Drummer reacts to "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" by Frank Zappa
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- Опубліковано 28 гру 2023
- Alright, what the hell guys? LOL
Welcome to Frank Friday! We do one of these every week... and it's always this wild. But, this one was a different beast. I mean good god, what do you even call that?
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• The Adventures Of Greg...
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#frankzappa #zappa
Greggery Peccary is Zappa DEEP IN. You can listen to this 20 times and hear something you didn't hear before every time. Absolutely Brilliant! I bought Freak Out in 1968. I have been hooked ever since.
L33: When he tells about the "slowly aging hip young people", the band plays 2 measures of "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters, which was a hugely popular (and very commercial) funk tune that everybody danced to. This brief but sly indictment of accomplished musicians doing what Frank must have perceived as a sellout is just a great example of how he always said what he thought. Like seeing David Bowie out to dinner with Adrian Belew in order to poach him from Frank's band and saying "Hello Sergeant Tom" (as in Bowie's hit about Major Tom, Frank demotes him). I LOVED this song and your reaction to it. Keep enjoying the ride! I recommend "I Am The Slime" next.
Frank is such a musical genius there really are no words to describe him. As a fellow 4 stringer, I can’t even fathom the idea that he writes, in sheet music, every note for every instrument played in a composition like this.
Imagine walking into a studio, being handed sheet music to a piece of this intensity and Frank saying that we’re recording in a few day’s with the expectation you will have it memorized by then. It just blows my mind. So insane.
Yeah that is insane lol frank was the best of the best and he expected you to be the best of the best as well!
And he's self taught. Up there with any 20th century composer.
Welcome to Zappa's conceptual continuity. Frank would use the same characters, words, and musical themes several times throughout his recordings, sometimes years apart. Frank considered his work, interviews, and concerts to be all one piece, played over the length of his career.
Yeah there's so much Zappa in there. Billy the Mountain, Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat, Inca Roads just to mention a few. A real journey into Frank's wild musical creativity. Lovely trip indeed 😍
We had no tv after 10pm back in the day... Zappa helped save us from boredom with stuff like this, it's so good man. Everything on this album you should listen to. This one is a cartoon on record. Thanks!
Quentin Robert de Nameland later pops up as TV Preacher in later Frank Zappa songs.
Because of this piece of music I have spent my entire life searching for a small twisted tree with eyes.
This Zappa´s piece is my absolute favourite. It is so delightfully eclectic and it can sound randomish when you listen to it for the first time, but once it grabs hold of you it just won´t let go. It´ll stay with you forever. You´ll see.
Yeah the first listen was like HUHHHHH second listen was like UHHHHHH third listen was like HMMMMMM and that's where I'm at now. LOL
LOL It will grow on you, but weird it will continue to be, because it is. But genious weird.@@L33Reacts
Dude, at the 10th listen it’s basically the best thing you’ve ever listened to. The tiny intricacies and what he does with melody 🤌
This is without a doubt in his top 5 creations. Love it. He drives his little red Volkswagon to the ugly side of town where they keep the government buildings.
Big Swifty and Associates/Trendmongers.
This is just the music he always wanted to make, inspired by his favorite composers : Varèse, Stravinsky, Berg, Bartok
It's beautiful, weird, and crazy. Definitely compositional work. He was one of a kind.
This is 20th century composer's stuff - but highly entertaining and fun (cartoon for your ears) Munchkin voices are Frank and George Duke (and maybe others?)
That's exactly what this is... a cartoon for your ears. I love that way to describe it. Because I sure as hell couldn't find the words lol
This was released in 78, this was recorded in 1975. A bunch of references to other compositions because everything is a part of the Conceptual Continuity in the Zappa-verse. The size of this complicated score is such that your brain can't digest everything in one or two listens. This is one of those that you discover stuff at every listen.
It definitely seems like one of those tracks you'll be listening to 10 years from now for the 100th time and you'll still be picking up new stuff from it
@@L33Reacts In the Inca Roads live video (74) you saw with the claymation, has at some given point, a scene with cars zooming by. One of them is a red Volkswagon, a reference to Greggory's car, taking a side road. Zappa states on the song its the road to the Short Forest which is the name of an instrumental on Weasels Rip My Flesh (70). The business Greggory works at is Big Swifty, which is a composition on Waka/Jawaka (72). The New Brown Clouds bit at the end you can hear on a track from The Grand Wazoo album (72). There's a bit of Louie, Louie (or Plastic People if you prefer) during the transistor radio infused love-in moment in the story. Lots of conceptual continuity to play with.
Razor-sharp precision avant-garde magic with humor!
That is exactly what this is. Avant garde magic. In 1975. Insane. Lol
Frank was very much plugged into the Avant-garde/experimental musical movement, not only of his day but of the past, as well. French composer Edgard Varèse-who took early bold steps in the field-was a favorite of Zappa's. With Varèse's focus on orchestral rhythm and timbre, along with his usage of exotic instruments (and non-instruments), his compositions were right up Frank's alley. Varèse was ahead of it; his compositions thoroughly startled concert-goers in the 1920s and beyond.
Kuddos for giving it a 2nd listening, catching more of the clues!
Imagine writing all of the pieces to this, then handing out the sheet music to your band mates and saying this is what we are playing today. 99 out of 100 people would walk out of the door. Here’s to the ones that stayed! Glad you gave it a relisten. Give it about 20 more and you’ll start to get it. Excellent reaction!!!
Among other things Frank was a master of the English language, the Wawa pedal and the use of tape speed manipulation i.e. the vocals.
Wow, a reaction for this incredibly demanding song is quite something. Bravo! I love the message in the song, very harsh critic of the society.
What is amazing is that this was part of a contractual obligation dispute with his record company. They said he owed them four albums so he delivered four albums, which they really didn't want to release. Zappa didn't give them the Dolby codes because he was so fed up with them. Miles Davis did something similar, giving the company four albums so he could go to another label.
Imagine learning this to play live, no with no sheet music in front of you. It's akin to a cartoon score
"How do you even have analysis for that" More likely, you get analysis for it. One of Frank's great orchestral pieces with dozens of musicians playing.
It's fucking incredible man. It really Is a cartoon for your ears... as another commenter said. Great description.
Yeah he really is the GOAT
"Controlled chaos" is a fantastic way to describe it.
What a great piece by Frank Zappa to listen to on ZAPPA DAY !!! Totally enjoyed it. I feel bad I couldn't make it in time this morning. It's just a super fun and entertaining song by Frank. Everything imaginable and unimaginable the band put into this song. Really liked your take on this song Lee. Happy Friday to everyone
Thank you bruce!! Glad you enjoyed it! This shit was WILD. I mean seriously. But that's zappa! He has stuff like this and then he has a song in every type of genre... a genre unto himself. Happy Friday!
"what has god wrought" 11:42. See what god has done.
15:43 Theme to "mellow yellow"
i can't stop laughing at the thumbnail(?)...
I bought all Zappa’s Live in New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, etc… from a small head shop on Coventry near CWRU when these came out on vinyl. FZ’s creativity, composition, musicality, and humor were not for the faint of heart! Good stuff!
The ideal sort of sequel to Billy the Mountain, glad you're having so much fun with Zappa deliriums dude 😂
After this journey I think you are one of the few reactors who would appreciate also the 200 Motels double album and maybe also the movie. Also several hard-core Zappa fans seems to avoid it. It is special in the same way as Billy and Geggory but also completely different.
I've been tackling zappa pretty well I think... sometimes you get a track like this that takes a while to digest but once it does its amazing forever. I am more then willing to tackle another special zappa project. Maybe I can get someone to patreon or paypal request it. That'd be awesome. Then I would REALLY get to do it 😂
Dental Hygiene Dilemma is in a similar vein.
Released in 1978 but this song was recorded in 1974.
Great job, dude ~~ "First - time - listening -reaction - videos" and for-real 20th century avante-garde composer schtuff don't usually make for an easy, care-free mix ~~~
"My brain HURTS!" - R.S. Gumby
The easiest access point for me, a child in the 60's and a teen in the 70's, was the sonic connection to the quick-change orchestral arrangements by Carl Stalling for the Warner Brothers cartoons.
As an older listener, I imagine that he absorbed ALL the musical lessons of the 16th, 17th, 18th and19th century composers, found most of them boring, and proceeded to write music for himself, and the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd century.
"Is there any mail for me?" Best line ever. Best FZ track ever. Some nice Tex Avery moments in here too- like the elevator to the 83rd floor...
In highschool me or a friend would buy a new zappa album. We'd drop the needle, and see what we were going to discover. There's usually be a few songs you could groove on the first listen. And then, there'd be songs that would leave me not knowing what to think, but there was something that would get us to listen to again, and then again. Then a few days later we'd be singing along. Those songs are the most enduring in my tastes
I just love seeing younger peeps discover Zappa, and your journey it's a blast... I've scene Frank More than 10 times and I'm convinced we'll never see anyone like him again.. as I say I was fortunate enough to see with my own eyes "The greatest American composer of our time" ... Keep on rockin' with FZ!!!
And again check out "cheapnis" from live at the Roxy and elsewhere
You may find weird Al Yankovic's Genius in France interesting. Dweezil lays the intro down for it to the flavor of I'm the Slime, from there, it becomes a 10 minute homage to Mr Zappa just riddled with nods to the Zappaverse.
One of the hardest things to do is to sit your friend down to listen to Greggery Peccary, without them forming a totally new opinion of your friendship...! (lol) Even among us die-hard Zappa fans that own over 20 Zappa LP's since the 70's, still have a hard time with this one...!
Hahaha i see why... yeah this is a tough nut to crack.
I haven't - dissonnant stuff became 2nd nature to me a long time ago.
"Movie for your ears" approaches a description for this and to a somewhat more limited degree to Billy the Mountain... Narrative prose set to music is a staple of opera, and was adapted to vaudeville. In the radio era, this gave way to audio storytelling. Rock operas, too, have it.
Haha, I thought we'd pushed you too far too early for a bit there😂. Like you need to build some tolerance ! Thought you were gonna pull a Zappa whitey😂. Quality reaction dude
Thank you, Mark. I appreciate that bro 🙏 I really do. And yeah, for a second there, I was not in my right mind it felt like LOL but after a couple of listens, I got it. Frank was one hell of a creative. I can't believe how insane this track is... but then I think about it... and then I can. It's zappa. 😀
Consider what else was going on in music in 1975 (when it was recorded.) This was where Frank was.
Insanity. He was on another planet lol
If you like the arranged noise that is Studio Tan, you're going to love Lumpy Gravy!
This is definitely one of the harder ones to get. Still have a hard time with it myself but totally respect and understand the genius behind it.
This was Frank's magnum opus, his lyrical absurdity was at its peak, and the music, well... It's an awful lot for a newbie, looking forward to seeing your reaction, but based on your comments, I'd say it was a a bit jarring. Keep diving Lee, it's worth it.
The music is very difficult.
Yeah it'll take me a few more spins to fully get it but it's all good lol I listen to zappa alot on my own time so I'll get it :) Thank you for watching as always peter!
There was a famous A movie star called Gregory Peck as most older people know. That's what he's spoofing this name from.
Love this! Carl Stalling and Chuck Jones spring to mind. Would love to see the/a visual component. 🎨🐗😊
In some places, one of the best, for me, that Zappa created. An original composition with Zappian humor and well performed. Pure Zappa.
Mainly George Duke on the keyboards...
Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado
December 1974
FZ-guitar
George Duke-keyboards
Ruth Underwood-percussion, synthesizer?
Chester Thompson-drums
The Record Plant
January 3-14, 1975
FZ-guitar, vocals
George Duke-keyboards, vocals?
John Berkman-piano
Michael Zearott-piano
Pamela Goldsmith-viola
Murray Adler-violin
Sheldon Sanov-violin
Jerry Kessler-cello
Edward Meares-bass
Bruce Fowler-trombone
Don Waldrop-trombone
Jock Ellis-trombone
Dana Hughes-bass trombone
Earle Dumler-oboe
JoAnn Caldwell McNab-bassoon
Mike Altschul-woodwinds
Graham Young-trumpet
Jay Daversa-trumpet
Malcolm McNab-trumpet
Ray Reed-flute
Victor Morosco-sax
John Rotella-woodwinds
Alan Estes-percussion
Emil Richards-percussion
Tom Fowler-bass
Chester Thompson-drums
Royce Hall, UCLA
September 17-19, 1975
Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra....
The first section reminds me of the soundtrack to Fantastic Voyage.
Your first reaction to this wonderful piece is about the same as mine 20+ years ago. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but it has since become my favorite Zappa composition. It's a masterpiece of absurdism and the perfect distillation of everything that makes him unique.
I was honestly mind fucked by the end lol... In a good way. He really knows what he's doing. And he can take his music wherever he wants and I will follow. Absurdity seems to be one of his strengths :) of many.
@@L33ReactsDefinitely! There is also an orchestral arrangement, recorded by the Ensemble Modern, that is worth checking out.
One of his strangest masterpieces. I first heard this when I was around fifteen - can't say I really understood it at the time, but I've always liked ambitious music ;) Some years ago I got hold of the LP album on Ebay.
Ambitious is putting it lightly! This is nuts! Took me a couple spins... but after a few more ill get it even more probably. Hope you enjoy!
@@L33Reacts Yes, it was great to hear and so cool to see your reactions! This is truly complex stuff for sure, but still listenable,,, :)
The voice of Greggery Peccary is Frank, sped up. He's doing pretty much all the voices in this piece.
The speed up voice is George Duke.
@@jonasolsson2256
I use audio editing software which allows me to speed up and slow down audio.
Slowing the sped up voices proves to be Frank's voice, but on closer listen, some of the singing is likely George along with him, also sped up. All of Greggery's voicings are Frank.
It definitely sounds like him! Maybe George did it live or something.
Welcome to Zappa's conceptual continuity. Various characters and musical themes are repeated throughout his recordings, used in new ways and configurations sometimes years apart.
I heard more then a couple references to his stuff. So cool!
Zappas Masterpiece! =)
George Duke singing those lyrics, inhaling the helium gas between phrases then executing those complicated keyboard notes Frank wrote on paper is staggeringly virtuosic and funny!lol
No. That's Frank, sped up.
you sold me silent bob. im a subscriber. i will now have to watch all your videos
There was a plan for Bruce Bickford to claymate this song, but it never happened. A few things were done, Greggary, LSD hippies, the car chase scene was recorded and used elsewhere ...
Oh, the pile of transistor radios also exists in clay.
The personnel on this track are Tom Fowler on bass, George Duke on keys, Chester Thomson on drums, Bruce Fowler on trombone and Zappa on guitars and vocals.
Hope this blew you away.
Love this & cherish my vinyl album, it is great to see a young guy like yourself beginning to see why the 60/70's was so wonderful for music aficionado's, & possibly a glimpse into the state of our minds. Keep it up dude.
You are brave man!!! I see you are into Beefheart too! If you do this one you should do Billy the Mountain too.
Great fun to watch your reaction. It’s something to digest! To ease out your mind, take a listen to Zappa’s intended SMASH HIT ”Lemme take you to the beach” from the same album. It’s really short, 2:45, but it will blow out your systems in the blink of an eye. Good work my friend
Yeah even after 3 listens now it's still a mind fuck LOL thanks for the suggestion I might do that for next week lol
Simply classic!
as far as it can be determined, Bruce Fowler did *all* the brass parts.
The Gregorian calendar of course
Zappa used a technique, for which there is a technical name, where he took parts from one recording session and flew it into a totally unrelated recording session; essentially reimagining a new compositing musical ideas across 4th dimensional limitations of time. In 21st century nomenclature, he cut and pasted. Nevertheless, it is art.
I think it would be cool to see you review this song after you listen to it a few times.
OK... maybe you need a little bit of an explanation...lol.... ZAPPA had an acronym that he used ALOT.It's AAFNRAA which stands for...Anything Anytime For No Reason At All...This is an UBERZAPPA song... it's full of references to other timelines in the Zappa universe...if you have heard other songs by Zappa... this makes more sense. And it gives you goosebumps when it hits. For instance... Billy the Mountain... Toads of the Short Forest... Big Swifty.... in Zappa's universe all things happen at the sames time and they all coincide on the same conceptual plane. He goes to these places without warning, and if you listen to THIS song as one of your first songs...the normal reaction would be,,,What the everloving FUCK?!? And if you're a seasoned Zappa listener...this is Zappa Heaven. I knew you were in a place that was kind of in the middle... But I figured...let's push this guy to the edge. WELL...? Was that the edge? One last thing... this was Zappa's favorite song of his.
The typewriters actually have sheets written out
Edit: it is franks voice lol you gotta check out the entire 'were only in it for the money' album
Say bro,play this for your child and see what he says about it.
It sounds like the soundtrack to an old cartoon, is that deliberate?
Frank is doing the voice. It was sped up.
if yer name is lee that too is awesome
ALL of the voices are Zappa.
I'm definitely enjoying this piece, but to me this is no rock or pop music but clearly modern classics ...
Hey! My grandpa has seen your recent Zappa videos and he’s a huge Zappa freak but he doesn’t have social media and he’s wondering if there’s any other way he could talk to you. Is that possible?
Hey there! Does he have email?
His early music hadn't formed like his later albums. His early stuff is a little wild for the average person. I prefer the later and more formed songs from his albums like, Apostrophe, Overnight Sensation and others.
Did you catch the Billy The Mountain theme?
George Duke
200 motels style
I've heard some wild things about 200 motels.... maybe. Just maybe I'll do it next year ;)
@@L33ReactsWhen I started listening to Zappa (about three years ago), they told me that Zappa had good music, but 200 motels... Well, it’s complicated and terrible. When I decided to listen to this piece for the first time, I only liked the overture and the ending. But because of these plays I became more interested in the music of the twentieth century and different centuries. I probably listened to everything from Bach to Stockhausen. A few months ago I returned to 200 Motels and they hooked me. This is a lot of difficult work. A lot is from the 20th century, but everything is eclectic, fun and interesting.
The music grows on you insomuch that you're going to subconsciously use it in your own music if you explore this and his other tracks. Even listening is enough. Everything else is starting to sound lame. No worries though. I still love some mainstream things too, but you're going to get more critical. Zappa started out as a drummer, that's why he's so great rhythmically.
Ruth is otherwordly . . . .
?
?
Imagine the work of just speeding Zappa´s voice ( or anybodies) on analog tapes, fit and paste them without loosing pitch with NO computers no digital work .....razor blade .
Not to talk to all the scoring, arranging rehearsal production post produccion ....and writing .
The cover wasn´t decided by Zappa nor the album ...it was illealy released by Warner and Zappa sued and won .
9:45 nic or cht
and at 14;14
AND a place you should go is italo disco. mike mareen love spy agent of liberty..hehehe sorry
im also happy you have been busy
Greatest composers of all time.
1 - Beethoven, 2 - Stravinsky(Frank's idol), 3 - Zappa.
You seem to listen with your mouth.
IN a minority here, but it's one of the very few pieces by Frank that I really don't like. I do like it more than I used to, but still I find it a struggle.
I get it. This is a tough one to crack. I'm gonna give it a couple more listens so I can really digest it. I enjoyed what I heard even if it was tough to get 🙃