Frank Zappa - Peaches en Regalia (extra)

In my previous post I wrote about Frank Zappa and I added a video from YouTube with a live performance of Peaches en Regalia which was shot at the comedy programme Saturday Night Live.

I also wrote that I liked the live version better than the album version. I wanted to add also a video with the album version, so that people could compare for themselves, but I couldn't find a suitable one. There was an original video, but the sound- and videoquality was not very good. So I made a video myself with a slideshow (so not a real video) of pictures of Frank Zappa that I found around the net combined with the music from Peaches en Regalia from the album "Hot Rats".

So now people can compare for themselves. I wonder which version other Zappa fans prefer.

Frank Zappa - Peaches en Regalia

I didn't post for a bit longer than I expected. It's about time to create a new post. I haven't done any new musical discoveries recently, so I'll post something about an artist who, despite the fact that I don't appreciate all of his music/recordings, I admire very much: Frank Zappa, the late multi talented artist who unfortunately died in 1993 of prostate cancer.

One of the reasons why I find him an interesting artist is the fact that he was an original and independent artist who considered artistic freedom as a supreme good. He was also a strong advocate for the freedom of speech and strongly opposed any form of censorship. (See for example Frank Zappa's appearence in 1986 on the discussion programme Crossfire and fore some more examples look here, here and here).

He also had a nose for excellent musicians. When a musician could put on their resume that they played with Frank Zappa most of the time it was a 100% guarantee for an interesting and often succesful career with other bands or as solo artists or session musician. It's a huge list, so I'm not going to mention all the musicians, but I'm going to mention a few. Drummers like Aynsley Dunbar (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck, Jefferson Starship...), Chester Thompson (Weather Report, Genesis, Phil Collins...), Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons, UK, KoRn...), Vinnie Colaiuta (Joni Mitchell, Barbara Streisand, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones...), Chad Wackerman (Allan Holdsworth, Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai, Andy Summers...), guitarists like Steve Vai (Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake), Adrian Belew (King Crimson, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails...), Warren Cuccurullo (Missing Persons, Duran Duran), Lowell George (Little Feat), keyboard/violin player Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music, UK, Jethro Tull), keyboardplayer/pianist George Duke (Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham, George Clinton, Steps Ahead...) and the list goes on and on.

But I was busy on a posting about Frank Zappa. The main reason for creating a post about Zappa was this video I ran into on YouTube. It was a performance of the instrumental piece "Peaches en Regalia" shot in 1976 at Saturday Night Live, the famous since October 1975 running tv-show. The music piece comes from the album Hot Rats, which came out in 1969. It was one of the first 16 track so-called multitrack recordings, a way of soundrecording wich give the possibility to make seperate recording of multiple sound sources to create. a coherent total sound. About the technique behind it you can check the URL.

What I like about "Peaches en Regalia" (the live version more than the album-version) is that it's a good mixture of musical elements from classical music, big band, jazz and rock. The hornsection is great and I also like the unisono guitar and violin solo by Frank Zappa and Eddie Jobson at 01:04 of the video. The music piece has strong melodylines, which, although maybe complex, easily stuck in your mind. Some might disagree about the melody easily stucking in your mind, but that's what this performance did with me. But what more can I say. Just check the video and enjoy. If you're not familiair with Zappa's work it hopefully might interest you to check some other work of him. He was and is an interesting, extremely talented self-willed artist.

The Police, Amsterdam Arena 13 Sept. 2007

It took more than a month to create a new posting. For many reasons I couldn't find the time and energy to post on my weblog. Also on my photoweblog I'm a little behind with posting pictures. Anyway the past week gave me a good reason to make some time to post something.

Last Thursdaynight my wife N. and yours truly went to a concert of The Police at the Amsterdam Arena, footballstadium and home of the footballteam of Ajax. It was the first of total two concerts of The Police in the Netherlands.

When we heard the announcement that The Police was going to give a concert my wife N. said she would like to go, if we could manage to get tickets. The presales already started in March this year. I was lucky to get through during the online sales and we got two tickets for last Thursday. Because the first concert was sold out within one hour an extra concert was organised one day later on September 14th.

To be honest I was a little sceptical beforehand. Reunion tours in general are often disappointing and are in some cases only done for financial reasons (I guess and hope not in this case). I never saw The Police live before, so I didn't had any reference material. I was 12 years old when they had their first hit in the Netherlands at the end of 1978 with "So Lonely". I was an instant fan and I bought their first album Outlandos d'Amour on LP. I liked their style of rockmusic influenced by reggae, jazz and punk which I think you could hear best on their first album and their second album (Regatta de Blanc).

Another reason why I had doubts was the fact that, although I never had been to the Amsterdam Arena before to experience it myself I heard from several people that the sound in the stadium didn't had a good reputation.

Short after the start of the concert it was clear that my doubts and scepticism were not justified. The sound was good and we had a great night. It was a huge ride through memory lane and they played all their major big hits.

Despite security and body search we manage to get my wife's camera into the stadium and I manage to take a few pictures. It wasn't easy to make steady shots between a jumping and waving crowd, but some pics came out quite okay. We were standing pretty close to the stage somewhere around the third or fourth row a little left from the middle.

Below are a few pics that I shot and some video's that I found on YouTube from the same concert. The first video was made by my wife. She recorded with the camera in front of the television an item on the news the next morning about The Police. The video- and soundquality on the other videos isn't great, but it gives you a bit of an idea of the atmosphere. The second video shows the opening of the concert with "Message in a Bottle". The third shows "Roxanne" and the fourth shows my personal favorite song "King of Pain". The last video gives a bit of an overall impression of the concert. Hope you like it!

Official Website of The Police

The Police