You rise each day the same old way
And join your friends out on the street
Spray your hair
And think you're neat
I think your life is incomplete
But maybe that's not for me to say
They only pay me here to play
^
This more or less sums up the Zappa mission statement of the late sixties.
Originally posted by WulebgrI think this particular statement is pretty straight. Similar to the song Who Needs the Peace Corps? from We're Only In It For the Money. Pretty scathing attack on the silliness of hippie culture. Pulls no punches.
Was it ironic or straight?
Of course, this is how I prefer to interpret it. 😉
I agree with Darvly,
I also think it had to do with the sacrifice the band members made to play the music that Frank wrote. The band was starving, yet they had worldly acclaim. That's why there were so many changes in the band, they would leave to take good paying gigs. It was more like, why did the establishment deserve what they got? Remember: "Kill Ugly Radio", "Hey Punk", "We're only in it for the money", "We're all wearing a uniform, don't kid yourself." "Plastic People"
He saw through the phony, plastic counter culture of the 60's.
Originally posted by gregsflatAt the risk of launching into a debate, could you describe what you mean by "phony" and "plastic"?
I agree with Darvly,
I also think it had to do with the sacrifice the band members made to play the music that Frank wrote. The band was starving, yet they had worldly acclaim. That's why there were so many changes in the band, they would leave to take good paying gigs. It was more like, why did the establishment deserve what they got? Remember: "Kil ...[text shortened]... "Plastic People"
He saw through the phony, plastic counter culture of the 60's.
Originally posted by WulebgrImpossible.
Isn't "Plastic People" a criticism of the same Sunset Strip riot that was celebrated by Buffalo Springfield in "For What It's Worth"?
BTW, anyone have a citation for the claim that Zappa's "Trouble Every Day" was the first Rap song?
Dylan's "motocycle nitemare" is from '63 or '64.
First off:
"trouble coming everyday" had to do with television and the media, and advertising and BS that's spewed out as fact and "of great importance" I think it's worse today. Zappa continues this theme again, "I am the slime from the video".
Second: Describing Plastic People and Phonies. OK, indulge me here: people who thought they were hip, but really stood for no revolutionary ideals when the time was right. They looked the part, they dressed the part, they acted the part, but didn't "get it". Like Gil Scott Heron said, "the Revolution will not be televised." Some zappa examples in tunes: "plastic people" "hey punk" "what's there to live for"
zappa didn't do drugs, but it seemed like he intended his music for "drug experiences". In fact ,one of his closest friends, Don van Vleit (Captain Beefheart) left zappa's label in a dispute over the fact that he thought zappa was trying to market him as an "oddity."
First off:
"trouble coming everyday" had to do with television and the media, and advertising and BS that's spewed out as fact and "of great importance" I think it's worse today. Zappa continues this theme again, "I am the slime from the video".
Second: Describing Plastic People and Phonies. OK, indulge me here: people who thought they were hip, but really stood for no revolutionary ideals when the time was right. They looked the part, they dressed the part, they acted the part, but didn't "get it". Like Gil Scott Heron said, "the Revolution will not be televised." Some zappa examples in tunes: "plastic people" "hey punk" "what's there to live for"
zappa didn't do drugs, but it seemed like he intended his music for "drug experiences". In fact ,one of his closest friends, Don van Vleit (Captain Beefheart) left zappa's label in a dispute over the fact that he thought zappa was trying to market him as an "oddity."
Originally posted by darvlayWhat was?
No, and it wasn't.
Barry Miles states, "'Trouble Coming Every Day' is arguably the first recorded rap song" (Hippie, p. 140). He offers a similar assertion in Zappa: A Biography (113), where he also characterizes Zappa's early style as "pseudo-Mexican rap" (101).
I'm looking for an argument pro or con, rather than more simple declarations. Is Miles referring to an established opinion of someone other than himself (even if it is wrong)?