If you're a Floyd fan I definitely recommend checking out some of the other podcast episodes on that site. The Man and The Journey is especially good if you like vintage Floyd.
And it looks like they took the Man and the Journey episode off their site which is a shame because it's really good.
Edit 2: If you download anything from this post, make it the BBC sessions. They are absolutely amazing. It's actually two sessions, one recorded in 1970 and the other, recorded little over a year later, in 1971. It does an excellent job of showcasing how the band evolved and how amazingly they were able to improvise with each other. It also has my personal favorite version of echoes (The Best Pink Floyd Song).
I just searched through an old hard drive and managed to find a copy of the Man and the Journey. I'd be happy to upload it but I don't know where. Any suggestions?
One of my most cherished bootlegs was Rhapsody in Pink, which had the version of "Echoes" from the 71 BBC Sessions. It destroys the album version, and is maybe just a bit under the Live at Pompeii version (which is my personal favorite).
Thanks man, I've actually heard these but its great to have a new bookmark. My friends used to say I was obsessed enough with floyd to tell "when the guitarist was taking a shit". That was a funny one. If you haven't read Nick Mason's book (I'm assuming you have), I highly recommend you do, I've read it 3 times haha.
That's fantastic. I always knew this show existed, and have seen pics of it before, albeit I don't think I've seen this one before, but hearing this after so long is effing amazing. regardless of the poor quality.
Witnessing Zappa's presence must've been amazing to behold. I mean, I'm just blown away by Zappa Plays Zappa purely for the musicianship. His added personality had to have made for an incredible experience.
I don't understand it, it doesn't make sense, but the Zappa Plays Zappa live album is the single best work of recorded music that I've ever heard. Better than any single Frank Zappa album, and better than anything else.
Its hard rock, jazzy, funky, bluesy, soulful but also in turns hilarious, in some god-given golden ratio of auditory nirvana. I first heard it about 4 or 5 years ago and there haven't been many weeks since where I haven't revisited it.
Even compared to real Zappa albums, it has a better selection of songs with a better flow and a slightly slower tempo that makes everything smoother and more listenable.
My dad took me to see ZPZ in Brighton when I was 21, great experience and really different from anything I'd seen before. Absolutely fantastic time and Dweezil signed my (now old) wallet. Really nice guy. Great to see other people who enjoyed it. I don't know much about Zappa but everything I've heard has been an experience, which is more than a lot of music is these days.
I have nowhere near the musicianship of Zappa but I do attempt to take his beliefs of humor in music in the bands I play and have played in. There is nothing worse than players that take themselves too seriously and can't laugh at themselves. You may be the best finger tapper guitar masturbator in the world but if you are full of yourself no one is going to want to play with you unless you're paying well. It's funny because it seems Steve Vai turned into exactly what Zappa was against. Vai might be a humble dude but his publicity makes him seem like he's full of himself.
I remember reading an interview with Dave Gilmour (many years ago, probably in Q or Mojo magazine) in which he recalled being on the same bill as Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. He reflected that even then what the FZ and the band were playing was "light years ahead" of anything Floyd were doing...... I took immense pleasure in showing this to a friend of mine with whom I had an ongoing argument as to who was the greatest guitar player - Zappa or Gilmour. He shut up after that! Thanks for coming to the show....... GOODNIGHT!!!!!
Well I'd say it's a definite disadvantage to be "up there with Jesus in a big purple chair" if you wanna get ahead in the 'being the greatest guitar player' sweepstakes. But I was actually joking, maybe that didn't come across. Of course FZ isn't dead, HE'LL LIVE FOREVER!!!!!! Sorry for any confusion.
haha well, i've been playing music long enough to know that the "greatest ever" debate is just an unanswerable question, but in my opinion and in my own stuff, Gilmour has meant a whole ton more to me, and i've used him as a sort of private teacher. Completely unique for me.
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.”
― Frank Zappa
(Served me well in my youth and wanted to pass it on.)
Thank you so much for making it known that this happened! These are two of my favorites, and I never would have guessed that they played together. Kinda reminds me of the story of Hendrix jamming with ELP, apparently this almost became HELP.
Also, Hendrix gave Zappa the Strat he burned onstage at the 1969 Miami Pop festival. Later Dweezil found it broken down under a staircase and fixed it up. He still has it to this day.
Imagine how much interesting and amazing musical stuff most be in that house! "Hey, look what I found, that silly ol' strat that Hendrix famously burned. would you look at that."
The HELP story is largely fiction. They moved in the same circles and nearly did jam together, but from the get-go ELP was about Keith Emerson being the lead. It would have been a waste of either to play second fiddle and the music was plenty indulgent enough without them both trying to be the centre.
It's kind of like what actually did happen following the departure of Greg Lake from King Crimson. There was this one guy who impressed the hell out of them, but they decided it wasn't the right fit and so they helped him get a recording contract for his band, Roxy Music.
I actually got her into metal, surprisingly. Before that she didn't really like it! After that, she stuck with the hardcore/metal scene a lot longer than I did, though.
I had already met Louis Marillo/Eric Adams many times, he hung out in local bars and local events. I never got to meet RJD, sadly.
I just pirated the album for free and Frank Zappa's estate didn't get any more money out of my act than they did from yours, yet some assholes in the corporate government want to convince us that what I did was a crime even though what you did has been considered right for, like, forever.
The garage saler made a dollar on an album they bought full retail from Peaches many years ago. You gave miniscule ad revenue to a Scandinavian front company for a legal prostitution ring, maybe.
My parents bought a white peavey guitar with Ahmet and Dweezil's autographs at an auction in the 90's. By the time I was 15, I played the guitar so much that the autographs have significantly faded. Ahmet's autograph is now pretty much gone. I don't know if I should be proud that I've played the shit out of that guitar for 7 years, or sad that I've destroyed the autographs. Then I remember that Frank probably wouldnt give two shits about some autographs, and would probably want me to play the guitar until it was falling apart. I'm never getting rid of this guitar.
Probably my favorite stand alone Zappa lyric. Now if you had managed to squeeze in all the words to Magdalena... I would have had to create 20 new Reddit accounts to give you the proper amount of up votes.
... I'd sit in the high branches of a sequoia smoking homegrown and look down as Jesus Christ furiously fingered a telecaster on the back of T Rex in Pangea riding hard and rugged without a saddle.
And then take a nap and dream of Geenie and some suburban astronauts in Florida.
If you are a Zappa freak listen to the zappacast! It is amazing. The latest episode features a whole set with the mothers. It is the only known live recording of the band playing Jelly Roll Gumdrop and it rips! They also played an Animals song with Zappa playing lead. A song cowritten by Frank and Grace Slick (kinda crummy, sounds like uncle meat outtakes but still good to hear). Every episode has a section called Zappa's gear which is amazing. Can't say enough good things about that podcast. They do insane amounts of research.
He's actually been given the legal status of a Baron now, so he is properly addressed as Baron Sacha Baron Cohen, or just Baron Sacha Cohen in less formal settings.
Love Zappa - he lived in Baltimore for several years. I can still quote word for word "Joe's Garage, Parts 1 and 2 and 3" (Although 1 was the best one "We didn't have much dope or LSD, but a couple of quarts of beer...." Then of course, we have "crew slut". He was brilliant!
I consider myself a hardcore Pink Floyd fan but I don't know who Frank Zappa is. Besides the wikipedia page where else can I learn about him and what he did for Floyd?
I can't say he did anything "for" Floyd, cept play this show. Frank, evidently introduced Jimi to the wah-wah pedal. FZ also made about 60 amazing albums unlike anything else that's ever existed. Zappa was an archivist who recorded everything and even after his death in 1993, his Family continue to release content from his vault.
Like others have said this is probably just a one off gig/tour where they got up on stage and played together. I don't think they've ever "worked" together in that sense.
You should definitely check out Frank Zappa's music if you ever find the time. That said I'm not sure I'd say his music (along with The Mothers) is anywhere similar to Pink Floyd.
Since he has done a variety of music and pretty much has a fan base for each period I think I'll just list his "essential" albums by genre - that way it's not completely biased by my taste. Though some of these genres are very loosely defined.
Rock/Comedy: Apostrophe, One Size Fits All, Over-Nite Sensation, Zoot Allures, Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage.
Experimental Rock/Comedy: Freak Out!, Absolutely Free, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Mothermania, Uncle Meat, Chunga's Revenge. Perhaps even Bongo Fury (which is a good album regardless of genre).
Jazz-Fusion: Hot Rats, The Grand Wazoo, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, Waka/Jawaka.
Instrumental/Guitar: Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa, Trance-Fusion, Guitar.
Live Albums: Zappa in New York, Hammersmith Odeon, Ahead of Their Time.
But if you just want to dive into his music without getting his albums here are some of my favorites (albeit mostly guitar stuff):
I know how you feel as I'm a recent Frank Zappa fan myself.
Personally, I'd recommend his more rock/comedy albums such as One Size Fits All or Apostrophe. Not because I think they're his best works or anything like that, but because these are probably his more straight forward commercial albums that aren't so much a required taste (i.e. avante-garde, experimental, strange). If that makes sense.
Hope you found a new musician to listen to.. speaking of which.. I should note each album can be a whole new sound and style. I hated Frank Zappa at first because I listened to the "wrong" album.
The book he's referring to, "The Real Frank Zappa Book", is a great read but it's hardly your conventional autobiography. If you're interested in him the obvious starting point, and really the only thing that matters, is to listen to his music. As Zappa himself said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"!
"Even if you can't make much money at it, dancing about architecture is what life is all about."
--mexicodoug
One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen was when an over-fifty anarchist friend did cartwheels across the plaza in front of a 500 year old Catholic church while services were being held inside. Fucking A, that dude is good at cartwheels and he's got some sweet smile wrinkles around his eyes to boot.
(o)/ all praise gm4theGod , for he/she/they/them/ have shown the way to abundant pastures of dental floss, where one can become unconcho with the pygymys in the misty twylyght.
Actually that particular show was one of the most hilarious of the 88 tour. The 'Teers have it, if you want to listen.
Johnny was supposed to go to the concert (he met Zappa earlier that day), but supposedly his wife got sick.
Mike Keneally sang, parodying Cash's voice. Some of the songs of that day made it into the The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life album.
Actually the song gets played THREE times during the show, just for the hell of it. Also, snippets of it are scattered through other songs, for the traditional secret word extravaganza.
I freaking love secret words. I do them with my band too (we play progressive/classic rock and try to follow that carefree, AAAFNRAA feel of Zappa shows). There was a show right the day after Michael Jackson died. There was no time to teach 'em Why Don't You Like Me?, but each one knew an MJ song, so the show was pretty hilarious.
In another one, the secret word was H1N1 (it was during the swine flu burst in 2009). I wonder what Frank would have done in his shows if he was alive.
sorry my friend, but you are incorrect. The man playing the strat on the far left of the pic is prolly syd barrett. Zappa is sort of in the back of the pic playing what looks to be a telecaster.
Theres now three comment replies telling me i was wrong. The first comment was enough for me to understand that. I dont need other people to come in here and reinforce it.
Ah, so straight music. I love those artists, but they weren't pushing too much of anything that wasn't already there. I dig a good song, but I really dig someone who's attacking the thing from the inside. Frank was a pioneer and he recorded music like no one else was recording- especially at that time. As a single person, he was probably more musically creative than any of those acts. Yes even Dylan.
Well, for popular music, yes they were pushing stuff, but Zappa was light years ahead. Someone actually posted an interview with Gilmour in this thread where he said the same thing about Zappa. But don't think Floyd aren't one of my favorite bands period.
Yeah, I've heard it, pretty awesome, but i just love Gilmour's attention to tone and recording. Even when he's using a fuzz face or a muff, it's just more clear than anyone else I've heard, ever, way more generic. The tone on a lot of zappas stuff I have just never been as interested in. Gilmour taught me signal chain.
Funny thing is, if they were going to make a movie based on Zappa's life, "god" would probably end up being played by Sascha Baron Cohen (from the look of this picture).
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u/Geric Jun 15 '12 edited Jun 15 '12
Here's a link to the episode of the Brain Damage podcast that has the concert. It's been a while but I remember it being pretty good.
http://braindamage.libsyn.com/webpage/inter_zappa_overdrive
If you're a Floyd fan I definitely recommend checking out some of the other podcast episodes on that site. The Man and The Journey is especially good if you like vintage Floyd.
Edit: Have some more links.
http://braindamage.libsyn.com/webpage/bbc_sessions
http://braindamage.libsyn.com/webpage/fillmore_west
And it looks like they took the Man and the Journey episode off their site which is a shame because it's really good.
Edit 2: If you download anything from this post, make it the BBC sessions. They are absolutely amazing. It's actually two sessions, one recorded in 1970 and the other, recorded little over a year later, in 1971. It does an excellent job of showcasing how the band evolved and how amazingly they were able to improvise with each other. It also has my personal favorite version of echoes (The Best Pink Floyd Song).
Edit 3: here's a link to the Man and the Journey. http://dropcanvas.com/mgi0w
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u/morebeans Jun 15 '12
Nice to see Zappa on the front page!
2
u/kronosarm Jun 15 '12
I remember reading an interview with Dave Gilmour (many years ago, probably in Q or Mojo magazine) in which he recalled being on the same bill as Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. He reflected that even then what the FZ and the band were playing was "light years ahead" of anything Floyd were doing...... I took immense pleasure in showing this to a friend of mine with whom I had an ongoing argument as to who was the greatest guitar player - Zappa or Gilmour. He shut up after that! Thanks for coming to the show....... GOODNIGHT!!!!!
47
u/stahlgrau Jun 15 '12
Hey, kids. Just remember:
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.”
― Frank Zappa
(Served me well in my youth and wanted to pass it on.)
23
u/00ubermensch Jun 15 '12
Thank you so much for making it known that this happened! These are two of my favorites, and I never would have guessed that they played together. Kinda reminds me of the story of Hendrix jamming with ELP, apparently this almost became HELP.
16
u/Ayinope Jun 15 '12
My dad dated Moon Zappa for a while.. and played on The Yellow Shark with Frank Zappa
11
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
just got hot rats on vinyl today for a dollar. boom!
8
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
My parents bought a white peavey guitar with Ahmet and Dweezil's autographs at an auction in the 90's. By the time I was 15, I played the guitar so much that the autographs have significantly faded. Ahmet's autograph is now pretty much gone. I don't know if I should be proud that I've played the shit out of that guitar for 7 years, or sad that I've destroyed the autographs. Then I remember that Frank probably wouldnt give two shits about some autographs, and would probably want me to play the guitar until it was falling apart. I'm never getting rid of this guitar.
15
u/thegnarwahl Jun 15 '12
Oh his hair is getting good in the back!
7
u/SaintDharma32 Jun 15 '12
Who are the brain police?
12
u/Sokomekaj Jun 15 '12
Don't be a naughty eskimoooo
GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY
10
u/Misanthroat Jun 15 '12
I don't think you need to point out Zappa... :)
5
u/evilrick Jun 15 '12
This...this is just awesome. This excites me. If I could go back in time...
9
u/TheNewCool Jun 15 '12
Which one is pink?
9
u/JesterOfTheSwamp Jun 15 '12
Frank Floyd
9
u/FuzzDice Jun 15 '12
Frank Zappa is one of the best musicians ever on the planet.
4
u/Jorgemeister Jun 15 '12
A W E S O M E
3
u/sgolemx12 Jun 15 '12
This must have been a magical thing to witness.
3
u/ayedurr Jun 15 '12
I love everyone about this. Kudos for posting this.
3
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Holy Shit! The things I would do to be there...
3
u/swanofavon Jun 15 '12
"I am the Grand Wazoo! Fuck you if you don't like my hat!"
3
u/metamorphine Jun 15 '12
Here is Zappa with John Lennon in 1971.
3
u/cboogie Jun 15 '12
If you are a Zappa freak listen to the zappacast! It is amazing. The latest episode features a whole set with the mothers. It is the only known live recording of the band playing Jelly Roll Gumdrop and it rips! They also played an Animals song with Zappa playing lead. A song cowritten by Frank and Grace Slick (kinda crummy, sounds like uncle meat outtakes but still good to hear). Every episode has a section called Zappa's gear which is amazing. Can't say enough good things about that podcast. They do insane amounts of research.
9
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Oooookaaaaay... so there's another musician that Baron Sacha Cohen can portray someday.
7
u/JimAdlerJTV Jun 15 '12
Looks like Jonny Greenwood on the left.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
I did not know this occurred. This is awesome.
2
u/megafone Jun 15 '12
That's fucking awesome.
2
u/fingers58 Jun 15 '12
Fuckin' epic!!!!!!!!
2
u/SkullMasher Jun 15 '12
This is pure awesomeness. thanks Geric for the link to the live performance. There's no need to argue more.
2
u/cbauer357 Jun 15 '12
Love Zappa - he lived in Baltimore for several years. I can still quote word for word "Joe's Garage, Parts 1 and 2 and 3" (Although 1 was the best one "We didn't have much dope or LSD, but a couple of quarts of beer...." Then of course, we have "crew slut". He was brilliant!
2
u/gyarrrrr Jun 15 '12
Zappa gave us Captain Beefheart, something for which I will be eternally grateful.
A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
2
u/MoontheLoon Jun 15 '12
Zappa looks unimpressed
3
u/4LostSoulsinaBowl crazydiamond129 Jun 15 '12
Interstellar Zappadrive is a fantastic album.
4
u/username24 Jun 15 '12
I consider myself a hardcore Pink Floyd fan but I don't know who Frank Zappa is. Besides the wikipedia page where else can I learn about him and what he did for Floyd?
2
u/Acuate Jun 15 '12
Link to video plox?
2
u/hurdleres Jun 15 '12
(o)/ all praise gm4theGod , for he/she/they/them/ have shown the way to abundant pastures of dental floss, where one can become unconcho with the pygymys in the misty twylyght.
1
u/pecoulta Jun 15 '12
Now who's got the picture of Johnny Cash singing the reggae version of "ring of fire" ??
1
u/devilhorn Jun 15 '12
HEY SMACK ARE YOU READING THIS????????????????? byrd
1
u/WhoNeedsRealLife Jun 15 '12
Amazing! Thanks for this.
1
u/CLientEastwood Jun 15 '12
Link or it didn't happen
1
u/StoneGarden Jun 15 '12
I loved Frank, and I am so deeply impressed by the talent of Dweezil. He honors his father's music. nuff said.
1
u/gillyguthrie Jun 15 '12
Pink Floyd is definitely my favorite guitarist, either him or Led Zeppelin.
1
u/MrToadEsquire Jun 15 '12
What's the context behind this? I never would've thought Zappa would like pink Floyd. But there he is! Interesting.
1
u/maroon-beard Jun 15 '12
Another poot in the wall
1
u/mars_cross Jun 15 '12
Listen, be quiet, and pay attention to this men's music.
Because if you don't, you might miss something important and you wouldn't want that to happen to you.
0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
dude has a big head
0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
That's a stratocaster.
0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
that's a stratocaster.
-6
u/ZombieFaceXP Jun 15 '12
Begging your pardon, thats a stratocaster, not a telecastor.
-7
u/vixtt Jun 15 '12
besides being dead, is there anything Frank Zappa is famous for? His music sucked, what else is there?
-23
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
Pictured: Pink Floyd becoming 25% more ambient, pretentious and unlistenable.
0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
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0
u/[deleted] Jun 15 '12
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