Classical Composer Reacts to FRANK ZAPPA: The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

Classical Composer Reacts to FRANK ZAPPA: The Adventures of Greggery Peccary | The Daily Doug Ep 779

Рет қаралды 25,446

2 ай бұрын

#frankzappa #zappa #greggerypeccary
In this edition of #thedailydoug, I'm returning to the music of Frank Zappa by listening to his epic work called The Adventures of Greggary Peccary. It's 21 minutes of the most amazing chamber music I've heard in quite some time. A true piece born out of a fusion between the classical and rock world, it's a story of wit and humor that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope you do as well!
Reference Video: • The Adventures Of Greg...
Daily Doug Merch: www.bonfire.com/store/the-dai...
Thanks to our friend TIM WAURICK for providing the vocals on the Daily Doug Intro and extended Outro: / @timwaurickmusic
Catch up on my full album reactions at my Patreon!
JOIN THE NEW EXCLUSIVE DAILY DOUG COMMUNITY!
Patreon: / doughelvering
Instagram: / doug.helvering
Facebook: / helvering
Twitter: / helvering
Vimeo: vimeo.com/user146736659
The Daily Doug Directory: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Пікірлер: 419

@ganazby 2 ай бұрын

Frank described it as being “a cartoon for the ears”.

@ZSAZSS09 2 ай бұрын

He wasn't wroong there.

@chrisdraughn5941 2 ай бұрын

I was going to say it reminded me of a soundtrack for a Warner Bros cartoon.

@psaint60 Ай бұрын

@@chrisdraughn5941I thought the same. A lot of his more orchestral instrumentals I could see. Warner Bros or the Walter Lantz stuff (Woody Woodpecker/Chilly Willy) That stuff was a lot more violent 🤣 It would be fun to swap out the music and see how it looks/sounds for personal consumption. Obviously would be a nightmare to post it anywhere.

@madmanasaurusRex 2 ай бұрын

Billy the Mountain has to be on Doug’s radar now! 😊

@alldayadventures5418 2 ай бұрын

Second that, then add in The Joe's Garage Rock Opera, in order, 20 minutes at a time, every Friday for 6 weeks.

@Ferretbomber 2 ай бұрын

I hope he hits many other songs first, I can't handle listening to Flo and Eddie wailing away. So many better songs.

@robertcussins2807 2 ай бұрын

All great, but "One Size Fits All" is an epic album. IMHO, his best.

@Ferretbomber 2 ай бұрын

@@robertcussins2807 definitely a great album.

@sledzeppelin 2 ай бұрын

I love Joe’s Garage, but it’s rather… controversial.

@songsmithy07 2 ай бұрын

Fun fact, Gregory Peckary was on a collection Frank called Läther, which Warner Bros. refused to release as Frank intended... so he released it over the air on the radio, telling his fans to record it on cassette from home. The Zappa family released a post-humous version of Läther on CD.

@stevedotwood 2 ай бұрын

The ultimate Zappa tune. It's got everything. "Zappa is a planet on his own"

@morsedregs9239 2 ай бұрын

Need more Zappa

@cryptotharg7400 2 ай бұрын

The White Zone is for loading, and unloading, only!

@leechild4655 2 ай бұрын

@@cryptotharg7400 if you gotta load, go to the white zone.

@lw1zfog 2 ай бұрын

@@cryptotharg7400 ‘You’ll love it, it’s a way of life’

@scottmcley5111 2 ай бұрын

I bet Doug would LOVE Frank's "Shut up and play yer guitar", "Shut up and play yer guitar some more", and the infamous "Return of the son of shut up and play yer guitar."

@guitarchannel5676 2 ай бұрын

Well, I won't speak for Doug; however, I think Doug prefers composed arrangements (preferably with a score) to long jams and/or endless solos.

@scottmcley5111 2 ай бұрын

@guitarchannel5676 Just thought it would give him a look at a side of Frank he hadn't seen yet. Also it was later on in his life if I remember...

@NoNameForThisGuy 2 ай бұрын

I prefer "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama"

@gregwolking 2 ай бұрын

The real challenge of the entire "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar" trilogy is figuring out which "core tunes" the solos were extracted from. I'm pretty sure that would be way over Doug's head (no offense intended).

@scottmcley5111 2 ай бұрын

@gregwolking FZ was a great composer, probably the most famous as far as my limited knowledge of this current era, of course. But he's a stud on the guitar, and that gets overshadowed by all the other stuff going on, humor, etc. Just thought it would help paint a more complete picture of a guy who deserves it. I'd have to give it a listen again to see what selections I'd recommend, but yeah, I think it's still worth a listen. For science!

@rickylefebvre 2 ай бұрын

I'm just here to note that they play "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock at 19:29-19:38, right after the lyrics mention the nearby "very hip young people" lol

@TheTralfaz 2 ай бұрын

he was too busy yakking to notice it....theres TONS of his older instrumental stuff on this track...re purposed.....the Big Swifty tune in particular was played by his 1973 band ... I heard it live in Sydney....a great thrill to hear it turn up years later Cucamonga started out as an instrumental also

@mournblade1066 2 ай бұрын

Really? I don't hear it. But then he was, as @TheTralfaz astutely noted, "too busy yakking."

@rodneygriffin7666 2 ай бұрын

You need to do a Frank Friday. Seriously.

@sledzeppelin 2 ай бұрын

Biiiiiilllly the moooouuuntain….

@espenstoro 2 ай бұрын

There's certainly enough material

@derekpavlic 2 ай бұрын

Yes!!

@rickandgen 2 ай бұрын

Now you must do the prequel, Billy The Mountain. Frank was a master of “conceptual continuity”

@seed_drill7135 2 ай бұрын

I'd forgotten that Quentin reappears in Thing Fish.

@Ninang363 2 ай бұрын

I asked Dweezil who did the Grggory's voice and he said it was Frank who sped up the tape

@barrywilson1294 2 ай бұрын

Who is making those new brown clouds? Remember a mountain is something you don’t want to fuck with.

@Grithron2 2 ай бұрын

There are people who whistle that "who is making..." motif as a form of disgusted commentary whenever someone farts in an elevator.

@ugowsky 2 ай бұрын

Billy the mountain, first track from album Just another band from L.A. That should be the next one, yess!

@todd8155 2 ай бұрын

Flo and Eddie! I really like the opening track of Life at Fillmore East "Little House I used to Live in". I think the album would appeal to Doug's funny bone, and musical sensibilities providing he isn't put off the the crassness of it. It's some of Frank's nastier stuff IMO.

@trumbaron 2 ай бұрын

I sat down with a glass of wine to see what's good on youtube today, and this popped up. Very glad that Doug got to this finally! I have listened to it a hundred times, and I hear some new detail every time!

@michaelcaparula8312 2 ай бұрын

Knowing FZ, I would believe every note of this piece was pre-written and nothing left to improvisation. If that’s true, this work should go down as one of the great pieces of classical music of the last 60 years.

@semanj 2 ай бұрын

There are original charts out there, google them.

@stevengifford7457 2 ай бұрын

This musical style is known as Warner Bros. on Saturday morning.

@ciromascolo1367 2 ай бұрын

It actually exists a “cartoon” of Greggery Peccary…. Is a crazy stop motion animation signed by Bruce Bickford!!

@zykify 2 ай бұрын

I talked to a friend some days ago about "grammar" in music, how we has come to learn a a certain kind of movements and expect them fit together in a certain way to sound "right". Frank's (musical) language was more comprehensive and had a much larger vocabulary than the stuff normally heard on the radio and he knew he could not throw that stuff on us without also teaching us, educating us about music beyond I IV V. To educate us, he made songs consisting of "easy" parts with lyrics, often funny and provocative, that got us interested and then he threw in some "heavy" contemporary stuff, sequences that would make both Stravinsky and Varese to sit up, and "force" us to listen through them if we want to hear the rest of the story. After a while we got used to the weird, we didn't mind it. After a little more while, we like it. Many of us now crave it. He was also a great lyricist; the language, the phrasing, the rhymes... There are many that does not like what he says (usually because they do not get that many, most, of his songs is done in character), but the quality is undeniable.

@gordonbowyer2365 3 күн бұрын

Very well put

@rockettebob 2 ай бұрын

HOT RATS, HOTMEAT !!! was a call on the game. i was a casino dice/21 dealer in reno. rats are dice. girls are meat....willie the pimp.. i had this on vinyl but seldom listened to it... you have made me want to time travel back. i will listen to it now.... THANK YOU !!! ............... rockettebob in reno

@brettlewismusic 2 ай бұрын

When I first heard The Adventures of Greggery Peccery, my reaction was exactly like Doug's. Disbelief in what I heard. Wondering how a musician could create something like this. Thought of Spike Jones and Scott Bradley and instantly thought the piece as a cartoon as I listened to it. Then had to listen to it again and then again for it all to sink in. It is one of my favourite compositions of Frank's and it's always a treat to listen to it.

@jazzhead394 2 ай бұрын

This track gives me Charles Ives and Carl Stalling vibes. Felt like I could imagine a Looney Tunes cartoon going on with this

@carlharvey6461 2 ай бұрын

Cartoon composers, such as Carl Stalling, were a major influence on Zappa, especially on this piece.

@surfdigby 2 ай бұрын

If you want to continue with Zappa having an extraordinary band being pushed to extraordinary limits, you need to visit the 1988 tour band. There's so much incredible material from this tour (it had a different set list every night!), it might benefit from a long play video, going through each side of the album "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life".

@yan00919 2 ай бұрын

I was waiting so long for this one. this music literally makes me cry each section. i cant conceive how can this sound textures come out of a man's mind.

@squareeyedgit 2 ай бұрын

ABSOLUTE FUCKING MASTERPIECE. George Duke as the stenographers!

@mariuszgowacki2900 Ай бұрын

Yes it's so different from anything I've heard

@matseriksson8177 2 ай бұрын

I haven't checked in here for a week. And by a coincidence I just happened to listen to this piece "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary", for the first time in years, just a couple of hours ago. I have listened to it a lot way back, and remembered it well enough to sing along and know just about every word of the lyrics by heart. (Even "Ti-hi-hi. WANDAAAH. Ha-ha-ha." :) ) Now I will listen to it for the second time today. It will be fun to hear what Doug has to say about it. :) 11:55 That's exactly my perception of the traffic situation when i'm looking for a place to park in The Big City.

@ScienceTalkwithJimMassa 2 ай бұрын

The musicianship is incredible. Ruth and Chester are on top of the game. I kept hearing George Carlin's voice doing the narration))

@whycantiremainanonymous8091 2 ай бұрын

Zappa wrote some incredible music in his lifetime. This piece is one notch above the rest. 21 minutes and not one dullsecond!

@MrOrontea 2 ай бұрын

Yeah, this is fantastic. Still blows my mind after more than 30 years of knowing this piece.

@derekpavlic 2 ай бұрын

I second the motion on Frank Fridays ✍🏻🫡

@TsunamiBeefPies 2 ай бұрын

Now you KNOW you need to listen to Billy the Mountain. Even more fun than this, and more musically accessible. I loved watching you listen to this! Frank delivered "four tapes," which translated into an 8-sided album. Warner refused to release it and instead released Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites in editions not sanctioned by Frank. This started the process of FZ eventually taking ownership of all of his compositions (he won the lawsuit). The album was originally going to be released under the title "Leather", which had to do with some band inside jokes that were circulating during one of the tours in the 70s. It was finally released under Frank's auspices in '91 under the title "Läther" as a three-CD set, and has so much amazing music that you can spend months (or years) studying it. Thanks as always, Doug. This was a blast!

@Royale_with_Cheeese 2 ай бұрын

Nope. It went like this: Frank gave WB Zappa In New York and was aghast to learn that they removed Punky's Whips from it as well as editing out any reference to Punky Meadows from Titties 'n Beer. They had no right to edit or censor his music and that made him angry. Why it made him so angry... As well, it appeared that he wasn't paid for Zappa In New York. He owed them three more albums on his contract, and he decided to drop the tapes for all three at once on them and be finished with them. He brought the tapes for three albums, those being Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt (so named by WB, although Frank intended it to be titled Hot Rats III - Waka/Jawaka - Hot Rats being Hot Rats II) and Orchestral Favorites. WB was to pay him $60K per album ($240K) and Frank would be on his way having fulfilled his contractual obligation to them and free to look for a new record company. With those breaches of contract, Frank felt he had the right to shop the music around to another record company. He still had his copies of the tapes and resequecenced the songs, removed a few, added more, including that signature "grout" between tracks, and that became Läther. He brought it, packaged as Läther, to Mercury/Phonogram and they were on board to release it. They went as far as making test pressings of it. WB stepped in and threatened them because, breach of contract or not, Frank was still their artist. In his way to give a big finger, rigid and stiff, to WB, he took those test pressings to KROQ radio in L.A. and invited his listeners to tape it off the air and to NOT buy the releases that would come out on WB. As to the official release of Läther, that came after his passing, released on Sept. 24, 1996.

@josuevegalopez1159 2 ай бұрын

I really love how in Zappa's music Stravinsky can compose jazz ❤

@larryhelmeczy4320 2 ай бұрын

thanks for doing this. You are very brave. I've been a Zappa fan for 50 something years. I heard part of this a long time ago, put it aside because at the time it was too much, and never heard it again until now. I had forgotten how much music there was in there. You mae my day.

@PacoLipsNow 2 ай бұрын

Happy Birthday Ruth Underwood!

@buddinganarchist 2 ай бұрын

Doug, the Yellow Shark is his symphony album.

@keithmarkus6852 2 ай бұрын

I do not think that is correct. London Symphony Orchestra album came first. Yellow Shark came later with chamber ensemble.

@eziozanelli3585 2 ай бұрын

Totally agree, FZ is another planet. Listening to his music since ever , everytime I hear something new.

@todd8155 2 ай бұрын

Billy was a mountain! Ethyl was a tree growing off of his shoulder!

@CMMCM 2 ай бұрын

G-Spot Tornado-The Yellow Shark Version(With Ensemble Modern) is a fantastic piece!!! there is a live preformance version on KZfaq with dancers and Frank conducting...

@rafaelfernandeslopesdeoliv1700 2 ай бұрын

This. He has to watch that, it would blow his mind.

@zappafanseeker1099 2 ай бұрын

Not just dancers, but La la la Human steps. Part of the world famous five by two (5 X 2) dance ensemble. A most worthy addition to Franks "Last Band". He was so sick, but so happy and energized to be "on the road" one last time with performers of that level of talent and dedication.

@jiggler2004 2 ай бұрын

I’ve wanted him to do G-Spot Tornado for a while now. Both Jazz From Hell version and Yellow Shark. And heck, why not the marching band from Ohio that does it too ;)

@todd8155 2 ай бұрын

@@zappafanseeker1099 - Those dancers are outer worldly in ability. Good match to Frank.

@egapnala65 2 ай бұрын

He was actually pretty highly regarded by the Darmstadt school. Stockhausen called him by far the most intelligent rock musician out there while Boulez made an album of his orchestra based pieces with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. You should check out his "Perfect Stranger" if you wnt to explore his classical composition side. Or "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" from "200 Motels".

@egapnala65 2 ай бұрын

Actually you should check out the film "200 Motels" which is the audio visual equivalent of this track.

@3744james 2 ай бұрын

Check out Bruce Bickford”s work with clay. The “claymation” features lots of Gregory bits.Frank worked with him on the Baby Snakes movie

@DWHarper62 2 ай бұрын

You've reached the pinnacle... Zappa was proud of this piece...

@jacques-andresaint-laurent1300 2 ай бұрын

For Zappa experts : I think this is the version of Läther, not the Studio Tan version. There are some subtle differences, like towards the end of the "radios tuned to different stations". Just for fun, nobody really cares, although I feel Läther, if released in 1977, would be today considered one of the greatest work of art in the history of music. The 1995 version in CD is still incredible, just not widely known.

@DavidsonMoslak 2 ай бұрын

Zappa and Doug. Must be some kind of stellar event occuring tonight. These are the best.

@PlutoniumBoss 2 ай бұрын

The complete works of Frank Zappa need to be animated by Ralph Bakshi. Because who else could possibly tune into Frank's wavelength?

@DavidsonMoslak 2 ай бұрын

Hell yeah. Great call.

@seed_drill7135 2 ай бұрын

Zappa worked a lot with Bruce Bickford, who did the claymation bits from Zappa's videos.

@pascalsimon9780 2 ай бұрын

Merci beaucoup Doug ! c'est sympa de te voir écouter cette musique avec Passion, comme un enfant ! du coup, grâce à toi j'ai re-découvert ce bijou de FZ...Thanks Doug !

@francoisathome5979 2 ай бұрын

Gail Zappa, Franks widow, used "the eons are closing" in at least one of her liner notes she wrote for one of the albums published after his death.

@stefanandersson2402 2 ай бұрын

Perhaps not a cartoon but a clay-animation, maybe you remember seeing parts of it in the first live number of "Inca roads", that was the hunt of Greggery on the side of Billy the Mountain.

@TheOriginalFILIBUSTA 2 ай бұрын

This. Thank you.

@ChasBeauregarde 2 ай бұрын

The reference to Billy the Mountain is another character in Zappa's alternate universe. Besides the music, his whole body of work - the phrases, characters, stories and inside jokes are constantly cross referenced wherein Frank coined the term " Conceptual Continuity."

@lw1zfog 2 ай бұрын

Planet Zappa

@Dave-er2pn 2 ай бұрын

This is Zappa's masterpiece.

@aquabot 2 ай бұрын

I'm astonished that nobody evertalks the fact that this song evokes pope Gregory XIII and his new calendar that rectified the previous one, etc, etc..

@egapnala65 Ай бұрын

That's actually not something I'd even bought into the equation. It also explains why he's portrayed as a pig. "Dio Fa" et al.

@gerardlewis209 2 ай бұрын

Grew up listening to this, happy memories. The Summer of Love guitar chord take-off is hysterical.

@jacques-andresaint-laurent1300 2 ай бұрын

Zappa said his favorite song out of his own catalogue was Strictly Genteel, Doug... In Greggery Peccary, every single note has been first written down on a music sheet before it was recorded. I asked for this song, so thank you. I don't think there is anything remotely close of this song in the entire universe of music. Without a doubt, you analyzed your most complex "song" to this date. Thanks again !

@hansvandermeulen5515 2 ай бұрын

God chunks of it WERE writtten before recording. The story and a lot of the nusic were written in early 1972 while he was hospitalized after having been pushed offstage in December, 71. An instrumental version in four movements was performed on The Grand Wazoo tour (September '72), the steno pool section was part 1 of a 3 section suite called Farther Oblivion z(not to bs confused with Father O'Blivion from the Yellow Snow suite), performed on the Petit Wazoo tour October-December '72. The studio version here was recorded in early 1975 with portions recorded at the recording sessions for the Orchestral Favorites album. The main character is voiced by a sped up FZ, the steno pool ladies are voiced by George Duke.

@espenstoro 2 ай бұрын

Dang, didn't expect this one to show up here. It's a crazy experience, I couldn't believe it when I heard it 20 something years ago. I still have no idea what's going on. Very much in the tradition of doing all music and sound effects with orchestra in old cartoons, but so much more complex. Just to write 30 seconds of this must be an insane amount of work. How do you even read this? There's truly no one that can be compared to Zappa.

@andybyron1 2 ай бұрын

The adventures of Greggory P is and always has been in my top ten FZ tracks

@sonicart1808 2 ай бұрын

Awesome reaction Doug.....Frank was so unique for sure, a genius in my opinion.

@Eric-o6b 26 күн бұрын

I’ve been a Zappa fan since the 70s. Billy The Mountain is whole story on its own from Just Another Band From LA. Frank loved to reference back to previous works of his. Studio Tan is amazing. RDNZL, the last song on the album, is one of my all time faves.

@zolaarczakle 2 ай бұрын

"This needs to be animated", it almost was by Bruce Bickford. We can see some of it in Baby Snakes.

@bebopjones7985 Ай бұрын

Check out Zappa's Roxy and Elsewhere.. My favorite album by anyone-EVER! Perfect from first song to last. Get hip! I've been for 50 years!

Ай бұрын

While I am waxing extravagantly, Zappa is single artist with the greatest pallet in all of human history -- music (high and low), culture (high and low), lyrical poetics, dadaism, etc., etc., etc.

@robertheckler1048 2 ай бұрын

One of these days you should do do "Holiday in Berlin, full-blown" on the Burnt Weenie Sandwich album. It's the album before Hot Rats (you did Peaches en Regalia from that). Hot Rats is considered the first Jazz Fusion album, ever, and with Burnt Weenie you can hear Frank's transition from collage music into jazz.

@Alix777. 2 ай бұрын

It's so much better than Hot Rats

@robertheckler1048 2 ай бұрын

@@Alix777. I find that Frank's albums seem to come in pairs. Absolutely Free (his 2nd album) was like Freak Out 2.0. It was a more polished, more sophisticated version. Ruben and the Jets was an anathema to me, it wasn't really Frank. Lumpy Gravy came next and then We're Only In It For The Money, which sounded like Lumpy Gravy 2.0. Hot Rats (considered by many to be the first jazz fusion album) was like Burnt Weenie Sandwich (which came after WOIIFTM) 2.0. A more polished production.

@andreasrosenberg9317 2 ай бұрын

Awesome!! =) Zappas Masterpiece!

@gezazsoltsarvari5657 2 ай бұрын

I've been listening to this piece since the early 90s and concluded it's music for an imaginary surreal cartoon.

@dinodaniel2237 2 ай бұрын

PUT ON YOUR ZOOT SUIT. AND GRAB YOUR WAHZOO !

@MrJMS814 2 ай бұрын

Great research! You're getting into Frank the right way. If you dig hard enough, there's a piece of Frank for everyone's taste. Frank put out a few lifetimes worth of material in just a couple decades. As George Duke once said: "Its almost as if he knew he didn't have a lot of time. And he had a LOT to say." And yes, some of those high pitched voices are Frank himself, done the old fashioned way; Recorded at half speed and played back at regular speed!

@seed_drill7135 2 ай бұрын

In college we had to take a class called "arts and ideas" that included a lab for us non musicians to compose an original work. My piece was a solo work for trumpet, which I played in high school, built around the "who is making those new brown clouds" bit of this song.

@mikegraves9682 2 ай бұрын

When I was enrolled in the Electronics Technician program at DeVry in Phoenix in 1982, my roommate had this record- "Studio Tan" I spent 8 years looking for it, eventually finding a decent copy of it at House of Records in Eugene

@DavidNWalker 2 ай бұрын

You have to do "Billy the Mountain" now.

@louisvonbeethoven 2 ай бұрын

Frank didn't chart it. He insisted that his musicians read standard notation. This piece is fully scored. I would love to get my hands on it.

@jonasolsson2256 2 ай бұрын

It’s a really good idea to listen to the rest of this album, it’s so good. Really challenging compositions with spectacular musicians and as a little icing on the cake, the charming little ditty Lemme Take You To The Beach. Great reaction!

@ulfingvar1 2 ай бұрын

Do some of his orchestral music next. Man, Zappa could do anything!!!

@xanti2000 Ай бұрын

Frank was into the lydian chromatic theory a book put out in the 50s. The scale if I remember correctly resolves itself over 3 octaves. It proliferates much of his works.

@erikmaronde2244 2 ай бұрын

My favorite Zappa piece. Still.

@mikedemike5393 2 ай бұрын

he was working on claymation for this and you can see elements of the story in other projects that zappa conceived.

@TheUtke 2 ай бұрын

Regarding the multiple radio stations: there is a short sequence where you hear actual radios on top of eachother, but you could be right, that what follows, is a depiction of that. Great reaction.

Ай бұрын

Doug, you also need to locate a copy of The Big Note - Charles Ulrich (published in 2018 but oddly out of print). it is absolutely an encyclopedic, in-depth documentation of all of Zappa's recordings.

@frankcoverjr.-jz3ne 8 күн бұрын

The “statistical density” of this bouncy little ditty confounds the ears… until the time you listen and it falls apart like sand through an hourglass. Or something like that.😊

@pitfisch1 2 ай бұрын

I remember dropping into my most beloved recordstore. Oh, new Zappa stuff. We knew about the legal circumstances Frank had around this time. Therefore i bought it and regard it rather less. But it grew on me over time.

@ralf_kulle2684 2 ай бұрын

This tune is so brilliant and your reaction to it as well, Doug. 🤜🤛 Treat yourself to Side 2 with the songs "Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchstra", "Lemme take you to the beach" & "RDNZL" (my Side 2 favorite). The "Studio Tan" Album - a Masterpiece of Frank's musical work. "Studio Tan", "Tinseltown Rebellion", "Sheik Yerbouti & "Joe's Garage" are my personal "Fab 4" among all the Zappa albums. At least one of the 4 albums has the honor of adorning my playlist. For me, Frank Zappa is and remains an absolute musical genius - as a composer, performer and guitarist. 🎸🎼🎵🎶

@richardhorky9749 4 күн бұрын

Doug, you need to go through the Zappa catalogue. He made reference to The Toads Of The Short Forest (“…Short Forest exit…”) and Billy The Mountain (recorded live at the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, 1971). There are many other themes from other Zappa penned pieces, as well. Remarkable. Yet, unbelievable.

@northsouthdivide 2 ай бұрын

I think this is one of the greatest pieces of music ever. Very funny and like nothing else on earth! 😂

@steveford8999 2 ай бұрын

Frank loved him some marimba.

@TimvanderLeeuw 2 ай бұрын

I don’t actually know a lot from Zappa but the music from this track comes back in some of the tracks on the Orchestral Favourites live album. Purely instrumental btw, and part of the same set of tapes so perhaps that’s not a big surprise.

@cully465 2 ай бұрын

This is THE one I wanted you to experience. I can rest easy now. It gets better with every listen by the way...

@LeoAtlantideo 2 ай бұрын

Genial Frank ❤🧠 R.I.P. 🙏

@jeffmartin1026 2 ай бұрын

If you want to see Frank's music animated, you need to watch Dental Hygiene Dilemma from his film 200 Motels.

@java7686 2 ай бұрын

“ Billy was a mountain…. Ethel was a tree living off of his shoulder”

@matseriksson8177 2 ай бұрын

20:15 .... 20:24 :)

@tomn9094 Ай бұрын

He learned how to do this at the library.

@shemanic1 2 ай бұрын

amazing Zappa. Love it.

@giuliopedrana690 2 ай бұрын

Doug, you MUST hear Billy The Mountain, especially the beatuiful version of Playgroud Psychotics album!! You'll love it!

@edwardthorne9875 2 ай бұрын

I haven't heard this in years. As you said, you'd have to go to avant-garde orchestral to match this, except this has the added benefits of a narrative plus a sense of humor. Perhaps Stockhausen comes close. Zappa is also smart enough to inject actual musical phrases into the chaos. Thank you so much for letting us enjoy this experience with you. Gobsmacked indeed.

@marshfilm 2 ай бұрын

"..what the hell is going on?" ...Make your checks payable to Q.R. DeNameland!! (perfect moment lol) I've listen to this 100,000 times and I hear so much new every time. Indeed, without peer (well said)

@TheAnalyst79 2 ай бұрын

Roxy & Elsewhere next. And Zomby Woof

@TimvanderLeeuw 2 ай бұрын

Zombie Woof is best in the Live version!

@Psychprogrock 2 ай бұрын

Weird Wednesday could be back with a vengeance: what's weirder than a Weird Al Yankovic's tribute to Frank Zappa? Doug, hear me out: you gotta do "Genius in France" by Weird Al!

@gentle_goy23432 Ай бұрын

The best of Zappa

@skulmoski1 13 күн бұрын

I bought this album upon release as a teenager in Canada. And I was an aspiring drummer who was blown away by Chester Thompson and Paul Humphrey). LOL. Zappa opened musical doors for me. Next I discovered Nina Hagen (e.g., New York New York -- live versions). Nina does vocals like no one else. Frankie and Nina would have been at home with each other. p.s. Nope; not synthesised trumpets, Frankie used a full orchestra of brass, reed and woodwinds. Cheers and RIP Frankie.

@goatuscrow4135 2 ай бұрын

Greggery always satisfies.

@LyleCochran 2 ай бұрын

Thanks. Great video. Oh and you too Doug.

@coolmark4851 2 ай бұрын

Lumpy Gravy is brilliant Atonal music

@derekpavlic 2 ай бұрын

Great video!! I thoroughly enjoyed it. You should listen to Billy the Mountain next, it would help you understand Greggery better. ✌🏻

@donaldanderson6604 2 ай бұрын

What is even more extraordinary is that this essentially a contract fulfillment aibum. Zappa was fed up with the record label and delivered four albums very quickly to get out of his contract. He witheld the Dolby codes so the original releases sounded odd. This was one of the first Zappa albums I bought.

@Broccoli_Highkicks 2 ай бұрын

The composition Billy The Mountain is just as entertaining, and highly recommended. It's more based in Frank's early psychedelic rock period, and some versions run over half an hour. The piece involved some improvisations that made it so every performance was unique. Lyrically, it's about Billy, a mountain who gets a royalty cheque for all the postcards he's posed for, and decides to take his wife Ethel, a tree growing off his shoulder, on a vacation. This, of course, causes "untold destruction". Billy and Ethel are accused of being linked to drug rings, Ethel is said to be an active communist and a witch. Billy then receives a notice to report for his induction physical for the Vietnam War, but evades the draft. Since Billy and Ethel are causing all this destruction on their journey, Studebaker Hoch, a fantastic new superhero who could write the Lord's prayer on the head of a pin, is dispatched to go and reason with Billy. But it turns out in the end, that "a mountain is something you don't wanna fuck with"...

@willicat44 2 ай бұрын

Succinct synopsis