Frank Zappa: Classic or Dud?

On the other hand, stuff released in the late seventies and through the eighties was often fairly puzzling. Musically speaking, it was incredibly well-played, and the lyrics had a bitter sting to them that you couldn't help but admire a good chunk of the time. By this time, though, he got into a really nasty groove that went past obvious satire to the point where you weren't quite sure that he wasn't being serious anymore: how many times can you release an album filled to the gills with songs about big breasts, blow jobs, drugs, and various other degeneracies until any claims to satire are dismissed? In a lot of ways it became a one-note dirty joke, and while it remained clever it became redundant and increasingly transparent. Moments of brilliance were still there: Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch was actually quite solid if you jettisoned the novelty hit single. The Yellow Shark proved that the man knew how to compose music (though Jazz From Hell had already proved that, it was a bit on the sterile side). More than anything, this became a period where Zappa was more notable just for the sheer amount of product he cranked out. That's not enough to change my vote, though. Still classic.

If you bother to learn how to write music, write a big, run-on sentence like Zappa did so you can just sit back and hire super-professional musicians to play it later, as a challenge to their virtuosity and a feather in all of your caps! And then mix and match your paragraphs, so you never have to start a new book (since it's such a mess to begin with) and have people call your entire body of work a brilliant intertwined "concept"!

Music that is composeurish is rather dull, unless it is actually goodlike Mozart, Vivaldi or Beethoven, when the orchestration is so good, you don't notice the minutia unless you concentrate and are then blown away on a whole different level. Zappa falls way short of that. Everything is "hey, listen to this little weird thing" *insert cowbell rattle followed by kazoo*. (This reminds me of Metallica, by the way; I can hear the metronome ticking in the background. That's bad music! Is that supposed to be emotion? Hmmm...)

I prefer the Grateful Dead to most Zappa, with the exception of "Apostrophe" & "Sheik Yerbouti". Some others that are okay, but by no means what the fans make it out to be, are "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life", "Yellow Shark", "Joe's Garage" and "You Are What You Is". I also have "Live At The Ritz" (or something?) that I never listen to. It is some of the most boring shit I own, except for the one track "I Am The Slime" which I don't have on any other recording... Which album has "Zombie Woof"? That'sa good one, actually.

Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that it's a lot harder to make a cohesive song that has some emotion rather than filling a music sheet with black dots and having Steve Vai and Anton Figg play it for you while you play composer genius. The main guy from Jethro Tull is like that, too, but I think he actually has a reason to be, since it's not 1/2 just free improvisation and studio overdubs.

Of course, if you are a fan of his music, you'll be ridiculously offended by the notion that he's nota super genius, even if you have no musical knowledge or skill yourself as a source to draw upon for judgement, and tell me to piss off or something for daring to compare my unfamous non-music-reading sensibilities to the god of avant garde. He definitely gets tons of points for being first. Who knows if I would be able to lay on a couch, imagining constantly changing music patterns if he hadn't shown me how (or did he)? I do it all the time, but it drives me nuts because songs that wander off into insanity are boring. Playing simple and well is difficult. I think Zappa released too much of too little value (except to those fanatics of course). But, I still think he's a classic for the good stuff he did put out and for trying to do something interesting (even if not really very funny at all, just weird and kinda perverted) with music.

hey, nobody's mentioned 'hot rats' yet, perhaps his greatest album?

Oh, check out his autobiography. It's got some good laughs. Spoo!

Interestingly I don't really feel qualified to respond to this thread any more, despite owning a load of Zappa. I haven't listened to any of it in more than a year.

I think my favorites used to be Apostrophe'/Overnite Sensation (esp. "Montana" - "I think I'll raise me up some DENNIL FLOSS"), the guitar box (esp. the track with the bouzouki), parts of Joe's Garage (mostly for the guitar sound, cf. 'Watermelon in Easter Hay', and because I get an enormous kick out of hearing the Ceeeeentral Scrooooaaaatinizer), One Size Fits All, much of Zoot Allures and Lather (I get an infantile kick out of the Stravinsky namedrop on "Titties 'n' Beer", but that's just a perk).

- following the awesome tribute night to zappa and beefheart at THE CLUNY - where was the fuckin' WIRE ? - another night is planned on thursday 17th may at newcastle arts centre - featuring ex- zappa/beefheart drummer jimmy carl black and the muffin men, zoviet france, hounds of the hill and many others - zappa and beefheart classics fucked over bigstyle - like susan george in straw dogs !

Tadeusz says astute, but I've never thought FZ was over-and-above astute — just, y'know, run-of-the-mill astute. Never heard an FZ commentary that I hadn't already heard elsewhere (not nec. heard elsewhere in pop /rock, but in Letterman or Alex Cockburn, or just somewhere... ): I think the prob. is he NEVER turned his laser-eye on himself and the wackness of his dreams/fears. "Astute" somewhat excepted, all the good words TS uses are true — but (to me) so what. FZ is just too guarded, so that's how he makes me.

Anyway, my own thoughts: I tend to like Zappa's earlier stuff most (just about everything he did with the Mothers of Invention), plus a great deal of his late seventies/early eighties post-Mothers stuff. Faves would have to be Apostrophe (as someone upthread said, so gleeful), Freak Out!, Hot Rats, Joe's Garage, and Läther (because it's so over-the-top, has all of the best bits from Sheikh Yerbouti and Orchestral Favorites, and that cow on the cover with the Zappa goatee-and-beard). Guilty favorites would be Sheikh Yerbouti (great pop songs and awesome guitarwork mixed with pure wank and pointlessly stupid lyrics) and Thing Fish (mainly because it brings together everything that was good and was bad about Zappa). Largely agree that he tapered off towards the end, when he was releasing albums largely because he could (and because he'd gotten that damn Synclavier doing music by himself, without anyone or anything to keep him or his sketchier ideas in check).

As for the astuteness -- I guess some of that's from my having read a lot of his interviews as well as his autobiography. His lyrics are a grab-bag of the funny, the astute, the obscene and the flat-out stupid ... even he admitted that a lot of his lyrics and plots (esp. Joe's Garage) were stupid.

'Hot Rats' is good though, and is it 'Suzy Cream Cheese' (?). Actually, Zap ain't so bad. I mean the guy did twiddle the knobs on 'Troutmask' right? It's just he's so fucking odd; but for the sake of being odd, you know. Whereas with Loonheart, you know that he is genuinely fucking out there, Zappa is always trying so damn hard.

With this is mind: Dud.

So... Nobody here has a sense of humor unless they're STONED??

All of you hate fun and sweet sweet guitar solos. REVIVE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssjVez9UA4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew3Dq82Q1bQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCG4Caw7IIc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_i_HVBD9ks

Alternate '73 version of Montana with better video quality but lower sound. KILLER solo.

ahhhhh thanks

whoa i just clicked on that "last zappa interview" video--really sad

fuckin ian underwood!

I haven't brought myself to watch that yet, but there are 5 sections of the Zappa bio from BBC on there too, which I highly recommend.

That video of "You are what you is" made the 8 year old me extremely nauseous when it originally aired.

I just read about this morning--no recollection of it playing any festivals here, and I can't find a listing on IMDB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7figLnhYZ44

”both” is the answer to the this thread

haha, otm

So much material that there are extremes of both.

Full catalogue to be reissued by Universal this year, apparently including some new mastering jobs. (By Joe Travers? No details given.)

My first question is whether Gail and the ZFT retains the right to keep on mining the extensive vaults and putting stuff out themselves.

hmmm, i seem to recall that the mixes of a lot of those 90s reissues had been futzed w/ by Zappa? wonder if these are the "original" mixes or whatever.

RIP Rykodisc.

I hope they're the "unfutzed" versions.

I dunno - the original version of "We're Only In It For the Money" is pretty horrible, really

sonically, I mean

Would like somebody to explain me the difference between remixing and remastering in the context of this news. When FZ did the CD releases of Ruben and the Jets and WOIIFTM with new bass & drum tracks, it's safe to say he did new mixes. There are fairly radical differences in LP and CD mixes of Hot Rats. But I imagine that most of the CD catalogue consisted of digital transfer of the original vinyl masters, right, without much fiddling around?

You have it right, Remastering is tracking down the best possible format of the final mixes of an album (in Zappa's case probably 1/2 or 1/4 inch analog tape reels and adding equalisation and/or compression & limiting to get the best overall sound and dynamics onto whichever format the recording is going to end up on. Of course the potential abuse of the process is a big issue in the digital age.

Remixing is loading the original unmixed master tapes onto whatever the relevant playback machine would be and repeating the process of mixing the album from scratch.

The regular cds of Freak Out have a bunch of digital echo Frank added in the 80s. The reissue entitled MOFO has the og mix.

I remember reading that he apparently dicked about with recordings other than Hot Rats and WOIIFTM too, that's where the UMRK Approved master tag came in.

I dunno - the original version of "We're Only In It For the Money" is pretty horrible, really

the version on cd with added slap bass is a whole new level of awful though

hmmm, i seem to recall that the mixes of a lot of those 90s reissues had been futzed w/ by Zappa? wonder if these are the "original" mixes or whatever.

"futzed" is putting it mildly.

Reissues

In 1984, Zappa prepared a remix of Cruising with Ruben & the Jets for its compact disc reissue and the vinyl box set The Old Masters I. The remix featured new rhythm tracks recorded by bassist Arthur Barrow and drummer Chad Wackerman, much as the 1984 remix of We're Only in It for the Money had featured. Zappa stated "The master tapes for Ruben and the Jets were in better shape, but since I liked the results on We're Only in it For the Money, I decided to do it on Ruben too. But those are the only two albums on which the original performances were replaced. I thought the important thing was the material itself."[2]

After the remixing was announced, a $13 million lawsuit was filed against Zappa by Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner and Don Preston, who were later joined by Ray Collins, Art Tripp and Motorhead Sherwood, increasing the claim to $16.4 million, stating that they had received no royalties from Zappa since 1969.[2]

In 2009, the original mix of the album was released as part of a compilation entitled Greasy Love Songs.[6]

zappa was so nuts about that sort of thing, it seems. i remember reading something about the creation of "shut and play your guitar" (i think) where he would put guitar solos from, say, 1974 into a recording from 1981.

He would lift guitar tracks from live recordings and drop them into studio based stuff, he did a whole track by layering elements from different recordings, Tink Runs Amok? He called it Xenochrony iirc.

XENOCHRONY! Exciting. Bands that never were.

"Rubber Shirt," from Sheik Yerbouti:

SPECIAL NOTE: The bass part is extracted from
a four track master of a performance from Goteborg,
Sweden 1974 which I had Patrick O"Hearn overdub on
a medium tempo guitar solo track in 4/4. The noted
chosen were more or less specified during the overdub
session, and so it was not completely an improvised
"bass solo." A year and a half later, the bass track was
peeled off the Swedish master and transferred to one
track of another studio 24 track master for a slow song
in 11/4. The result of this experimental re-synchronization
(the same technique was used on the Zoot Allures
album in "Friendly Little Finger") is the piece you are
listening to. All of the sensitive, interesting interplay
between the bass and drums never actually happened ...
also note, the guitar solo section of the song "Yo' Mama"
on side four was done the same way.

One of my favorite Sheik Yerbouti tracks.

I was just to talking to a big Zappaphile firend of mine, and he mentioned that some of the other "futzing" was undoing vintage edit jobs done to fit lp time constraints. He cited these two (and was only partially wrong):

Wiki on Hot Rats:

In 1987 Zappa remixed Hot Rats for re-issue on Compact Disc. "Willie the Pimp" is edited differently during the introduction and guitar solo. "The Gumbo Variations" has 4 minutes of additional material including an introduction and guitar and saxophone solo sections which were cut from the vinyl LP version. Piano and flute which were buried the LP mix of "Little Umbrellas" are prominent on the CD. Other differences include significant changes to the overall ambiance and dynamic range. The original mix was reissued in 2009 as a limited edition audiophile LP by Classic Records.

Wiki on Weasels...:

The CD version of the album features different versions of "Didja Get Any Onya?" and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", which featured music edited out of the LP versions. Some of this extra music was used (in a different studio recording) as the backing track for "The Blimp" on the Captain Beefheart album Trout Mask Replica, produced by Frank Zappa.

the version on cd with added slap bass is a whole new level of awful though

― zappi

I was trying to youtube some songs off it a few years back, and the only versions that came up were from this, which I hadn't been aware of before, and I was seriously appalled. Especially since the original WOIIFTM is one of my all-time faves.

agreed that the moon/ahmet thing is very strange and hard to watch, though it gets a bit less strained at the end. i think it's mainly to do with the awful brocast format more than anything. you can see her weird laugh is actually a cringe/biting-of-tongue when ahmet goes off on some kind of "attack helicopter" spiel at some point :/

i watched a couple of other interviews however in which she comes across a lot better. i know nothing about her but it seems like there was some LA-woo stuff in her past but seems like it's just of the brené brown, EFT, attachment theory etc. etc. now. which is fair enough given what it seems like she's gone through. i had no idea of extent of the gail stuff (i always assumed that a lot of her reputation was mainly due to weird misogyny from some of the fan base).

brené brown, EFT, attachment theory etc. etc.

Can’t get over Ahmet interrupting Moon’s story to tell his own story of his dog going down on his girlfriend from behind on 9/11/01.

Wow, some apples don't fall far from the tree...

xxp oh they're unrelated, but as in she mentioned all of those things in the interview. they're all just popular therapy-type things at the moment. so it seems like LA-guru-days-in-the-ashram are in a long time in the past - re: "I mean I’m sure it won’t be that hostile since Moon is spiritual"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bren%C3%A9_Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotionally_focused_therapy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory

Thanks, can see how Moon might relate to those. Hope they helped!

oh cool, turns out Dweezil is a right-wing edgelord

https://old.reddit.com/r/Zappa/comments/1f16k57/portland_me_show_82424/

What a surprise.

Those gags were in the show I saw and the Jar-Jar/Kamala in particular was def jarring but in the moment it was hard to parse if was indictive of a right-wing edgelord-isms or merely a topical(?) joke that wasn't very funny or both

that reddit thread makes it clear he's just doing this every night. sounds completely insufferable

Him and his brother have always seemed like dicks tbh.

learned from the best

A surprising turn on John Cale S?D:

Just came across a good JC interview---didn't realize he wrote so much in the studio, and was so into improvising there---this part is striking as well, on VU gigs with the Mothers:

...the only reason Zappa was on those gigs was that Herb Cohen knew that he'd get all this publicity from Andy and us. The thing is about Frank, that was reinforced years after I saw him, is that he had a very acerbic wit, which was kind of enjoyable, but at the same time, I really can't say there was anything about his music or him that made me love music. There was something about him, I think it was a real deep-seeded anger and fury about being forced to learn music in the first place - there was a revenge factor there - but it made me very uncomfortable watching him. There was so much putting down of himself that wasn't pleasant. I lost the gleam of innocence that you get from somebody really enjoying a melody or a solo or anything like that. And he could rip off [play, not pilfer] all these incredible solos, and you knew the guy had tremendous talent, but there was never anything there that made me love music so I'd want to do it. The reason you're doing this is to show how people how exciting and enjoyable this is. It's a shared experience. People shouldn't be punished for sharing an experience.

---from the Oklahoma Daily:
https://www.oudaily.com/interview-with-john-cale/article_ede0d7c9-ebb8-5745-a974-e937d103ad84.html

― dow, Thursday, November 16, 2023 10:35 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Didn’t Zappa famously mock Nico from the side of the stage, pretending to play organ and making pained singing faces?

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, November 17, 2023 12:00 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh worse than that, he went up on stage and actually played her organ and sang some moronic lyrics not much different from his usual output.

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, November 17, 2023 12:47 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.openculture.com/2017/06/andy-warhol-hosts-frank-zappa-on-his-cable-tv-show.html

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, November 17, 2023 12:54 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

He did play "All Tomorrow's Parties" when the BBC gave him a radio show to play his favourite music. Along with some other surprising choices (the UK Subs!) Zappa that is, not Cale. He was still an asshole though of course.

― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Friday, November 17, 2023 3:41 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right, forgot about that. The ATP part that is, not the other part.

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, November 17, 2023 4:55 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also that thing I posted brings up something I never thought about, comparing the different flavors of control that FZ and AW bring to the table and what may lie behind each.

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, November 17, 2023

I meant to say John Cale S/D

Just reread the Warhol link and found this:

But perhaps Zappa just couldn’t tolerate anyone else taking the spotlight, especially a talented female performer. Warhol remembers Zappa’s response to a compliment about his daughter, Moon. “Listen,” he supposedly told Warhol, “I created her. I invented her.… She’s nothing. It’s all me.” In contrast to the “peculiar” reply, Warhol writes “if it were my daughter I would be saying ‘Gee, she’s so smart,’ but he’s taking all the credit.” Zappa may have been a musical genius with a special entrepreneurial flair and incisive critical wit, but the “sexist autocrat… with a scabrous attitude,” as Carlo Wolff describes him, “was not a likeable man.” Certainly the mild-mannered Warhol didn’t think so.

I'm learning to see ZAppa in "neither classic nor dud" terms but a mix, duds and classics living in a pond - together - even meldinginto cluds or massics

Have started reading the Moon Unit book and though I’m only up to Moon at age six it’s paid dividends. She does have a way with phrasing and a seemingly sharp memory for detail.

Funny to picture two ‘70s kids, her and Dweezil, growing up with the GTOs always hanging out at their house.

So far it’s not making me hate Frank or Gail, it just paints a portrait of a daughter who’s temperamentally very diffferent from her parents, who also happen to be self-involved eccentrics.

Did you know the story of one of the GTOs dying whilst visiting her boyfriend drummer David Robinson of The Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman totally freaking out? "There's something wrong with Christine!"

https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a4456/miss-christine-rock-legend/

The Modern Loves killed Gram Parsons AND one of the GTOs.

Modern Lovers

Moon says Miss Christine was one of her faves of that crowd early on but one day she was told "she went away, meaning forever."

Seems like I once read about Miss Christine moved in and OD's maybe the very might that the MLs arrived in town, and things went downhill from there. Cale sent them back to Boston, saying that they were very talented, but too young, not ready for El Lay/The Biz yet
Back in the 70s,A friend had the GTOs album, produced by Frank I think: Jeff Beck among the heavy guests: think I'd remember if had actually heard it (this was in the later 70s, not the LSD etc. 70s for me).

Miss Pamela (Des Barres)'s books are worth reading for sure.

Also read that Gail had to deal with, for instance, the Manson girls dropping in unannounced, and Frank's Wife desperately wiping the sofa after they finally left.

Miss Christine moved into where the Modern Lovers would be living while working w Cale, their producer.

Your somehow living out the Gram Parsons funeral part

Leaving

You’re

Maybe I should request a zing delay feature

Didn't know, please tell us about it! The funeral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zILJ_NOhc0

Hanxs! Mention of GP started me wondering if she was inspiration for "Devil In Disguise," but no.
And yeah, as Wiki sez:

Miss Christine, born Christine Ann Frka on November 27, 1949, in San Pedro, California, was the first babysitter for Moon Unit Zappa, Frank Zappa's first daughter. She is shown on the front cover of Frank Zappa's 1969 album Hot Rats emerging from an empty swimming pool on Errol Flynn's former estate in the Hollywood Hills. She dated rock musician Alice Cooper and is credited with creating his stage persona.[4] Frka also dated Todd Rundgren and Russell Mael; Frka died on November 6, 1972, of a barbiturate overdose in a house in Cohasset, Massachusetts, which at the time was being rented by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers.[5] She overdosed shortly before her 23rd birthday.

From Billboard:

Chris Hillman Reflects on The Flying Burrito Brothers' 'The Gilded Palace of Sin' at 50

The story has always been that "Christine" was Miss Christine from the GTOs, but according to Hillman's comments here (see below), it was David Crosby's girlfriend: Christine Hinton. That's new to me.

"The Gilded Palace of Sin kicks off with “Christine’s Tune,” which is such a bitter breakup song. What, or who, inspired it?

Well, it’s not a pleasant story. We wrote the song about this girl. Parsons and I got together and we were living in this house. We had both come out of these failed relationships. This girl we knew was causing havoc and spreading a lot of unnecessary rumors. It’s pretty trivial now.

But the problem was, Christine was David Crosby’s girlfriend, and then they were quite an item. Then she got in a horrible car crash and died. So, we quickly changed the name of that song to “Devil in Disguise.” I felt terrible. It’s sort of a misogynistic song."

Strangest thing that ever happened:

Miss Mercy sent me an email via ILX offering a track for the "ILX / Bucket" comp by Lucky Otis (son of Shuggie) after Arthur Lee contacted her about it.

Then I got a following email 5 mins later saying "Sorry, wrong email address"

the moon book sounds interesting. she was on maron recently, so i might check that out.

speaking of weird, almost unbearable energy -- but still

"GRODY" is in the NYT crossword today, clearly Moon Unit is having a moment

xxxpost that is indeed wild, Mark.
The Otis connection, anyway:

Miss Mercy, a.k.a. Mercy Fontenot, was born Judith Edra Peters in Burbank, California on February 15[1] or 16, 1949.[2] After the breakup of the GTOs in 1971, Fontenot married the guitarist Shuggie Otis. They divorced, and their son Lucky Otis (also a musician) was raised by his grandparents, the R&B musician Johnny Otis and his wife Phyllis. Miss Mercy died on July 27, 2020.[1]

(Arthur Lee was a lurker!? Or an official ilxor--)

I know, right? For a whole 5 minutes I was like.. well, giddy.

Then, pop it was gone.

I didn't know she'd died, bless her...

Shocking revelations from Moon Unit’s book: Frank liked the music of the Spin Doctors and thought Amy Grant had a beautiful singing voice.

Zappa fans will now run out and the complete discographies of Amy Grant and the Spin Doctors.

Lool!

I listened to the audiobook...I know I'm a terrible terrible person and I have unending sympathy for her but I found the whole thing unrelentingly bleak...like so so bleak...the toxicity oozes from the speakers...I think it's given me bad dreams...mind you Amy Grant does have a pretty sweet voice

That's a fair reaction. I finished the book, and there were definitely times reading it I thought, "Gee, Moon, didn't anything ever go right in your life? Did you never meet anyone who didn't disappoint you?" And I know she's had lots of good things happen to her and has made plenty of friends, but it's the emotionally traumatic stuff that is incessantly foregrounded in her account.

Shocking revelations from Moon Unit’s book: Frank liked the music of the Spin Doctors and thought Amy Grant had a beautiful singing voice.

― Josefa, Saturday, 31 August 2024 18:38 (four days ago) link

believe there's a famed ILX'r that would agree with that Amy Grant assessment.

Checked to see if local library has Moon's book: no, but lookit what I did find:

Because I'm your mom / Ahmet Zappa ; illustrated by Dan Santat

"An unconventional mother promises her child an unconventional childhood full of play, wonder, and creativity"--

Tessa's lost and found / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa, with Zelda Rose.

Stubborn Tessa is tasked with helping Ava, an army brat who has trouble feeling at home since she moves so often, when she loses her dog, the one constant in her life.

Constellations / by Marcia Zappa.

Learn all about groups of stars called constellations.

Sage and the journey to Wishworld ; : Libby and the class election ; Leona's unlucky mission / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

Collects three stories of the students at Starling Academy, a prestigious school for wish-granters, including the tale of Sage's journey to Wishworld.

Star Darlings collection. Vol 2. Vega and the fashion disaster, Scarlet discovers the truth, Cassie comes through. Volume 2 / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

Eclipses / by Marcia Zappa.

Introduces eclipses, describing the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, the different types of each, and how eclipses have been studied in history.

Piper's perfect dream / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

"Mysterious things continue to happen on Starland every day as the girls wait to see who will go on the next Wish Mission. Piper has a dream that she will be the one and indeed she is. Piper has a lot to learn when she finds herself working at a diner. Confident that she's identified her Wisher's wish, Piper enjoys her time on Wishworld. But as her Countdown Clock ticks away can she dismiss her earlier assumptions and discover the true wish?"--Page 4 of cover.

Clover's parent fix / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

"Clover is way too rigid and often plays it safe. She must learn to be more flexible and spontaneous and take more risks. Clover's Wishworld mission involved a girl who is an only child whose parents completely baby her. Clover tries some very subtle, safe maneuvers to prove that the girl is ready for some independence, but needs to make a bold move to help the girl's parents realize their little girl isn't a toddler anymore."

Clover's parent fix / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

"Clover is way too rigid and often plays it safe. She must learn to be more flexible and spontaneous and take more risks. Clover's Wishworld mission involved a girl who is an only child whose parents completely baby her. Clover tries some very subtle, safe maneuvers to prove that the girl is ready for some independence, but needs to make a bold move to help the girl's parents realize their little girl isn't a toddler anymore."

Star Darling Collection Vol 3. Volume 2 / : Piper's perfect dream, Astra's mixed-up mission, Tessa's lost & found / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

"Disturbing things continue to happen on Starland every day, beginning when Piper's Star Kindness Day compliment poems for her friends turn into cruel insults. As the Star Darlings unravel clues, they begin to suspect that one of their own is behind the trouble...and that it might be Lady Stella. Piper enjoys her time working in a diner on Wishworld...but is she being a little too laid-back about her mission? When Astra's turn comes, her overconfident nature leads her to incorrect conclusions about her gymnast Wisher's true wish. Tessa's mission brings her to an animals shelter, but when a terrible storm hits, she runs into problems-"

Star Darlings collection. Vol 4 Adora finds a friend, clover's parent fix, Gemma and the ultimate standoff. Volume 4 / Shana Muldoon Zappa and Ahmet Zappa with Zelda Rose.

"The ultimate battle against darkness begins...Energy levels are dangerously low, and it's affecting day-to-day life on Starland. The Star Darlings have been working furiously to discover who is behind the crisis, but they've made a grave mistake. Can they fix it before their world goes dark? When Adora goes on her Wish Mission, she accidentally reveals her identity to her Wisher!"

anyone seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGk4Ipko0sM

yes, that's kind of Zappa at his best in this mode -- before, imo, he becomes exhausted and imprisoned by his own position. here, he's still interested in the questions he's being asked

Frank Zappa 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' - CoD?

former zappa fan george gosset going OFF