A three part series about iconoclast Frank Zappa.
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Frank Zappa incorporated many genres in his music. He embraced everything from
rhythm and blues, to do-wop, jazz and classical. He made popular music that
was challenging and serious music that was easy to listen to. The series "I am all day and night" explores Zappa as a composer, through the memories of some of the people who knew him best: his family, his friends and
the musicians who worked with him.
Replies
I saw Zappa at one of the New York Halloween shows and, yeah, it was great,
but the best Zappa show I ever saw was the Grandmothers for $5 in 2004. This was
the 1968 line-up after Freak-Out but before the Turtles merged in. Jimmy Carl Black,
Roy Estrada, Bunk Gardner and Don Preston, with a wild Italian Zappa clone.
This was the boys' "retirement tour"--they bought a camper and booked a tour of bars across the country.
The highlight was "Brown Shoes Don't Make It". That's a surprisingly complicated song
and listening to JCB do the vocals and keep on pitch was like following behind a drunk in a
pick-up truck on a mountain road.
At times, he got close to the guardrail, but he ended up in his driveway, safe and sound.
A thrilling performance!
timbabwe
PS: Actually, the first concert I ever went to was the Mothers without Zappa and the Doors without Morrison at Central Park in 1972 or so.
Flo & Eddie, with Don Preston, abandoned Zappa in Europe after he broke his leg and continued the tour under their own name.
Tim, I have my eyes on a much better copy of this and if I secure it you will get a special invitation to download it. I always really liked Zappa but my best friend, a Viet Nam vet who was a POW in a Tiger Cage and damn near cut off his own foot to get out the shackle on his ankle and then Killed all the guards and let the other POWs out. was a Zappa fanatic. Believe it or not he had PTSD and the most horrible flashbacks imaginable and sometimes the only thing that would get him out of it was Little Suzy Cream Cheese at a volume of about 8 and he would start laughing and then he was out of hell until next time. He had many physical maladies all related to his tours on Nam and he finally died last year. May God Rest His Soul. Dammit I miss him. Anyways I share your appreciation of the Zappa, maybe not the fervor and I cannot recite the lyrics from heart but I truly appreciate your sentiment. Yes, he was a Roadie for Janis Joplin and though he would never admit it and tears would come to his eyes when Her name was mentioned, his name was Bobbie and his last name was phonetically an exact match for McGee. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- R
Thanks!