I didn't know this :

Listening to Cucamongo right now. Interesting listen, but I find it pretty enjoyable. Funny enough that it would probably be the first thing I listen to when I eventually do a chronological Zappa marathon.

God !  Sleep Dirt is fantastic. So different. Darker, more melancholic than anything I had heard so far. I love all the songs, all the solos. Apostrophe, Overnite, Burnt, Sleep dirt... Next sept :  Lather  I don't know.

Here, everything becomes more difficult. I love Roxy, but other albums like "One size, Hot Rats, Zoot, Uncle, Grand Wazoo, Waka, Lumpy and the three first Mothers have never satisfied me completely. I'm looking for something else, something that I have found in Burnt and Sleep Dirt, a cohesion that finally matches the dream of music I had in mind. Zappa and me, it is an old story of love and hate. At this moment, I remember a melody that I thought forgotten: the conclusive piece of 200 motels, a very simple song that gradually turns into opera. I think that's what I'm currently looking for. Any suggestion

Thanks

The first time I heard Frank Zappa's music was at my cousin's house in 1972. The whole entire evening was off the wall and shocking to me ..as I was only like 15 years old and he proceeded to play the GTO'S album, Wild Man Fischer, Captain Beefheart, and Lord Buckley. As termed often as "Outsider Music", a bunch of us were visiting my cousin that evening and simply had no idea/clue what kind of music this specifically was or the overall concept of the meaning behind Zappa signing such artists and his purpose (if any?), to make the music available to fans of his own. My cousin played the Bizzare/Straight albums and they were interspersed between his Zappa albums. We were all a bunch of "hippie wanna-be's" who had  brothers/sisters 5 or 6 years older that were "real hippies" before Madison Ave got a hold of them. At one time I owned about 6 of those Bizzare/Straight releases on LP, later trading them and can't recall the sequence musically/mentally of their sound or characteristic. I am just now listening to "An Evening With Wild Man Fischer" and other  thoughts begin to submerged. First time I heard --The Residents and Throbbing Gristle I remember being curious and my mind thought..you've been here before. And I still wonder if Zappa influenced others with the idea/concept of actually making a attempt to create a band like this. Investing in projects as he often did was obviously a sign of ambition and so he went the distance. It intrigued me that Zappa was so daring in a time period where the old school concepts of your parents were intimidating. Years later he affected me with his messages of sarcasm directed to the Berklee music college, as I had been studying volumes of the William Leavitt method. Zappa was aware of the snooty environment socially and I used to laugh a lot during my work out time, hearing Zappa's comments in my head + myself living in that environment at that point in time..gave me reason to agree with him. I think it was humours how he made a jackass out of someone who was huge in the media. But underneath it felt like he was making a jackass out of the person he asked to sing it. Terry Bozzio, George Duke and others played embarrassing roles Over the years members were on recordings stating "How can Zappa ask me to sing this?" Roy Estrada and many others took on such strange personal roles for Zappa. I never questioned his themes on sex and to me it was all about play acting. In the 70's..what followed a word or a statement in his lyrics was dismissed and the main "punchline word" of the lyric was what a majority of people tended to remember. They misunderstood him and thought he was just being filthy. This was evident when I traveled the road. They didn't stop for a moment to think maybe he was making fun of sex and all it's cheapness. Zappa thought that sex was good for the human race, but he also felt that the dress code or overall presentation of it in the commercial world was ridiculous.So truthfully? A very large population of people in America during that time..didn't get it. Even the Disco fans eventually loved "Dancin' Fool" as there is so much about the song which directly states "Disco" is questionable. When I played "Rock" clubs in the 70's, Disco people remained on one side of the street, and the Rock fans on the other. Bottles were thrown, fights broke out..because Disco was a real threat to "Rock" music fans. In the air was a message that Disco was to overthrow Rock music forever and when I toured they were like gangs fighting every night. Zappa completely understood the situation and wrote many small sequences on the subject.  

Edited by TODDLER - March 19 2013 at 11:30

Hello

That show, by the way, was released by Zappa as part of the "Beat the Boots II" series, a double CD under the name "Swiss Cheese/Fire!"  It's a nice show.  Pity it had to end just as King Kong was getting going.

The CD is out of print, but the album is still available as a download.

http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-Cheese-fire/dp/B001CBKMVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363793169&sr=1-1&keywords=zappa+swiss+cheese