frank zappa on newsnight ,,uk tv 10.1.83

[thekwaze]

I remember seeing this on the telly!

[HeavyMetal469]

goddanm... zappa is so serious all the time, but his music is so crazy! never ceases to amaze me how he did it.

[mcnowski]

@HeavyMetal469 Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. - A quote that was in Zapp'a biography

[dracopticon]

Frank Zappa had an excellent way of blending wit and seriousness to make a point!

[Woodroffski]

@bonniebob the English media is generally always condescending, it's intrinsic to the English intellectual persona.

[stfwho]

@ColinDOYLE100 what's wrong with that? do you ever agree with stupidity?

[lexo30]

As we know now, the LSO was at a low ebb at this point and they ended up recording relatively uninspired and careless versions of these pieces. Unfortunately for Zappa, he had to wait until he was terminally ill before the Ensemble Modern really committed themselves to his music. It was The Yellow Shark that converted me to Zappa as a composer. It's one of the greatest 'classical' albums ever. The LSO, on their album, came across as competent but uninspired hacks. Zappa deserved better.

[lexo30]

Denselow's commentary is also wildly inaccurate (but it was the early 80s, and Zappa's career was nothing like as well-documented as it is now, but for a supposedly serious journalist that's no excuse); Zappa started out in his teens as a composer, and only took up rock & roll later on. And it's totally inaccurate to claim that he'd never heard his own classical pieces: 'Strictly Genteel', one of the LSO pieces, began life as the end title music to 200 Motels in the early 70s.

[lexo30]

'The conductor Kent Nagona'? Kent Nagano, you twat. Robin Denselow was and is a second-string rock critic who was hopelessly out of his depth, here. Clearly, Newsnight struggled to find an angle of 'Isn't it stupid that the Barbican is putting on the vanity project of this rock star?' and was instead annoyed to be confronted with a composer who happened to make rock music now and again. To this day, the English rock press have a big problem with Zappa and his defiance of genre constraints.

[videotuna]

@telebluesful i dont smoke and never have done, my mum died of lung cancer which was 100% caused by smoking. from what medicine knows about prostate cancer its diet and hormone based, but yet i agree with you 100% its not worth the risk....

[AllStarBugler]

Frank had to be very diciplined in order to save all his money for years.

[TheJourneyAgent]

these steps are pretty boring, and they have orange things here....

[vanceg]

"for the last three days Zappa has been rehearsing his Expensive Hobby....." OH MAN that's cold hearted!

[vanceg]

"for the last three days Zappa has been rehearsing his Expensive Hobby....." OH MAN that's cold hearted!

[SeaHorseGypsy]

"these steps are pretty boring." haha

[MrAnalspasme]

MrXbrianx - Did he? As far as i know, he made money on touring with his various rock bands, playing some of his (in my opinion) boring songs like Titties and Beer, and Bobby Brown, but also playing lots of great stuff.

Did he not lose money on his classical music?

[whitedwarf13]

What Zappa track are the orchestra performing at the end? I recognise it, but I can't put my finger on what it is.

[MrXbrianx]

i think Zappa just wanted to kill two birds with one stone by releasing and promoting orchestra music. not to say he wasn't a genius and very talented but it is like putting a fire out with gasoline except you don't want the fire to go out.

[Rajhoul]

Kent Negano probably believed in nothing he said and was told by Frank that the whole thing was a mockery.

[MrAnalspasme]

He saved up money from recordsales and concerts for years and years, to finance his symphonic performances. He did this knowing he wouldn't make any money on these performances. That's pretty cool. He did it for the music (and the love and fun of it), not for the money. Respect! JKL

[MrXbrianx]

@MrAnalspasme he didn't make any money off his orchestral stuff?

[Mazurka1001]

Strong Greek/Armenian genes in there...good for him !

[SidewalkFrequencies]

A Real American Hero !!!

[SnackAttackMusic]

seing my favourite composer happy makes me even happier, zappa forever !

[headlesssoldier]

sounds like the background music for the first Planet of the Apes

[arjunkaul]

Any orchestras doing his stuff these days? Would be amazing to get to hear this live.

[lordevilvenom]

@arjunkaul

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra just did a salute to him and Phillip Glass together.

[DarkZekeX]

They have orange things here.

[bf1973]

Epic posting can't believe i never came across it!! Cheers for posting. This has some great zappa moments, his comments on the design of the building are priceless.

Frank wasn't too happy with the trumpet section after they went for a liquid lunch, it would have been great to see his reaction to this on video. Very expensive project but hey he spent his money through his ears!!

[PerpetualxBurn]

Thank you

[xxGoredoxx]

Probably one of the best videos on this whole site....thanks for posting...

[sonofpissjuice]

bitch got a sexy voice

[Kitsua]

Zappa on Newsnight?! I'm in heaven!

I love YouTube.

[vinto34]

Frank is centrally scrutinizing the stage lol.

[grenadianmed]

What's the name of the song at 3:57?

[Ywannah]

You are what you is :)

[grenadianmed]

Thanks!!!

[oystersdobleed]

"You Are What You Is"

[worriedaboutlife]

You are what you is - in fmin! - most of frank's commercial stuff is 2,5 ie. fmin - Bb7 or Ab/Bb if you prefer

[eleonorotta]

Valley girl is the worst song of FZ!!!

[venusasaboy1991]

eleonorotta i totally agree, valley girl seems far too polished and mainstream in comparison to his other songs..but then again maybe that's cos its a parody of a polished and mainstream world..*strokey beard*

[oystersdobleed]

True. He'd agree with you too.

[worriedaboutlife]

nice bass line

[pantagruelsnativity]

The song at 3:32? Cocaine decisions, its good , especially the live video

[youvebeenthunderstru]

Cocaine Decisions is a kickass song.

[WeirdThing]

what's the song starting at abou 3:32?

[prelan]

thats crazy i stayed there during the summer in this toffy oxford graduate in a room the size of my bedroom which was his whole flat. amazing building though.

[JeremyJonson]

this is the best video I've seen on here.

[reedcording]

AWSOME!

[kafcin]

Does anybody know the song at 4:18?

[JeremyJonson]

which one? I went back to 4:18, he mentions "mo and herbs vacation"(on london symphony orchestra vol.1 from 83') and "Valley Girl" (from "ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch" from 82')

[kafcin]

No I mean the song playing .. Any idea?

[chizmo7]

The song is called "you are what you is" off of "tinsel town rebellion" amazing tune.

[khushmeet02]

Yeah, kickass tune! Thanks a bunch Chizmo7 !

[kafcin]

Ok, thats from a friends ID .. Thanks anyway .

[pennnchef]

it's not from tinsel town, it's from the name-sake album, 1981

[Zappacho]

It took me a year to listen to the London Symphony Orchestra Works and Zappa just says in the liner notes that this recording was full of mistakes .... His ears(!) are not from this world.

[surfdigby]

"Even at 80% it's going to be fantastic". There's no need to be modest when you're that good!

[elephantpuke]

I love Zappa's voice and speech pattern.

[AnishProductions]

thanks a bunch for the post!

[GreggaryPeccary]

For the record: it`s NagAno!

[reesho]

This is REALLY exciting stuff. To see Frank at work in this context is particularly special. Is there any more of this anywhere? Thanks for posting!

[fm1382]

"Feh! This was written by a guy who is STILL ALIVE!" (or was at the time...ah, FZ, RIP...)

I thought it was nice to see how thoughtful Nagono was about the pieces, but on the faces of the orchestra members themselves was that same ol' expression that all the orchestras had until the Ensemble Modern: "What a load of old rubbish THIS is!"

They were wrong.

[HD41117]

"expensive hobby"?! Jesus, that made me gasp. Still, this video is wonderful to see - thank you so much for uploading it.

[bongolicious]

It just shows you how he transcended everything he touched, with scant regard for whether it would go down well within the ranks the specific idiom. It also shows you how marginal and narrow minded and bigoted people are, especially the English...

That's a true artist at work.

[bonniebob]

Hmmm . With respect Bongo , the last part of your post is complete bollocks , and you know it . One of Zappa's strongest fan bases was , and is , in Britain . If everyone was as bigotted and narrow - minded as you suggest then Zappa wouldn't have sold any records or had anyone show up for his gigs .

[bongolicious]

I speak only of the bigots... who, in case you've never been anywhere or met anyone, are rife in every country this planet... of course he was accepted here, like Jazz may or may not have gotten by without being adopted by European intellectuals... FACT.

[bonniebob]

Whatever

[bonniebob]

We know for sure that FZ was anti - stupidity and a lot of that sentiment was directed at his fellow Americans ; Catholic Girls , L. Ron Hoover , Cocaine Decisions , Valley Girl etc etc . However , I don't think the English MEDIA ever quite got him and they do , sometimes , seem to come across as somewhat condescending .

[fullnelsongrip]

I agree.

[surfdigby]

I think a lot of the media worldwide never quite got him, and never saw him as anything but a "hippy rock guitarist", and so didn't consider him capable of writing for an orchestra.

[bonniebob]

LMOA - a reply after a year or more ! Right , I'm in the the mood for a rant now . Are you listening ? Zappa WAS a genius . He is up there with some of the great composers - of any music . He has produced some of the best rock , blues , jazz , doo-wop , easy listening , even reggae that the world has listened to . He turned out more than 50 ' albums ' in his time . These were largely , especially laterly , to fund his serious passion for writing classical music . This was his first love .

[bonniebob]

The fact that the money was in other types of music wasn't lost on him . Hippy Rock Guitarist is about 2% of what Zappa was about . Richie Blackmore he WAS NOT . Zappa was one of the first to embrace the digital age . His ' albums ' post 83-84 are digitally recorded . Hungary wanted him to stand for president ( America could have done with him ) . They loved him and so did we ( UK ) . The guy is SORELY MISSED . End of rant I think . Speak in a year - PEACE .

[spacehopperballs]

@bonniebob try the former Czechoslovakia via Pavel who was a Zappa fan

[Greenless001]

@bonniebob i got a tear in my eye. i wanna shake your hand, you beautiful creature

[sadhustar]

@bonniebob

Not Hungary but Czechoslovakia and not for President but as Minister of Culture.

According to Zappa Vaclav Havel (his close friend) offered him the post in '91 when forming first

non-communist government of the country. Then - apparently - Havel got a phone call from

Washington with the message saying that he either drops the idea or Americans withdraw

their support for the entire government. Sounds like no big deal today but then the support of the West was crucial...

[nickwade1]

@bonniebob

If he was really anti-stupid he wouldn`t have smoked so much and he`d probably still be with us...

[hobiwan9597]

@nickwade1 He died from PROSTATE cancer...

[kurtizzyflush]

@nickwade1 And of course you have no habits that impact your health.

[nickwade1]

@kurtizzyflush

correct

[videotuna]

@nickwade1 prostate cancer is not connected to smoking, please get your facts right before calling people stupid, causes include genetics and diet, but not smoking, get your facts right, if zappa had not smoked he would have still died of prostate cancer which i repeat is not connected to smoking.

[DangerousBastard]

Wow. I love irony, and that second-last sentence is a gem! lol

[DangerousBastard]

I was, BTW, referring to bongoliciou's "especially the English" comment. Just for the sake of clarity...

[ianstronach]

excellent

[sawmonkey]

I didn't groove on Zappa's orchestral work (as much as I've heard) but I admire Frank's tenacity in getting his musical vision realized against all odds. Everything has a price in this world even if it means releasing a bit of fluff like "Valley Girl". I am pretty sure that Mr. Zappa would cling to the old adage that there are no free lunches!

[timmo1782]

3.40-50.. lmao

[hoorayforbiscuits]

That's great. FZ rules, and so does the Barbican.

[lytovcas]

So Frank could not attend the show?

[Ospire]

one thing...he was kept out of albert hall for breach of contract, not obscentiy.

[cronoyuha]

no, it was obscenity. he tried suing the albert hall because THEY breached contract by not letting him perform. oh course the royal albert hall won because this is britain.

[surfdigby]

My memory is hazy on this, but I think some of the musicians refused to play as they considered some of the works "oscene". Zappa tried to sue for breach of contract, but as the Albert Hall is a royal institution it is exempt from being sued or something. As he phrased it, "Yankee go home".

[GreggaryPeccary]

Do tapes(film) of the performance exist? Would be terrific

[lytovcas]

In the end of the video it's nice to see FZ look happy - what is very rare :)

Thank you for your interesting posts, hazzaroonee.

[GreggaryPeccary]

Great precious Footage!! Frank sitting on the side of the stage with Nagano!! Historic material! Thx alot