BBP
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Zappa in Hitweek
After lying on my To Do pile for literally years, I finally got around to translating all the Zappa articles in my Hitweek book.
Zappa in Hitweek
Hitweek was a Dutch weekly pop culture journal. It ran from September 1965 to April 1969, and then became the bi-weekly Aloha. Most of the authors
were in late teens and early twenties. The magazine had a large cult following back in its heyday.
One of Hitweek's claims to fame is it was the first magazine worldwide to have Frank Zappa on the cover.
Unfortunately I don't own that little bit of history, but I do have the Hitweek book that was issued in 2003, a "best of" book compiled to
accommemorate the magazine.
The Zappa occurrences in the book are:
No 3 '67:
This issue has two smaller pictures of FZ on the cover. Page 4 and a section of page 5 are devoted to Absolutely Free. Assuming you all know the
lyrics (not to mention they are copyrighted) I won't reproduce those here. Page 4 has a neat photo of FZ at the Hitweek desk.
MOTHERS OF INVENTION
ALL TEXTS OF THE LP
ABSOLUTELY FREE
All texts are by Frank Zappa and the World Copyright is with him of course.
The album Absolutely Free is out. It is a super-recommended album and you can really hear how fantastic the album is if you have the lyrics next to
it. MGM thought the texts were too filthy (not tidy enough) to print on the cover. Zappa's efforts were in vain {Du. proverb: he could jump high and
low. -BB} But you can order the lyrics in America for a dollar. The address you have to send your dollar to: The Mothers Idea Fund - PO box 36399 in
Los Angeles - California 90036, USA.
Frank Zappa visited the hitweek editors and gave us permission to print all words to the 2nd LP. Thanks to our sister magazine International Times and
Mr Zappa we present the lyrics.
Side 1 of the record is a serious outcry to the grey civilian society (plastic people). Song 1 is about the riots on Sunset Strip. Pandora's Box was a
nice club there.
The prune songs (2, 3, 4) mock the hypocritical vocabulary of U.S. love songs. You'd say Zappa's choice of words makes no sense. The way of singing
says enough.
The use of words in the PRUNES-songs is very absurd when sexual activities are described (inspired by blues metaphores). The Vegetable songs are about
the rusty and uncreative spoilsports. Zappa suggests us to contact them for a laugh. They might just react.
After song 5 comes a long instrumental that lasts about 7 minutes. An endless song that is so monochromous that it seems like it never ends. It seems
to last for hours. A sort of music-kick (play loud). Ritual Dance of a Pumpkin (vegetable-chick). In the last song, the good relation between you and
the vegetable people is mocked.
Side 2 is about certain facets of the currently reigning Ugly Great Society (usa now). A terribly sick sung intro that makes no sense. The song is
about the addicted consumer. It's sung again at the end of the record in a much nicer crooner nightclub way (complete with tills and drunk cheering).
How the american parents entertain themselves. As horrific as how they entertain themselves here. Parents who have finished their school neatly and
who accomplished something in life. Parents who want to see their children in the same way. Their main occupation however is drinking.
Their children are still in school and also need to try to accomplish something. This rhyme is about someone whose status in high school is going down
and doesn't get gleered at by the pompon girls. Pompon girls are pushy types that support the school football team {the article names football/soccer,
but we can assume this is a mistranslation of American Football - BB}. They toss balls of crepe paper around and shout immortal yells like "We've got
the team that's on the beam, that's really hep to jive". After the match they drink beer and get pregnant in the back of someone's car. A sports
whistle and a crazily sensitive bar-saxophone can be heard in this song.
Song 10 is about disgusting plastic factories that make disgusting toys. If it wasn't sung in such a funny way it might have been too serious. In
track 11 Suzy Creamcheese turns out to be a crazy hippie who appears everywhere just to be en vogue.
In song 12 you can hear that the Plastic People lead a horrific life. Boring duties and dreaming about touring with 13-year-old teenage queens. In bed
those girls entertain themselves and that's not right. A grey suit doesn't make you happy after all, because the TV bores too. This song sums up the
message of the record. These are the texts. Read them and listen how incredibly well they are brought on the record. Actually social criticism worthy
of consideration. Zappa wants the tweeners to realize that they can eventually create an alternative. Respond to it.
No 24 '67:
Page 4:
Small article under the punny title Zapplaat. Contains lyrics to Lonely Little Girl.
In spite of the previous duds (two singles of which about 25 pieces were sold to friends and acquaintances) the Mothers Of Invention releases a new
single. Announces as the hit single from the new album We're Only In It For The Money in a beautiful ad (see the collage at the Zappa-article on page
5) in Cashbox turns out to be a spiffy new single that contains Lonely Little Girl on the A-side and Mother People on the flip. Below and next to this
we print the cute text (copyright 1968 by Frank Zappa).
{note: lyrics printed are of Lonely Little Girl and Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance. -BB}
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BBP
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Page 5:
Collage
PUBLICITYMAN ZAPPA
Frank Zappa is, apart from the leader of the Mothers Of Invention, president of an advertising agency, The Nifty Advertising Agency, and for those who
thought that both the company and the presidentship is fake, the American magazine Saturday Evening Post published a pleasant article by one mr W.H.
Manville, in which with a mix of amazement and irony, an eye-witness report of a scene in the lavishly furnished boardroom of Unicord Inc., a major
enterprise in musical instruments and amplifiers, to which Frank Zappa is connected as advisor.
SLEEPING ON THE CARPET
When mister Manville enters, Zappa lies on the thick carpet next to the mahogany desk where the president of Unicord, Mr Sidney Hack, is seated. Next
to him on the carpet lies Herb Cohen, vice-president of Nifty and manager of the Mothers, having a snooze. A quote:
"You should have listened to me eh?" His finger was pointing to the man at the desk, who apologetically plays with his revers. He says: "I'm sorry
Frank. Maybe I should have done that. When I started in this business, everybody wanted a louder sound, clear tones, small amplifiers they can put
away easily they can carry easily."
"And now you're going to that fair in Chicago," says the speaker on the floor without mercy, "and because you didn't listen to me, you are going to
sell the smallest "beautful tone" amps there are. And are you going to sell those "beautiful tone" amps? No, you can smear the "beautiful tone" amps
in your hair because you won't sell them, because the youngsters don't want your "beautiful tone" amps. They want big, gigantic aps, and the traders
know the kids won't even look at your "beautiful tone" amps."
"I'm sorry Frank," says the man behind the desk again. "Everything has changed so suddenly. Maybe I am an old goat."
LIES
When Manville asks him about his opinion on advertising, Zappa replies: "Most societies cheat on the youth." "Our ads are true. There's nothing wrong
with ads, but there's something wrong with liars." He paused.
"I hate liars," he says suddenly. "Why would I believe that?" I asked him. "Why would I believe anything you say? The way you are lying there, for
instance, a businessman talking to his customers. Why do you wear these ridiculous clothes? Is that a pose?"
SHOCK
Again that charming gluttonous smile. "I wear these clothes on one hand because I like them, on the other hand because they are my trademark." He
paused. "And especially to shock you." I thought he was a lot nicer. "Come with me," he says, "then I'll show you the amps they used to make here." He
lead us through a passage into the factory. I felt like in Alice in Wonderland, some weird children's dream from the sky where children are the boss
and showing adults their errors.
CRYING
"When I first came here," Zappa said, pointing towards an amp, "I had to explain to them that young people don't want nice sounds; that's something
for the soft martini-generation. Kids want to hear sound. And if it sounds like screaming in your eyes, peeping, crying, the screaming that the radio
spends millions on to get rid of it? That is music to us these days. And the youth loves it, if you hate it. Go to one of those concerts. You'll want
to see what your daughter gets up to. So you go in there, you step inside and say: "The amps are so loud, I can't even hear what the lyrics are. The
youth thinks that's fantastic, because they already know the words, and know you don't know them. The amp is their weapon of destruction."
Mr Mersky, vice-president of Unicord said: "Be reasonable Frank. It's not that bad." Zappa started to talk in a friendly tone. "Listen Bernie, why do
you work so hard in the music business, where you must tolerate people like me, customers that don't understand you? For as far as you are concerned,
they might as well be shoes, chairs or nails. Why do you work so hard in the music business?"
Mr Mersky smiles. "I have a family, Frank. I have to support a wife and kids..."
EXTERMINATOR
Zappa digs up a mag from his butt pocket and shows an ad from a competitor amp. It looked bigger than I had ever seen. "Look," he said to Mersky,
"what do they call that machine? You know how well it sells. Do they call it the Mello-Tone amp? The Beauty-sound?" He pointed at the name. The amp
was called Exterminator. Zappa turned to Mersky again and said: "Listen Bernie, you work hard and make a lot of cash here. After work you go home and
spend it on your kids. Your son buys an Exterminator for it. And why? To sound louder than you." His voice became soft and friendly again. "So why do
you all work so hard, gentlemen?" he asks. End quote.
LOVE
At the end, Manville asks Zappa what he thinks of all "the kids in San Francisco who talk about love all the time."
"If you have it, you don't need to talk about it all the time," Zappa replies.
"Do you talk about it then?"
"Have you heard even one word?"
No 26 '67
Publishes the results of a publicity poll. On one page, a photo of the '67 Mothers can be found.
MOI scores 8th with 83 votes in the Best Foreign Group, topped off by Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, John Mayall, Bee Gees, Cream and Byrds, latter two
only by a small margin. "The amazing, even rejoicing fact that bands like MOI and The Doors are in, and the Monkees aren't."
MOI leads the foreign avant garde list by a long shot with 506 votes, followed by Pink Floyd (342), Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Soft Machine, Electric
Prunes, Jimi Hendrix Exp., Velvet Underground, Country Joe & The Fish, Vanilla Fudge, Cream, Byrds, Procol Harum.
"After their incredibly successful performance in Amsterdam and their two splendid LPs, the MOI are at a by international measures unbelievable first
place.
Instrumentalist: FZ shares 12th place with Alan Price, below Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, George Harrison, Peter Green, Brian Jones,
Charlie Watts, Jeff Beck, Mike Bloomfield, Keith Moon and Stevie Winwood. "...and by the way also Frank Zappa, who is indeed a miraculously versatile
instrumentalist."
Singer: FZ 19, result list is lead by Bob Dylan and has Tom Jones at a 10th spot.
Album: Absolutely Free comes in 3rd with 188 votes, behind Sgt Pepper (745) and Their Satanic Majesty's Service by the Stones (196).
Producers: Zappa hits 18 in a list lead by George Martin, Tom Wilson and Phil Spector.
Songwriters: FZ is 4th after Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richard, and Dylan.
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No 6 '68
FZ honks up most of the cover, with a portrait of the man next to the text "THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS" and a large photo of Mothers in concert. In the
introductory section to the magazine, we read:
"This paper is primarily about Zapa. Zappa was in Amsterdam for a few days. He visited the Witheek {spoonerism} editors a few times, bought new
musical instruments, received an Edison {Dutch music award, see also TRFZB} and presented it to our magazine immediately because he didn't want to
receive an award for a censored record. The Hitweek-team has painted the statuette with bright, lifelike colours so it looks a lot more flowery. Above
you see a photo of the Mothers. They accompany a new discovery of Mr Zappa: WILD MAN FISCHER. A name you should remember {Du proverb button in your
ears}, do it now.We've discovered we need a few thousand more readers to break even. (...)"
Page 3 has a photo of Frank and a yet unidentified man (you know me and faces). Frank holds up his middle finger to the camera. Accompanying
article:
THIS MAN IS VERY DANGEROUS
Yes, Frank Zappa is a danger. Dangerous to the establishment. Dangerous to the rusty structure that the head cheese heads {Du creative cursing:
zultkoppen} of all countries is dictated. Zappa is a man that the older generation will remember for a long time, the quasi-progressive will regret
sympathising with him. The reactionary will regret spitting on long hair and bad looks. Because Frank Zappa is a man whose arguments cannot be pushed
over by the establishment.
Zappa commits refined politics with his group. If you ask him what political party he sympathises with, he replies "Mothers of Invention". Zappa uses
his group to infiltrate the American media. Trying to get a revolution to occur by forming a group is nonsense according to him. It's about
effectively influencing the means of mass communication so you can use it to out your message to the salted mass, using the means they created
themselves. Method to self-destruction, nothing is more effective.
Frank Zappa doesn't believe in the dropout-system. If you wear flowers or hideous beads around your neck and inject horrible psychedelic cigarette
lumps, you're no different from your parents who drink a cocktail in front of the TV. It is the same pattern. What takes real courage, is to cut your
hair short and wear a suit and work at a company where you can influence people. That is a lot harder and more courageous than shouting fascists at
cops on the street or waving a red flag. That is true underground, to fight the battle in the office every day, and that is the only thing we can
expect something of. The current generation of tweens, we can't excpect anything from them. They grew up with Hanky Panky, Wooly Bully and Louie
Louie, and you'll notice that when that generation reaches the age at which they start to govern. But the kids of 12 and 13, who grew up with Dylan
and all, they see through the misery of all the hippie stuff. According to Frank Zappa.
It was a stormy week at our desks. Yes, of course Frank Zappa had caused that. Not just one complete show, no two, in the Concertgebouw, no it wasn't
just that. As if it cost no energy Frank came there to play us some of his yet unpublished musical oeuvre. Of course we heard the recordings of the
future LP Ruben and the Jets, the record with pop music from the late fifties. For those who haven't heard it come in through his speakers through the
VPRO {one of the programme producing organizations who make shows for the state TV and radio: initially protestant, VPRO became strong supporters of
culture.} broadcasting last Friday, should be told that Zappa's productions are hardly distinguishable of the music that was made back then, (hello,
hello idiots who don't like pop music, but who at the same time wish that groups like MOI did something very different, are you still there?) Well,
that was, including Lumpy Gravy, the fifth Zappa album (the record will be published in six months on the Verve label).Okay, the fifth Zappa record
for Verve, and the last one because Zappa didn't feel at home there. He went to found his own personal label Bizarre, that will be published by Warner
Bros (here: Negram). And so we heard the first Bizarre record that won't be in stores yet but that got the working title Uncle Meat.
And believe us, it sounds a lot better than that Ruben record. Besides some splendid instrumental work, we also hear a fragment of a show that the
Mothers gave at the Royal Albert Hall in London. You hear Don Preston walking to the majestic organ there and playing Louie Louie, no less. (what else
should we tell now)
Don't think that Bizarre is there just for the Mothers. For his label, Zappa produces other people's efforts. For instance, we can soon expect Captain
Beefheart and his Magic Band, and besides that many records from completely unknown people. What would you think of the "Wild Man Fischer" records?
Well, it's about records from a boy who keeps getting pushed into psychiatric institutes because his parents kept hearing him sing on the streets.
Led by Zappa, that man sings so well that shivers stream down your back. One entire LP has been improvised with Fischer, and at the same time he made
a single "Cyrcle", a record that was released in America this week, and according to insiders does well in the charts. That's quite something, but
then Zappa also produced a group of seven girls who, under the name of G.T.O. perform as major attraction at the American Mothers shows. Seven girls
who make the most horrid lyrics together and declamate that polyphonically, oh dear if you hear that... Well, if all goes well, the GTO record will be
published in February in America. It'll be quite a few nights
sleep before we can buy Uncle Meat, Ruben, Wild Man Fischer and GTO here at the record shops. That's why we will write some more about Zappa, the
Mothers, Wild Man Fischer and the GTO in the upcoming Hitweeks.
It all happened Sunday evening: the second MOI concert in Amsterdam. Unlike last year, when the audience had to chew through an undigestable
pre-programme of Dutch groups, the Mothers immediately gave a double concert without pre-show. Not that they liked that when they heard what the idea
was on Thursday, they immediately started to puzzle over how to fill in the bit before the interval, because a four hour performance seemed
impossible. Plans to show films before the show, or to have a string quartet perform, proved impossible, so the Mothers decided to keep the audience
occupied the first half of both shows. Zappa anounced at ten to seven that he would start with an experimental work for winds and a few other
instruments, because they saw no other way of filling up four hours. But oh well, everybody knew that these boys, no matter what their plan was, could
go wrong.
As an acceptable filler, Zappa let Preston, Motorhead and the amp boy perform an amusing play, in which Preston could be seen as both classical
pianist and monster.
After that, the other six Mothers came on stage. The same club as last year, except for the drummer because now we heard Arthur Tripp instead of Billy
Mundi. Zappa played the forty minutes to the interval in one chunk. And, it must be admitted, that this experimental filler was very beautiful.
It then was decostructed by Zappa on the spot with the usual procedures. Zappa and his teenage combo have agreed on some signals, that allow him to
get certain fragments during a song. He knits one piece, that sometimes reminds of jazz, sometimes of Kurt Weill, Coasters, Varèse, nothing and
everything. But especially Mothers.
(page 6: group photo)
After the intermission, the Mothers played two songs from the soon to come out Ruben and the Jets. The parlando section of Valary was of a very high
level. This was followed by a routine performance of Hungry Freaks. From the same record (the first) came Trouble Every Day. That this song is about
the Watts riots will have gone unnoticed by those who don't know the record, although Zappa tried hard to sing intelligibly.
The last, long song of the first concert was made mainly from things borrowed off the record that will appear after Ruben, Uncle Meat.
The second concert showed before the intermission a similar construction to the first one. At the beginning of the piece, they made use of the
possibilities of the human voice, we heard grunting, yelling, belching, mouth farting. This to a neat background of big band jazz, a sort of concert
for ugly noises, which slowly went into Help I'm A Rock. The next bit was disappointing that should have been a battle of the drums in Buddy Rich and
Max Roach style - Zappa had picked up the sticks from
Jimmy Carl Black.
Unlike at the first concert, the part after the intermission was filled with long instrumentals. The second part was a sort of instrumental potpourri
of Mothers-songs.We recognized "Wait till the fire turns green" and "American womanhood". Vocally we didn't hear the Mothers until the last song,
"Brown Shoes Don't Make It".
Frank apologized himself in advance for not having played through this song for a few weeks, but he thought it fitting now. Now, that this song hadn't
been rehearsed for some time, could unfortunately be heard.
On the whole we can conclude that in the performance area there was a lot less to see (when we saw Ray Collins at the centre of a perfect Supremes
imitation and a few beautiful ballets). A lot of others-fans will have been disappointed that there was next to nothing from the last two LPs, nothing
in the first show and only the potpourri and Brown Shoes in the second show. On the other hand, the instrumental songs were very beautiful. The
listening was a lot more demanding than the watching.
After all, Zappa decides per concert what he wants to play. And it happens that he likes the acoustics of the Concertgebouw, so he enjoys playing
instrumentals in Amsterdam. He thought that the Amsterdam concert was the highlight of last year's European tour. Last Sunday he ws enthralled by the
concert he just gave. If we want to see the Mothers with more show, they'll have to play in the Apollohal.
No 32 '68
ZAPPA's DOUBLE LP IS OUT
Frank Zappa is an inexhaustable boy and after five productions for Verve he finally has his own Bizarre label, that up to now produced a Lenny Bruce
album, the new record Uncle Meat, and work by the GTO's, Wild Man Fischer and Captain Beefheart can be expected. Besides that there are still plans to
publish the diaries of the Plaster Casters of Chicago and the GTO's, while if all goes well the 12-hour long film Uncle Meat {note: after the
erroneous announcement in Rolling Stone} premiers.
That is all we can see on the surface, because Zappa knows no rest and if we have been well-informed the recording of the two next Mothers albums has
been completed. In short, it all goes on, and if it goes on at this rate, there will continue to come out new records fifty years after Zappa's
passing. The recording for the double album Uncle Meat is at the recommended price of 30 guilders (you may go cheaper, mister Glorie and other record
sellers, you may decide your own price) in stores, were made between October '67 and February '68, around the first European tour of the group, after
recording We're Only In It For The Money and Lumpy Gravy, but before Ruben (the majority at least). In the group we find the sublime singer Ray
Collins (swell vocals) for as far as there is being sung, and next to the new drummer Artie (with the green moustache) Tripp, appears the old drummer
Billy Mundi.
{Page 12 has a collage with the text of the first amendment, highlighting the freedom of speech section)
We also find the old trusted members Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada, Don (Dom the wild) Preston, Bunk (Sweetpants) Gardner, Ian Underwood, James
(Motorhead/Motorishi) Sherwood and two more loose employees. Alright, some of it was recorded in the studio with these people in that period, there
were fragments of live recordings used, there was messy sound added, and after the necessary mixing and a stern direction it was done. Flagrant
details on how that happened (sometimes we heard 40 tracks in a song, oscillators and compressors were used) we can read in the beautiful cover flap
in which the records are wrapped. That cover with the beautiful collages and complete show of the used texts is of fine Mothers quality, and as if
that wasn't enough, a beautiful booklet is added. A book with very recommendable drawings and photos, a beautiful story of Oom Vleesch {ye olde Dutch
spelling}, a crazy scientist who can't build rockets anymore due to budget cuts and does horrible things as revenge (even including Ruben and the
Jets) that you should read yourself.
What we didn't get to see on that cover for the first time is the little Varèse quote (The present day composer refuses to die) that never failed on
any Zappa-cover.
It has nothing to do with an adjustment of style of Frank's music: we hear the honest, refined Mothers music that as a whole reminds the most of Lumpy
Gravy. Mostly instrumental, interlaced with odd sounds, talking, giggling and the occasional song. We're not telling the eventual truth about the
music, but make a few loose remarks. The two most important themes on this record are Dog Breath (in the year of the plague) and King Kong. The music
of King Kong we remember well from the first Amsterdam Mothers concert, while the second performance before the first half was taken up by a beautiful
lengthy version of Dog Breath (that also showed up on Lumpy Gravy). That dog breath is built like a solid musical home, that if it must pe compared to
other 20th century music, reminds most of Duke Ellington (hmm). The singing in this song uses a text that can be called one of the Zappa gems (read
the story that Zappa wrote about the lyrics on the cover, and know that, to restrict us to the car subject, a Chevvy is a Chevrolet, fuzzy dice are
large dice knitted by girls that are hung in the car as mascotte, like a miniature set of bongos, that hubcaps are "wieldoppen", that very nice
hubcaps are called spinners, a Brodie knob is a decorative gear shift knob and a Nash is a car of the Nash brand.)
While there's singing in Dog Breath, King Kong, the piece about the huge ape who died by contact with the civilised world, we only hear instruments.
The song covers the entire fourth side, and is split in 6 parts by Zappa. The music reminds very much of jazz, but it uses much more of modern-day
electronics than we have seen in jazz so far. The most important parts are taken care of by winds player Bunk Gardner (the short grey one) and Ian
Underwood (that young boy who also plays piano) but you hear their instruments so electronically deformed that you can barely tell what they're
playing.
Besides these two important songs there is a lot of other fun stuff on this record. Songs about air pollution and besides cars also about food. What
to say of Cruisin' for Burgers (=hamburgers) for instance or Electric Aunt Jemima (which is about pancake mix), or the cause to eat Mr Green Genes
(even eat in the box, You bought them in, you can't eat the truck, that brought them in). Too mad, the way they call it today {the word "mad" was
apparently a fashion word back in the day}
A couple of records to enjoy, but not for every moment, because then you'll find it nervous music. Listen sharply at some times, and then the music of
Zappa grows on, like with all previous records, but especially with Lumpy Gravy. Highlight of the record is for me, after the short musical growth it
made in three days, still song 7 of side 1. You hear someone with a trumpet who during the first concert walked on stage. You also hear how Zappa
gives him the best possible accompaniment by letting Don Preston play Louie Louie on the Royal Albert Hall organ. It is short, but it's one of the
most impressive pieces ever put on record.
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BBP
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Here follow the matching pictures. I only post the unfamiliar ones.
Attachment: 100_4934.JPG (225kB)
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BBP
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The Publicist article collage:
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BBP
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Uncle Meat collage:
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polydigm
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Thanks for your efforts Bonny.
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punknaynowned
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These are great Bonny!
The Amsterdam show reviewed here - I think it is 20Oct68 - is a great one!
tape sounds real good except for the Brown Shoes Don't Make It at the end
recorded by Don Preston, kept by bruce burnett
and seeded by jaypfunk back in 2005
it remains one of my clear favorites
here's a setlist that is a bit clearer
1. Jam (incl. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes) / Nasal Rententive Calliope Music / Help I'm A Rock > Transylvania Boogie/drum duet / Whiskey Behind the Sun
/ Dog Breath Variations / The String Quartet > A Pound For a Brown / Sleeping In A Jar > Gas Mask > Charles Ives/ Orange County Lumber Truck
medley [source change starts here]/ Brown Shoes Don't Make It
and these versions of dog breath/a pound for a brown (to 8:40) can be found on Electric Aunt Jemima, the rhino beat the boot issue
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BBP
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Hey cool! Thanks for the backup information!
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Pedro3
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Bonny ! EXCELLENT STUFF !
It's always fun to read historical material from other countries like this!
But this was kinda strange ..... I sure hope they were right 
That is all we can see on the surface, because Zappa knows no rest and if we have been well-informed the recording of the two next Mothers
albums has been completed. In short, it all goes on, and if it goes on at this rate, there will continue to come out new records fifty years after
Zappa's passing.
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13-6-2023 at 21:23 |
BBP
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Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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And here we are, finally, the translation of That First Article in Hitweek:
The first magazine worldwide to sport FZ on the cover (at least according to an interview from 2005 with one of its editors) was Hitweek, who put the
band logo on the front page of their October 1966 issue.
The underground paper was hard to acquire back in the day. An issue would have set you back 30 cents, for which you got a newspaper with a naked male
on the cover, and articles on Ike & Tina, Troggs, Batman and Wally Tax. The FZ article is on page 3, right above an article comparing the
long-hair at schools regulation to the Dutch national socialistic movement, explanation on how to take our partner's clothes off during sex (focusing
on the various types of closures) and let's not get started on the other types of teenage rebellion here.
From the front page introduction:
"At the moment a new type of music resounds throught the HITWEEK-BUILDING. A record sent to us from the States by Frits Boer. The "Moeders Van De
Uitvinding" make a music that would pale the Who. See page three.
***
freak out / The mothers of Invention by Frits Boer, USA
An hour before the FREAK OUT would start, the street around the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles were filled with the United Mutations: dozens of
biarrely and jofel* dressed, so called by Frank Zappa (leader of the Mothers and inventor of Frek Out) because of their collective effort to esape the
social slavery in the areas of thought, dress, interection etc.
Right next to me, a thirty-five-ish man with cut hair, who started making jokes in a fifteen-year-old jargon to the noticeably younger bystanders. It
turned out that he was a beautiful FREAK (vreemde vogel), when indoors he was hopping around wearing a Buster Keaton-type wig on his nearly bald
head.
BEHOLDING NIRWANA
In the concert hall, there are railings high up on the walls. On three sides of the hall, bed sheets were hung from these railings. When the first
group. The West Coast Experimental Pop Art Grou, starts to play. something amazing happens. The loudly playing group is in a sea of light, but can't
be seen because an hellish machine produces massive smoke pules onstage. At the same time a projection has started on the sheets, that won't stop. On
three sides you can see old Laurel & Hardy-films, old newsreels with Roosevelt and such), completely unclear technical instruction-movies, op-art
figures that move along with the rhythm, coloured merging images and red sircles of alternating size floating over the cloth. In the film projectors
red lamps instead of white lamps were installed, so that the juxtapositioned (and often overlapping) projections are red-black. "The Light Show
Nirvana" it was called.
After the West Coast Experimental Pop Art Group the Mothers of Invention perform, for whom most freaks came from North Hollywood and Laurel Canyon
(where everybody lives, including the Byrds) came to the centre of LA. On their first double album there's a list with ca 160 people who contributed
to their music, of hich the influence of Eberhard Kromhausen, Randy de Wees the Bokelmans, Uncle Ed and Lenny Bruce are less clear than that of Elvis
Presley, Charles Mingus, Lightnin' Slim, Mauricio Kagel and Phil Spector.
The Mothers play songs that are about 15 minutes long, with all sorts of electronic effects, although some songs also contain yodelling (by one of the
two drummers: Jim Black, a thoroughbred Cherokee). As the Mothers play, super-freaks jump and shake on two small stages.
DE MOEDERS
(van de uitvinding)
Frank Zappa is 26 years old, born in Baltimore, raised in California. Two years ago he founded the Mothers together with Ray Collins, Jim Black and
Roy Estrada. The have started to grow insanely popular in the last year. Not just with the treens - fellow professionals are also (partly)
enthusiastic. Jack Nitzsche believes Frank Zappa is one of the tree, four people who will make it in the pop future in the way Spector, Bacharach,
Gordy etc are making it now. In March the Mothers recorded their first LP, produced by Tom Wilson (back then producer for Bob Dylan). In response to
this album they appeared in various TV-programmes In the programme where I saw them for the first time, a group of tow-along freaks chopped up an
armchair with a pickaxe, the performance ended in a mad chaos, that sent the upholstery of the armchair flying through the tudio. Even so I noticed
straight away that in the apparently chaotic music there is a magnificently sophisticated discipline. When I later attended a rehearsal of the Mothers
(which lasted nine hours) it did turn out that Zappa thoughtfully composes his pop pieces, and the so confident on stage Mothers were all listening
carefully to Frank to do absolutely nothing wrong ("Elliot, your timin' is so fuckin' bad!') . Every now and then the tight rehearsal waas interrupted
by a pop-jam-session where everyone played himself for half an hour.
The Brainpolice
Soon the Who will record a song by Frank Zappa ("Who Are The Brain Police"). By that time the Mothers will come to England for a tour. It's hard to
explain why you think some music is so fantastic. I struggled with this as I met a youngster at a party in Hollywood, who was very high. Every half
hour he walked up to me, and he said, with huge eyes like those of a child who just got something beautiful: "Did you hear that Freak Out album of the
Mothers of Invention? Isn't that something? Hey isn't that something?"
Freaks of HITWEEK, it certainly is.
*****************
*
I will never know how best to translate "jofel", as the King of Translation Engines Deepl.com gives the yucky, yummy, yophile and jofel as
translations. Grabbing the Van Dale it is a word that means "pleasant, fun" but it being street lingo means it means whatever it means.
I guess Deepl was right after all. Jofel means jofel.
Side note - in the mean time Dad is watching the German cop show Tatort - and somebody has a 200 Motels photo - which we see seconds before
we see he hung himself.
RIP Fictional FZ Fan. There's Too Little Of You.
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