Just when you thought KUR mixtapes couldn’t get any better. Monster solos. Interviews. Alternate versions. Cover versions. Proto versions. Live versions. Unreleased material. I bring you “Son of Tweezer Glint – Part Two“.
Savour this one slowly, it’ll be up for a month.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
I remember WLIR! From 1983 to 1988, a station that, though they played almost everything that came from England, was the only station that understood the joy of the ‘novelty’ record! Their ‘new-wave’ format was littered with comedy of all kinds…. shaped my childhood, and miss it very much!
It is actually quite depressing that there is so much quality FZ music that I can’t access and make a part of my collection. I figured out how to extract audio from the DVDs and turn into MP3s, but this??……
Oh, by the way , all of this is awesome!
Anybody know what the deal was with the Eric Bogasian project? Did Frank help write the material or just contribute some music? I remember hearing about some project they were doing, but never knew anything about it. Also don’t know what happened to Bogasian, but he was pretty good back in the day. Also, what’s with the ‘withdrawn’ stuff?
I’d also note, for historical interest, that the ‘GSW Project’ seems to be a ‘re-purposed’ interview originally conducted by Studs Terkel, who was pretty well known in the US, but probably not elsewhere (he just died a couple months ago at the age of, I think, 93). Studs was what a European might call a Social Democrat – passionately pro-working class, pro-labor union, anti-racist, in favor of a humane welfare state, etc. A normal guy, politically, if you’re in Europe. Of course, in the US, there are so few people like that anymore, that he was known here as a ‘Man Of The Left’, even though he was never a Marxist or anything like it (in case it isn’t obvious by now, Americans don’t know what a real ‘leftist’ is: in the US, if you are politically sane, you are a ‘leftist’).
Anyway, Studs had one of the first hit tv shows in the US, in the mid 50s, the same time as the anti-communist hysteria known as the ‘McCarthy Era’. One of the ways they fucked people over in those days – and many thousands were – was this: lots of compassionate people had, in the 1930s, signed petitions in support of various humanitarian and labor union causes, and some of those causes were either really, or supposedly, secretly linked to the US Communist Party – McCarthy and his cohorts were such promiscuous liars that it’s very difficult to know what was true and what wasn’t; but either way, it’s irrelevant, because the people who signed those things didn’t know about the ‘secret ties’, and besides, it wasn’t illegal anyway to belong to the Communist Party in the ’30s.
So, they hauled Studs in and demanded that he sign some sort of apology or recantation, and he told them to go fuck themselves. He lost his tv show and was ‘blacklisted’ (prevented from working) and therefore poverty stricken for many years. I think he was a lawyer too, but he hated that. Eventually, he got a radio show on WFMT in Chicago – the city where he spent his whole life – and did that show for, like, 25 years. I grew up listening to it – it was two or three solid hours long, every day, with very few commercials (it was FM, which was new). He had a LOT of cool people on.
Later he started publishing books, several of which were bestsellers. They were oral histories of ordinary people, mostly. The most famous was ‘Working’. I actually got to hang out with him and do a video interview a few years back, which was fun. A very nice guy, full of stories.
anyway, just FYI (not that anybody asked)
thanks again for the mix!
[quote comment=”7514″]It is actually quite depressing that there is so much quality FZ music that I can’t access and make a part of my collection. I figured out how to extract audio from the DVDs and turn into MP3s, but this??……
Oh, by the way , all of this is awesome![/quote]
try audio hijack mate
http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/
That ‘Sampler’ version of ‘Dickie’s Such An Asshole’ is much better than the one on the final release of YCDTOSA. He called the latter ‘the best recorded version I could find’, but the first was just way better – more energy and much better ‘shout out’ part toward the end (‘I had 25 tapes’ BAM ‘Now I only have 10’…BAM..’I’VE DID YOU NO HARM!’) – another case of Frank over-working something, in my opinion. As I listened, I tried to imagine what the rationale for the switch was. ?? The final version even has a big ‘CRACK’ right after the last chord, which sounds like a crackly mic cable.
Too bad the mix tape version ends before the song does, but I imagine that was out of your control, UG.
From The Zappa Patio:
Unique Versions of “Dickie’s Such an Asshole” and “Cosmic [sic] Debris”
It has an otherwise unavailable version of “Dickie’s Such an Asshole”. It doesn’t have the introduction by Marty Perellis, it doesn’t have the ending sing-along, and the middle section is edited differently:
Only on the sampler:
Loaned a couple of Bebe Rebozo,
Loaned a couple of Pat Boone,
Loaned a couple to Ronald Reagan,
And loaned a couple to the new vice-president,
He said he’d be on my side,
He said he’d stand by me through thick ‘n’ thin …
Until they impeach me,
And he said he’d never let ’em,
He said he’d never let ’em do it –
I said: “I believe you”,
I said: “Hold on”,
I said: “I never cheated on ya,
I never lied” …
Only on volume 3:
Bebe,
Somebody,
Ronald,
Somebody,
Who
Was it?
Who?
Also, the end of “Cosmic [sic] Debris” is from a different show. The edit occurs somewhere around “Don’t screech it, don’t screech it, boy, on me”.
Listenning to AUD recordings from autumn ’75 gives me surprises time after time: how much more lively, wild, enjoyable, funny these are then ANY of the official releases (OZ or Menage). And some never-before-heard tunes (from this lineup), like Any Downers, Sleep Dirt, T’Mershi Duween… I’ve always enjoyed The Eyes of Osaka or March ’76 Berlin, but (telling the truth) I don’t remember ever ONCE listenning to OZ from the beginning to the end.
Why is it so? Or is it my fault?
(this long comment also means: “thank you for this compilation again!” 🙂 )
Me too. In my ears the early ’76 tour is Zappa’s worst tour. I’m always surprised about how much better the autumn ’75 version of this lineup sounds. They seem to “engage in a rulebook slowdown” (Dienst nach Vorschrift machen) in winter/spring ’76. There must been some reason or decision behind this change.
Th.
[quote post=”2537″]Studs was what a European might call a Social Democrat – passionately pro-working class, pro-labor union, anti-racist, in favor of a humane welfare state, etc. A normal guy, politically, if you’re in Europe. Of course, in the US, there are so few people like that anymore, that he was known here as a ‘Man Of The Left’, even though he was never a Marxist or anything like it (in case it isn’t obvious by now, Americans don’t know what a real ‘leftist’ is: in the US, if you are politically sane, you are a ‘leftist’).[/quote]
NO KIDDING! Obama is partially left of center and people are calling him a Socialist…and yet others are calling him a fascist…Former President Carter nailed it when he said there’s racism behind it.
Anyway, that’s something we were told in history classes: “Over in Europe, their conservatives are our moderates, their moderates are our liberals, and their liberals are our socialists.”
Balint, I know what you’re talking about. There seems to be more magical little moments on Eyes Of Osaka than Oz. I enjoy both, but like Buffalo, about halfway through I said to myself, “This is still going on? HOW much is left on the album? Jeezis!” I think they’re more into it on Eyes Of Osaka…if that makes sense? I mean, how many days apart are they? I also had another boot from that tour two or three nights before either the OZ show or the Osaka show…I feel like a dumbass not remembering which. In fact, I think it was from KUR.