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Late Night Music Club with Frank Zappa

Title: Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Tomorrow marks the birthday of the late, great, Frank Zappa, and the end of the annual blogswarm known as Zappadan. There are many great Frank Zappa tunes posted for this festival, but since so many of us are dealing with winter weather, I thought "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" would be timely and appropriate.

Zappadan is headquartered at The Aristocrats. Until next year, Frank.

About Bluegal aka Fran
Bluegal aka Fran's picture
Executive Producer of The Professional Left Podcast. On staff at Crooks and Liars since 2007. Master's degree from Harvard. Happy wife of Driftglass. Mother of three geniuses. Obsessive knitter. Blogs at http://bgalrstate.blogspot.com. .
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23 Comments
grs's picture

I'm sure most have seen the great taping of Zappa on Crossfire back in the day verbally destroying Novak. So I won't re-post it. It's really great is you haven't seen it. I enjoy Zappa, but not enough to take part in Zappadan. Hope those that do have a good time though!

My offering tonight comes from a band from Detroit that was on the verge of making it big in the mid 90's but just couldn't get there. Charm Farm was a cross of Detroit dance, rock, and some funk-punk. Someone has actually posted a video on YouTube for a song that I thoroughly enjoy but never knew a video existed for. I'm guessing it's someone with close ties to the band judging from the description in the video. This song would be Sick by Charm Farm. Really great lyrics and such a great bass line.

When grunge and alt rock were making big waves, these guys had an original sound. Sadly, Charm Farm got eaten raw by the recording industry. The album "Pervert" is a great and a treat if anyone is looking for that certain something they never knew about but wished they did.

I know I don't normally write this much, but this is a great track and I really liked this album when it came out and I still listen to it. I hope they're able to get back together someday and make some new tunes.

tvaspen's picture

The name of the song is not 'don't eat the yellow snow', it's
'Nanook rubs it'. And believe me, that song doesn't even come close to being one of his great songs. I have been listening to Frank since the early 70's, still one of my long time favorites. Keep listening and you will come to understand the true genius of the guy. Do yourself a favor and read 'The Real Frank Zappa Book' as well. The guy could really see through the bullshit.
Happy B-day Frank!


"He wrote this book here and the book says ; He made us all to be just like him So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side".
Frank Zappa

MountainMan23's picture

When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?

Not soon enough!

MountainMan23's picture

When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?

Not soon enough!

fiver's picture

at Northern Illinois University, our teams, like more than a few other schools, were known as the "Huskies."

Our football team at the time was, um, really bad. When Northwestern finally ended the longest losing streak in NCAA history, they beat us.

This was our theme song.


Corruption favors the wealthy.

calgarylady's picture

and definitely one of a kind.

grs's picture

... again, I'm no Zappa expert, but from my experiences, I figure the guys in Primus did an all right job picking up some of hte pieces from Zappa and the Mothers.

So I offer this clip of: Primus - Over the Electric Grapevine. I remember getting this cd and drifting in a one-man inflatable raft in the middle of lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with a 6-pack of root beer listening to this track over and over again and trying to make sense of it. In hindsight, if I had something stronger than root beer, the song would probably have made more sense. Great song though.

General Jack D. Ripper's picture

When I went to high school in the late 1970s, I carpooled with a bunch of other guys. One of them always seemed to bring along 8-tracks of music I had never heard of before, including Zappa. "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" was one of the first songs I ever heard....and certainly the main one I remember from those days of carpooling to high school. Great memories!

Acting Patriotic's picture
Acting Patriotic's picture

Eric Johnson - 'Manhattan'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL8aeeSTthQ

Stanley Rosenthal's picture
mark h's picture

This is my favorite of the festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waMam5OLi_A

ralph's picture

I think El Shrub use Bobby Brown on his legacy tour.

MikeD's picture
blue balls's picture

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.
- Adolf Hitler (R)

mudshark's picture

I think this is probably his best song. No lyrics. Just jammin all the way through. On drums,Jim Gordon. On bass, Jack Bruce. And of course Frank. Apostrophe.


What is your conceptual, continuity?

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Now why wasn't there ever a holiday Rankin/Bass special based on this song?


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

mudshark's picture

I think some of you might enjoy.
Tree Top Flyer. Steve Stills.


What is your conceptual, continuity?

I'm sixty-one, and lived through the days of Frank Zappa having only heard his name, and I was never exposed to his work.

Visited Latvia a few years back, or was it Lithuania...don't remember for sure which, but whichever Vilnius is capital of, and there in a little park was a bust of Frank Zappa on a huge column with art work done all over the cement wall. A tourist attraction in Vilnius none the less.

In the last few years I got a chance to watch the interview with the villan novak, and I have gained great respect for the man and his ideas. He was ahead of his time. Too bad we can't get him back today. We really need more voices that won't put up with this nonsense that has been going on in our world.

Frank, we miss ya, and I didn't even know ya.

MikeD's picture

I knew of Zappa in the 70's and 80's but never really listened that closely to his music. It didn't help that my first exposure was in college by frat boys who got off on the graphic content of some of his songs. Then recently I was sharing music with my daughter and noticed a bunch of Frank Zappa songs she had downloaded. I started listening then bought a few CD's then read some books then bought just about every CD I could get my hands on. Zappa gets unfairly pigeon holed by many people as just doing comedy music but in reality he was a truly brilliant composer and musician. His music has a complexity that makes it closer to classical music than virtually anything else you find in rock and I think he is one of the greatest guitarists ever. Sad that he died so young. He was truly ahead of his time.

bobbquackenbush's picture

Frank Zappa conducts Philip Glass.

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