Zappa.com

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Good writing is clear writing.

Nice read. I like where he gets right to the point. This should get the shitstorm brewing
"Some of the ones that are out there playing it are doing it because they're trying to draw more attention to themselves than to the music, and they're trying to rewrite history and say, "Hey, we had more involvement in this than you were led to believe." People like Ike Willis...he flat out lies to people, saying that Frank told him on his deathbed, "You go out there and carry this music forward, you're the one," and that never happened. That conversation never took place. The problem is that people want to believe it because he worked with Frank. And the point is, I wanted to put a band together to play the music, and also have it not suffer from the look of a nostalgia project, because if you want a younger audience, you don't want to have some 70 year-olds on stage playing this stuff — Frank would have been in his early 70s now — so his contemporaries and people that played with him are well past their 50s."

Dweezil Zappa: Musician or con man?

Good to know that Dweezil was present at every death bed discussion his father had.

I don't really respect clone rock. I respect DZ as a man trying to support his family and pursue his life etc. I respect his right to play but I don't have any respect for his playing. It's hard work to learn Zappa guitar parts but once you have learned them, well, it's like riding a bike. Now you are just conning the audience because you are milking this little achievement for eternity. How long should I applaud you as you coast?

Are we supposed to support some guy for the rest of his life because he spent a few years copping someone else's music? School teachers should be getting paid more money than professional impersonators. The value we place on music that has been rubbed into the ground is astounding.

2 tours old and you're out.
Next!

Dammit downer, I accept no substitutes, and you should too.

Thanks for the posting the article.

These two quotes are especially interesting:

"People like Ike Willis...he flat out lies to people, saying that Frank told him on his deathbed, "You go out there and carry this music forward, you're the one," and that never happened. That conversation never took place."

"One of the things that we're considering is another tour later in the year in which we'd play a full album, and it probably would be Roxy & Elsewhere, since it's the 40th anniversary. So that's something we're thinking about."

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"...I'm absolutely a Libertarian on MANY issues..." ~ Frank Zappa, Rochester, NY, March 11, 1988

I think this doesn't qualify to cause a shitstorm. But the whole interview shows once again that he is just a very simple minded person.

Th.

I meant a shitstorm here on this forum, not between DZ & Ike.
Is anyone else not that excited about ZPZ performing R&E as a full album show? I mean they already play Echidna's/Wash EVERY single show. Plus what are they gonna do, clone Dummy Up and the stage raps too?

That immediately reminded me of Yes and their plan to play three albums in their entirety on the upcoming tour (The Yes Album, Close To The Egde, Going For The One). That is the bulk of material that they play anyway more or less on every tour.

Not only DZ is simple minded. I am, too: Thanks to the invention of music recording, if I want to listen to R&E I can simply put on the album and listen to it.

Th.

I seriously wonder why he doesn't invest at least some time in learning to read sheet music. It's not rocket science and it is a big advantage when it comes to communicating music and analysis of music.

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That crazy old Thing-Fish album, what a hoot! DZ should shut up for his own good. I didn't know that he couldn't read music. The interviewer is amazed at how DZ could perform such a difficult feat, when in fact, its stupid. All the crap we've heard from DZ over the years about how he had to woodshed to get ZPZ and his own playing up to snuff to perform Zappa material at a level that his Father would have approved of and it turns out that he can't even read his Father's writing? WTF? All this shit about intent of the Composer and he can't even read what the Composer wrote? Again, wtf! He is LEADING a band and cannot read the SCORE! AAAGGGHHH!
I can understand DZ not wanting to modernize FZ music, but not make it his own? Why not just play the solos all the same as the albums as well then if its just about archaeology. Lets not make it about nostalgia with the old folks though, cuz its not a nostalgia band, hahaha. He wants to play it the old way but not be nostalgic, yikes.

You don't see orchestras having rappers come out, going, "Yeah, yeah, Beethoven, yeah," because it just doesn't need to happen.
But, you do hear it on Willie the Pimp on one of the Christmas Downloads.

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

He should take up a career in politics.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

That part of the interview reads to me (as non-native English speaker) as if he feels the need to apologize for what he thinks is a crazy work.

Reminds me of someone who goes to a gallery and doesn't understand the "crazy" paintings, but says: "With a brush and some paint I could do something like that, too." As if it was only just the surface and the technique.


May I remind you that in the age of recorded music there is no need to "conserve" music by writing it down. The recording is the "score" in that case. Also, there is no need to notate music when composing. Much of Frank's music is not notated. There is nothing wrong in working through it by ear as Dweezil does. But that is not he point, when in either case it is done like painting by numbers.

Th.

As for reading music I believe charlie Mingus did not read, that being said, he was him self ,great.
DZ is a great guitar player, and looks like he can copy anything if given enough time, but who is HE as a musician, if one cares about that. Frank could flow between jazz ,rock, classical, country, yea he was one of a kind. For me the jazzy stuff is what i love, so DZ saying his band is going to have more of a rock feel doesn't trip my trigger, I like to listen to Pat Martino, Vic Juris, David Amaro, John Tropea, Dimeola, and that type of music, give me some Jeff beck he does it all.

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"I'm interested in the capitalistic way of life, and the reason I like it better than anything else I've seen so far is because competition produces results."

Yeah, alot of great music is made by people who can't read music. No shit.
I'm talking about a guy who is claiming all this OFFICIAL shit for years, but can't actually read music. And if either of you are somehow saying that the written parts of FZ's work don't matter, then I put the ball back in your court to prove that. Go get an orchestra to wing it sometime.
Each band that FZ put together did so with written music. They took the written music and made it their own. I'm sure that much of ZPZ is written, even if DZ is the only one in the band who can't decipher it. Now DZ is saying that it is his concept is to listen to the music (already 1 generation from the composition), and then play what he has heard. Do you see that this is NOT the way FZ did it? There is no way that the OFFICIAL FZ music is one that ignores the Composition.

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Wait - even that liar Ike Willis could read music?

Haha, cal. Lots of FZ musicians couldn't read music. But, they weren't Leaders of OFFICIAL FZ Everything.

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Oh snap!!

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@jaypfunk: what was your pseudonym again, that you use for brown-nosing over there at dweezilzappaworld.com?

If you have somewhat of a musical / compositional background, you can easily tell what's scored and what's not. For example:

1. FO - Nothing scored.
2. WRMF - Scores: Eric Dolphy, 1st part of Dwarf Nebula and Oh No. The rest is improv / straight forward / overdubbed.
3. Apostrophe - Scores: St. Alfonso. The rest is straight forward / overdubbed.
4. Joe's Garage - Scores: middle section of Wet T-Shirt Nite.
5. YAWYI - Only scored parts are Sinister Footwear III and the middle section of Jumbo Go Away.
6. FZMTMOP - Scores: All synclavier stuff, Alien Orifice and middle section of What's New In Baltimore.

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Don't get me wrong I agree with you, I didn't realise he was"claiming all this official shit" ,overall the DZ stuff is a small part of my library, like i say I love guitar stuff like Steve Khan, him self a master musician, I am probably in a minority on the forum as far as ROCK goes.

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"I'm interested in the capitalistic way of life, and the reason I like it better than anything else I've seen so far is because competition produces results."

I am amazed by all of these negative comments about ZPZ. Dweezil's aim is to keep Frank's music alive, and I think he is doing a great job.

I can't understand how anyone could even suggest that he is ripping people off.

You are confusing threads. This isn't the "Complain about DZ Because He is Ripping People Off" thread. There are alot of those, so I see how you could get confused. This is the "Recent Dweezil Interview" thread. Read it, then, have an opinion or not. Crying about negative comments is brown-nosing. Stop it. Opinions get negative sometimes. Its something people should learn how to deal with. I'm fairly sure DZ has.

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Oh, I can see that the thread starts with a link to an interview, but then it quickly deteriorates into slagging off Dweezil.

Dweezil put ZPZ together because he respects the fact that many people loved his father and his music, and he wants to keep his father's legacy alive.

This is how it works: If you like ZPZ, and a lot of Zappa fans do, say so. If you don't, just keep quiet.

Well, the keep quiet thing is stupid. I've seen ZPZ plenty of times and like them. What a boring thing to say, ugh. Rah rah, sis boom bah fucking humbug. Do you only analyze things you hate? Do you consider analyzing FZ's music and its legacy to be a waste of time? I'll say what I want and you will keep giving DZ a blowjob. Enjoy. Now, wipe your chin.

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I am all for analyzing FZ's music and its legacy. What I have a problem with are posts that rather than being constructive criticism are just insults.

Unfortunately, in my attempt to voice this opinion, I was greeted with a similar insult.