Moving to Montana - Frank Zappa

[appalachiablue]

[WheelWalker]

1. Ons of my all time favorites from back in the day.

[WheelWalker]

2. Zappa was a genius.

[appalachiablue]

4. Definitely a brilliant innovator & versatile artist. Highly creative, Zappa broke the mold.

Frank Vincent Zappa (Dec. 21, 1940 – Dec. 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa

[happybird]

3. A friend lived in Wyoming for a few years and often talks about moving back

I mistakenly said Montana once instead of Wyoming and he got all offended. He hates Montana for some reason. So, of course, I conversationally throw in quotes from this song every time he brings up Wyoming. He gets soooo pissed, lol! Just the words “dental floss” set him off now.

[appalachiablue]

5. That's funny, I get the 2 states mixed up sometimes too, my bad! The way plenty

of people are confused about WV and VA which sets off many people. Watch that dental floss teasing! One summer I visited Jackson, WY. What a lively town, magnificent scenery and awesome Grand Tetons.

Also toured Coer d'Alene, Idaho, more natural beauty. Montana someday I hope. In 1923, grandfather and uncles traveled to Great Falls, MT with cousin and boxer Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight championship match v. Jess Willard. Big Jack prevailed.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Time For My Zappa Story Again

I'm on business working with a reactor design company, staying in Frankfurt. It was either '90 or '91.
2nd day we're there we (me and an engineer from R&D) are walking down the hotel hallway and a guy with 2 kids walks by the other direction.
Engineer says to me "That guy looks familiar." I say "Yeah, that was Frank Zappa." The kids were Moon & Dweezil. He was playing a couple nights in Frankfurt & we just happened to be there.
Anyway, the next morning I'm going to get breakfast at the hotel. (Frankfurter Hof)
As I'm walking by the atrium, I see Frank sitting there drinking coffee reading the USA Today International.
I go over and just tell him "Hi Frank, just wanted to say I really enjoyed you Shut Up & Play Your Guitar series."
He says, "You must be a musician. I only get that from musicians."
I tell him I'm a keyboardist/guitarist/singer playing in an active band, but it's just a hobby.
He says "You had breakfast yet?" I say no & he tells me to sit down. He calls the waiter over, asks if I want coffee, and starts talking music.
My guys cam down and saw me sitting there, but I waved them to the restaurant.
So, we order breakfast, talked guitar & football for about 45 minutes.
And, when I went to pick up the check he said "Leave that. I've got it!"
So, I got to talk music with Frank Zappa for 45 minutes & he bought breakfast!

[appalachiablue]

7. Wonderful story, great that you & your group were welcomed so well by Zappa. Cool. What

a tragedy he passed in 93 at a relatively young age. He would have produced more interesting work and shared more of life with his family.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Yeah, This Was A Year Or 2 Before He Died

I found it in the concert archives website.

Thursday 17 September 1992
Frank Zappa with Ensemble Modern
Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany

And, to be clear (and selfish) it was just Frank & I. I didn't invite the other 2 over. The heck with them! I'm having breakfast with Zappa!

[WestMichRad]

9. Montana

Not too long ago I learned that a montana is a dental instrument… that thing the dental hygienist picks at your teeth with during a cleaning. Go ahead, google it if you don’t believe me.

So FZ was actually singing about a dental pick. Betcha didn’t know that!

I’ll just gather up my dental floss and ride off into the dawn on my Pygmy pony now…