The Beatles playing Yesterday live, in Tokyo, Japan, 1966. The whole band plays the song, not just Paul.

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More older footage:

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Pretty cool rehearsal recordings

And the near final version:

And the live rooftop concert version

Here's another earlier rehearsal:

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Coldplay is giving away a song -- unlike Radiohead, who gave a way a full album -- as a promotional schtick.

For making a 99 cent product free, they are likely to get plenty of free promotion from gullible bloggers who -- Hey, wait, a second . . . 
 

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Acoustic Demo of the song, 1968:

Other lesser versions after the jump.

McCartney Live

These compilations of old clips that attempt to approximate a video never seem to get it right (i.e., this is McCartney,not Lennon singing)

As you can see, many of these images long predate the White Album.

At the 3:45 minute mark, you can see McCartney perform the song at the Grammys.

Given the song and the band, you would think U2 could really crush this song.  U2 Helter Skelter from Rattle and Hum. You'd be wrong.

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Click for ginormous map:

Courtesy of NYT

>

Source:
Record Stores Fight to Be Long-Playing
BEN SISARIO
NYT, April 18, 2008   
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/arts/music/18reco.html

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It was shown on ABC's 20/20, but with Elizabeth Vargus talking over the entire piece!!! But thanks to the magic of non-linear editing I was able to place a recording of "Hey Bulldog" over the 20/20 piece.

Posted at 08:07 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click for ginormous map:

Courtesy of NYT

>

Source:
Record Stores Fight to Be Long-Playing
BEN SISARIO
NYT, April 18, 2008   
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/arts/music/18reco.html

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Here comes the sun:

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This video was filmed quite close to the end of the Beatles run . . .

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Since April Fool's Day is only 2 days from now,  we present what is simply one of the most embarrassing things ever to have an affiliation with the Beatles: "Day in the Decade" Beatles tribute segment from 1977 Rolling Stone Anniversary.

Bleccch!

The author of it writes: 

Beatles tribute from hell! From the Rolling Stone Magazine 10th Anniversary TV special in 1977, found by me on an unlabled Beta tape at a flea market. Featuring Ted Neeley (the guy who played Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar"), Patti Labelle, Yvonne Elliman and several others. I'm sure most of them would prefer this never be seen again.

Posted at 06:01 AM in Humor, Idiot!, Music, Television, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

When The Beatles first set out to make “Let It Be” in 1969, they intended a recording that would be a return to a live performance of just the bare necessities of the band, no studio effects or overdubbing of voices or instruments would be allowed. However, caught in the turmoil of the break-up of the band, the album was re-produced by Phil Spector and never released as The Beatles had originally meant it to sound.

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Another fine flick, The Beatles- Help! The Movie, courtesy of Google Video:

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The Recording Industry Association of America's Top-Selling Albums of All Time*

28 Million
·  Eagles Their Greatest Hits 19711975, Eagles (Elektra)

26 Million
·  Thriller, Michael Jackson (Epic)

23 Million
·  The Wall, Pink Floyd (Columbia)

22 Million
·  Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin (Swan Song)

21 Million
·  Greatest Hits Volumes I & II, Billy Joel (Columbia)

19 Million
·  Rumours, Fleetwood Mac (Warner Bros.)
·  Back in Black, AC/DC (Elektra)
·  The Beatles, The Beatles (Capitol)
·  Come On Over,  Shania Twain (Mercury Nashville)

17 Million
·  Boston, Boston (Epic)
·  The Bodyguard (Soundtrack), Whitney Houston (Arista)

16 Million
·  Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish (Atlantic)
·  Greatest Hits, Elton John (Rocket)
·  Hotel California, Eagles (Elektra)
·  The Beatles 1967-1970, The Beatles (Capitol)
·  No Fences, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
·  Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette (Maverick)

15 Million
·  Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)
·  Physical Graffiti,  Led Zeppelin (Swan Song)
·  Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd (Capitol)
·  Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack), Bee Gees (Polydor/Atlas)
·  The Beatles 1962-1966,  The Beatles (Capitol)
·  Appetite for Destruction, Guns 'N Roses (Geffen)
·  Double Live, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)

14 Million
·  Supernatural, Santana (Arista)
·  Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys (Jive)
·  Ropin' the Wind, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
·  Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf (Epic)

13 Million
·  Purple Rain (Soundtrack), Prince and the Revolution (Warner Bros.)
·  Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston (Arista)
·  Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 19751985 (box set), Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Columbia)
·  Greatest Hits 1974-1978, Steve Miller Band (Capitol)
·  Millennium, Backstreet Boys (Jive)
·  Baby One More Time, Britney Spears (Jive)
·  Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)
·  Metallica, Metallica (Elektra)

12 Million
·  Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks (Monument)
·  Yourself or Someone Like You, Matchbox Twenty (Atlantic)
·  No Jacket Required, Phil Collins (Atlantic)
·  Hysteria, Def Leppard (Mercury)
·  Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi (Mercury)
·  II, Boyz II Men (Motown)
·  Abbey Road, The Beatles (Capitol)
·  Ten, Pearl Jam (Epic)
·  Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
·  Breathless, Kenny G (Arista)
·  Forrest Gump (Soundtrack) (Epic)
·  Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits, Kenny Rogers (Capitol Nashville)
·  Hot Rocks, The Rolling Stones (abkco)
·  The Woman in Me, Shania Twain (Mercury Nashville)

11 Million
·  James Taylor's Greatest Hits, James Taylor (Warner Bros.)
·  CrazySexyCool, TLC (LaFace)
·  Falling into You, Celine Dion (550 Music)
·  Dirty Dancing (Soundtrack) (RCA)
·  Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
·  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (Capitol)
·  Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. II, Eagles (Elektra)
·  Pieces of You, Jewel (Atlantic)
·  Titanic (Soundtrack) (Sony Classical)
·  Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight (Single), Elton John (Rocket)
·  Devil Without a Cause, Kid Rock (Lava)
·  No Strings Attached, 'N Sync (Jive)

10 Million
·  Fly, Dixie Chicks (Monument)
·  Human Clay, Creed (Wind-Up Records)
·  'N Sync, 'N Sync (RCA)
·  Let's Talk About Love, Celine Dion (550 Music/Epic)
·  Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt (Trauma/Interscope)
·  Life After Death, Notorious B.I.G. (Bad Boy/Arista)
·  Best of the Doobies, Doobie Brothers (Warner Bros.)
·  Dookie, Green Day (Reprise)
·  The Stranger, Billy Joel (Columbia)
·  Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, Aerosmith (Columbia)
·  The Hits, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
·  Music Box, Mariah Carey (Columbia)
·  Unplugged, Eric Clapton (Reprise)
·  Tapestry, Carole King (Ode)
·  Greatest Hits, Journey  (Capitol)
·  Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
·  The Immaculate Collection, Madonna (Warner Bros.)
·  Like a Virgin, Madonna (Sire)
·  Legend, Bob Marley & the Wailers (Island)
·  Faith, George Michael (Columbia)
·  Greatest Hits, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (MCA)
·  Nevermind, Nirvana (DGC)
·  The Lion King (Soundtrack) (Walt Disney)
·  Can't Slow Down, Lionel Richie (Motown)
·  Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, Hammer (Capitol)
·  Daydream, Mariah Carey (Columbia)
·  Van Halen, Van Halen (Warner Bros.)
·  Eliminator, ZZ Top (Warner Bros.)
·  The Joshua Tree, U2 (Island)
·  1984 (MCMLXXXIV), Van Halen (Warner Bros.)

*Through 6/25/2004.

Sources:
Infoplease.com (a hell of pop up ads like no other)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0151020.html

See also:
Must-Have Recordings
http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0150519.html

Posted at 06:37 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Beatles first appearance in America, in the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964.
(10 minutes, 34 seconds)

Performance:
All My Loving
Til There Was You
She Loves You
I Want to Hold Your Hand

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I didn't even know there was a video for this: One of Zep's best songs:

Led Zeppelin, in "Over the hills and far away", TV Special. 

Simply awful production values, running concert footage of some song (probably not this one) over the studio version of the tune.

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The full movie, in its entirety via Google.video:

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Today's amusing musical moment:

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The Beatles first hit Love Me Do:

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Our pre-Valentine's Day song

"All You Need Is Love" is a song written by John Lennon with contributions from Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney. It was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first ever live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 350 million people, the programme was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967. The BBC had commissioned The Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution and this was the result.

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From The Beatles movie, A Hard Day's Night.

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We Can Work It Out:

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The original animated special (awful picture quality)

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Pretty freakin cool:

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Very cool -- The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Individual tracks are isolated:

Posted at 06:56 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Full Promo Vids filmed at Chiswick House -- you can see John is bored out of his mind

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If you are a fan at all of Creedence Clearwater Revival and/or John Fogerty, then check out some of the tunes on Fogerty's new disc Revival. 

The title -- obviously referring to CCR -- is his first new disc in three years. The sound is unmistakably Creedence with little bits of swamp rock, blues, country, folk and soul.

Fogerty is more than a "just" a great song writer; He comes in at #40 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.   

This is Fogerty's return to politics with songs like "Long Dark Night, I Can’t Take it No More, It Ain't Right, and Longshot.

For those of you who want a sample the work, Fogerty's my space page has 4 streaming tunes from Revival. You can also see a few videos below (YouTube has tons of his earlier work).

In addition to CCR, I am a very big of the latter solo work: 1985's Centerfield, with its chooglin' one-chord jams. This is the album which led to his former label suing him, claiming that the songwriter had plagiarized himself. Fogerty eventually won the lawsuit.

I also really like 1997's roots rock shuffle, Blue Moon Swamp.

Both of these are must haves for CCR fans. ($7.97 at Amazon -- about time the recording industry figured out dynamic pricing).

The reviews of the new disc have been pretty good:

"Full-bore return to choogling swamp-pop." —USA Today, Edna Gundersen

"Revival is no rerun. It is Fogerty getting back to work—and finally acting on his own advice, in a song he's actually named after his old band: "You can't go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence song."  —Rolling Stone, David Fricke

"Fogerty's muse comes fully alive, nodding gently to his estimable legacy while moving firmly forward."   —Harp, Fred Mills

"Still making his guitar twang, still singing in that rockabilly yowl, John Fogerty is angry about the war, the president, American culture and vanished youth on his new album, 'Revival,' and it just makes him rock harder."  —New York Times, Jon Pareles

"Mr. CCR has created a masterpiece and Revival is unquestionably one of the ten best discs of 2007."   —Relix, Lou Friedman

Don't take my word for it, there are enough streaming versions of the new songs to almost sample the full CD.

click for the surprisingly upbeat:  "Don't You Wish It Was True"

>

Letterman Performance of Revival

Interview about the new album

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Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from the movie Yellow Submarine

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What might "Stairway to Heaven" have sounded like if it had been recorded for the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night instead of Led Zeppelin's IV? Like this, we guess. In the above video, Australia's premiere Beatles cover band the Beatnix remake Led Zep's all-time greatest song about stairways in the style of the Fab Four's early hits.

Where might one procure an MP3 of this wonderful cover? Here. You're welcome.

Hat Tip: Tube Junkie

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All Together Now from the Yellow Submarine movie

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Oh, goody, yet another list. How f$%&ing original!

For some silly reason, there seems to be all this hoo-haa about the silly Vanity Fair article on the top Movie Soundtracks of all time.

These people are wankers for many reasons: 1) The VF weenies press released to death; b) the article is not even available on line; iii) the editors chose Purple Rain as the greatest film soundtrack of all time.

I remain convinced that the purveyors of these annoying lists select a controversial top pick to generate buzz (tho' you would think this would might encourage online posting).

Regardless, let's not play into their hand. Rather than waste too much time telling you how clueless VF's music editors are, or giving them any linklove, I would rather -- in the spirit of Friday Night Jazz -- compile a worthwhile list of films and soundtracks for your perusal.

A few ground rules:

• We are looking for outstanding soundtracks to outstanding films. (Merely o.k. doesn't cut it).

• Groundbreaking films, soundtracks and performances get bonus points. (Mediocre performances get cut).

• Better non-film versions take points away from the movie soundtrack -- where there are superior versions such as the Broadway soundtrack (i.e., Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, etc.) than those flicks don 't make the cut.

• Pure adaptations of Broadway shows also get cut. In my mind, Cabaret, Chicago, Chorus Line are more filmed stage productions, rather than pure movies.  (totally subjective).

Hence, several films failed to make the cut: Apocalypse Now is fantastic in the way it uses music (especially The Doors' The End, and Wagner's The Ride Of The Valkyries), but its not great as a standalone soundtrack; the wonderful My Fair Lady, with Rex Harrison's mediocre voice, and the dubbing of Audrey Hepburn's voice, also doesn't make the cut.

Alternatively, the film can't suck. The greatest soundtrack in the world becomes irrelevant if its attached to a film like, say, Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- a play that sucked two hours out of my life that I will never get back, and will literally regret on my death bed.

These things are totally subjective, and are rarely based exclusively on mere merits. Pink Floyd The Wall was a great album so overplayed when I was in college, that I simply couldn't pull the trigger on it (the film is a bit ponderous to boot). Again, these things are very subjective. We can certainly debate the order of any list, or the contents, and we probably will (thats what the comments are for).

Here's my subjective top 15:

1. A Hard Day's Night:  A brilliant film and album that both remain as energetic and fresh today as they were in 1964. The Beatles personalities were perfectly suited to the medium, so much so that its hard to imagine a better film/soundtrack combo.

A Hard Day's Night

If you want to consider another Beatles sound track, both Yellow Submarine and Help! are fun -- but neither rise to the sheer genius of A Hard Day's Night. 

~~~

2. Stop Making Sense: Quite simply, the best concert film ever made. Yes, some of you will declare The Last Waltz, (with a few stragglers nominating Woodstock) but there is simply nothing else that ha the combination of showmanship, musical innovation -- and the big suit -- like this film does. Marvelous.

Stop Making Sense

~~~

3.  Blade Runner: Forget the ponderous and boring Chariots of Fire, THIS is Vangelis Masterpiece. Not only is the music hauntingly beautiful, but it fits the filmscape so perfectly, making it even better than it originally was. We've already spilled so many words about BR, that the less said the better. "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." 

Blade Runner

~~~

4. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: I could try to explain this, but I couldn't do it justice. Find a theater where this is playing at the midnight show, and go with someone who's gone before.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975 Film)

~~~

5. Garden State: My "surprise" entry. A charming little film with a soundtrack that simply refuses to stop delighting you with its lovely ballads, nearly all of which are by bands which, prior to this soundtrack, were unknown. This disc was played constantly in our car in 2004/05.

Garden State

~~~

6.  Harold and Maude: One of the most subversive, outrageously amusing, black comedies ever made -- hysterically funny to boot. Cat Stevens (before he became Yusaf) created a wonderful collection of songs.   This is , quite frankly, one of the funniest films ever made.

Harold and Maude

~~~

7. The Graduate: Not only is this a seminal, groundbreaking film, but the soundtrack is phenomenal. The way the various songs are interwoven into the action, mood, psychs of the players is amazing (listen as Benjamin's Alpha Romeo Spider runs out of gas). I don't know if Mike Nichols is a genius, or just gt incredibly lucky. Either way, its a great soundtrack and a great movie.   

The Graduate (1967 Film)

~~~

8. (tie):Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains The Same
The Who, The Kids Are Alright: Perhaps its my age showing, but I have always found each of these to be tremendous films and soundtracks. The Zep concert film was utterly ground breaking; The Who film was a fantastic documentary.

The Song Remains The Same

The Kids Are Alright

~~~

10. West Side Story: Leonard Bernstein's musical update of Romeo and Juliet. The combination of Stephen Sondheim brilliant lyrics, the kinetic choreography and the bravura camera work made for a fantastic wide screen film. The soundtrack created the perfect counterpoint to the dance and action.

Sure, its a bit dated (hence, #10), but it remains an all time great.

West Side Story

~~~

11. Pulp Fiction: The film does so many things so well -- but the way the music is integrated into the actual plot is simply terrific.  Plus, Travolta and Uma can each dance. 

Pulp Fiction: Music From The Motion Picture

~~~

12.  Purple Rain: There is no doubt that the purple one can sign, dance, play guitar. Acting, not so much. Regardless, his sheer overwhelming talent is why this manages to get onto my top 10. True Story: We saw this int he theaters in college, and my remark was "He's going to be bigger than Michael Jackson" -- who was huge at the time. Its a toss up if I got that one right.

Music from the Motion Picture "Purple Rain"

~~~

13. Little Shop Of Horrors: A fantabulous musical/horror/comedy. It's all a whole lot of fun, and the musical styles range from honky-tonk to doo-wop to straightforward rock n' roll. The strength of the film carries what otherwise might have been a mere Broadway adaption into an entire different level.
 

Little Shop Of Horrors (1986 Film)

~~~

14. Saturday Night Fever: One of those seminal films that tremendously influenced the culture.

My choice in music  was rock-n-roll, and I had little interest in blow-dried hair, white polyester suits, or cruising discos looking for Staten Island bimbos. (but if you wanted to get laid . . . )

The music works as well on its own, as it does as a classic piece of pop history. And John Travolta makes the list twice!

Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track

~~~

15. The Tao of Steve: Another charming little film that surprises with its wonderful songs. Lovely.   

The Tao of Steve: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Thats my top list; A few Honorable Mentions are after the jump . . .

Honorable Mentions:

South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut: You will laugh until you piss yourself. The soundtrack is very very funny.

South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut

~~~

The Breakfast Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

~~~

41 Original Hits From The Soundtrack Of American Graffiti

~~~

Trainspotting: Music From The Motion Picture

~~~

Superfly

~~~

Reader suggestions:

Grease   

Sound of Music   
Pink Floyd - The Wall   
Apocalypse Now
Forrest Gump
Round Midnight
Manhattan   
Oh Brother, Wherefore Art Thou
Grosse Pointe Blanke
Easy Rider
Last Waltz
Sorcerer Lost in Translation   
The Virgin Suicides   
The Motorcycle Diaries 
The Mission
Rushmore
Cabaret
Chicago
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Hair
Hedwig
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Oliver! (1968)
Absolute Beginners
All that Jazz
Moulin Rouge
Pennies from Heaven
Phantom of the Paradise
Robin & the 7 hoods
Starstruck
Tommy 
True Stories 
Willy Wonka
Beauty & the beast

~~~

If you've hummed along, tapped your feet, or even danced in your seat while watching "Purple Rain," "Saturday Night Fever" or "Trainspotting," you're not alone.

The soundtracks from those movies have been named among the 50 greatest by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine. The full list will be revealed next month in a one-time Conde Nast magazine, Movies Rock, for subscribers of its 14 titles.

"Purple Rain" topped the chart even though it was described as "perhaps the best badly acted film ever," editors at Vanity Fair said, while "Trainspotting" came in at No. 7 and "Saturday Night Fever" was eighth.

Source:
"Purple Rain" greatest film soundtrack: Vanity Fair
Wed Oct 24, 12:30 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071024/film_nm/soundtracks_dc

Posted at 06:00 AM in Film, Music | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A stunningly beautiful video of underwater Belize, a small Caribbean country in Central America. Fishes and sea creatures dancing to Bolero by Ravel. Just beautiful.

via haha.nu

Posted at 05:42 AM in Music, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Live, (and with feedback):

video

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from Yellow Submarine - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

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Hale Stewart blogs as The Bonddad Blog, as well as at the Huffington Post. He is our guest author tonite for a rather unusual Friday Night Jazz on Frank Zappa:

~~~

>
"Frank Zappa was one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. He was a brilliant composer, an incredibly unique guitarist (with one of the best tones ever) and one of the funniest people the world has ever seen. His music combined elements of jazz, rock, classical and vaudeville.

His various bands read like a who’s who of music. They include (home site, followed by BR's favorite disc):

• Steve Vai (favorite disc: Passion and Warfare)

• Adrian Belew (favorite colloboration: King Crimson Discipline) 

• George Duke (favorite disc: Reach for It)   

• Michael Brecker (favorite disc: Pilgrimage)

• Terry Bozzio (favorite DVD: Solo Drums)

• Jeff Berlin (favorite disc: Crossroads)

and many others.

Zappa’s bands were basically a training ground for some great musicians. In this regard, Zappa played a role in the rock world that was similar to Art Blakey in the jazz world. In short, he was one-of-a-kind.

I think there are two reasons why Zappa is a bit difficult to get into. The first is his music is dense and very multi-dimensional. While he would adhere to standard musical formulas (like a basic I - IV - V blues progression) he would add odd-metered rhythmic runs right in the middle of a piece.

Basically, Zappa’s music throws the listener tons of curve balls; you literally do not know what will happen next. In addition, Zappa was one of the first progenitors of serious and effective cross-pollination of musical forms. This is a really fancy way of saying he used ideas from a ton of musical forms in a very unique way. As an example, the album Hot Rats (more on this below) is one of the first really successful jazz-rock albums, meaning the musical ideas were a combination of rock concepts (usually meaning a more aggressive musical attitude and distorted guitar tone) and jazz ideas (usually meaning a more advanced harmonic or chord background). In short, Zappa’s musical ideas come from a variety of places making his overall style very hard to pigeon hole.

The second reason why Zappa is not the household word he should be is, well, humor. While some find his lyrics offensive, others (such as myself) find them to be incredibly funny. Hell – his song titles are funny. Who else could write “The Illinois Enema Bandit” (which is based on a true story) and then have Don Pardo add a voice over on a live album? Or how about “Titties and Beer”, “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?”,  "Bamboozled by Love”, "Don’t Eat That Yellow Snow” or perhaps his most famous song, “Valley Girl”?

The bottom line is Zappa’s music is really funny. If you like to laugh at the absurdities of life (or are a die-hard Monty Python fan), then this is music right up your alley.

Zappa’s recorded history is daunting, especially for someone who is looking for a good introduction into Zappa’s music. For those of you who are looking for a general overview, I would highly recommend six albums, titled:

• You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volumes 1 through 6. Each album is a two CD collection of various Zappa performances from his almost 30 year career. This gives you 12 CDs of great Zappa music. You’ll hear most of his more popular songs. You’ll also hear several version of the same song arranged in drastically different ways (Zappa was constantly rewriting his tunes for each of his bands. In fact, he would often rewrite songs while he was on tour).

There are two other live Zappa albums that deserve serious mention. The first is Zappa in New York. This is one of the best live albums ever recorded. His band is in fine form and Zappa even enlists Don Pardo to perform some of the funniest voice-overs in the history of music. Pardo is especially brilliant on “I Am the Slime”. There is also a great version of “The Torture Never Stops” where Zappa does some of his best guitar playing ever (his use of feedback rivals Hendrix on machine Gun. No, really – it does).

Finally there is "At the Roxy and Elsewhere”. This has some great versions of Cheapness (which is about really old and poorly made horror movies) and “Penguin in Bondage” (which is about, well, just listen to the opening monologue). These is also a fine version of “Trouble Everyday” which again has some of the best guitar playing on record.

I should add that I am personally a much bigger fan of Zappa’s live work. Zappa would take big chances on stage. Some would work, some wouldn’t. But the fact that he would take chances in the hopes of creating something truly remarkable makes his live work stand-out that much more. In addition, his bands were always top-notch.

There are three studio albums that I will mention, all personal favorites. Remember, Zappa put out tons of studio albums, so picking and choosing can be very difficult.

I mentioned Hot Rats above. This album has some incredibly written tunes like Peaches in Regalia and Son of Mr. Green Genes. Peaches is a jazz-rock tour de force.

Joe’s Garage is a biting satirical look at the rock and roll business that also pokes fun at the religious right. I listened to this album in its entirely on a road trip a long time ago and I have never been the same since.

Finally comes Zoot Allures, which has a studio version of “The Torture Never Stops” and some great guitar work on “Black Napkins”.

Finally, Zappa was one of the best guitarists around. He had an amazing tone and his phrasing was simply incredible. There are two albums of note in this area: Shut Up and Play Your Guitar, and Guitar. Both have nothing but Frank Zappa guitar solos. Together these collections have five albums worth of material for the Zappa Guitar fan. I highly recommend both.

I am really only touching the surface of Zappa’s recorded legacy. There are tons of great albums out there. As I mentioned above, I personally prefer his live recordings because his bands were just incredible. But his studio work is also awesome.

So – quit reading my swill and go buy some Zappa albums!"

~~~

Great stuff, thanks Hale!

This is now Barry writing, and I would add a few discs to consider. Over-Nite Sensation -- a tale of sexual depravity and bovine perspiration -- was originally panned by Zappaphiles as too commercial. It is a tight satirical masterpiece. And, after Joe’s Garage, it is amongst the most accessible of his albums. This is the album to begin your Zappa experience with.

Apostrophe (') is another brilliant set of highly polished jazz-rock. It too, achieves a degree of greatness -- and actual radio airplay -- with songs such as "Don't Eat that Yellow Snow," "Cosmik Debris" and "Stink-Foot."   

Lastly, for those of you who only want or need a passing glimpse of greatness, there is Strictly Commercial -- its Zappa's "Best of."

Where ever you start with FZ's work, prepare to experience music unlike anything else you have ever heard  before . . .

~~~

Frank Zappa on Crossfire

Titties & Beer

Apostrophe

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Very cool:

Mocean Worker's nu-jazz pairs with old-school animation in the eye-popping new video for 'Shake Ya Boogie.' Mocean Worker told Spinner, "I wanted the video to be a tribute to a 1930s-style Max Fleischer cartoon." The song is from his new album, 'Cinco de Mowo,' and the video began as an experiment with Polish art student and animator Czarek Kwasny. Kwasny took Mowo's ideas and direction for the video exclusively over AIM and email. "Neither of us have actually ever spoken on a phone or heard each other's voices," Mocean Worker explained. Eleven months and countless IMs later, 'Shake Ya Boogie' comes to life.

via Spinner

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Promotional release of the the song Strawberry Fields Forever

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Larry Lessig at 2007 TED

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Great Music video by The Beatles for "I Am The Walrus" -- about 12 years before MTV launched

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I remember when this was "found" -- not quite classic Beatles, but still pretty good.

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You can tell John is less than thrilled with the Lip Synching . . .

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Pseudo-Live performance

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