It ’s the sort of coupling that makes no mother wit , until you believe about it : bauble - book god Doctor Demento and avant - rock pioneer Frank Zappa . Doctor Demento was a guest at the World Science Fiction Covention this preceding weekend , and he paid testimonial to one of his great inspirations .
You might reckon Doctor Demento would have been celebrate Weird Al Yankovic or Barnes and Barnes instead , or some other humor - record book creative person . But Zappa and Demento were longtime protagonist , with Zappa look on Demento ’s radio receiver show as a Edgar Guest several times , include in 1972 and 1988 . In a special Worldcon intro , Doctor Demento pay tribute to his friend with a tour of Zappa ’s creative process and musical influence .
Demento call Zappa “ the most major musical inspiration for me when I began the Dr. Demento Show , and he remains one of our half dozen most request artists to this day . ” He speak about the “ complex harmony , cross rhythms and a lot of virtuoso musicianship ” in the first piece he played , “ Do n’t use up The Yellow Snow . ” He talk a lot about the way in which Zappa recycled melodious ideas over the long time , and concern to it as “ conceptual persistence . ”
Wearing his trademark top chapeau , Doctor Demento played some extract from Zappa ’s music as well as some songs by other artists that Zappa had get laid . He also played snipping of some of Zappa ’s appearance on his show , so that the musician could address in his own words . ( Demento very kindly gave us a copy of his note afterwards . ) you’re able to watch one of Demento ’s interview with Zappa at left .
In one of the interview snippet we heard , Zappa talked about how he start out as a neoclassical composer , until he realized he would have to pay other people to perform his musical composition . His influence included not only avant - garde classical medicine like Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varese , but also rhythm and blues and doo - wop . What Zappa called “ white - person radio ” would n’t toy R&B , so he had to run all over town to find copies of these phonograph recording , and he got a spate of them from second hand jukebox single computer storage .
Here are some snippets from Demento ’s presentation :
Demento walk us through Zappa ’s former career , include his stint transcription for Pal Studios , and Demento encounter us a bit of one melody , “ Break Time ” by the Masters . Meanwhile , Zappa was already encounter in bar bands in the other 1960s , and Demento played us an excerpt which evince him already beginning to experiment with heavier stuff . Zappa also composed some soundtrack medicine for a low budget film , Run Home Slow , which his former high schoolhouse English teacher had written , and this is some of his earliest avant - garde classical material on record . And then we hear Demento ’s first commercial success : a strain called “ Memories of El Monte ” by the Penguins , about a local saltation hall call El Monte Legion Stadium , where R&B and doo - wop Acts of the Apostles performed .
Zappa serve some slammer time for helping to make a pornographic recording for someone who turn over out to be a cop , but then he joined a lot foretell the Soul Giants and slowly set out to mold them into the Mothers of Invention . His compositions were “ getting more imaginative by the 24-hour interval , ” and no longer really suitable for the sort of naughty - collar suburban area where the Soul Giants had been playing . Eventually , the band started play club like the Whisky - a - Go - Go on the Sunset Strip , and they came to the attention of the phonograph recording industry . This lead to Zappa getting his first platter deal .
In Zappa ’s first appearance on Demento ’s wireless show , he brought along some of his favourite records and introduced them , and Demento played us some of that segment , include one of the most demented doo - greaseball track record ever ( unadulterated with bizarre sobbing ) and Strazinsky ’s madcap take on “ Happy Birthday . ” We also discover a heap of Zappa ’s former strange compositions , like “ Hungry Freaks , Daddy , ” “ Call Any Vegetable , ” and “ Lumpy Gravy . ” Demento told us :
People heard stuff like that and they assumed that Frank must be out of his thinker on every drug that you may imagine , but that was n’t the event at all . Frank save a well - stock bar in his nursing home but I never saw him take a drink .
By 1969 , Zappa “ seemed to be screen how far he could go in the way of serious music with a rock stria , albeit one composed of very good musicians , ” said Demento . And meanwhile , he was acquire other creative person , including Grand Funk Railroad , Burt Ward ( Robin from the 1960s Batman TV show ) and Captain Beefheart ’s “ highly unconventional songs . ”
Demento told us :
Frank Zappa was fuck as the tough taskmaster in the business , but he loved to stand back and watch the unusual behavior of his instrumentalist offstage . He made note of anything strange or colorful that they did . His feature film 200 Motels , from 1971 , is basically a home movie about the band ’s traveling . And the same principle applied when his girl Moon Unit started using her ally ’ odd figure of lecture . Frank wrote a Sung around some of these , and awaken Moon up in the middle of the night to make this record in the Zappa abode studio .
Demento also played a great soundbite of Zappa talking about certain people who have “ a perverted thought of the way human behavior needs to be order , and they have a perverted view of the grandness of dirty word . ” These are multitude who meet from “ intimate maladjustment ” or “ religious superstitious notion , ” which they ’re entitle to practice in their own nursing home — but they should n’t assay to control the behavior of other , healthy people .
afterwards in his career , Zappa had job with “ in high spirits - strung musicians ” and too much financial command processing overhead , so he invested in a synclavier , so he could record more medicine by himself . That led to his album Jazz from Hell , which direct to his only Grammy Award .
In the late 1980s , some of hs fans originate a “ Zappa for President of the United States ” campaign , started as a joke but took on some adhesive friction because Zappa was friends with then - Czech Chief Executive Vaclav Havel . We heard a soundbite of Zappa blab about the fact that the White House has mess of elbow room for a recording studio , peculiarly if you illuminate out the mess that Ollie North had left . “ I do n’t see why living music should be excluded from politics in America , ” Zappa said . “ you’re able to get more of a good point across with one good guitar note than with 85 paragraphs of State of the Union address . ”
And the last music Zappa recorded , articulate Demento , really sounded like something his god , Igor Stravinsky , could have written .
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