frank zappa on newsnight ,,uk tv 10.1.83

frank zappa on newsnight ,,uk tv 10.1.83

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Music

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• zappa
• interview

[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 .

[vinto34]

Frank is centrally scrutinizing the stage lol.

[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

[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.

[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...

[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.