Even though famously parodying the Genre, Frank Zappa actually began his career by writing and arranging tunes in that style. An interesting and entertaining account of his roots and inspirations.
Being one of the lead singers and organist for his Ruben and the Jets project in 1972, I can truly say without a doubt, Frank loved his doo wop roots. Yes he was into many forms of music but his producing our 1st album "For Real"demonstrated his love and respect for that genre as he not only wrote one of the songs " If I could only be your love again", but played lead in one of the songs I sang, "Dedicated to the one I love". We had many a discussion on his favorite songs and groups while riding on a bus, in the studio or waiting to perform. If you listen to our albums, one can see or rather hear that we had many musical influences i.e. doo wop, R&B, rock and funk. And despite the fact that most of us were Chicanos, we didn't have any Latin influences in our songs. Frank was a genius and had an influence on many musicians and singers. Rest in peace Frank. And now his wife Gail has joined him.
I'm from Scotland and I was born in 1980 and I've always loved Doo Wop simply because it gets to the point, concise, spine-tingling stuff. It endures like all great music. Case closed!
Right up till the end he was listening to it. Sure he was spending most of his time in mindbogglingly complex abstract orchestral space, but when he wanted to unwind, he listened to Doo wop. It comforted him, and let his brain unwind from its complexity and just relax and appreciate its simplicity and perhaps a connection to his youth. You gotta remember, his first bands as a teen where mixed race bands that played 'black music'. He was immersed in this stuff from his childhood. Those connections in his brain went deep
Well Im an old man now but played Rockabilly and Doowop all my life , but still love doowop as my favorite & listen to it all the time...50s 60 s was a great time to be a R & R Drummer/Guitar player--ck out Eddie Cochran ( I Remember ) ck out The Desires ( Bobby You ).........Evan today a certain doowop song will cause my eyes to become glassy & that is a blessing my friends...longue vive le doowop.........doowop dougie
I love Doo-Wop and for me, there's no other music I'd rather make out to. I also love Frank Zappa's music, and I really like that they mentioned What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body, which is very funny, but the whole song, including the parts after Doo-Wop, really makes a statement, imo. I think it's brilliant.
wow! three years ago you posted your comment and three years later I post my comment to say that I agree with you Sir. Lol! I think Zappa must've been Chicano in another life time because that Vato really got down singing and playing with his heart them DooWops! Rifando y Controlando with a Chicano style Homez!✌🏼
I can't imagine Zappa would choose a style to play that he didn't like, even if it parodized it. It was just such a staple of 50s american culture, which at the time of Zappa's heyday was being severely ripped apart by hippies and people with an ounce in their heads.
-The man who speaks at 1:28, since because the music is not advanced classical music, he downs the entire genre of it. He doesn't seem to realize that as unsophisticated as they are, the simplicity is just what is needed to build the many various doowop harmonies on. & They could go from simple vocal sounds to elaborately blended vocal harmonies with many various arrangements of slow, mid & uptempo songs. To have any complicated musical arrangements would be unnecessary & would actually take away from the song. It was a music that was born in the streets, so don't expect any operatic performances. But it was, & is some of the most enjoyable music you can hear.
4 chords is the new 3 chords. Of course there are four chords. I had to scritch my head when he said 3 chord progression. However, I'm not a music theorist, and I only twang on the guitar, and it's 4 chords, like James Pollock and Huawei... stated.
I love doowop music specially groups from east Los Angeles area like little Julian Herrera your careless love the Perez brothers dream a little dream rene and ray queen of my heart the heartbreakers cradle rock and Rosie and Ron bring me happiness and thee midniters sad girl that's all Chicano stuff and as far as black groups and white groups maaan that was also fabulous doowop music!!!!!!!
We in East LA only had little bit of Doo wop Groups the most famous west coast groups are the Penguins The Gallahads Doo wop wasn’t huge in East LA sadly only in the East Coast respectively but I’m from East LA and we didn’t exactly did how New York New Jersey Philadelphia they defined the Sound of Doo Wop
I loved Thee Midniters version of "Sad Girl". Not exactly doo-wop but definitely an influence. I saw them live more than once. They were the best dance band of that time.
Doo Wop was made by African Americans the most famous are the Penguins Dells Moon-glows Tony Allen And The Champs The Five Satins The Spaniels And The First Italian Americans was The Four Lovers with Frankie Valli before Dion and the Belmonts Doo Wop could be a mixed group or All Girl Groups
The Mothers classic album "Ruben and the Jets" was simultaneously tongue in cheek, yet an homage to doo wop, as if rock n'roll had never had to cope with surf music or the Brit invasion. Entire phrases from classic songs are used verbatim - "I hold in my hand, three letters from the stages of your fine, fine, superfine career." I actually find the entire album more cohesive as a concept, than much of Zappa's self-indulgent excessive rambling, which gets very old and tiresome. The finale, where the strident chords and "redundant piano triplets" give way to all-out psychedelic guitar feedback is an absolute climax, and what I believe is Zappa's H.S. grad photo is priceless. My only lament is the vinyl is far better than his inevitable remastering later, IMHO.
yes. I think the notion of "Ruben and the Jets" being a satire of doo wop came about because of the LP's album cover being a funny caricature of Frank and the Mothers and not the music itself.
z1522 what you describe as Zappas " self indulgent ramblings " are in reality highly structured and cohesive Avant Garde pieces of music ,or an interlude from a highly rythmic piece of music where the composer chose to exceed the normal accepted beat count of 6-10 beats per second in favor of using 60 beats in a single second ,to most listeners Zappas extreme use of odd or complex rythms over extremely complex multiple time signatures comes off as scatter brain ,but to others who can read music ,or have an ear for the Avant Garde Zappas " self indulgent ramblings " are heard as self indulgent masterworks , I'm curious as to why you perceive a composer being self indulgent is a negative ,especially when said composer uses modern classical techniques to create rock music ,what's wrong with Zappa writing pieces that indulge his ability to write music that highlights his immense skill as a composer ?
Zappa's talents obviously were lost on many, even among fans more attracted to his anti-establishment antics. That his more eclectic indulgences failed to reach a larger audience suggests that he too often chose to intentionally alienate persons who otherwise might have been amenable to his other works. Of the several musicians with talent and credentials I have known, none ever spent time either producing or listening to any avant garde works, as they tend to be insufferably intellectualized. Jazz is more akin to Zappa, but the fact remains that he seemed to do a lot of things purely for his own entertainment.
not true at all, frank never attempted to alienate anyone. he simply wrote music which sounded good to him, and made it available to other people. he even made his music more accessible to people like you by releasing albums such as this one and hot rats. if you dont like the more intricate music he made that's fine but you're missing the whole point of zappa. you shouldn't get the wrong idea about him, also frank hated pretentious contemporary jazz "noodling"
Those oldies but goodies of the fifties were the bomb hated to see that era leave I loved them as a 8 and 9 ur on and then here's hunting with hunter. hunter hancock radio station k g f j and records in la and compton dances consist of 7 step hip, cha chas with different of steps and of course cool slow drags. The real drag was your parents came and picked you up when it was over
According to Kenny Sinclair, of the Six Teens, Elgins, Bagdads (who recorded "Bring Back Those Doo Wopps" in 1968), Olympics and other Southern California groups, The term Doo Wopp was a street term used in Cali in the 50s to describe the music.
Paul V. Montefusco Beautiful analysis. I agree. Parody or mockery isn’t always done with malicious or slanderous intent. Frank might’ve been doing an affectionate mockery of the music from his youth.
