c. ZAPPA, Frank (1940-1993)
This is FZ's magnum opus. The thing about living inside a piano comes from his third album, Lumpy Gravy (1967) -- the first time he specifically composed orchestral music for an album. (It was the first album credited to "Frank Zappa" rather than “The Mothers of Invention.")
The relationship between the dialogue from 1967 and 1991 forms a cohesion that may not be evident at first. In fact, even most die-hard Zappa fans think it's all a bit silly. But it relates to Zappa's outside-the-box thought processes, which in turn relates to the carefully composed music.
I was lucky enough to have been invited to Frank's house and studio in 1989, and I was more than mildly astonished to see tray after tray of 3-1/2 inch floppy discs, containing samples of every conceivable instrument or noise, next to the Synclavier.
The album won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.
Yeah, the "package" -- that's what Frank wanted an award for ...
But it is a gorgeous package. Some of the pages seem to be made of very thin rice paper. Zappa called the work an "opera pantomime," and includes very specific stage directions, like:
GILLY does a bad imitation of Martha Graham wrist-to-forehead choreography, hanging from the piano strings and punching back at the hammers as they oppress her.
GILLY does a bad imitation of Martha Graham wrist-to-forehead choreography, hanging from the piano strings and punching back at the hammers as they oppress her.
or after the magnificent multi-part track N-LITE:
JESUS pops up in the middle of all this like a baffled jack-in-the-box. The dancers attempt to worship him, but he casts them away. After examining the mess they have made of his parables, he disposes of them with a holy hand grenade, and leaps into the piano.
So this fantastic music probably didn't sell too well in the Bible Belt, but Frank never did particularly well in that neighborhood, in any case.
So this fantastic music probably didn't sell too well in the Bible Belt, but Frank never did particularly well in that neighborhood, in any case.
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