Album Club - Week 101: 08.07.2013: Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo (1972)
Big thanks to Chris The Grand Wazoo for the 101st Album Club selection. Could that be Room 101?(A day early, as "I'm" away with work tomorrow for a couple of days.)
Frank Zappa - 'The Grand Wazoo' (1972)
Frank Zappa - 'The Grand Wazoo' on Grooveshark
Wikipedia entries:
Album: Frank Zappa - 'The Grand Wazoo'
Artist: Frank Zappa
Right then, it's time to put my neck on the block!
'The Grand Wazoo' is the album which everyone on AoS associates me with, for better or worse, so I reckon it's about time it was given an airing on Album Club.
So what the hell is a Grand Wazoo??? - A Big Arse?
.....or 'Le Grand Oiseau' - The Big Bird?
Well both of those - as confirmed by FZ: "Anybody in any one of those lodge organizations with a stupid hat on, actually, the guy with the biggest, dumbest hat is the Grand Wazoo."
How do you select one single FZ album? You can't - they are all so different, yet intertwined that it's impossible to choose. I've always had a special thing for this one though, and obviously count it as one of my favourites.
It's jazz....sort of. It's big band jazz....sort of. It's jazz fusion....sort of. It's orchestral jazz....sort of. Apart from some "rum-pum-pum-pums" there's only one track with proper lyrics and it's about a strange encounter with some hitch-hikers (**** see below for the full story). The album is as much about FZ's abilities as a composer and arranger as it is about fantastic musicianship. The music is supposed to represent the ridiculous story that's printed inside the album sleeve - 'The Legend Of Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus & the Grand Wazoo' (full text here)
The undoubted masterpiece of this album for me is the final track 'Blessed Relief' which has a 7 piece band playing eight minutes of sheer bliss, though some might find the end of the album comes as a blessed relief for other reasons! It features a sublime, understated and tasteful guitar solo from Frankie, a nice keyboard part from George Duke and some fantastic brass playing from Sal Marquez.
Apart from that, the title track swings like a bastard!
The original album had 'For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)' as the first track but re-releases for CD put it second in the running order to the title track.
I predict a rather polarised vote for this one!
**** Calvin is Cal Schenkel, the artist who did the covers for a lot of Zappa & the Mothers albums.
The True Story of Calvin & His Hitch-hikers by Cal Schenkel:
"My 39 Pontiac was in the shop & so I had borrowed a car from Frank. It was this 1959 white Mark VIIII Jaguar that used to belong to Captain Beefheart ......... I just left Frank's house & I'm stopped at the corner of Mulholland & Laurel Canyon Blvd waiting for a red light to change, when I notice these 2 hitch-hikers, a hippie couple standing there waiting for a ride. The next thing I know they are getting in the back of the car. I guess they must have thought I offered them a ride (I didn't tell them to come into my car or motion them or anything-- I wasn't even thinking of it), so I ask them where they are going & they didn't say ANYTHING! I drive down Laurel Canyon Blvd past the Log Cabin, past Harry Houdini's, past the country store & into Hollywood.....
I get to the bottom of the hill, I was going to turn right. I kind of asked them "look I'm turning right, do you want to get out here?" They didn't say anything. They were just blank. I figured they were on acid or something. I just couldn't communicate with them. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just continued on to my destination. When I get there I said, "OK, this is where I'm going. Good-bye!" They just stayed in the car & didn't get out.
So I parked the car, got out & went up to my studio & started to work. I was working on the album cover for Uncle Meat. This is in my studio that was a dentist's office over a hotdog joint on Melrose. Every once in a while I'd look out of the window to see if they were gone but they were still sitting in the back seat of the car. An hour or two later, I looked out the window & I noticed they were gone. I thought, "finally!"
Then shortly afterwards, I saw that they were back! They went to the supermarket for a loaf of bread & lunchmeat & started making sandwiches in the back of the car. They were eating their lunch! Then they left."
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Originally Posted by Bazil
