Here's something a bit different: afka.net has a Shick ad from a 1953 Saturday Evening Post that was used as the basis for the Weasels Ripped My Flesh cover.
Category: Music
Dickie's Such an Asshole
An ode to Nixon. According to uploader Steve Sparx, this is the debut of the song, from 1973.
Xmas Values/N-lite
Think I'll take it easy on the blog today -- merry Christmas/Newtonmas/Tuesday/holiday of your choosing.
Anyhow, here's a video made by till593, to Xmas Values and N-lite.
Vai Christmas Card
Not directly Zappa-related, but here's a Christmas card from The1stGunner, featuring a Steve Vai cover of Christmas Time is Here.
And if you're interested in other tangentially-Zappa-related covers of songs from Christmas specials, check out Dweezil and Ahmet performing You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (which I posted a few months back on Chuck Jones's birthday).
Not Only In It for the Money
I thought an article called Frank Zappa's not only in it for the money (By Derk Richardson, Bay Guardian, February 2, 1983) would make a nice counterpoint to that talk about the artist as a businessman.
Guess there's not much to it -- it's another piece about Zappa's appreciation of Varèse, with a sort of rote, more-than-slightly-condescending rundown of his career. Still, it's got some good bits and is worth a glance.
Business
Frank Zappa: Portrait of the Artist as a Businessman, by Rob Partridge and Paul Phillips, Cream, 1972. Courtesy once again of afka.net.
Frank discusses the business side of things. He was certainly a much savvier and more thorough businessman than most rock artists, then or now -- but his comments about what a good deal he has with Warner Brothers are an indication that he still had some hard lessons left to learn; he'd be singing a much different tune a few years later.
Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?
Philadelphia, 1974; uploaded by Whoaduderighteous.
Advance Romance
Video's tough to watch but audio sounds better than the other live recordings I found. Upload by bongolampos, who says it's from a performance in Stockholm in 1988.
Cavett, Part 3
I've always loved the nuance, the sort of duality, to Zappa's philosophy on music: he's certainly got strong opinions on what he likes and what he doesn't and that the industry is a bottomless cesspit, but he also believes the bottom line is that people like what they like and that's okay. He writes deep, complex music and lyrics -- but sometimes he writes silly stuff like Dancin' Fool, and he thinks people who overanalyze Jim Morrison's lyrics are missing the forest for the trees.
Ultimately, he's a Serious Musician who has the good damn sense to understand you shouldn't always take music so seriously.
Cavett, Part 2
The comment that Moon is 12 years old places this in late '79 or '80, about where I figured between the fashions and the Jewish Princess controversy.
Another abrupt cut -- from the bad old days of YouTube limiting videos to 10 minutes. (As opposed to the bad new days, where YouTube automatically flags infringing videos based on pattern-matching algorithms, whether they're actually infringing or not.) To be concluded!