Ahhhhh I love Billy the Mountain… Have had this version committed to memory since I was a kid and didn’t understand any of the references
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A few days late for Zappa day
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Heard that Tom Fowler passed away. Great bass player who was with Zappa from 1973 to 1976 (with his work appearing on many albums afterwards).
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Thinking about going into Chicago for Dweezil. The 2024 set list is all killer, no filler. Seen him twice and he’s always great. Last time I saw him Ike Willis showed up and did a few songs with him.
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DOOOO ITTTTTT @Gizzhenge and I went the other day and it was face-meltingly weird and awesome
interesting arrangement of Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow
Inca Roads!
Echidna’s Arf!
slow funky Pygmy Twylyte!
Punky’s Whips!!! (this is when my face melted off)
the dude with the “Dwarf Lives Matter” shirt was a real head-scratcher though
Yeah they were great…as tight as usual, which means tightest band around. They seemed to jam a bit more than I recall or played songs with jammy like arrangements if not actual jamming. Maybe it was the smaller band or fewer horns than I’ve seen in the past that lead to a jammy feeling, not sure. I’ve been seeing Dweezil since the first Zappa Plays Zappa tour in 2006, but skipped several tours along the way. I was really into Project Object before that with Napoleon and Ike, which probably lead to Zappa Plays Zappa. Despite the one questionable choice mentioned, this was the least amount of cringe I’ve experienced at a Dweezil show. He seemed more relaxed than usual, and there were no awkward extended rants about family drama.
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Great version of this song, way better than the Thing-Fish version. That Al De Meola solo makes me want to never touch a guitar again because I’ll never be that good.
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I havent heard any zappa songs yet, but my guitar teacher gave me Black Page as a rhythm exercise and said “if anyone can learn it, it’s you.” That song is absolutely insane. Elevens? Nested tuplets? And when you listen to it, it sounds really good.
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Was at a show last night and the guitarist busted out some of the Rollo Interior between songs. What an incredible melody.
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Up on YouTube for free right now! Worth a watch especially if you’re interested in his work but don’t know much about him.
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Reference to that lady who has a snake for a pet and an amulet? The one with grey-green skin and a Taoism pin.
Lol, love the lyric change. Frank’s never struck me as much of a Taoist though…
her stereo was 4-way
TIL …doll with a pin…
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Just learned about this book coming out next year. All about Zappa’s politics in the '80s and '90s. I’ve always found those decades hit and miss but his activism in that time is really interesting and wildly misunderstood, glad someone is documenting it. Anyways here’s one of his best political pieces.
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I’m so glad the Zappa people have a constant output of live shows and other media. There’s so much to hear from that guy. I’ve been a massive fan for a while and it’s so great to hear all these live releases steadily.
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Jean-Luc Ponty’s solo on this is so good
Zappa passed away today in 1993. I always have his stuff on at this time of year, especially with the whole “Zappadan” celebration from today to his birthday on the 21st. So many songs I could post but I’ll go with these two for now.
One line in Strictly Genteel really hit me hard today. “We understand how hard it is to laugh these days, with all the terrible problems in the world.” Might be the best summary of his work.
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Hadn’t heard of the Zappadan before, very cool. Time to respin a couple of my favs: Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo
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I was snowed in over Thanksgiving in Erie, PA. That was the perfect time to get caught up on Zappa/Erie. That really shows me how much I’m missing by not being very familiar with Zappa’s discography. I need to fix that situation.
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