These days a lot of people are talking about The Beatles.

This is due mainly of course to an epic series collated by film director Peter Jackson, wherein he found all of the relevant b-roll to their “Let It Be” project of 1970 and put it on the TV.

That’s not quite true, but it kind of felt that way. Jackson actually did us a favor and edited the footage down from 60 hours to 8.

I don’t mean to be critical, but the fact is you have to be a real Beatles fanatic for this to have held your attention for the long haul. I enjoyed it. But I took a few naps.

I found it useful to know what a b-vitamin shot to the group was the introduction of the great Billy Preston, then a mere 23 years old yet already with a storied career of his own. I like most people were struck by the quantum-event appearance of the song “Get Back” in Paul McCartney’s able hands. I think the thing helps bring to rest the nasty, misogynistic smear that Yoko Ono was the catalyst to the band’s end. It seems clearer to me now that the boys had been working together since they were 14 and 15 years old and now they were in their mid-20s and that, mere normal distance that comes with personal growth and age, was more to blame. Brian Epstein’s death, too, was probably a factor. Yoko sat in the corner and did crossword puzzles. Feh.

But this is not a blog post about the Beatles. This is a blog post about Bummernacht.

December 4, 1993, was the day this particular composer stopped refusing to die. Sometime in the mid or early 2000s, a group of bloggers dubbed this day “Bummernacht” and began the 17-day-long recognition of the man and his music known as “Zappadan,” celebrated from this dark day all the way to Dec. 21, the day of his birth. It is a time to reflect. It is a time to create. It is a time to learn. And, most importantly, boys and girls, it is a time to FREAK OUT!

Speaking of Freak Out! and the Beatles, it was drawn to my attention recently that a young songwriter named Paul McCartney at one time was somewhat enamored by the Zappa double-album debut. He is said to have often told his colleagues of their current effort: “This is going to be our Freak Out!”

At the time, they were working on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Zappa’s relationship with the Beatles just became a bit more chicken-and-egg to this Zappa historian.

But hey, enough of my yakkin’. Whaddaya say? Let’s boogie!

• A rock ’n’ roll lesson for critics of critical race theory (The Roanoke Times)
• ‘Freak Out!’: Frank Zappa’s Masterclass In Mischief (udiscover)
LI>The Hot 100: Week of June 25, 1966 (Billboard)

Today is the last day of Zappadan, and it marks kind of a special number for its observers, as if Frank Zappa had continued refusing to die, he would have been 80 years old today. I didn’t do a lot of work here this year; the pandemic has kept me busy as I am one of the fortunate Americans who has continued to procure an income throughout. But there has been tweeting, there has been tumblring, and there has been Spotify playlist-making.

If there’s one tune I kept coming back to and often keep coming back to with Zappa, it’s “King Kong.” The best performance of this I have not found available on CD nor mp3 yet, it’s from this BBC show, 1968.

Among the fascinating stuff about this performance is that Bunk Gardner Ian Underwood seems to be plugged in, Eddie Harris style, something I’m not sure they ever did again. And of course, who gets the first big solo? Motorhead, who honks on a bari sax for several bars, though Underwood will use the amp to some effect later.

Then, boy oh boy does Don Preston freak out.

The tune, I feel, does what it says on the tin, as in, if King Kong were approaching you, say, walking across some river to shore, this is the theme song you’d hear.

Anyway, Merry Zappadan. And stay out of the ICU.

KYRONOMIDES ENSEMBLE, diretto da Giovanni Mancuso

In Other News
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Frank Zappa at the height of his powers, and that’s saying a lot. Bonus: Cream’s Jack Bruce on bass and the now-incarcerated Jim Gordon on percussion.

In which Macy Gray covers Zappa via Waka/Jawaka.

I’ve looked for years for evidence that Frank Zappa knew that Jaco Pastorius existed.

I have just found it astonishing that their paths never crossed or, more to the point, that Jaco never played for a Frank Zappa outfit.

I’m guessing that Jaco’s reputation as being somewhat of a showboater or his reputation for utilizing certain chemical substances preceded him. Or maybe Jaco was too busy making Joni Mitchell sound even more amazing.

However. This year, I have found a small, but reassuring, nexus. Cue drummer Chad Wackerman. Just for fun, we’ll drop in right at a drum break with Wackerman, Chester Thompson, and Terry Bozzio (this was originally broadcast via The Drum Channel, after all):

Go watch now

Zappa had a sign for “Weather Report,” specifically. So. Oh, yes. Zappa was aware of Jaco.

For many years, I have spent some time and space at this point in the Zappadan holiday space celebrating and acknowledging the birthday of one Richard Wayne Penniman, due to his significant influence on Zappa and to rock and roll generally, and of course, his contribution of one of Zappa’s finest sonic achievements, the performance of the Penniman-penned “Directly From My Heart” from the album Weasels Ripped My Flesh, featuring the astonishing Sugarcane Harris on fiddle and lead vocal.

Here’s an early recording of the tune by its tunesmith:

It was 2013 when I came across a vital book, David Kirby’s Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, which argues convincingly that while many casual music fans may relegate Little Richard to the novelty act bin, Little Richard was, indeed, one of the most earth-shaking forces in rock. And, Kirby is absolutely right. Before him, everybody crooned. After him, more and more they wanted to howl. Little Richard led the way; he taught everyone else what sort of energy to bring to the party. He was the Architect.

And every year I write this here, and every year, I’d fantasize that there would be a comment from the man himself. This year I don’t even have that. Because this is the first year we observe Dec. 5 without him here to make the planet prettier. Yes, Little Richard stopped refusing to die in May 2020. He was 87.

I think Guardian writer Tavia Nyong’o gets it just right when pondering Little Richard’s legacy: “Rock’n’roll history has never exactly neglected or ignored Little Richard: it just has never quite known what to do with him.”

Of this he was well aware. The linked article above offers a bit of video that cracks me up: Richard at the 1988 Grammy Awards. Watch him state the obvious. Watch the audience’s reaction. Every human in that building gave up the standing O to Little Richard taking his well-deserved credit. Because sometimes the truth just rings out.

Take solace, though: Little Richard was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1993, not to mention four Grammy Hall of Fame recognitions for “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and the album Here’s Little Richard.

In the July 2020 Rolling Stone tribute, they let Richard have the last word, as quoted from his 1971 album, King of Rock and Roll. I’ma swipe the quote and do the same here:

“We got everybody here tonight. We got black folk. We got white folk. We got red folk. We got brown folk. We got yellow folk. We got real folk. We got love folk. I want you all to know that I’m here tonight, and I’ve been talking about love for a long time. Because, honey, I’m the man that started it all. The Emancipator of Soul and the King of Rock & Roll, from Macon, Georgia. I want you to know that I’m here to be offered tonight in the fullness. That the beauty is still on duty. Let it all hang out with the beautiful Little Richard from down in Macon, Georgia. I want you all to know that I am the Georgia Peach. Let all the womenfolk say ‘Whoooooo!’ Let all the men say ‘Ugh! Oooh, my soul.’ A man walked up to me yesterday and said, ‘Little Richard, don’t you know that James Brown can beat you dancing?’ I said, ‘Beat me dancing? But have you ever thought about that he don’t look like me?’ Shut up! I am the star. And don’t you ever forget it.”

I won’t.