Question(s) for Ed
Mikael Sillman
1. Why weren't you (and Tommy) on "Live in New York" album?
2. Is it true that Frank wrote "Yo Mama" after Adrian announced that he was
gonna join Bowie's band?
3. Few years back Modern Drummer interviewed Terry about "Black Page", and
he said "Mo 'n' Herbs Vacation" is ten times harder than BP. Did you ever
reherse this tune when TB was still in the band? I thought it made it's
debut on LSO album...
4. What about your opinnion, what was the hardest song to play for
percussion..?
-M
Jon Naurin
> 2. Is it true that Frank wrote "Yo Mama" after Adrian announced that he was
> gonna join Bowie's band?
You must be thinking of the song "Yo David":
http://home.swipnet.se/fzshows/yodavid.mp3
- Jon
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Pat Buzby
> 1. Why weren't you (and Tommy) on "Live in New York" album?
They weren't in the band yet. Ed overdubbed on BP #1, though.
> 2. Is it true that Frank wrote "Yo Mama" after Adrian announced that he was
> gonna join Bowie's band?
No, it debuted at the start of the winter 78 tour (1/24/78) and
Bowie recruited Belew at the Berlin show (2/15/78). Tommy said that
the song was inspired by an unsuccessful rehearsal. Ben Watson claims
that it was about a road manager but Watson's writing (at least about
FZ) often includes some really stupid factual errors.
FZ did change the words at least once to reference Belew's
departure, though.
> 3. Few years back Modern Drummer interviewed Terry about "Black Page", and
> he said "Mo 'n' Herbs Vacation" is ten times harder than BP. Did you ever
> reherse this tune when TB was still in the band? I thought it made it's
> debut on LSO album...
The first movement was performed live in fall '78 (first tour
after Terry's departure).
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL
tonyw...@hotmail.com
> Mikael Sillman says...
>
>> 2. Is it true that Frank wrote "Yo Mama" after Adrian announced that he was
>> gonna join Bowie's band?
>
> You must be thinking of the song "Yo David":
> http://home.swipnet.se/fzshows/yodavid.mp3
There was a Tommy Mars snippet on one of the Radio1 programmes about how he
had a bad rehearsal and soon after Zappa brought in the 'maybe you should
stay with your mama' lyrics - but didn't necessarily say that it was written
about him.
That programme also had the honour of having Tommy Mars' vocalised example
of an Alberti bass...
nathalie.gatti
Tommy's Interview From Keyboard Magazine - 1980
By Michael Davis
"Were the original live keyboard parts augmented or substituted for, or
what?
I would say that a lot of times, they were reinforced and new material was
added. Say, on an orchestrated section of the song "Yo' Mama," the actual
things that were reinforced happened at different times. On that guitar
solo, there are three different sections from three different concerts, and
Frank just juxtaposed them. It was an augmentation of what happened at a
live performance, but an actual arrangement that evolved in the studio.
Certain things that were on the piano, Frank wanted on the Emu with a large
brass-type sound; then different little countermelodies evolved out of that.
He'd say, "Go free, interpret it," and all these countermelodies evolved out
of the arrangement that was there. Frank wrote that song at the very
beginning of the '77 European tour, and it has a personal relevance to me.
We were doing this rehearsal in London and Frank was getting very tense. He
expected certain things to be there when we got to rehearsal, and certain
things were not there. We were gonna do the song "Zoot Allures," and he
started playing this 11th chord and got very angry at everybody because
nothing was happening right. I got fined because I hadn't memorized this
little piece called "Little House I Used to Live In." I hadn't realized he
wanted it totally memorized. So this rehearsal ended in a total fiasco. The
next day, he came in with these lyrics: "Maybe you should stay with yo'
mama. . . " It was really autobiographic; that's how things evolve with
Frank."
I'm just translating it into French.
"Pat Buzby" <pbu...@surfnetcorp.com> a écrit dans le message news:
9fd3c272.02051...@posting.google.com...
Ed Mann
good idea of what was what at that time -
**Frank was usually in a bad mood when we first arrived in europe -
especially the first rehearsal where the combination of missing cases,
broken items. power problems, jet lag, wierd food, etc tended to
culminate in one frantic attempt by crew and musicians to make it
Right Immdiately- which never worked and Frank wold end the rehearsal
early with cryptic murmurings about dark things to come - leaving the
uninitiated feeling doomed. And then the next day - things were
better. It is just that working for FZ - which was a great experience
- was also ALL consuming- that was the only way to do the music right
- and so in that environment it was difficult or impossible to
separate oneself from the music, the hardware, and Frank's moods. He
was the King of that Empire, and an amazing person.
Yo Mama was (in my belief) written about 2 band members - 1 active and
1 past - Tommy not one of them, won't say who the other one is - but I
always thought the lyrics were unfair.....music beautiful though. Go
figure.
M' and H' Is many times harder than the Black Page.
I still ponder Frank's genius on a daily basis - trying to understand
it - which is impossible. He was as much of a channel as Hendrix, et
al. - in a very different way.
Ed Mann
> percussion..?
>
> -M
*everything had something hard. many of the mallet parts required one
to move their arms in a way that went against the natural flow of the
body. I would have to drill certina phrases many times to retrain my
body to this unnatural movement. Leasern to achieve accuracy in a way
that transended normal methods. Aim for the big notes and learn to
fill in the gaps correctly. Some licks I still have to brush up on
today if I am going tpo perform the stuff - even oldies like Inca -
there are a few phrases there "Genteel" - that fast vibes part -
Zombie Woof - some definite wierdness there - all achievable but I
have to put my physical being into Zappa mode = iultra accuracy and do
not think about what is possible because if you do you are lost. The
stuff is not possible. So it is better not to be held back by that -
just go ahead and somehow as if thru magic get it right anyway.
*e