This video is incredible erplaning why the more you listent to Zappa's music, the better it gets. The cohesion between the whole work along the yerars makes you go back and re discover the music over and over again. 12 years have been since i've first listened to Once Size Fits All, and I still get the same feeling over and over again for this music.
During the mid seventies and up my friends and I had memorized about three album,because We Were All Bozos on The Bus..all of us had Ralph Spoilsport down.Betty Joe Bialaski oh you mean Nancy.Nick Danger Third Eye,
Around the 19:00 mark, when subliminals were being discussed in Zappa's use of similar passages in songs throughout his catalogue, I immediately though about Firesign theater. They were geniuses at subtle running gags across albums. One of my favorites was the phone conversations from different sides when a man was trying to order a pizza and accidentally called Nick Danger, where you eventually hear both sides of the conversation. But if you didn't make the connection, you wouldn't get the joke. Brilliant stuff. "They never come into the hills..."
Were all Zappa freaks into Firesign Theater? Just an odd thing to see this comment...my dad, born in 1950, was one of those original "freaks" or whatever and is also the only person I've ever known to reference Firesign Theater. And he was really into it, apparently; he and his friends, like, _memorized_ those skits. There's some kinda Firesign Frank crossover here!
@@floofytown I had friends from work in the 70s who introduced me to Firesign. They would hold whole conversations just quoting the material. So what’s all the brouhaha?
@@floofytown This is because the Firesign Theater, as comedians, had alot of similar qualities as Zappa. For example, you always can find things you didn't notice before upon subsequent listenings. Always new things to discover. For example, nothing against Cheech and Chong, but there's only so much there and you can only listen to it so many times before it gets tired. Firesign Theater's stuff is so dense, that you sometimes don't get it right away.
I already knew this. Ok no I didn't. It's information like this that deepens my appreciation, fascination, and respect for Frank Zappa. It seems the depth of the content well is never there.
Not a hipster flex, but I knew this. I love FZ with a depth of music appreciation that is hard to express, I love videos like this because it helps me feel less alone in my bizarre experience of the world. The channel host guy gets it, and that fact gives me a sense of para-social community, and therefore comfort. Join us! ❤🎉😂
I just marvel at the thought of what Frank would be able to achieve with today's modern hardware and technology, he would have created something brand new that nobody ever heard before that's for sure
Why do you think one particular Zappa record " which one are you referring to ? " was valid and not all the others..do you understand the premise of this video and what Frank was saying is that all his music should be taken as a whole? what exactly is your problem with the rest of his music ?@@musaka2022
This is now my favorite channel on RU-vid. So glad I found it. I guess I’m late to the party. Thank you for all of your hard work. Im a long time FZ fan and musician and appreciate your analyses so much.
After 40+ years of playing, some college study in classical music (guitar), and years as a professional musician, I am just now starting to feel I’m pretty good in 4/4. Sheesh. Wish I were smarter. Oh well, I enjoy what I do, and that is truly what matters, so I hear.
Yeah no matter what my internal clock seems set to 4/4, I can keep track of the beats and phrasing naturally without any thought, but I need to focus hard to play in other time signatures and will keep slipping back to 4/4 if I get too brave with improvisation.
Dude absolutely love the part where you basically explain how Zappa's synclavier days were like. Seeing that process makes so much sense considering how Civilization Phaze 3 sounds
Never took music class serious, now I am struggling on reciting the circle of fifths and learning how to use FL Studio to compose/produce music. Everytime I listen to Waka/Jawaka, I get goosebumps and emotional. Especially towards the ending.
Would it please be possible to treat your videos like research papers and articles by placing some of the references in the written description? I am sure I am not alone when saying that sometimes searching out Zappa critique is like pulling teeth and it would be so useful and enriching to your output. Thanks for everything you do Chanan. Brilliant to have a resource that focuses on the music and not the Zappa lifestyle/smutty lyrics.
Cazy good. :) Zappa was a genius and now I understand him more. Interesting, how his views are similar to Buddhist tantra, Thus Spoke Zarathustra or even Herberts Dune :) (God Emperor of Dune saw it all.) Thanks, thanks, thanks.
I love your videos man, you are dead ass smart. Thank you for artuclating so well complex ideas which bring us closer to understand in depth what the fuck did Zappa do.
This is a great video! I would consider myself as well-versed in Zappa's music (and interviews) but this is a very good distillation of what FZ meant by time.
I had to pause this phenomenal video to go get some weed. My sober mind puts up too many limits and resistance. Now I kinda understand Zappa's rhythmic contraptions. No one did it like Frank. He stayed true to his Vision. Great job
Great audio examples of polyrhythmic time, xenochrony, and for finding a simple way to relate it all back to his specific views on cosmology and metaphysics.
that is a great overview,underview and innerview of his time concepts....he considered most see time as being linear...like a string that runs from the left and goes to the future on the right...timelines have conditioned the human mind this way....but if we take that same string and look stright down it it appears as a dot where all time can be viewed at the same time......
Well, what can I say? Frank was like a father to me. Thank you for doing this. Strangely, when I first heard his guitar solos, I thought he was Turkish. It just felt like home 😀
I have to say, as a father figure, you could do alot worse than Frank. I hope he's making more of his interesting music wherever he is. I think that if he could have survived even five years longer, the sheer volume of his music would surpass all other composers. His orchestral compositions are incredibly imaginative and exciting to listen to, so don't discount them, even if you don't like orchestral music. He opened my mind to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and many others. Long live his music!
Where are in a mechanical world where many time signatures and landscapes of sound layer themselves. These can have sonic inroads into our (emotional) subconscious. We probably all have the seeds of being ‘composers’ but we choose to import others compositions. I always liked Frank’s output because , like jazz, ‘on’ The Beat is more of an abstract anchor that you work around. I’m not a musician, my talents were in the visual theatre, but principles of composition are rooted in a corporate perception. Sometimes a simple idea shift our perception and we are forever changed. We should WANT to have our perception changed because we are not everywhere and everyone. I found a humanity to Frank’s output. He was liberating.
Wow, how much work went into this?! Very impressive. It could've done with slower narration; lots of words and not all common-day ones, either. And therein is my 'issue', I think. Whilst it's impressive, it's very academic... at a very granular level in places. I guess you framed it and put your thesis inside. I get worried that it redresses events and meanings, adds more, leaves out others, and feeds it back into academia, which then, over time, rewrites history using academically-dense words Zappa never even used. And whilst that can easily impress us, as fans and viewers, because we believe he should be recognised and remembered, it also makes it difficult to pushback and just say, "Leave it alone mate - just let it be". Because we are biased. That's difficult to write, knowing the care and attention that was poured into this. There were some very interesting breakdowns and visuals and I'm glad I watched it, so please don't be discouraged.
Very well said! I chose to read through your comment because I agreed with you about the narration pace, but you ended up mirroring my exact thoughts on the other issues you mentioned. Nothing for me to add because you said it all quite eloquently. I think your assessment is fair and very well grounded.
Franks not underrated. He was doing things that us stupid people haven't figured out yet. It's like the group Gentle Giant. A group from the '70s that only the last few years are finally getting in too.
Sorry, I haven't watched this video yet but I can't resist replying "any way he liked" :) Seriously though, I've just discovered your channel and I'm very excited to dive into your videos.
Great video. I have to point out relating tuplets to milliseconds is straightforward math. You don’t have to guess how many notes to play before you land on a beat Start with the ratio of 1000/70. Simplify it to 100/7 and divide by 8 (4 for 16th notes * 2 for 120/60) and you get 25/14. (7/8 has 14 16th notes as you know) A tempo of 60 * 100/7 ~ 857.14 would be a quarter note roughly every 70ms. Divide the tempo by four for 16th notes every 70ms.
Many thanks for your comment and eloquent mathematical breakdown. I certainly get the maths, but my discussion at that point in the video is about context and the application of the process within the DAW.
I think about this often. My experimentation with looping and delay pedals coupled with studying improvised recordings of my shitty guitar technique allows me to explore how Zappa's views of rhythms are, while not exactly "ahead" of his time, is certainly alien, yet fresh and welcomed, compared to academic study of rhythm as well as basic "good enough for garage band" level theory.
