Lurker > Mr Lasastryke

Song of Eighty-Eight Days Ago: Why Don'tcha Do Me Right? (from Absolutely Free/Mystery Disc [LP version])


Pretty sure this track is included on all of the CD versions of Absolutely Free, and it's also going to be on the new vinyl version (though it will be as part of the bonus content rather than the album itself). Pretty good song.
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Song of Eighty-Nine Days Ago: Stevie's Spanking (from The Dub Room Special! [album version]/The Dub Room Special! [video version]/The Torture Never Stops [video])


This is the footage Steve Vai used in a concert (which may or may not have gotten him in copyright-related trouble with the ZFT). Not the best version of "Stevie's Spanking" ever, but it does contain a nice Frank/Steve guitar duet.
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As Zappa wrote in the “libretto,” “The music of the MOTHERS speaks of the feelings of what might be described as THE VAST MINORITY. The feelings of the people on the fringe of everything . . . the ones who don’t care if they’re IN or OUT … don’t care if they’re HIP, HEP, SWINGIN’ or ZORCH. This is the audience the MOTHERS want to reach … those few have the power within themselves to cause or motivate social change but have never used it for one reason or another. If you are reading this and understand it (even if you have short hair and watch TV 18 hours a day), it is time that you realized WHO and WHAT YOU ARE. It is time you realized what the words to our songs mean.”

50 years later Absolutely Free resonates as strong as ever and has proven itself to be prescient and wildly ahead of its time.

ABSOLUTELY FREE TRACK LISTING

LP1 – Side 1
1. Plastic People
2. The Duke Of Prunes
3. Amnesia Vivace
4. The Duke Regains His Chops
5. Call Any Vegetable
6. Invocation And Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin
7. Soft-Sell Conclusion

LP1 – Side 2
1. America Drinks
2. Status Back Baby
3. Uncle Bernie’s Farm
4. Son Of Suzy Creamcheese
5. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
6. America Drinks & Goes Home

LP2 – Side 1
1. Absolutely Free Radio Ad #1
2. Why Don’tcha Do Me Right
3. Big Leg Emma
4. Absolutely Free Radio Ad #2
5. “Glutton For Punishment…”
6. America Drinks – 1969 Re-Mix
7. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It – 1969 Re-Mix
8. America Drinks & Goes Home #2 – 1969 Re-Mix

LP2 – Side 2 Laser Etching

So yeah, seems like this version follows the same pattern as several other "special edition" albums that have been released before: the album itself + additional content relevant to the album. (Releasing it exclusively on vinyl is a new thing, though.)
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Zappa News: A special edition of Absolutely Free was announced. It will be released exclusively on vinyl. Release date: 9/29. Here's the news article posted about this on the official site:

Absolutely Free 50th Anniversary Expanded 2LP Edition Coming September 29

The Zappa Family Trust will mark the 50th anniversary of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s politically-charged, envelope-pushing sophomore album, Absolutely Free, with an expanded vinyl-exclusive edition on September 29 via Zappa Records/UMe. This double 180-gram LP version will include the original record mastered by Bernie Grundman cut directly from the original analog master tapes and a second disc with 20 minutes of rare and unreleased bonus material, including the “Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?”/“Big Leg Emma” single as well as vintage remixes, and radio ads from The Vault on side one and a laser etching of Zappa’s visage from the album cover on side two. The package features Zappa’s original layout and a reproduction of the rare, highly sought-after “libretto,” an 18-page booklet with a foreword by FZ and lyrics to all the compositions, that was offered only by mail order when originally released. Absolutely Free is available for pre-order now: https://UMe.lnk.to/FZAbsolutelyFreeWe

Released 50 years ago on May 26, 1967 on Verve Records, Absolutely Free was the Mothers of Invention’s follow-up to their landmark debut album, Freak Out! Brash, challenging and exhilarating, the record was revolutionary as it pushed the limits of what an album could be. A pop culture pastiche, the album leaps through genres – from psychedelic pop and progressive rock to free-form jazz and avant-garde noise to doo-wop and garage rock, often in the same composition as on album highlight “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” and is filled with Zappa’s trademark biting political and social satire. Hailed by All Music as a “fabulously inventive record” that is “by turns hilarious, inscrutable, and virtuosically complex,” the record is divided into two “oratorios” or song suites – “Absolutely Free” and “The M.O.I. American Pageant” – and is rife with complex instrumentation, cutting edge experimentation and unconventional editing.

Produced by Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Sun Ra), who first worked with the band on Freak Out! the year prior, Absolutely Free featured an expanded cadre of musicians working with Zappa and vocalist Ray Collins and included Jim Fielder on guitar, Roy Estrada on bass, Don Preston on keyboards, Bunk Gardner on woodwinds, and drummers Jim Black and Billy Mundi. The album was recorded the week before Thanksgiving, November 1966 in Los Angeles at the Sunset-Highland Studios of T.T.G. Inc., in a series of four sessions. It was edited and re-mixed in New York City at the MGM Studios in five sessions the following week. In Clash’s appreciation of the record, they exclaimed: “Amidst this high-brow inspiration and aggressive musical arrangement we have beautiful passages of melody, laugh-out-loud lyrics about vegetables and lacerating cynicism. Nonconformist, comedic and maverick, Absolutely Free establishes Zappa as a fantastical musical mutineer and pioneering bandleader.”

(Continued)
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SmartMuffin posted...

i only now watched this. interesting.
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hippity hop
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shoobiedooba
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bippity bap
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uppity
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bup
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up
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bump
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that's true.
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outd-wait, that's luster's thing.
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indeed.
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sure.
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yup.
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yes.
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Like last year we got no Zappa-related new releases or news at all on Mother's Day, BTW - up until 2015 that had been sort of a tradition. Probably another consequence of Gail passing away.
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it's today.
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almost mother's day.
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started updating the tumblr (which i hadn't done since mid-february), so there's at least something going on.

we actually got 3 new followers since my last update. nice for me to give them several months of nothing >_>
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perhaps.
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maybe.
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i hope so.
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hopefully i'll have time for this after this weekend.
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i should get back to this.
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i'm more busy than i thought i would be...
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truly.
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i will.
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i'll get back to this after king's day.
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bump
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Oh, great to hear they were able to do the preservation stuff. And cool that the documentary is being made after all too.
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No prob, I will do a bunch of songs soon.

I think he wasn't going to make the movie because he thought preserving the Vault material was more important and therefore he spent all the money on that? And then they STILL didn't have enough money to preserve everything in the Vault so that kinda sucks. Not sure if Lady Gaga is going to do anything about it, but...
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Song of Thirty-Six Days Ago: Camarillo Brillo (from Over-Nite Sensation)


Did this one for my project a few days ago.

Something I found out when researching this track: Nigey Lennon claims she co-composed some of the music of this song with Frank, but didn't get credit for it. Didn't know that before! (A brief history of Nigey Lennon [she doesn't even have a Wikipedia page!]: she was a musical partner [she plays both guitar and keyboards]/sexual partner/friend of Frank's in the early '70s. She first met Frank backstage at a concert in '70 - at the time she was 16 [!]. She got in a fight with Frank during the One Size Fits All sessions and they never spoke to each other again. The validity of her claims about playing on several early '70s Zappa tracks - and even co-composing some of them - is still debated to this day.)
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Allan Holdsworth passed away :-(

If you don't know who he is, Frank called him "one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet."
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huh wtf, the grand wazoo album appears under "singles" on the frank zappa spotify. that's not a single!
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Song of Thirty-Three Days Ago: The Grand Wazoo (from The Grand Wazoo)


The most recent entry in my project.

When researching this track I found out that (as many Zappa titles/lyrics) the title contains wordplay; it's a play on "le grand oiseau," which is French for "the big bird." I took French for 7 years and somehow I still didn't notice that >_<
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Song of Thirty-Four Days Ago: For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers) (from The Grand Wazoo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JocGlt4HckI&t=3s

Fun fact: this was actually the first song on the Grand Wazoo LP, with the title track being the second one, but Frank switched it around for the CD release. Not sure why he did that - I guess he figured "The Grand Wazoo" worked better in the opening spot.

Less fun fact: this is the last Zappa track PLASTICDADA uploaded, and he uploaded it almost a month ago. I could use some new Zappa tracks to do, buddy!
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Song of Thirty-Five Days Ago: Your Mouth (from Waka/Jawaka)


Did we ever do this one before? I'm sure I didn't do it, as I think it's a pretty forgettable song. Easily my least favorite track out of the two '72 big band albums.
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Song of Thirty-Six Days Ago: Big Swifty (from Waka/Jawaka)


Great track. Contains an excellent jam featuring Sal Marquez, George Duke and Frank.
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Song of Thirty-Seven Days Ago: Dog Breath (from Just Another Band from L.A.)


When researching this song I realized that the '70 version (also featuring Flo & Eddie) actually stays very close to the Uncle Meat version. This version (from '71) is somewhat different, however - it's taken at a slower pace and tacks on a Frank guitar solo.
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Song of Thirty-Eight Days Ago: Magdalena (from Just Another Band from L.A.)


Here's the song about a deranged man lusting after/sexually assaulting his teenage daughter. Even by Zappa standards, these lyrics are pretty controversial! (Why wasn't this on the Have I Offended Someone? compilation?) The song as a whole is pretty good but not great.
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Song of Thirty-Nine Days Ago: Call Any Vegetable (from Just Another Band from L.A.)


We've done this one a bunch of times. Great song/version. Probably my favorite track on JABFLA, don't have much else to say.
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Song of Forty Days Ago: Billy the Mountain (from Carnegie Hall)


As I've said many times I'm not as crazy about this song as most Zappa fans. It's just too damn long, especially this version, which takes over 45 fucking minutes. The solo section (which Frank edited out of the JABFLA version) is great, though.

Also, I only recently noticed that both Billy the Mountain and Studebaker Hoch do not make their first appearance in this song. They've both been mentioned before in the 200 Motels number "Dental Hygiene Dilemma"!
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