663. well (baby please don’t go)

As already noted, John and Yoko’s Some Time in New York City has to rate as mostly disastrous, there being far too much Yoko Ono in the mix, and the sort of one-note politicking that feels like a repeated kick to the head. And yet there are a few moments such as the live take on Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) which happens to include Frank Zappa (and at least some of the Mothers) tearing things up with all due savagery and respect. Even Yoko’s saxophonic wailing kind of works, at least for a while.

40. The Solid Time Of Change

Installment #40 of the Solid Time of Change aired on Saturday June-10-2017 (c/o CiTR.FM.101.9).

Podcast (Solid Time begins a few minutes in). Youtube playlist (not entirely accurate).

The Solid Time of Change is our overlong yet incomplete history of the so-called Prog Rock era – 661 selections from 1965 through 1979 with which we hope to do justice to a strange and ambitious time indeed, musically speaking.

solid-crop-40

Part Forty of the journey went as follows:

  1. Yes – yours is no disgrace
  2. Richard Harris – MacArthur Park
  3. Todd Rundgren – international feel
  4. Todd Rundgren – never never land
  5. Todd Rundgren – tic tic tic it wears off
  6. Todd Rundgren – Zen Archer
  7. Todd Rundgren -Le Feel Internacìonále
  8. Pretty Things – Baron Saturday
  9. Pretty Things – the journey
  10. Pretty Things – I see you
  11. Pink Floyd – astronomy domine
  12. Peter Hammill – modern
  13. Van Der Graaf Generator – a plague of lighthouse keepers
  14. Mothers of Invention- eat that question
  15. King Crimson – Asbury Park

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 page.

830. directly from my heart to you

By 1970 (and probably all along), the Mothers of Invention were whatever and whoever Frank Zappa said they were. In the case of Directly From My Heart To You, that meant that Sugarcane Harris‘s straight ahead blues and violin take on a Little Richard original belonged on 1970’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which was that kind of album anyway – odds and sods and outtakes from various live gigs and studio sessions all jammed together and, strangely (or perhaps not) making for a very much essential Mothers excursion, the only limits being Mr. Zappa’s abilities (staggering) and taste (expansive to say the least). And then there’s that album cover, which Philip Random admits is the reason he bought it in the first place.

sugarcaneharris-1970

857. kill for peace

“Motron was right. I was wrong. It turns out the Fugs were the first genuinely Underground American outfit, certainly of psychedelic 60s. I was arguing hard for the Mothers of Invention, but no, it turns out the Fugs beat them to it. They weren’t as good as the Mothers, but that’s a different argument. Kill For Peace (from the Fugs’ Second Album by which point the Mothers were in the game) certainly set things straight about what was going down over in Vietnam: if you don’t like foreigners and their strange habits and customs, then kill them, for peace, because if we don’t, the Chinese will. It stands to reason.” (Philip Random)

fuggs-1966

21. The Solid Time Of Change

Part Twenty-One of the Solid Time of Change aired Saturday November-12-2016 c/o CiTR.FM.101.9.

Youtube playlist (not entirely 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 selections from 1965 through 1979 with which we hope to do justice to a strange and ambitious time indeed, musically speaking.

solid-crop-21

Part Twenty-One of the journey went as follows:

  1. Jeff Beck Group – Beck’s Bolero
  2. Mothers of Invention – Money Fragments
  3. Camel – lady fantasy
  4. Pink Floyd – let there be more light
  5. Pink Floyd – absolute curtains
  6. Pink Floyd – Atom Heart grooving
  7. Spirit – like a rolling stone
  8. Poco – Rose of Cimarron
  9. It’s a Beautiful Day – white bird
  10. Van Der Graaf Generator – pilgrims
  11. Amon Duul II – Kanaan
  12. Amon Duul II – phallus dei [edit]

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.

909. trouble comin’ every day

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.

mothers-1966