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Joe's Garage
''Joe's Garage'' is a three-part rock opera released by American musician Frank Zappa in September and November 1979. Originally released as two separate albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, ''Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III'', in 1987. The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, from Canoga Park, Los Angeles, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government-assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he lapses into insanity. The album encompasses a large spectrum of musical styles, while its lyrics often feature satirical or humorous commentary on American society and politics. It addresses themes of individualism, free ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watermelon In Easter Hay
"Watermelon in Easter Hay", full name "Playing a Guitar Solo With This Band is Like Trying To Grow a Watermelon in Easter Hay", by Frank Zappa, is the penultimate song on the 1979 concept album ''Joe's Garage.'' The main character from this three-part rock opera is faced with the banning of all music after being repeatedly raped in prison, and copes after his release by imagining guitar solos in his head for the entire third act of the album. As he "begins to feel depressed now, he knows the end is near", this song acts as the character's final goodbye to music as he moves on with his life, detailed in "A Little Green Rosetta", the next and final song of the album. The song is introduced by opening narration by Zappa as the Central Scrutinizer, which then gives way to a guitar solo. This guitar solo is the only guitar solo specifically recorded for the album, as every other guitar solo was xenochrony, xenochronous—overdubbed from older live recordings. The entire song consists of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and ''musique concrète'' works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Musical improvisation, improvisation sound experimentation, Virtuoso, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overdub
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more available tracks of a digital audio workstation (DAW) or tape recorder. The overdub process can be repeated multiple times. This technique is often used with singers, as well as with instruments, or ensembles/orchestras. Overdubbing is typically done for the purpose of adding richness and complexity to the original recording. For example, if there are only one or two artists involved in the recording process, overdubbing can give the effect of sounding like many performers. In vocal performances, the performer usually listens to an existing recorded performance (usually through headphones in a recording studio) and simultaneously plays a new performance along with it, which is also recorded. The intention is that the final mix will contain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cautionary Tale
A cautionary tale or moral tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a Risk, danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous. Then, the narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in expansive and grisly detail. Cautionary tales and conformity Cautionary tales are wikt:ubiquitous, ubiquitous in popular culture; many urban legends are framed as cautionary tales: from the lover's lane haunted by a hook-handed murderer to the tale of a man who shot a cactus for fun only to die when the plant toppled onto him. Like horror fiction, generally the cautionary tale exhibits an ambivalent attitude towards social taboos. The narrator of a cautionary tale is momentarily excused from the or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Government
Big government is a term that refers to a government or public sector that is considered excessively large or unconstitutionally involved in certain areas of public policy or the private sector. The term may also be used specifically concerning government policies that attempt to regulate private or personal matters such as private sexual behavior or individual food choices – similar to the British term ' nanny state'. The term has also been used in the context of the United States to define a dominant federal government that seeks to control the authority of local institutions – an example being the overriding of state authority in favor of federal legislation. Definition Big government is primarily defined by its size, measured by the budget or number of employees, either in absolute terms or relative to the national economy. See also * Corporate welfare * Limited government * Lemon socialism * Managerial state * Night-watchman state * Small government * Soci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and advocating that the interests of the individual should gain precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism makes the individual its focus, and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation". L. Susan Brown. '' The Politics of Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal Feminism, and Anarchism''. Black Rose Books Ltd. 1993 Individualism represents one kind of sociocultural perspective and is often defined in contrast to other perspectives, such as communitarianism, collectivism and corporatism. Individualism is also associated with artistic and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utility Muffin Research Kitchen
The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) is a recording studio built in 1979 by musician, composer, songwriter, and bandleader Frank Zappa at his home in Los Angeles, California. The home and recording studio was sold to Lady Gaga in 2016, and later purchased by Elizabeth Jagger in 2021. History Frank Zappa built the studio in his 6,759-square-foot home in Laurel Canyon, completing it on September 1, 1979. The studio was custom designed by Rudi Breuer with input from Zappa and his technical staff. The estimated construction costs ranged between $1.5 and $3.5 million. Soon after the studio was completed, Ken Scott engineered the four song debut EP by '' Missing Persons'' at UMRK. In 1982 two tracks from the EP were re-issued on the band's debut studio album, '' Spring Session M''. In July, 1980, Zappa began recording at the UMRK several songs that were eventually released on the album '' You Are What You Is''. Zappa would use the studio regularly until his death in 1993. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vinnie Colaiuta
Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting (musician), Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert. Career Colaiuta was given his first drum kit when he was seven. He took to it naturally, with little instruction. When he was fourteen, the school band teacher gave him a book that taught him some of the basics. Buddy Rich was his favorite drummer until he heard the album ''Ego (Tony Williams Lifetime album), Ego'' by Tony Williams (drummer), Tony Williams and The Tony Williams Lifetime, an event that changed his life. Colaiuta was also listening to organists, notably Jack McDuff, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mix (magazine)
''Mix'' magazine is a periodical, billing itself as "the world's leading magazine for the professional recording and sound production technology industry". The magazine is headquartered in New York City and distributed in 94 countries. "It was co-founded in 1977 under the title of "the Mix" in San Francisco, originally as a tabloid style directory of recording services, by David Schwartz, Penny Riker-Jacob and Bill Laski with Hillel Resner as the first ad sales representative, and later publisher, and producer of the TEC Awards. The magazine became "MiX" without "the" ahead of it in April of 1980. It then skipped a month and then returned as a slick color magazine." In January 1989, Mix Publications, which included ''Mix'' magazine and Electronic Musician, was sold to Act II Publishing, a company owned by Norman Lear. In the 1990s, ''Mix'' magazine, had offices in the former Jelly Belly building on Hollis Street in Emeryville, California. In 1994, Mix Publications, was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Size Fits All (Frank Zappa Album)
''One Size Fits All'' is the fourteenth album by the Mothers of Invention, and the twentieth overall album by Frank Zappa, released in June 1975. The album reached #26 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the United States in August 1975. Band The album features the summer/fall 1974 lineup of the Mothers of Invention, with keyboardist/vocalist George Duke, drummer Chester Thompson, percussionist Ruth Underwood, bass guitarist Tom Fowler and saxophonist/vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock. “Can’t Afford No Shoes” features bassist James Youman, who temporarily joined when Fowler broke his hand while on tour (an incident referenced by Zappa in the credits). Album content The album features one of Zappa's most complex tracks, "Inca Roads". The basic tracks of this piece originated from a TV recording at the KCET studios in Los Angeles on August 27, 1974, while the guitar solo came from a concert in Helsinki on September 22 or 23, 1974. "Florentine Pogen"'s basic tracks were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jam Session
A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements. Original jam sessions, also called "free flow sessions," are often used by musicians to develop new material (music) and find suitable arrangements. Both styles can be used simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to evenings where a jam session coordinator or host acts as a " gatekeeper" so that appropriate-level performers take the stage to sophisticated improvised recording sessions by professionals which are intended to be bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheik Yerbouti
''Sheik Yerbouti'' is a double album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records, distributed by Phonogram Inc. in the United States and Canada. The album was released in other countries by CBS Records. It is mostly made up of live material recorded in 1977 and 1978, with extensive overdubs added in the studio. In an October 1978 interview, Zappa gave the working album title as ''Martian Love Secrets.'' It was later released on a single CD. ''Sheik Yerbouti'' is Zappa's biggest selling album with over 2 million units sold worldwide. Inspiration Zappa appears on the cover in character in Arab headdress. The title is a play on words and is pronounced like the 1976 disco hit " Shake Your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band. The album has some of Zappa's most satirical and controversial lyrics. "Bobby Brown" was banned from US airplay due to its sexually explicit lyrics. " I Have Been in You" pokes fun at Peter Frampton's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
