Steve Allen show, Frank Zappa Playing music on a Bicycle 1963

[dermagrafa]

Early television comedy..Who Knew...

[Bongofury361]

The thing that I can't figure out is...WTF is Allen doing with the jacket? Did he piss himself? Have half a woody...or what?

[pedrothatguitarist]

hes really not funny. hes quite a dickhead. i bet zappa was like take this bitch! in your faace! when he became highly noticed.

[DELHOOLY]

alot of talent in that duet!

[tierno1922]

Frank Zappa was a very eccentric musician and outspoken individual. The Steve Allen Show was great for early rock musicians - before Ed Sullivan, etc.

[caroltubeyou]

Steve Allen was smart and funny and knew how to share the brilliant Frank Zappa with the American audience. This was before people knew Zappa - and the fact that Allen even had him on the show is a testament to how interested he was Zappa's creativity. Steve Allen's style and the expectation of what he'd deliver was about commentary and punch lines. Zappa's just getting started! You can hear his wit in understatement. Zappa had so many gifts.

[GeorgeDRange]

Science!

[mrhdbnger]

It is a combination of comic and musical genius. Allen never once actually mocked Zappa and graciously complimented his vision when they were done. Compare this to any bit on the modern day late night shows and you will notice that Allen gives this 3 times the segment that any artist would get today. This is pretty cool.

[sfdrummer68]

@timmy54416trey .......Allen was anything.but an asshole(as you say). The premise was totally stupid, yet Allen played right along. Steve Allen was a very, bright, intelligent, quick and funny guy. He helped make the absurd premise actually funny and fit into the concept of the show. If, Zappa was their by himself banging on the bicycle, nobody would think it's a funny bit!!!

[countofla]

Allen was brilliant--a really quick mind. Who else could make such cacophony funny?

[plasticjesus108]

THIS IS REALLY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GENIOUS MEETS GENIOUS.

[catspiker60]

"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." -fz

[mrsgstd]

Great googly moogly!

[masterpadman1951]

allen was a good sport also gave zappa exposure

[manifestgtr]

haha steve allen was such an empty suit...he had no idea that he was mocking one of the great musical minds of the 20th century

I'm sure if you'd asked him what he thought would become of "the kid who played the bike" he'd laugh at you...and I'm sure that opinion changed dramatically later in his life

[superkulmedkniv25]

I love how they constantly pronounce Zappa wrong

[rustysexton]

"How long you been playin' bike?" "Two weeks"

Perfect.

[petehuws]

I like 2:45 when FZ hints you'll know of me from next week!!! Too true, he only turned out to be one of the biggest musical genius's to date.. Go Frank!

[esxp]

in Spite of Allens drawbacks (and is it really that different than the current crop of late nite hosts?) he always pushed the envelope as far as guests; Lenny, Dylan etc etc... Steve delivered what was then the weirdest most bohemian stuff available... one of the regulars on the show was an LA street guy named Gypsy Boots who looked like Charlie Manson

[geeksgaloremarmora]

Frank proved then, he could get more sound out of a bicycle than most new bands today

[citizenterryk]

is it just me, or does Zappa actually look human????

[edspacely92]

wtf is so funny i could barely watch the entire video

[kenwahman]

@edspacely92 Allen is a prick

Here's an excerpt From Wikipedia Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd, and so he decided to goof on him. Allen set things up so that Presley would show his contrition by appearing in a tuxedo and singing his new song 'Hound Dog' to an elderly basset hound..."[12] Elaine Dundy says that Allen smirkingly presented Elvis "with a roll that looks exactly like a large roll of toilet paper with, says Allen, the 'signatures of eighteen thousand fans.'

[SongHooks1993]

@kenwahman well i mean...to be honest elvis was a talentless hack, the blacks the decade before elvis hit it big where already doing what he was doing. Elvis was the king of Copy not the king of rock, shit half his music isnt even rock its rock-a-billy or country...

[quieterrps]

There's a bit too much of Steve Allen asserting that he is indeed the leader of this show by constantly making a joke every chance he could like he was a human ticker tape machine for the stock market of funny. Human, to be fair ~ it was really cool that he was open to exposing this Avant-Garde approach that Frank was spinning to an audience at all. I do feel quite cheated that Gordon Hathaway didn't happen to just stroll by during any part of this. Louis Nye would've had Steve pissin' himself!

[groovechaser]

Only 3 years later, "Freak Out" came out.

[caesar349]

and did not care what ANYONE said. Just did it

[caesar349]

ahead of his time. not ready for experimental in '63

[YayhooTube]

Well it's sure bet that this Frank Zapper fellow never amounted to anything in life.

[thatsthewayitgoes09]

@YayhooTube Look the way he's treated! And the irony is that within 10 years America and the music scene would be completely - just in the way he's creating music on the stage.

Do you get the feeling EVEN then he was more intelligent than the people interviewing him?

[YayhooTube]

@thatsthewayitgoes09 Huh? What you talking about?

[andy131481]

Genius.True genius is all I can say.Or as the French called it musique concret.

[adalaku]

Only Frank would think of this. He truly is one of the all-time musical geniuses.

[kamellopalaguitarra]

waaojaoaoaoajaoajao la media distorsión xD

[mannythedrummer]

This says alot about how far ahead of his time Frank Zappa was and give Steve Allen credit for having him on. You can tell that Steve "saw" something in him. In today's day and age, the segments are so much shoreter, Frank got some decent face time on The Steve Allen Show... 1963, huh? Wow.

[gypsytothecore]

@mannythedrummer Agreed... Allen was cool. Had to try and be funny for his audience but spoke of the genius of Frank's composition at the end. Wonderfully experimental and atonal.

[truthvibration666]

This is awesome

[MultiBudboy]

Allen always ridiculed rock n' roll and "experimental" music...but he often featured it. He's possibly better-remembered for this stuff than anything he did on his own.

[hymiehymie]

What a trip! Steve Allen is my hero anyway, and I never imagined he could have crossed paths with Frank Zappa. Took me quite a while to remember what the "New Departure" reference was. Steve made me laugh 8 or 10 times!

[ZugbruckMusik]

12:45 Steve says SCHMOCK SCHMOCK! Gotta love it.

[DavidRKoski]

Steve Allen was mining the material for comedy as usual, but he had a soft spot for outsiders. A few years later he hosted Frank and the Mothers of Invention performing "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" and "America Drinks and Goes Home."

[MrFirthguy]

if anyone is wondering the bike playing really starts at 12:43.

[99nickel]

" you will become familiar with my songs , over the next week" ( should - read over the next 50 yrs!!!)

[onitaro]

How's your bird?

[rlevanony]

Well, that was scary.

[ledzeplin101]

steve allen is making fun of zappa, but zappa just laughs ciz he knows hes got more tallent in one finger than that queer

[peetyweety]

@ledzeplin101

dude, he gave zappa 15 minutes of late night TV time, That is amazing. It was 1963, which is even more amazing. Would anyone do that today? That was a remarkable set and segment.

[creamofcardstv]

that's an early vid clip of Frank Zappa

[tintosangre]

We should be grateful to have what we can - the show's tapes were thrown out by an idiot warehouse guard! Allen was about as hip as he could get away with at the time - he had Kerouac on, too.

[BelaRover]

great - i love it.

[TheVinceson]

frank zappa even sucked back then

[Janitor989]

@TheVinceson OOOH BABY NOW YOU'RE SUCH A DRAG.

[citizenterryk]

@TheVinceson CLEAN YOUR ROOM!!!!!

[sometimescharlie]

god steve allen is a tool

[xtinaknox]

;-)

[reyegnor]

rest in peace hellorodney

[reyegnor]

guess rodney commited suicide

[skeletonation]

notice the swastica in 14:10

[Janitor989]

@skeletonation idiot.. that's not a swastika...

[PerBingTheZ]

@skeletonation That's....not....a swastica.

[stigler30]

@PerBingTheZ do you even know what a swastika is?

[PerBingTheZ]

@stigler30 Yes I do, allow me to make an easy demonstration.

A swastika has four lines of intersection in the middle, like this: +

That's four lines coming to a point, or two intersecting lines. Count 'em up dipshit.

That symbol in the video? It's six lines coming to a point, or three intersecting lines. Not to mention the fact that the lines in the video are curved, whereas a swastika has "bent" lines that have a sharp angle of 90 degrees.

Fucking idiots.

[stigler30]

@PerBingTheZ Great you know what one looks like, but do you know what it is?

[PerBingTheZ]

@stigler30 What? Are you fucking serious? You've got to be off your fucking rocker if you think that I don't know what a swastika represents. Anywho, what part in this discussion do you even have? I wasn't addressing your comments, why do you give a shit if I know what a swastika represents, as long as I know that what is in the video is most certainly NOT one. That's the only point of relevance in this entire discussion, what is a swastika vs what is not a swastika.

[PerBingTheZ]

@stigler30 Do YOU even know the origins of the swastika? Here, let me learn you something. Hitler could see a church from his childhood home, he would look out the window and see the swastika symbol on the outside of the church.

Only later in life did he decide to use the symbol to represent the Nazi party.

Do YOU even know what a swastika is?

[stigler30]

@PerBingTheZ I certainly do know what the swastika is. It is a positive symbol used in many eastern religions and before the Nazis stole it it was a symbol of good luck in the west.

[PerBingTheZ]

@stigler30 Great, now go fuck yourself.

[timmy54416trey]

The video quality sucked. The audio quality sucked. But Frank Zappa rocked. Steve Allen was kind of an asshole making fun on the music, but at least he shut up and joined in.

[kenwahman]

Yes the quality was bad, but that's as good as it got back then. In 1963 I lived in Phoenix. we had only 3 channels on the TV and trust me, they were bad quality plus we had to depend on how good our rabbit ears were....

I was a Zappa Fan for years, saw him in concert 4 times...I miss him

[timmy54416trey]

@kenwahman Oh yeah I didn't mean any offense towards you; I never got the chance to see him live, but his music has inspired such a wide range of artists and genres that I really wish I could have.

[Blubber120]

@kenwahman

I envy you man! Lucky, lucky, lucky. Would you say that some of the music has gone downhill since the sixties?

[trumpy714]

Why can't people properly master their audio so it isn't amplified 100X what it should be? I had to turn this down to the lowest possible volume, and then it still sounded distorted and too loud

[jojotusc]

Cuz then people like you wouldn't have anything to whine about. You should be grateful, it gives purpose to your otherwise pointless life. Yeah, Yeah, that is a little harsh and mean... sorry, can't help myself... kinda like you're bent over and saying "kick me, kick me!" I just can't resist...

[gabberdeen]

you my freind get a big thumbs up for that comment !!!

[Emparanollao]

lol!!!!!!

[ShitFromShinolla]

Frank Zappa was always such a character and Steve Allen was making me laugh so hard that my tits were shaking so violently that mommy had to give me one of those sports bras..

[citizenterryk]

@ShitFromShinolla i'm sincerely hoping that you're a female......

[ShitFromShinolla]

@citizenterryk No, but my mommy glued my tits back on with Michael Jackson juice after his '07 tour in the US. I was dancing so fast that my tits fell off during the 2nd song but when I got home mommy fixed em. But they were never the same after that. Now they smell like BENGAY and cheese. But when daddy is drunk he doesn't beat me up anymore because he feels sorry for me.

[citizenterryk]

@ShitFromShinolla well, that's as good an explanation as any!!......oh, the enlightenment i receive by being a YouTube addict!!.......a story like that may well have made you a candidate to be one of Steverino's guests way back when(or for that matter, to tour with FZ)........peace!!

[ShitFromShinolla]

@citizenterryk Who is Steverino and FZ? Do they sell their own tit glue too?

[spreadneck7]

don't get that twisted im talking about zappa not Steve Allen, Hes the man.

[spreadneck7]

Im glad he's dead. Steve Allen should of smacked his dumb uncreative ass at at 5:22, also he couldn't of died sooner. Nirvana rulz!!!!!

[nightmarecinema33]

go back to /b/

[tommyt1971]

Damn, he was so short n' thin back then!!

[kenwahman]

Steve Allen was 6' 3", makes Frank look small...

[tommyt1971]

Yeah, but I always thought of Frank being tall & lanky - seemed so imposing when he testified b/f the Senate committee in the mid-80s. Never really had the perspective.

[L1TN1N6]

lol. fuckin zappa. throwing a wrench in typical thinking, from the beginning. love it

[pclairep]

come on, this is great. true zappa and would they let something like this happen in this day and age.....i don't think so. i think they were both having a good time. to allow zappa to come on the show and do what he did at a time when stuff like this was not a part of mainstream at all. zappa had a great sense of humor.

[kenwahman]

Both men were awesome in their time. I saw Zappa three times in concert, each concert was an experience to remember.

[pressrolls]

Sucked - Zappa sucked.

(yeah I know, flame on "advanced thinkers")

[krelbar]

With zappa, no sound was taboo. If he liked a sound he would use it.

To expand your knowledge, you need to do the unconventional. To not expand your knowledge is to stagnate in the pool of old ideas.

[ELNITO2009]

love it... thanx a lot for this ! ;)

[ricvonzipper]

The beginning of the era where any old shit passed for genius.

Give me the improvised sounds of Pink Floyd any day. That is music, this is irritating.

[25tab]

And heeeere's the pulse and heeeeres' yer finger, right up yer ass, with yer head. Way to not get it. Zappa was far more innovative and much more talented than those drugged out hacks.

[bozzioisgod44]

I wanna hug Frank :/ ^_^

[LopanTheLemming]

Frank looks so young in this vid. Its wierd because his voice sounds similar. Brilliant how he could make an instrument out of a bike. The music at the end sounds like the return of the son of monster magnet, lol.

[yardtools]

Yeah, he did bust FZ's chops, but talk show hosts do that all the time. It's part of the act, and I think Frank probably knew that...

[Jordmate]

Wow Grandpa Ken - great nostalgia!

[rogo2043]

Sounds a bit like Harry Partch.

[citizenterryk]

@rogo2043 i'm glad somebody mentioned Partch......hey, when ya think about it, this wouldn't have sounded out-of-place at a Tom Waits concert!!

[papercuts500]

way to freak steve allen out zappa. awesommmmmeeee.

[andreaswmx]

no, 22

[ClassicTVMan81]

@andreaswmx

But he did turn 23 on 12/21/63.

[anp27]

Wow.. he was only 23..

[recordhead59]

I love this. Allen cuts up at Frank's expense of course not knowing who he was dealing with at the time. You can almost see Frank wanting to jump right out of his skin...

[xtravaganzagold]

05:00 ..

[racefaceec90]

i love bicycles.i love frank zappa.awesome!!!

[Zeesterling1]

Young frankinzen. What a tool Steve Allen wasn't funny even back then. 1963, the year Kennedy...

On the cusp. Frank Surfin

[radandcruze]

I can't believe I've haven't seen this before!

[franklanguage]

It was taken off, but now it's back; so glad to see it again.

[CARLTONxBANKS]

Prime example why music in the 60's was so inspiring.

TV seemed a lot more exciting too.

[JohnMalcolm]

Thumbs up!

Search "Zappa explains" if you haven't seen that vid.

"The Real Frank Zappa Book" is a great read too.

[btdutt]

Incredible!! I love this clip - it is full testament to the continuity of Frank's music throughout his life. His confidence and vision are unbelievable.

[LeviVdBogaard]

This is awesome! Full 16 minute version.

[kenwahman]

I have posted it on here. The last time I tried it would only take a couple minutes then kick me off. Enjoy

[ceesamron]

I would love to see the full clip and hear Frank playing the bike! Do you have access to the full version?