I saw him with the post-Mother's group as a teenager and didn't appreciate his genius. Since then I've grown musically and now lament that I wasn't paying attention back then. I am now.
Look at his expression as he conducts the musicians ,the level of respect for them and no pretentiousness on his part. I hear he was a driven man and you had to work hard to make the cut. A truly talented and humble man who hated the status quo and knew how to show his fangs when called upon.
Frank endeavored throughout his musical life to get proper performances of his orchestral works. As well, he demanded a lot from his Rocking Teenage Combos, but they had the advantage of playing the music on tour night after night, as well as months of rehearsals prior to touring to get it down. Frank never had enough time and resources to prepare the various orchestras to play his demanding and tricky music to his vision and standards, until Ensemble Modern came along and approached him to compose music for them to play. Not only did they have enough rehearsal time to get it down, they paid HIM for the privilege. He finally got the best performance of his orchestral music. Sad that he had to wait until the end of his life to get that satisfaction, but at least he, and we the audience and fans of his music, did get to experience his music as he meant it.
I'm crying because I'm thinking of my beautiful art teacher in Delray Beach Florida 1966-67 who turned us on to Freak Out after she let us paint anything on a strip of 16mm film, randomly spliced it together, turned the lights off, turned the projector on and played Freak Out which had just been released. Our minds were completely and wonderfully blown. Ever since I have loved Frank Zappa. This is magnificent. Thanks.
My friend and I had a similar experience. Walking through a popular department store around about 1968 or so, we JUST HAPPENED to walk by the record player they used to pipe music for all the shoppers to shop by. Having one of my periodic strokes of genius, I ran to the record department and got a print of the Mothers' latest "hit" album. Back at the record player, I stealthily replaced the shopping music with Zappa. What a laugh we had, nonchalantly walking out, as Brown Shoes Don't Make it terrorized young and old alike. I distinctly remember a member of the staff running by us, a look of horror on her otherwise pretty face.
@@gregorytrotter6657 a similar-but-different experience in a record store in a mall in Calgary: Zappa In New York had just come out & i was looking at it with obvious interest & the nice girl behind the counter chirped "would you like to hear it?!" & stripped the cellophane off & threw on Titties & Beer. there were, of course, cranked speakers in the store but there were also speakers pumping this out into the mall itself & everything was fine until Bozzio yells "blow it out your ass motorcycle man!" & the manager came storming out from the back offce to rip the thing off the turntable, order me outta the store & start yelling at the cashier, who'd been having a good time until horrified by this harpy starting in on her. culture clash!
There are artists who'll wrest us up & place us into themselves. These are the One's who'll continue wresting us up... Even beyond their appointed rests in peace. -gilpin 2821
Zappa following in Varese's footsteps I think. I managed to own a Varese album. I think it was Integrales but that would have been fifty year ago. I can't remember any more. This is fairly reminiscent of that composition. Does Frank acknowledge Varese with this work?
Check out "Run Home Slow" (1965), a pre-Mothers of Invention film Z scored. It's a weird movie (a western!) written by his high school English teacher, and bits of several Zappa/MOI compositions are in it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-soVPv4mP_9M.html
