Made almost entirely of massively overdubbed live recordings, Sheik Yerbouti (1979) was the first album Frank released after his less-than-amicable departure from Warner Bros.  Nonetheless, it became one of Frank's most commercially successful recordings, perhaps because of its sheer nuttiness.  This may very well be the most genuinely wacky album Frank ever made, and one of its wackier tunes is "Jewish Princess."

I have another reason for posting this - my Songfight friends Octothorpe created a terrific Star Wars-related mock-up of this song called "Jedi Princess."  They did this for my benefit during the 2005 Songfight Gift of Music - I talk about the GoM in more detail here.

A Star Wars parody of a Frank Zappa song?  It's like those guys have known me my whole life.

YouTube fanvid for "Jewish Princess"

"Jedi Princess" by Octothorpe

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Frank Zappa.

A bunch of us at Songfight recently covered a bunch of Smiths songs.  You can see the voting results and hear the entries here.  I recorded my own version of "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", a song I've already posted here.

Before this project began, I considered myself merely a casual Smiths fan.  Now, as a result of hearing all of these great cover versions, I am much more familiar with their catalog.  Also, I have a newfound appreciation for Morrissey as a vocalist.  I was never his biggest fan before, but it's amazing how much more respect you gain for artists when you actively try to emulate them.  Singing his songs is much more difficult than it sounds.

One newly discovered tune I've totally fallen in love with is "Bigmouth Strikes Again", from The Queen is Dead (1986).  This song was remade by London's own Johnny Cashpoint, who was nice enough to provide web page design and hosting as well as a great cover.

Hear "Bigmouth Strikes Again" on YouTube

Good for Your Soul (1983) is one of my all-time top-tenners.  I've loved this album so much for so long it's not even funny.  Any track from it would be a primo choice, but since they made an official video for "Nothing Bad Ever Happens" and it's readily available, I'm picking it.

I was privileged to actually perform the final track from this album, "Little Guns", during my recent Songfight tour.  The Seattle-based band Octothorpe ("Spud", one of Songfight's administrators, is in this group) recorded their own version for a Boingo tribute album, and since they were unable to complete the tour with their full lineup, I got to fill in on bass guitar.  That was a treat indeed.

Music video for "Nothing Bad Ever Happens" on YouTube

Spokane, WA live performance of "Little Guns" by Octothorpe (and yours truly)

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Oingo Boingo.

I'm back from my Songfight tour.  Wow, that was pretty exhausting.  Four towns in four nights - Portland, Seattle, Spokane, and Moscow, ID.  Touring acts that go on the road for months on end?  I don't know how they keep it up.  The Spokane show was recorded, I played bass on both this set and the first half of this one.  Wild times.

Anyway, back to business.  One of the many slabs of vinyl my brother turned me on to a long time ago was the 1982 Genesis album Three Sides Live.  As the name implies, it was a 2-record set with three sides of live tracks and a fourth side of studio stuff.  I dubbed several tracks to tape (duh, that's what we did then) and played them like crazy.  My favorite of the lot was "Abacab."

I didn't hear the studio version (from the 1981 album of the same name) until much later, and it just didn't seem to measure up.

Hear the studio version on YouTube

Watch a live performance

I will be performing some shows throughout the Pacific Northwest for the next week, so new posts will be sporadic, if they even happen at all.

So, in the meantime, please feel free to continue to hit my site via Google searches about enemas and bondage.

In around 1988, when I first started trying to learn guitar, I got a magazine full of guitar tabs for well known acoustic pieces.  "Dust in the Wind" was in it.  So was "Blackbird."  "Embryonic Journey" was in there too, as well as "Mood for a Day" from the Yes album Fragile.  And as you've undoubtedly guessed, "Black Mountain Side", from Zepp's 1969 debut album, was also in it.

One thing I found interesting about this piece was its unusual guitar tuning.  It was tuned to an open D suspended-fourth chord, more commonly called "DADGAD" tuning.  Jimmy Page almost single-handedly popularized the use of this - it is also sometimes referred to as "Jimmy Page tuning."

I have an ulterior motive for bringing this up - a few months ago, Pat and I recorded a song called "Sexy Dancer" for an ongoing Songfight project called Purple Reign, which involves the creation of original songs with the same titles as Prince songs.  I had recently picked up a 12-string acoustic guitar, and this was the first recording I made with it.  And yes, it was tuned to DADGAD.

This is just one subtle example of this band's impact.  You think Zeppelin's influence was limited only to triplet drum solos and wailing long-haired lead singers?  Think again.

UPDATE (03/19/08):  Do your research, kids.  Upon further review, it was British folk musician Davey Graham who is widely credited with popularizing the DADGAD tuning, and Page was one of a handful of guitarists inspired by him to make use of it.  Also, Page then tuned the guitar down a half-step for the recording of "Black Mountain Side", so it's technically Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-Db.  I had forgotten that.

Hey, I strive for accuracy, even when I'm just pulling information out of my rear.

Click here for a "Black Mountain Side" fanvid.

Click here to hear Primitive Screwheads' "Sexy Dancer."

Click here to hear Glenn Case explain the Purple Reign project in more detail.

Wikipedia article on the DADGAD tuning

This is part of a week-long series on the music of Led Zeppelin.

The 2007 Gift of Music is currently winding down, and I did this Piebald song for a Songfight member named Enter It in the Art Show.

When I was doing this, I had just watched a DVD called Victor Wooten: Live at Bass Day '98, so I was motivated to try my hand(s) at slap bass.  You can decide for yourself whether or not I (literally) pulled it off.

Click here to watch a video for "Part of Your Body Is Made Out of Rock" on YouTube.

Click here to hear my version.

Some wanker - vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, mixing

This is part of a week-long series on songs I have covered.

Songfight member "Rinkydink" had the idea of doing Velvet Underground/Lou Reed covers.  I'm not a Lou fan, but Pat seemed keen on the idea, so he made a few suggestions.  One of them was "Hangin' 'Round", from the 1972 Lou Reed album Transformer.  Seemed kind of cool, certainly simple enough, OK, let's do it.

Then Pat's plans fell through and I ended up doing it all myself.  Which, of course, meant that it would feature little more than crappy singing over simple backing tracks.  Thankfully, Lou Reed songs aren't exactly Stravinsky, so the simplicity seemed to fit somewhat.

Hmm, Songfighters covering Stravinsky, now that would be interesting...

Click here to watch a fan-made video for "Hangin' 'Round" on YouTube.

Click here to hear my version.

Some knucklehead - vocals, guitars, bass, drums, mixing

This is part of a week-long series on songs I have covered.