GREAT TUNE "BUTT"... This song is in the middle of a 2 hour Rock Opera with a story line that explains why this song is what it is. A naughty tune explaining to Lawyers how to survive Jail Time. Joe's Garage is one of the best Rock Operas ever written. The first 45 minutes has a great story line that will eventually get you to this tune.
If a guitarrist would have pulled a solo like this once in his life it would have been the rosetta stone of his life. But Zappa had hundreds of solos like this. Just insane! Listen to that solo!
Frank wrote those impossible time signatures for his players to perform, although for himself, he just played his guitar solos when the time came. He improvised every one of those solos, but whatever he played was just based on what he was feeling at the time. The players had to get those parts down, and they did!
@@Royalle_with_Cheese That's true of his later bands, where he was mainly bandleader and soloist, but in the earlier days he played a lot of the tough parts on guitar himself and then farmed them out to different band members. Though Joe's Garage is a studio record, all of the solos are lead lines taken from gigs and chopped up and replayed over studio vamps. Even Watermelon in Easter Hay isn't a 'played' piece, but the result of studio edits.
@@stueyapstuey4235 Watermelon is the only studio solo on the album. You're correct. On ROXY, when introducing Be-Bop Tango, he says, "... and this is a hard one to play..." More is revealed on the unedited boxed set. He continues, "and that's why I don't play on it." My point is, all the written parts, the impossible time changes etc., need to be played meticulously by the band. And they do! They're pretty good musicians...
This period in Zappa's career - the late 70's - is when he threw all caution to the wind in terms of his thematic and lyrical content. Joe's Garage - ( just as with Sheik Yerbouti before it ) - pretty much made fun of everyone - nobody was given a pass. And of course Frank was a visionary in what he saw coming - not only for the dishonorable music industry that he despised - but for society at large.
This period was also when his contract with Warner Brothers was finally over, and he started his own label Zappa Records. Although Zappa Records had Mercury/Phonogram as the parent company, he had more freedom to sing whatever he wanted. When he founded Barking Pumpkin, all bets were off. That was full control, and he inaugurated his Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studio along with it. Total control and unlimited studio access.
Keep it Greasy may borrow its theme from the original lyrics of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti. Before being cleaned up for the music industry, Richard performed in a gay club in Macon, Georgia where he sang "Tutti Frutti, good booty/ if it don’t fit, don’t force it / you can grease it, make it easy."
They never actually used that 19-beat groove in live performances, not even in Vinnie's second stint (though on that tour they did play the "song" part at the most harebrained tempo). The song briefly drops into the 21 beat that was a memorable feature of 1978 jams. Rhythm section apart, the guitar solo on this track was floated in from a performance of Outside Now (and most of it can be heard au naturel on the Guitar album).
Aren't you splitting hairs here? We all know that "Outside Now" at that stage was an interlude during City Of Tiny Lites - and from that evolved both the "song" and the two solos we're speaking of. But it makes sense to speak of "Outside Now" as a separate event, in the context of the 1979 tour - because it was also used as an opening-jam at one show.
@lw1zfog I saw Project/Object with Ike Willis a good number of years ago. I was right up front. They played this song, and I handed Ike a note reading "Here comes that screaming Republican again." He sang it.
And Vinnie C.on drums from another universe!
The Best
Fantastic drummer who is almost invisible to the outside world.
GREAT TUNE "BUTT"... This song is in the middle of a 2 hour Rock Opera with a story line that explains why this song is what it is. A naughty tune explaining to Lawyers how to survive Jail Time.
Joe's Garage is one of the best Rock Operas ever written. The first 45 minutes has a great story line that will eventually get you to this tune.
If a guitarrist would have pulled a solo like this once in his life it would have been the rosetta stone of his life. But Zappa had hundreds of solos like this. Just insane! Listen to that solo!
Just finished watching all of your Zappa reactions...I hope there is more to come. Always fun watching somebody getting into Frank...
Zappa the freak genius
NG BIZ. A must reaction.
love yr counting around 10:00... that vamp is so kick ass! it's insane...
Frank wrote those impossible time signatures for his players to perform, although for himself, he just played his guitar solos when the time came.
He improvised every one of those solos, but whatever he played was just based on what he was feeling at the time.
The players had to get those parts down, and they did!
@@Royalle_with_Cheese That's true of his later bands, where he was mainly bandleader and soloist, but in the earlier days he played a lot of the tough parts on guitar himself and then farmed them out to different band members.
Though Joe's Garage is a studio record, all of the solos are lead lines taken from gigs and chopped up and replayed over studio vamps. Even Watermelon in Easter Hay isn't a 'played' piece, but the result of studio edits.
@@stueyapstuey4235
Watermelon is the only studio solo on the album. You're correct.
On ROXY, when introducing Be-Bop Tango, he says, "... and this is a hard one to play..."
More is revealed on the unedited boxed set. He continues, "and that's why I don't play on it."
My point is, all the written parts, the impossible time changes etc., need to be played meticulously by the band. And they do!
They're pretty good musicians...
This period in Zappa's career - the late 70's - is when he threw all caution to the wind in terms of his thematic and lyrical content. Joe's Garage - ( just as with Sheik Yerbouti before it ) - pretty much made fun of everyone - nobody was given a pass. And of course Frank was a visionary in what he saw coming - not only for the dishonorable music industry that he despised - but for society at large.
This period was also when his contract with Warner Brothers was finally over, and he started his own label Zappa Records. Although Zappa Records had Mercury/Phonogram as the parent company, he had more freedom to sing whatever he wanted. When he founded Barking Pumpkin, all bets were off. That was full control, and he inaugurated his Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studio along with it. Total control and unlimited studio access.
Nice 16/19, 16/21 time signatures from Vinnie C.
The deepest rabbit hole on the internet.But you have to keep it greasy lol - Singer was Ike Willis who worked a long time with Frank.
hell yea.. definetely gotta keep easy.. so it goes down easy
Ike & Ray were a top team
Vinnie all day, baby!!!!!
Keep it Greasy may borrow its theme from the original lyrics of Little Richard's Tutti Frutti. Before being cleaned up for the music industry, Richard performed in a gay club in Macon, Georgia where he sang "Tutti Frutti, good booty/ if it don’t fit, don’t force it / you can grease it, make it easy."
They never actually used that 19-beat groove in live performances, not even in Vinnie's second stint (though on that tour they did play the "song" part at the most harebrained tempo).
The song briefly drops into the 21 beat that was a memorable feature of 1978 jams.
Rhythm section apart, the guitar solo on this track was floated in from a performance of Outside Now (and most of it can be heard au naturel on the Guitar album).
Aren't you splitting hairs here? We all know that "Outside Now" at that stage was an interlude during City Of Tiny Lites - and from that evolved both the "song" and the two solos we're speaking of. But it makes sense to speak of "Outside Now" as a separate event, in the context of the 1979 tour - because it was also used as an opening-jam at one show.
For the most part, Frank Zappa lyrics are always funny/sexual. The musicianship is unmatched.
Try out - "City of Tiny Lights"
Roll it over...
…. grease it dowoooowooooown
@lw1zfog
I saw Project/Object with Ike Willis a good number of years ago. I was right up front. They played this song, and I handed Ike a note reading "Here comes that screaming Republican again."
He sang it.
Comment 7 Thumbs Up 50 Viewer 430 11/23/24