This is reported to have been Frank Zappa’s last public performance, directing the Ensemble Modern, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany, 17 September 1992. Zappa died less than two years later, days shy of his 53rd birthday. From the UToob link:
It was his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found “exhilarating”. Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark, Zappa’s last release during his lifetime.
And now for something completely different.
Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.
In the late 70s, there was a shift away from hard rock, pop, disco, and other over-produced gag-inducing genres, and I took a liking to Country Rock Jazz fusion. The Marshall Tucker Band caught my ear with “The Last of the Singing Cowboys,” one of the prettiest songs ever written, featuring one of the greatest country rock vocalists ever: Doug Gray (and yeah, that’s one silly-ass hat on the guitar player.)
Domingo “Sam” Samudio is still live and howlin’ in this vid from 2000. IIRC, Sam took his nic “The Sham” because he only knew 3 chords. “Little Red Riding Hood” is probably my favorite STSATP song – even in elementary school we got the innuendo. “Oh, That’s Good” was fun due to our juvenile misinterpretation of the lyrics: “He operated on my 3rd leg…”
Archers of Loaf. Great 3-chord rock. According to Wiki, they disbanded, reformed, broke up and now reorganized before disappearing completely.
In 2009, The Axis of Awesome discovered the secret 4-chord progression required to make a hit record.
Zappa’s “Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” is a classic. Unfortunately the video is not an actual performance, but a compilation of images pasted over the music. So what. I still like it. We’ll let Carlos Santana have the last word.
Die Allotria Jazzband ist eine Combo, die 1969 in München gegründet wurde und dem traditionellen Jazz verpflichtet ist. [Allotria translates to Monkey Business.] “Wolverine Blues” was written and recorded by Jelly Roll Morton in 1923.
Two decades later, Fats Waller was playing the same style.
Nice lip-sync of a pretty song. According to the UToobage: “Myra Johnson voiced-over the girl “vocalist” sitting on the piano, who, according to trumpeter Eddie Henderson, is his mother.”
In 1975, over five decades later, Leon Redbone recorded his own version (and this isn’t it. Click the link). Mr. Redbone’s music is meant for eggs and coffee and a side of toast.
Meanwhile, Jim Stafford is both an underrated guitarist, a talented comedian, and he had some minor hits in the 70s, and he’s still alive. Congrats.
Stafford had a number of minor hits, but I remember one in particular. I’d just lost a girlfriend, and this song seemed to make sense of it all. In retrospect it didn’t, but so what.
Dude was and is funny.
Here’s one of the prettiest songs George Harrison ever wrote and one of the most appropriate videos I’ve ever seen.
For some unknown reason that song always makes me tear up, and there’s something in that innocent video that hits my heart.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, using instruments bought with loose change, which believes that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele.
Great stuff. The world is your lobster if you have a bass ukulele.
LIVE CAM: Train Engineer’s Cab View in Norway [click here for local time]. Not sure which line this is, where it’s headed, or if it’s running above the Arctic Circle. Check it out in full screen view and I’ll see you back here in a couple of days.
Someday, I suppose I’ll go to Norwegia and ride that train. Meanwhile, I’ll listen to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from 1993.
Or maybe I’ll roll with Fishbone, one of the tightest ska/rock/funk bands I ever heard. Those guys won me over a long time ago. (Check out this 1987 live version. Sound quality sucks, but the energy is killer.)
