Archive for Zappa

Gary Pig Gold on THE PHILOSOPHY Of FIFTY YEARS

Posted in Opinion, Review with tags , , , , , , , , , , on April 15, 2019 by segarini

On an even damper than usual Spring afternoon in 1969, three guitar-and-drum-beating sisters from tiny Fremont, New Hampshire entered an even tinier recording studio and emerged, just a few hours later, with a dozen original rock ‘n’ roll songs on some quarter-inch tape. These twelve songs were then pressed onto one thousand vinyl records, nine hundred copies of which immediately vanished forever off the face of the Earth. Within a year however, no less an authority than Frank Zappa declared that this album, prophetically entitled Philosophy Of The World, was “better than the Beatles,” and a decade after that the similarly inclined visionaries in NRBQ re-pressed Philosophy briefly on their own Red Rooster label.

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Pat Blythe: K-Pop and other stories

Posted in Opinion with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2015 by segarini

PBlythe

During a recent conversation on writing and music I was asked if I had ever heard of K-Pop. My answer was “no” although I was tempted to say “of course” me being a music junky and all. I’ve been told I don’t get out enough so I’m working on that. In the meantime…

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JAIMIE VERNON – WHERE HAVE ALL THE NOVELTY SONGS GONE?

Posted in Opinion with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2013 by segarini

vernon_1997This week Frank & Moon Unit Zappa’s novelty hit “Valley Girl” turned 30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM. For those too young to remember, that’s the 1982 song…not the 1983 movie starring Nicolas “I’m A Coppola So Fuck YOU!” Cage.  It’s what we old geezers like to refer to as a novelty song. Novelty songs were, and should still be, tunes reflecting social trends and fads – in the guise of humourous observational commentary, parody or satire.

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