Frank Zappa is one of those guys who I can sort of appreciate, but I'm not all that nuts about actually listening to. I know he was talented, he's got all this shit going on in his songs. He was irreverent, and generally a freak. But a lot of his stuff, though I enjoy listening to it, it's primarily to appreciate the oddball arrangements and instrumentation. Most of his music doesn't really move me, but there are some songs, songs that really hit the spot. One is "Trouble Every Day", a Mothers of Invention era song from 1966.
"Trouble Every Day" is hot shit. Get out the blender: Yardbirds, Byrds, Velvets, Television, Modern Lovers, shit, maybe even Robert Quine, and an ample amount of guitar interplay, put it in the garage, and throw in a bag of weed.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Trouble Every Day mp3 at Gorveg (?)
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Motherly Love mp3 at Sukothai (?)
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Inca Roads mp3 at F.Roque2 (?)
5 comments:
If you like the original version, you owe it to yourself to listen to the live version on the LP: "Roxy & Elsewhere". It's titled: "More Trouble Every Day".
You know, I finished reading "Captain Beefheart: The Biography" (by Mike Barnes) earlier this year, and commenting the on/off relationship of Vliet and Zappa, a guy (J.C. Black) who played drums for both the Mothers and the Magic Band was quoted saying: "I think Frank was always very envious of him [Vliet], because Frank could never be as avant-garde, as far out as Beefheart – though he tried really hard to."
If you ask me, "tried really hard to" seems less than cool in the context of far out avant-gardeness.
Myself, I never got past that "Bobby Brown" tune… Couldn't/can't stand it. And not that I don't believe in second chances, but even though it's been thirty years plus, I just haven't felt the urge to give him (Zappa) one.
e
Now wait; "Trouble Every Day" rang a distant bell, Tom… Distinctly remember both the groove and large parts of the lyric, so I must have heard it more than once. On some long forgotten mixtape? Hmm. Anyway – yes, that there is hot shit, and goes to show second chances have their due place.
Oh yeah, while we're on the subject of Zappa; couple months back, TIME ran a profile on (prez candidate) Jeb Bush, where I picked up the following fun fact (here covered in greater depth):
http://petapixel.com/2015/02/24/jeb-bushs-wedding-photos-were-shot-and-ruined-by-his-younger-brother-marvin/
e
Heys E, I don't know the "Bobby Brown" song, and I wasn't even planning on doing a Zappa post. I'm really kind of ambivalent about him. It was going to be about the labels that he had under the Warners umbrella, Bizarre and Straight, and the artists he helped get signed, namely Beefheart, the GTOs and Wild Man Fisher. I got as far as "Trouble..." and left it at that, because it was such a surprise. But second chance it really wasn't. It was an early song, so technically, it was his first chance. Second chances, and each successive chance, he squandered. "Trying really hard" and avant garde don't even really belong in the same sentence. You is or you ain't. In that regard, Beefheart wins hands down.
In the end though, I can appreciate anyone who lets their freak flag fly, no matter how self consciously it's done. When it's done with cool guitar parts, all the better.
Oh yeah, that Bush bit really shows how hereditary that bumbling gene is!
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