I want one of these...

Ordinarily, I would not post something about gadgets. But this one I like.

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935 Lies

Eyes of Steel, Tongues of Fork, 935 Lies.

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Kid's Guitar Video

More talented Kids

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Don't come round bashing on my door on Saturday Morning!

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Frank Zappa - The Early Years

While living in several places from Monterey to San Diego California, his parents had purchased Frank a record player.

From wikipedia:

"The first items of music Zappa purchased were R&B singles, and he began building a large collection he would keep for the rest of his life. He was, however, mainly interested in sounds for their own sake, in particular, the sounds of drums and percussion. He got a snare drum at age twelve, and started learning the rudiments of orchestral percussion.

Events that initiated Zappa's deep engagement with modern classical music occurred when he was around thirteen. He read a LOOK magazine story on the Sam Goody record store chain that lauded its ability to sell an LP as obscure as The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One. The story further described Varèse's percussion composition Ionisation produced by EMS Recordings as "a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds." Zappa then became convinced that he should seek out Varèse's music.

When he finally found a copy after a year of searching (he noticed the LP for the "mad scientist" looking photo of Varèse on the cover), Zappa convinced the salesman to sell him the store's demonstration copy at a discount. Thus began a lifelong passion for Varèse's music and that of other modern classical composers."

The early purchases of R&B along with Doo-Wap music led Zappa to some interesting early career choices. This was blended with the eclectic influences of composers like Varèse. You can clearly see these influences in his later works.

I became aware of Zappa's connection with Edgar Varèse, while attending a unique concert of Frank Zappa's orchestra music on the campus of U.C. Berkeley called A Zappa Affair.

The Berkeley Symphony, conducted by the young, unknown Kent Nagano, performed the really really hard Zappa orchestra pieces including Sinister Footwear.



While they played from the pit dancers manipulated life-size (and larger than life-size) puppets acting out the scenarios Frank had overlaid onto his music.

Before the concert began they played some unusual "music". It seemed to be no more than a series of bizarre sounds and tones. None the less it was captivating. This was Edgar Varèse. A small tribute to an inspirational composer in Zappa's life.

I mention this as it was the only connection I had to the early years of Zappa's career. I did purchase an Edgar Varèse LP (see above) after the concert to learn more about his work, but I did not learn of the context of his influence on Zappa until much later.

Keeping in mind the R&B, Doo-Wap and Varèse influences will provide some background and context for the real focus of this post. In 1963, Frank Zappa made an appearance on the Steve Allen Show. He was just 22 years of age. He is touted as a man who plays an unusual instrument. The bicycle.

Steve Allen was himself a gifted musician. I suspect that Frank did want to impress Steve a bit, in this appearance, with his novel approach to music. However, as you will see, Steve clowns around quite a bit, and Franks attempts to describe his composition, are generally washed over in a sea of gags.

March 14, 1963 (aired March 27)

Steve Allen Show - Part 1

Here in part 1, Steve Allen asks Frank where they might have heard of him. Frank explains that they will hear more of him after the new Film "The World's Greatest Sinner" (Frenzy Productions) comes out, for which Frank composed the score. The film was produced by Tim Carey who also performs the starring role.

Frank notes that he recorded the score with a 55 piece orchestra in Chafe

Tim Carey

Steve Allen Show - Part 2

In part 2 Frank demonstrates the various sounds he can produce by banging on, bowing, and blowing into a bicycle.

Steve Allen Show - Part 3

In part 3, Frank attempts to describe how his composition is put together. He includes a recording of his wife playing the clarinet, that he "electronically" alters, along with other sounds he has recorded. He asks band members to make sounds (not musical tones), using their instruments, whenever it moves them to do so. All this along with the bicycle noises will result in a unique composition.

Steve Allen Show - Part 4

In part 4, they perform Frank's composition. Frank attempts to direct while Steve clowns around and on at least one occasion breaks the flow with a joke. Steve recalls a Choreographer by the name of Alvin Nicoli that also composes his own music to accompany his performances that "sounds a lot like" Frank's composition.


Transcript of a portion of the show

Frank interjects at the end that he has a new record coming out called "How's your Bird?". "Go and buy it. It's wonderful."

"How's your Bird?" was an expression that Steve Allen had used on his TV program. No doubt Frank was trying to get a rise out of Steve by announcing the release of this record on his show. The song name was created by "Baby Ray" Collins, Frank wrote the song and they recorded it together as "Baby Ray and the Ferns" a reference to another Steve Allen catchphrase "Hows your Fern?".

On the flip side of "How's your Bird?" was the title track for "The world's greatest sinner".

During his stay in Cucamonga, Zappa cooperated with Paul Buff and others to release various singles for the local market. They contain traditional rhythm and blues and doo-wop music with fantasy group names such as "Baby Ray and the Ferns". These singles are some of the few recordings that the Zappa Family Trust doesn't have the copyrights of.

Here are some of these early recordings for your listening pleasure:

The Penguins - Memories of el Monte (1962)
Baby Ray and the Ferns - How's Your bird (1963)
Baby Ray and the Ferns - World's greatest sinner (1963)
Bob Guy - Dear jeepers (1963)
Bob Guy - Letters from Jeepers (1964)
The Hollywood Persuaders - Grunion run (1963)
The Hollywood Persuaders - Tijuana surf (1963)
Mr. Clean - Mr. Clean (1964)
Mr. Clean - Jessie Lee (1964)
The Rotations - Heavies (1964)
The Rotations - The cruncher (1964)
The Heartbreakers - Everytime I see You (1964)
The Heartbreakers - Cradle rock (1964)

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Finger Picking - Come Together

Pretty good for a kid his age, nice style.

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Have some Phun

Phun is meant to be a playground where people can be creative. It can also be used as an educational tool to learn about physics concepts such as restitution and friction.

Phun was coded in C++ using OpenGL, GLEW, SDL (for window management), SDL_image (for reading images) and boost, including boost_filesystem. Everything was coded by Emil Ernerfeldt, including the physics engine and user interface.

Get it here: http://www.phun.at/

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Jeff Beck - A Day in the Life

A nice cover of the classic Beatles tune, by one of my favorite guitarists.

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