In which young Frank Zappa (with help from his Mothers) files his report on the Watts Rebellion (aka riots) of August 1965, pulling no punches lyrically or musically. In fact, it’s the song that got the band signed to MGM Records in the first place, producer Tom Wilson having heard it and decided, yeah, a white blues band from LA, why the hell not? The rest is, shall we say, history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zjJw9YvA18
Frank Zappa took no prisoners with the cover for 1970’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh. And fitting it was for the music found inside – equal parts brilliant and painful, particularly the suite of stuff that finishes Side Two, starting with doo-wop anti-flower power anthem Oh No! and then onward via Orange County Lumber Truck to the flesh tearing finale that was the title track. It has been argued that the whole hippie thing stopped right here. Certainly the Mothers of Invention already had, Weasels Ripped My Flesh being one of two albums to be released after their demise. Though Zappa would, of course, quickly reform them for further assaults upon society through the first half of the 1970s.
The Mothers of Invention, Engelse groep bij aankomst Schiphol *17 oktober 1968
“Captain Beefheart in general and Trout Mask Replica in particular remain my go-tos when I no longer really want to listen to music, but I still must. The 1960s were winding down. The revolution wasn’t coming any time soon. The war was still raging in Vietnam. Somebody had to try something entirely different, else the whole culture would crumble. Enter the Captain and his producer, one Frank Zappa. Sugar n’ Spikes is as close as any of it got to what one might have called a single.” (Philip Random)
You had to love the cover of Tupelo Chain Sex’s Spot the Difference. Little punk kid sporting a Ronald Reagan Adolph Hitler t-shirt, getting pulled two ways at once. But the real treasure was the music. Not just another hardcore band from LA, these guys had former Frank Zappa alumni Sugarcane Harris in their midst (not to mention a guy named Stumuk blowing a monster sax) and thus were brilliantly all over the place. Reggae, dub, ska, jazz, rockabilly, hardcore – everything, with lead off track The Dream (an extrapolation on an old Cab Calloway hit) serving as a whip smart intro to what remains one of the great (mostly) forgotten albums of any era.
Part eleven of the Solid Time of Change aired Saturday July-30-2016 c/o CiTR.FM.101.9.
Podcast (Solid Time begins at around the 5 minute point). Youtube playlist (not completely accurate).
This continues to be Randophonic’s main focus, our overlong yet incomplete history of the so-called Prog Rock era (presented in countdown form) – 661 records from 1965 through 1979 with which we hope to do justice to a strange and ambitious time indeed, musically speaking.
Part eleven of the journey went as follows:
Fresh episodes air pretty much every Saturday night, starting 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours via our Facebook.
Part four of The Solid Time of Change aired Saturday May-28, 2016 c/o CiTR.FM.101.9.
Youtube playlist (possibly not the exact versions that were played). Podcast.
Also known as as the 661 Greatest Records of the so-called Prog Rock era, the Solid Time of Change is Randophonic’s latest countdown — an overlong yet incomplete history of whatever the hell happened between 1965 and 1979 – not in all music, not even in most of it, but definitely in a bunch of it.
What is Prog Rock? Is it different from progressive rock, or for that matter, rock that merely progresses? Four programs in and sixty-five selections down and you’d think we’d have a solid answer to these questions, but like the proverbial zoom into an old photograph, the closer we look, the murkier things get. Which isn’t to say the music isn’t great and thus, here’s to the best kind of confusion and a year’s worth of radio to figure it all out.
Part four of our journey went as follows:
Installment #5 of The Solid Time of Change airs Saturday, June 4th at 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours.
Randophonic 