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Zappa, BBC4

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bungeejumper
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Zappa, BBC4

#452001

Postby bungeejumper » October 21st, 2021, 1:58 pm

Something different on a Friday evening that's normally full of TOTP repeats. Two hours. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010rl8

I think this is Alex Winter's 2020 biopic, which got 96% from Rotten Tomatoes. Zappa could be a difficult hero at times - he really hated the British, for a start, and for no other apparent reason than that one of his London concerts was cancelled by a strike. :| But I'm looking forward to hearing more.

BJ

mc2fool
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Re: Zappa, BBC4

#452011

Postby mc2fool » October 21st, 2021, 2:19 pm

bungeejumper wrote:... he really hated the British, for a start, and for no other apparent reason than that one of his London concerts was cancelled by a strike. :|

Maybe could also be 'cos a jealous boyfriend shoved him off the stage at London's Rainbow Theatre, putting him into a wheelchair for a year and ending up with one leg shorter than the other!

That was at the end of the first concert of the evening. I was outside waiting to get in for the second performance, that didn't happen of course.... :(

"As Zappa lay unconscious, rumours about his death spread like wildfire: “A chaotic scene ensued outside The Rainbow where the audience for the second concert were joined in the street by the audience from the first show. Wild rumours that Frank had been killed flashed through the massive crowd, and for upwards of at least an hour no one knew what was happening,” recalled a witness at the time."

Indeed!

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/frank-zappa-attacked-by-fan-london-1971-death/

bungeejumper
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Re: Zappa, BBC4

#452169

Postby bungeejumper » October 22nd, 2021, 9:04 am

Thanks for that, mc2. It's odd that I never heard about that accident - but I was in Berlin at the time, so I suppose I must have been distracted by other things. :lol:

I did read Zappa's autobiography once, and now that I remember, there was another reason why he said he despised the British. That was because we had bought more copies of Hot Rats than any of his other recordings!

Hot Rats was of course 90% instrumental, with only one vocal track, from Captain Beefheart, and Z took it personally that we weren't prepared to deal more extensively with his provocative, incisive lyrics. Whereas the Hungarians, who hardly spoke English, had slogged through his arcane and very American language much more willingly. Hmmmmmmm. :|

I sometimes wonder what would have become of Z if he hadn't died in 1993, and I wonder whether my hero worship might have slipped by now? Today, I reckon he'd have been a libertarian, but with a fairly strong streak of authoritarianism. (Look at how he treated his bands.) It's an odd mix, but not unknown. Anti-vaxxer? I couldn't entirely rule it out.

Helluva guitarist, though, and a cross-cultural musical genius of the highest order. He introduced me to Edgard Varèse, who I'd never have heard of otherwise. Looking forward to the film.

BJ

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Re: Zappa, BBC4

#452192

Postby gvonge » October 22nd, 2021, 10:45 am

Looks like a good night on BBC4. Just after this, they're showing Janis Ian's 1976 concert from the Old Grey Whistle Test

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010rlb


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