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Frank Zappa: 1970s
After he disbanded the original Mothers, Zappa released the acclaimed solo instrumental album Hot Rats, featuring his jazz-inflected guitar playing backed by jazz, blues and R&B players session players including violinist Don 'Sugarcane' Harris, drummer John Guerin, and bassist Shuggie Otis. It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and arguably had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre.
Around 1970 Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, previous Mothers member, multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood and singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who had been the lead singers in Sixties folk-pop band The Turtles. They were nicknamed "The Phlorescent Leach and Eddie" by Zappa. (Their own music was later published under Liccianetti Music.) Because contractual problems prevented them from recording as The Turtles or even under their own names, Volman and Kaylan were often billed as "Flo and Eddie".
The new lineup debuted on Zappa's next solo LP
Chunga's Revenge, which was followed by the sprawling soundtrack to the movie project 200 Motels, featuring both The Mothers and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. At the time George Duke was in the band and appears both in the film and on the sound track as a musician. He left the band to play with Cannonball Adderly and was replaced Don Preston from the original Mothers, who acted in the film, but is not playing on the soundtrack. This double disc album was followed by two superb live sets, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From LA, which included the 20-minute track "Billy The Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera, set in Southern California. The former features hilariously low-concept cover art just at the apex of the era of great rock "album cover artwork". The latter was released according to FZ to provide some royalties to the band members who were suddenly in limbo, unable to tour.
In 1971 there were two serious setbacks. While performing in Montreux, Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a disastrous fire that burned the casino where they were playing — an event immortalised in Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water".
Then in December, Zappa was attacked on stage at the Rainbow Theatre, London. The jealous husband of a female fan pushed Frank offstage landing him unconscious in the orchestra pit, with serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx (which caused his voice to drop a third after it healed). This left him wheelchair bound for a time, forcing him off the road for over a year. (He was wearing a leg brace for a period thereafter, had a noticeable limp and couldn't stand for very long while onstage.) He said one leg healed shorter than the other -- a reference found years later in the lyrics of "Dancin' Fool" . He employed a bodyguard thereafter when touring, John Smothers, a former L.A.P.D. officer.
In 1971-72 he released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs,
Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the layoff from live concert touring, using floating lineups of session players and Mothers alumni. He began touring again in late 1972, first with a Grand Wazoo 'big band' and with groups that variously included Ian Underwood on brass and reeds, Ian's wife Ruth on vibes, Sal Marquez (trumpet), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax and vocals) Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums) George Duke (kbds, vocals) and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin).
He continued a high rate of production through the early 1970s, including the excellent and accessible albums
One Size Fits All and Apostrophe, OverNite Sensation and Roxy and Elswhere featuring ever-changing versions of a band no longer called the Mothers.
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The Mothers of Invention -
1980s >>
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LiteratureWorn Free's vintage tees made famous by rockers
In the discussion following Xeni's post about Yoko Ono yesterday, Shawn Wolfe referenced having just bought one of Worn Free's "Yoko Ono" t-shirts, just like John Lennon used to wear. I checked out Worn Free and they have a very cool business idea. They recreate obscure vintage t-shirts famously worn by rockers, like Lennon's "Working Class Hero" tee, Iggy Pop's "I Wiped Out The 60's" tee, Debbie Harry's "Punk" tee, Frank Zappa's "Rental" tee, Joey Ramone's "Capitol Theatre" tee, and a slew of others. My favorite is the "Yoko Ono" and Joey Ramone's "Punk Magazine" tee. Link...
Published: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:40:26 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article
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