[www.quora.com].

According to a January 1968 interview in the Village Voice titled Zappa and the Mothers: Ugly Can Be Beautiful. Zappa mentioned it was easier for him to get club gigs in the post-British Invasion context of 1965 if he told or implied to promoters and bar owners that his band sounded like the Rolling Stones:

We were playing at local beer joints for like six dollars a night. I finally decided this would not do, so I began calling up all the clubs in the area. This was in 1965, and to get work you had to sound like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. You also had to have long hair and due to an unfortunate circumstance all my hair had been cut off. I used to tell club managers that we sounded exactly like the Rolling Stones. Anyway we finally got a booking in a club in Pomona, and were something of a hit. It was more because of our act than because of our music. People used to go away and tell their friends that here was this group that insulted the audience.

"Then MGM sent someone around to sign us to a contract. Their guy came into the club during a set of 'Brain Police' and he said, 'Aha, a protest rhythm and blues group,' so they paid us accordingly. The fee we got for signing was incredibly small, particularly considering the number of guys in the group."

Zappa disliked the club owners who insisted that he imitate the Rolling Stones, but he personally liked the group. In a 1969 Frank Zappa interview in the article ZigZag Unzips in the UK rock magazine ZigZag, when Dick Lawson asked Zappa what English groups he liked, Zappa said:

Lawson: What do you think of the group scene over here. Have you seen any?

Zappa: Only what I saw down at the Speakeasy a couple of times and I wasn't, you know, exceedingly enthralled by what I saw.

Lawson: What about the groups that we're currently sending over ... like Jethro Tull and the Nice?

Zappa: I like Jethro Tull and the organist in the Nice very much. I think he plays very well. I also like the Rolling Stones.

I believe Zappa had some contact with Brian Jones, at Warhol's Factory in NYC? If I'm remembering this correctly. Michael Bloomfield, the great guitarist, also had contact with Jones. I think Jones knowledge of blues was quite impressive to these people.

Frank Zappa estate just released a four cd set of outtakes and live sets from 1970. Its great, flo and eddie in full effect. This to follow up the super sessions from Hot Rats.

jb

I recall FZ referring to Mick as being prance worthy. He likes 19th nervous breakdown. I don't recall him mentioning them much after the early 70s

He liked the early Rolling Stones, coming from an interview somewhere in the late 7-tees. .



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-06-30 01:25 by TheflyingDutchman.

First couple minutes of this interview makes clear he was a Stones fan.
Good interview beyond that..

video: [www.youtube.com]

he also played live with pink floyd

The Mothers also backed up Lennon / Ono at the Fillmore in 1971 NYC which is
heard on Lennon;s Sometime in NEW York City album--- was really good !

FZ distanced himself from J&Y after that mess and got really pissed off that they credited his song (King Kong) as their own on their record. Sued them and got some relief. There are some stories published about Zappa's general disgust with his encounter with royalty.

jb

Quote
jbwelda
FZ distanced himself from J&Y after that mess and got really pissed off that they credited his song (King Kong) as their own on their record. Sued them and got some relief. There are some stories published about Zappa's general disgust with his encounter with royalty.

jb

Yes, Frank tells about it in this interview, 10 minutes in: [youtu.be]

Frank Zappa was a super talented huge artist . One heck of a master of the fretbaord and he could hold his own with any soloist . Mega taleneted guitarist and songwriter . Miss him dearly !

The quote goes on and was shown in a DoRo Stones special,
he additionally says something like: "If I had the time I´d go
to a Stones concert and get me a blowjob"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-06-30 15:32 by TooTough.

Cool that he was a Stones fan. I know this is a sacrilegious statement for many, but, IMHO, Zappa, though talented, is/was very over-rated. Like Eric Clapton, he made some really great music, but for the most part, meh.

Quote
TheGreek
Frank Zappa was a super talented huge artist . One heck of a master of the fretbaord and he could hold his own with any soloist . Mega talented guitarist and songwriter.

Sure he could solo till the cows came home (yawn!) but overall (and imho) he got it so totally wrong all his life he deserves a special place in the "Hall of Idiots".

Zappa's seminal basic flaw is he had "high" tastes in music (like Varese) but he labored in the "low" pop/rock genre. Therefore he, almost from day 1, had a huge superiority comple toward his peers, whom he certainly considered as idiots.
He thought he could take rock to the next level because he played complex stuff with 12 people onstage. Wrong, Frank just made turgid overstretched slabs of sound.

Then Zappa worked with "high art"/"high music" people like Pierre Boulez and that was another dreadful mistake. Boulez probably despised him and his minimal knowledge of classical music but he was eager to get some popularity among a younger wider audience.

Really good points, dcba. I’ve always felt similarly, yet haven’t been able to articulate my point due to not feeling familiar enough with Zappa’s work.

Quote
dcba

Sure he could solo till the cows came home (yawn!) but overall (and imho) he got it so totally wrong all his life he deserves a special place in the "Hall of Idiots".

Zappa's seminal basic flaw is he had "high" tastes in music (like Varese) but he labored in the "low" pop/rock genre. Therefore he, almost from day 1, had a huge superiority comple toward his peers, whom he certainly considered as idiots.
He thought he could take rock to the next level because he played complex stuff with 12 people onstage. Wrong, Frank just made turgid overstretched slabs of sound.

Then Zappa worked with "high art"/"high music" people like Pierre Boulez and that was another dreadful mistake. Boulez probably despised him and his minimal knowledge of classical music but he was eager to get some popularity among a younger wider audience.

To my ears FZ was a musician with a tremendous sense of irony, sarcasm and musical humour that he could exploit thanks to his splendid knowledge of popmusic, classical up to twelve tone and serial music. He knew all about it.

As a guitarist, what Frank do you want to hear? The early Mothers of Invention classic rock player, or the very experimental even sleazy and moving things he did on Sleep Dirt, or Shut up and play your Guitar, Live in New York, Zoot Allures etc. His opinions about other musicians, even society, were brutally honest. Either you like him or not. To me he was a musical genius. RiP Frank. †



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-06-30 20:47 by TheflyingDutchman.

Quote
bob r
The Mothers also backed up Lennon / Ono at the Fillmore in 1971 NYC which is
heard on Lennon;s Sometime in NEW York City album--- was really good !

I think the Mothers were playing a show and John & Yoko joined them on stage to jam. So it wasn't so much that they "backed up" the Lennon's, as much as it was them being guests at a Mother's show.

That performance ended up on the second disc of Sometime In New York City. Many years later I saw some some footage of Zappa talking about his career, and in it he showed a huge shelf containing his master tapes. He said that one was missing--the Mother's show with Lennon/Ono. He inferred that someone had taken it without his permission. I'm guessing this happened after John had used it for his album.

I am really surprised by some of these comments about FZ. I would agree he really kind of lost it around about the mid 70s with stupid songs about yellow snow. But after that he really concentrated on guitar playing and arranging, and prior to that he was a master of satire and his band(s) were made up of high grade musicians even if they did dress funny sometimes. His guitar playing was beyond reproach in those days if you ask me, and the song cycles deep both lyrically (though quite satiric) and instrumentally. There is some truth to the concept of him attempting to be high brow in a low brow world but that was the world's problem, not his. If you follow his career particularly from before he was well known up until the mid 70s it was strength upon strength with some periods of pure brilliance like his recordings with the ex-Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (and some other players too). His doo-wop recordings were exceptional and were part of his true roots.

Personally i think he was one of the rare true geniuses of the rock/pop music world. That he held himself above others was only stating the obvious. He had a genuine work ethic and drove all his cohorts really hard, often totally alienating them in the process, but always with the idea of perfection in view.

If there is one thing i didnt like it was his control freak personality when it came to how his music was played, and also the strictly regimented arrangements he insisted upon. Some of it became a bit boring, this was aside from some asinine lyrics at points, but overall i give him a lot of credit for a lot of enjoyable music, music that often took a bit of getting used to to really appreciate. He took music seriously which often put him at odds with most others in the rock world.

jb

ROCKMAN

The modern day pachuco refuses to die.

jb



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-07-01 09:31 by jbwelda.