T.R.'s "Man Cave" / Rehersal Space

Deprived, depraved, whatever - back in the 70's when weird was the norm, I always thought Zappa was a bit, well, weird - never heard him on the radio, none of my mates had any of his albums, he didn't release singles. He just kind of sneaked under the radar......hey, bear in mind, though, I'd never heard of SRV (to name just one) before I joined GN. Didn't listen to much blues, virtually no country, just pop and rock. My musical horizons have been widened considerably - I make a point of watching youtube links, and looking up more by the same artist if I like them.

OK I'm off to check TR's youtube Zappa link.....

:D :D :D

Vic

......hey, bear in mind, though, I'd never heard of SRV (to name just one) before I joined GN. Didn't listen to much blues, virtually no country, just pop and rock.
:D :D :D

Vic

Please stop. You're killin me. :wink:

I can't read things like that. You see, I have this image of you. I hold you in high regard. When you say things like that, it's like accidently spotting Batman taking a wee in the alley behind the pub. It kinda kills the whole "super hero reverence" thing. I have to go cry now.

Hmmm - found a Wikipedia link to "Joe's Garage" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe%27s_Garage

Song sounds OK, but nothing that'd have me busting a gut racing to the record shop. Cleverly put together, though. Seems I was right about the "weird" tag though! What planet did you say FZ came from?

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic,

Even in the states Zappa had kind of a cult following, his songs weren't really radio friendly so you'd only hear them on late night FM stations.

I would agree he was different in a weird way. I was into him for a few years, as Ric called them the "misspent"years. I was just thinking about that this morning and those were someof my most fun years!!

Sitting in my basement with the black lights on with all those black light posters shining and burning some incense to cover the smell..listening to albums over and over and over just hanging out with my buddies. Good times!

You are correct sir.
Here the thing about Zappa. People will fall into one of the following categories:
1) Love him, 2) Hate him 3) Do not understand him

The people that love him understand that he is a musician first. Had no misconceptions that he had a voice of a singer and would often mock his own abilities. Much of his music was a satirical statement about any given subject. Zappa's satire could be scathing and unsympathetic. But it was always music first for him.

Having listened to him as far back as I can remember, AND having met him (I have pics I will post!!), I can tell you that he is widely regarded a s a musical genius. AT times he blended multiple genres of music within the same song. He worked with and only allowed the best of the best musicians in his group. A few that come to mind...

George Duke, Ruth Underwood, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Chester Thompson, Terry Bozzio,Adrian Belew and Steve Vai to name a few.

You really can not define Zappa's music based off of one song or evern 3 albums. He has an enormous body of work that makes up the whole of his style and insight to music.

Not to highkjack this thread, I'll leave it at that. If you want to hear some good stuff from him, PM me and I'll put a list togther for you. And I promise you, the music WILL impress you.

Here the thing about Zappa. People will fall into one of the following categories:
1) Love him, 2) Hate him 3) Do not understand him :D

There's a fourth category, though - "Haven't heard enough to pass judgement!" I fall into that one....Joe's Garage, as far as I know, is exactly the second FZ song I've ever heard. The other one was featured in a TV series called "Sounds Of The Sixties".....sounded like a pastiche, or parody, of 50's doo-wop, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.

:D :D :D

Vic

Ya, he always liked doing that. Was most likely either "I have been in you" or "Love of My Life"

By the by, Joe's Garage, the song, - if you listen to it on its own is a good song. But you have to hear it within the context of the entire album. "Joe's Garage" ulitmately became a somewhat of a prolific statement by FZ. In it, he predicted that music would eventualy become known as being evil and was banned from all societies. And the government eventually locks up Joe for being a musician.

A few years later, we started seeing those lovely warning lables on ablbums!!!

Nice cave T.R.!
That gives me a great idea. I have been trying to find a good place to practice while my daughter is asleep. Since she is a light sleeper it wakes her up. I suppose I could go out to the garage. I may have to sit on the hood of my mustang but that is doable. Don't think I can talk the hubby into moving his car out so I have a permanent practice spot, though. :mrgreen:

Nice cave T.R.!
That gives me a great idea. I have been trying to find a good place to practice while my daughter is asleep. Since she is a light sleeper it wakes her up. I suppose I could go out to the garage. I may have to sit on the hood of my mustang but that is doable. Don't think I can talk the hubby into moving his car out so I have a permanent practice spot, though. :mrgreen:

You have not yet begun to master your powers young padwan. :mrgreen:

Nice cave T.R.!
That gives me a great idea. I have been trying to find a good place to practice while my daughter is asleep. Since she is a light sleeper it wakes her up. I suppose I could go out to the garage. I may have to sit on the hood of my mustang but that is doable. Don't think I can talk the hubby into moving his car out so I have a permanent practice spot, though. :mrgreen:

You have not yet begun to master your powers young padwan. :mrgreen:
Lol. No I haven't. It's been 14 years and I still have no idea how to make him do anything. I wish some woman who is good at this would tell me her secret.

Pretty cool! 8) the secret to staying married I'm convinced is to have a nice dog house to hang out in when you start to get on your spouses nerves :lol: My cave used to be a one car garage, but it was converted into a family room.

Well, we have been rehersing some and the space is working out well. I practice alot by myself because my son is busy with work and softball and such, but that is OK because he just follows along with me once I have the arrangements down pat. I have backing tracks both with and without bass, but it sounds much better with the real bass player. My son even sang some backup after he had a few beers and that is a first. It didn't sound half bad either. Here is a list of the songs we are working on.

Taking care of Business
Born to be wild
Schools Out
Tush
Day Tripper
Fortunate Son
Strutter
Rock & Roll All Night
Sultans of Swing
Come Together
Ball Room Blitz
Proud Mary
Runnin With the Devil
Purple Haze
Paranoid
Crazy Train
Cocaine
Jumping Jack Flash
Hot Blooded
Highway To Hell
Sunshine of Your Love
Born On the Bayou

Some are a bit more polished that others at this point but we are working them. A lot of them we are not even close yet. We can play them all, but with the backing tracks I have to memorize the arrangement as well as lyrics. That is 22 songs and if you figure an average of 3 1/2 minutes a song that is an hour and seventeen minutes of continous music, with breaks between songs will easily be an hour and a half of music. This is where the "work" comes in, hammering out the details.

That looks like one rocking set. Have you recorded anything yet?

Hey TR we are doing some of the same songs,

Sunshine of your love
Purple Haze
Come Together

We've done a few of the others here and there but they aren't on the current list.

I had one of those disasterous moments last week. We were playing purple haze and I think I had an Alzheimer moment, or two. I was so pumped to play that song since I have been working on the solo and when it came time to play it my fingers didn't move, I like froze. I have no idea why. We started and stopped ike three times until I gave up and we moved on. It was very strange since there was no reason to be nervous since it's the same guys I play with each week and I've played the song before so it's not lie I didn't know it. I didn't have any problems with any other song that night except that one.

Now I'm worried I'm going to get a complex about it. See what happens Friday.