A Zappa / Khukuri Connection?

J

Jeff Paulsen

Joined
Aug 25, 2000
Messages
14

In all my studies of Frank's conceptual continuity, I have found no references to Khukuris, Nepal, or Gorkhas. Still, I just noticed a sudden increase in the Frank Zappa Coincidence Quotient around here. Users named "rdnzl". The phrase "Great Googly Moogly!". Stuff like that. So - any other Zappaphiles in the forum? Sound off!


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Namaste
 
Ha ha! You caught me there! I admit it, I'm a keen Zapperite.
wink.gif

David

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"Old too soon, smart too late"

Uncle Bill M, 2000
 
Finally!!! Someone who caught the Zappa reference in my handle.............

Great googily moogily!!!

 
The Secret Word for Tonight is: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. Strictly Commercial, of course.
Francis Vincent was one of my heros in my misguided youth. I'm listening to the Yellow Shark as I sit here, wearing my Beat The Boots T shirt. And I thought I was the only one...
 
I've got quite a good collection of Zappa on LP. All the usual stuff except for some rarer ones I picked up when I was in Germany (79-85). The best ones are Made in Germany disks of "Freak Out," "We're Only in it for the Money," and "Absolutely Free." I've picked up most of his best since then on CD. My early years in college I used to play the entire Sheik Yerboti album at very high volume very often (to the dismay of many others). For some reason I've been thinking about Frank a lot in the last couple of days. I miss him a lot; he was way too young to go from some nasty disease. I took about six of his CD's to work today and "entertained" some of my office mates with them. If you haven't listened to him a lot, you just don't get him. It isn't something you can hear and feel with just a couple surface listens.

Gregg
 

My favorite is probably the "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol 2". The Helsinki Concert. It's basically the '74 touring band near the end of their tour, and they know the music inside and out. They play most of it MUCH faster than on the other '74 albums. Highly reccomended.

Also, the guitar solos and horn arrangements from the '88 live albums ("Broadway the Hard Way", "Make a Jazz Noise Here", and "Best Band You Never Heard") are outstanding.

I got to meet Zappa vocalist Ike Willis a few years back, under absurd conditions. I was visiting a friend's house - he was a bouncer at a local bar. The city began to shut down due to an ice storm. The friend showed up with one of the regular bar patrons who needed a lift, and that patron was Ike. We sat around for a few hours and watched the news report whole marinas sinking on the river, talking about music.

I can't think of any reasonable way to tie this into Khukuris... but both the knives and the music have a soul, and tell us something about the people who built them.

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Namaste
 

Anybody know how many readers of the HI Forum there are? It seems like 5 Zappaphones is more, percentage-wise, than in the General Populatium.


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Namaste
 
Hmm. I don't know how many other Zappaphiles there are out there, but I was introduced to him back around 8th grade, and listened through college. He was great in concert, and I wish he was still around.

One of my favorite Zappa stories was about a Mongolian vocal group from the Republic of Tuva, named Huun Huur Tu (sp?) which performed 'throat singing' similar to the Tibetan monks. While they were in California on tour they were asked what they'd like to do. They found out that Zappa lived nearby, and immediately wanted to go visit, since Zappa's something of a celebrity in Tuva! They dropped in, and Zappa had a jam session in progress with The Chieftans, so they all joined in - I wish I'd been a fly on the wall, to have seen Frank Zappa, The Chieftans, and Huun Huur Tu all playing together. Somewhere maybe there's a recording...
 
Wasn't it James Mattis that Jim March was always teasing about listening to tuuvan throat music? And and if Sherpa music is similar - then no wonder Kami Sherpa clears the room when he plays his kind of music.
 
Counting Snuffy, that's 6 of us.

Zappa was Vaclav Havel's choice for US Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Apparently EVERYBODY in the freedom movement in Czechoslovakia was a fan, and the secret police knew it... but there was no chance he would be approved by the Senate after what he said about Tipper Gore.



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Namaste
 
If the sherpa music is anything at all like the Tibetan monks singing, or the Mongolian style, then they must all be related somehow - they're so different from anything else it's hard to imagine them all being geographically close to each other and not related.
 
Snuffy,
There IS a video of the throatsingers and various others in Zappa's basement studio. I saw it on TV, of all places. Sorry, I can't tell you the name of the program but it is out there somewhere.
 
That show with the throat singers was, I believe, the one where Zappa delivered one of his real classics. Someone was marveling at the similarities in music all over the world. He was asking how this could be possible, clearly implying some kind of mystical connection, when Zappa said "Sailors?"

I think I have about 25 FZ albums, but I haven't counted in some time.
 
I wish I could remember more of the details, but a Canadian philharmonic on tour did a Zappa tribute at SMU Dallas a few years ago.

Would've done you guys proud to see an SRO crowd celebrating Frank's compositions (told my bride these were the selections her college buds skipped past to get to "yellow snow"). It's scary the amount of attention old Frank is getting from the "serious" classic jazz crowd.

You haven't lived till you've seen a gorgeous operatic soprano with a 6 page resume, at the SMU concert hall, sing "what would you do Daddy?" (had something to do with chocolate syrup, I think).

In another forum there's a thread about the age of the posters - bet a similar thread here would beat their average by 10 years. Just a guess - Zappa did predate "South Park" if I remember correctly.

...feeling like I've come home...

Thanks
Jim
 
I confess, I too am a Zappaholic! "Cosmic Debris" is possibly the funniest thing I have ever heard. "Is that a REAL poncho, or a SEARS poncho?"
 
Count me in... Got introduced after college by a buddy of mine. I couldn't believe that someone could be recreationally clean and be so out there. Appearantly he was a very harsh taskmaster for his musicians too.

My fave CD is "have I offended someone?", put together after he died. The CD insert in the case was extremely educational. "Titties and Beer" just sings to me for some reason.

Two years later I am just beginnign to figure out some of what is going on in his songs.

pat
 
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