*
Well, it's not exactly an early 1970s Thanksgiving night at Roosevelt Auditorium, but here's something pretty-sounding for Gurlitzer's purfoot of happineff by a gentleman who used to perform at that same venue, but on Halloween night, during that same timeframe.I think Zappa secretly adored his own beautiful, emotive compositions and performances, but publicly disowned that side of his musical personality for some twisted, unnecessary reason. Unexpectedly, this is a cut you need to turn up to 11 after you jam your little earbuds into those holes in either side of your head. There's lots of understated studio magic going on, from the round, lazy driving of the bass to the effortless use of gentle acoustic and aggressive electric guitar sounds side by side in a big, ethereal acoustic domain. The idiosyncratic time signatures that he cuts in here and there further enhance the loveliness instead of pushing it off balance. And if you don't listen closely, you might miss the marimba fluttering underneath it all, rolling and arpeggiating like butterflies. It's hard for me to understand why Frank didn't push a few tracks like this out into the AOR FM "product channel." Would damage his cred as a Freak, I guess.
Zoot Allures, Frank Zappa (1976, "Zoot Allures," 1990 reissue, RykoDisc RCD 10160), via YouTube, embedded for noncommercial critical discussion and educational purposes.
Sort of a visual pun (wrong album though)
ReplyDelete"Do you want some more a?"
Erstwhile Humperdink
EH: looks just like a Telefunken U47, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, very pretty. I don't remember if I ever did the Halloween show. I did see a show at North Central and they confiscated my "Sucrets." Well, 3 ooo's in Purfooot anyway.
ReplyDeleteWord Verification "tranclog" - a system to prevent OD'ing
gurlitzer: never tried a Sucrets tin. Our solution back then was a tin of "Meloids," an old-school potent licorice pastille "For a Mellow Voice" (as the slogan put it). The virtue of the Meloids tin was that it was a flatter, much less bulky "solution" than other alternatives, snugly fitting four hand-rolled cigarettes and nothing else. The "Meloids" application was invented by my dear deceased friend, the late great Rich "Itch" Lanterman from Blackburn Beaver days.
ReplyDeleteI'm not prepared to accept three Os in "purfoot" without valid documentation. Thank you for your attention to his matter.