Strange, but true, in the early 80s, Frank Zappa joined showbiz celebs like Nipsey Russell, Scatman Crothers, Erik Estrada, Henny Youngman, and One Day at a Time mom, Bonnie Franklin, to record radio PSAs for the American Dental Association. The spots admonished kids to brush, floss and go for regular dental check-ups. Here are three of them: “Dental Floss Tycoon,” “Trick Or Treat” and “Keep Your Teeth.”
If you haven’t heard yet, Universal Music Group is re-releasing the entire Frank Zappa oeuvre and the first dozen of his 60s and early 70s albums—everything from 1966’s Freak Out! to the 1972 live set, Just Another Band From L.A.—are already out.
You can get more information and updates on the Frank Zappa remasters by following Jeff Newelt’s Twitter feed.
Frank Zappa joins comedian Robert Klein (and a small studio audience) in 1979 to discuss the first installment of his then-current project Joe’s Garage (inspired apparently by the goofy “don’t take drugs, kids” high school visits from narcotics officers) giving a blow by blow account of what happens in his quirky rock opera.
In Joe’s Garage, a narrator called “The Central Scrutinizer” tells the story of “Joe,” an average everyday kid who forms a rock band in a dystopian America where music itself is against the law.
If you haven’t heard yet, Universal Music Group is re-releasing the entire Frank Zappa oeuvre and the first dozen of his 60s and early 70s albums—everything from 1966’s Freak Out! to the 1972 live set, Just Another Band From L.A.—are already out. This is one of the most significant catalogs of 20th century music and it’s about time it’s gotten a polish with 21st century audio tools. (I haven’t actually heard them yet, still just checking the mail every hour…)
It will come as no surprise to frequent readers of this blog, or even a reader of the above paragraph, that I’m a Frank Zappa fanatic (a painting of the original Mothers in drag hangs above my desk as I type this). I was first exposed to his music (specifically “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black”) via the Dr. Demento radio show in 1975 when I would have been nine (Via that very same broadcast, I also discovered two other life-long favorites: The Bonzo Dog Band and Noel Coward).
I have such an exhaustive selection of Zappa bootlegs and DVDs that it’s borderline absurd, so the re-release of these albums, for me, is an invitation to dive back into them (something I do at least every two years anyway). For younger music fans, this might be their first exposure to Zappa’s music and in an effort to encourage that discovery, or re-discovery, for old and new Zappa fans alike, during the next week or so you’ll be seeing some great new Zappa-related posts, plus some older posts pulled from the DM archives.
Although it would be ridiculous to describe Frank Zappa as, in any way, “obscure,” the blunt fact is that his music is not widely known to the general public in 2012. Whether you chalk this up to the “difficulty” of his music, that he’s been dead for a generation, or that he acted so far outside of the music industry as he did during his maverick career—Zappa was one of the very first popular musicians (well, Zappa and Frank Sinatra, I suppose) to have his own record label and operated as an “indie” long before that term was coined—it really doesn’t matter much, and besides, in this case, there’s a real opportunity for FZ to blow some new minds. It’s criminal that he’s not better known than he is today, but I’m sure Mozart and Beethoven’s music went through lulls over the years, too…
My point is, dear younger readers, that right now is a really good time to discover the genius of Frank Zappa. Oh that I could hear these albums again for the first time. I envy your youth for that reason alone… but I’m already getting off topic. The primary reason why I would recommend Frank Zappa so strongly to music fans who are new to the Zappa catalog, but curious, is that FZ’s prodigious output is one of those things that you can dive into for months and months at a time: There’s a lot of incredible music that he produced and he’s sort of a genre until himself, really, like when you first get into krautrock or reggae.
Few other musicians of his era, and of his stature, have such massive back catalogs to immerse yourself in as Frank Zappa and such an interesting life story to read about as you do so. The guy was a genius on so many levels. Aside from being a great composer, musician, guitar god, and all around avant garde god/freakster, Frank Zappa was also an astute businessman and one of the tiny handful of the 20th century bandleaders (think Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sun Ra) who was able to keep fairly large groups of touring musicians on the road for decades (a tremendous feat in itself). And he had an idea for something like iTunes two decades before Steve Jobs brought it to fruition. Did you know that? It’s true.
The fact that this music hasn’t become over familiar throughout the years, from the point of view of 2012, is a big plus, if you ask me. And like I was saying above, to get to hear this music with fresh ears, that’s an experience I’d like to have.
You can get more information and updates on the Frank Zappa remasters by following Jeff Newelt’s Twitter feed.
Below, the original Mothers of Invention with a unique take on their concert staple, “King Kong,” at the Grugahalle, Essen, Germany, on September 28th, 1968:
