So, just how many notes can a band possibly play in four minutes?

What say we find out.

YouTube live performance of "St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast" and "Father O’Blivion"

Hear the studio version of "Father O’Blivion"

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

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.

Joe's Garage (1979) might be my favorite album of Frank's.

"Watermelon in Easter Hay" might be my favorite guitar solo of anyone's.

YouTube fanvid for "Watermelon in Easter Hay"

YouTube live performance

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

Some of Frank's albums are even older than I am, and my favorite of the bunch is probably We're Only In It for the Money (1968).

As much as Frank was known for his uber-complicated compositions and arrangements, he could really create whistlable melodies as well, and one prime example is "Let's Make the Water Turn Black."  Now, I'm not of the belief that a "catchy" vocal line necessarily makes for a good song, but a really good way to win me over would be to interject things like "numies", "Daddy Dinky" and "dysentery green."

God, I miss Frank.

YouTube fanvid for "Let's Make the Water Turn Black"

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

One Size Fits All (1975) contains a whole crapload of Frank's widely performed concert staples.  It has "Inca Roads", for example.  "Andy" too.  "Florentine Pogen"?  "San Ber'dino"? Both versions of "Sofa"?  Yep, there they are.

Of course, my preferred track(s) from any album often differs from conventional wisdom.  That's the case here, with the jamtastic "Po-Jama People."  Apparently, not even Frank himself held this tune in very high regard, and rarely, if ever, performed it live.

But that solo break is soooo tasty.  That "Roxy" lineup (with George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson, etc) may have been the best jamming ensemble Frank ever assembled.

Click to hear "Po-Jama People" on YouTube.

Read the song's Wikipedia article.

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

Often when I feature an artist or band in a week-long motif I will post the songs in chronological order.  I will not be doing that this week, instead I will just jump right in and post this seemingly random track from his 1986 Synclavier-heavy album Jazz from Hell, for which Frank won the 1998 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.  It also got slapped with one of those Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics stickers, which would seem odd for an instrumental recording.

Anyway, I fell in love with "Night School" the moment I heard it.  Apparently, Frank pitched a late-night show called "Night School" to ABC, which they obviously did not pick up, and this song might have been named for it.  We can only imagine how cool and awesome the TV show might have been, but at least we got a piece of music we know to be cool and awesome.



Watch the video for "Night School" on Spike (formerly iFilm)

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

I really, really should have done a Frank Zappa week sooner.  I've worshiped all things Frank for nearly two decades now and it actually got to the point where one of the other song-a-dayers beat me to the punch.  I should be tied to a chair and have all my hair pulled out with a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers for that.

Nevertheless, you're getting a week's worth of whichever of my favorite Zappa tunes I can find.  Music is the best.

Wikipedia article on Frank Zappa

Here's a song I wanted to post when I did a whole week of Rush, but there just aren't enough days in a week.  Rush really needed two weeks.

Anyway, when I first picked up Power Windows in 1985, I didn't think all that highly of this track.  But over the years, it's grown on me in a big way, and now I think it's one of the absolute finest songs in their entire catalog.

Watch the video for "Mystic Rhythms" on Yahoo.  Gerald Casale from Devo directed this.

Watch a live performance from the R30 concert video on YouTube.

My opinion of The Who is a lot like my opinion of the Beatles - I'm not an enormous fan, but I give them all of their richly-deserved respect.  Let's face it, with all that they accomplished and the influence they have over other bands even today, they've earned it.

I do, however, have a copy of Who's Next (1971) and genuinely enjoy it.  Yes, it's got "Baba O'Riley."  It has "Won't Get Fooled Again."  It also has "Behind Blue Eyes."  Could you call it a "ballad"?  Maybe.  Whatever you call it, it's a powerful track.

One more thing, Limp Bizkit should be taken out and shot for their awful cover version.  Simply dreadful.

YouTube hand-crafted video for "Behind Blue Eyes"