In 1964, Ray Collins formed a band called The Soul Giants with drummer
Jimmy Carl Black, bassist Roy Estrada, saxophonist Dave Coronado,
and guitarist Ray Hunt. Not long later, Collins got into a fight with Hunt,
who left the band and Ray asked Frank Zappa to join the band.
Zappa convinced the others that playing his original compositions
would step them up to the big time. They changed their name to
The Mothers and by 1966 were ready to release Freak Out, the
second double album in rock history. Their label insisted on a
name change, and the Mothers of Invention were unleashed
upon the world.
After touring widely and releasing 5 albums, Zappa disbanded
the group in 1969- a decision that was not well received by band
members. He signed with a new label and released a solo album
called Hot Rats. He would also release two Mothers of Invention
albums in 1969 using existing Mothers studio work as well as
live recordings.
The 1969 album was called Burnt Weenie Sandwich. The second,
released in 1970, was called Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
The title came from a cover headline on the September 1956
issue of Man's Life, a men's adventure magazine. Zappa had
been given the magazine by a young fan named Dan O'Brien,
who had acquired it from his brother, a musician who had
found it during his day job at a pornographic publishing house.
The absurdity of flesh-ripping weasels appealed to Frank's
sense of humor. According to legend, Zappa showed it to a
young San Francisco poster artist known as Neon Park and
said “What can you do that’s worse than this?”
Park's painting, for which he was paid $250, almost didn't
see the light of day. Zappa fought with Warner Bros. over
its suitability for release. "Evidently," says Park, "...it wasn't up to their standards." Warner's eventually caved, but then
the printer pitched a fit.
"The printer was greatly offended," says Park. "The girl who worked for him, his assistant, she wouldn't touch the painting. She wouldn't pick it up with her hands."
Zappa and Park were enjoyed the brouhaha: "I was greatly amused by the cover, and so was Frank," says Park.
"I mean, we giggled a lot."
It could have been worse. German releases of the album
featured an album cover showing a metal baby caught in
a rat trap. This cover was not approved by Zappa.
Park would go on to do work for Little Feat, David Bowie,
Dr. John and the Beach Boys as well as illustrations for Playboy,
National Lampoon, Glass Eye, and Dreamworks.
In 1992, he was diagnosed in 1992 with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
When his doctor told him the diagnoses,
Park replied "I never even played baseball."
Is the album any good?
One review says "....Weasels can make for difficult, incoherent listening, especially at first. But there is a certain logic behind the band's accom- plished genre-bending and Zappa's gleefully abrupt veering between musical extremes; without pretension, Zappa blurs the normally sharp line between intellectual concept music and the visceral immediacy of rock and R&B. Zappa's anything-goes approach and the distance between his extremes a re what make Weasels Ripped My Flesh ultimately invigorating; they also even make the closing title track -- a minute and a half of squalling feedback, followed by applause -- perfectly logical in the album's context.
"I was sprawled on a mound of hay - shotgun cradled in my arms and head drooping fiercely from want of sleep - when that first ripple of alarm surged through the duck house.
Instinctively my finger curled on the trigger as I sat upright, blinking at the soft amber glow of the kerosene lamp suspended from the rafter. I heard nothing. Only the breeders shifting timorously in their pens and quacking." Does this sound familiar to you?
The answer is probably "No", and there's no reason they would unless you are profoundly interested in pulp magazines from the 50s. They are the opening passage to a story by Mike Kamens that appeared in the September 1956 issue of Men's Life magazine, entitled `Weasels Ripped My Flesh`.
The story was good enough to be the cover of that month`s issue!
The cover art was done by Wilbur `Wil`Hulsey, who did a lot work
for Man`s Life and other major pulp publications in those days.
The weasels were not his only foray into the danger animals
represented to would-be heroes:
Nor were weasels and turtles the only creatures
seeking to rip the flesh of their oppressors...
There were snakes:
Man-eating rats...
Nasty little monkeys...
Giant otters...
and giant crabs!
All of which is quite colorful and interesting in it`s own right,
but how, you may well be asking, does this connect with Frank
Zappa, the Mothers of Invention and one of the better-known
album covers in the history of rock?
The answer is here, at Weasels Ripped My Flesh (2).
***
Here are links to some sights where I learned a lot,
found some images and got very pleasantly distracted.
For decades, music historians and Beatles fans have wondered about the shadowy figure standing just down the road from the Fab Four on the cover of the Abbey Road album.
Who was this enigmatic figure?
Was he the legendary "fifth Beatle"? Or perhaps a Rolling Stone? A run of the mill stalker or maybe a KGB assassin?
None, as it turns out, of the above....
He's Paul Cole, a retired salesman living in Florida who thought those fellas walking back and forth across the street were just "a bunch of kooks"!
When most people think of a "family band", the first one that comes to mind is probably The Partridge Family.
But of course, they weren't a real family... they were a confection, a fantasy, a freshly-scrubbed invocation of rock and roll without the rock. Or the roll.
The Partridges were show-biz kids, climbing the ladder of success on the backs of hundreds of real American families who were making music together from sea to shining sea.
The difference?
These real family bands did not have the benefit of the Star-Making
Machinery behind the Partridge Family's popular
songs...
...and they suffered accordingly- toiling in obscurity with nothing
but their faith in each other and the love of music to keep them keepin'
on.
In a real family band, Mom is probably not a MILF and big sister is likely not a total hottie. The eldest son is not the kind of "looker" that inspires impure thoughts in listeners young and old.
At the same time, the Middle Child is probably not a junior drug-abuser on the fast-track to family court and weekends in a juvie detention centre.
In real family bands, the family dog would never need hearing aids by the time they were five either.
When we look at the faces of these family band members, there is a searing sincerity that is almost painful.
Seeing these images, bereft of any and all production values, it's hard not to imagine the music... and shudder.
What do these outfits say about the sound to our jaded eyes?
What do these hair styles imply about the musical arrangements?
And the frocks. Oh god, the frocks...
Can we help but wonder, just as we must when looking at the lost siblings of the Partridge Family...
One day, back in 1976 in the city of London, in England, a musical friend lent Dave Robinson £400 so he and his mate Andrew Jakeman could start their own independent record label.
They called it "Stiff".
It was a name well suited to the times, when a new kind of music called Punk was getting ready for its close-up. Long before the invasion of the MBAs and the rise of "branding", The World's Most Flexible Record Label would become famous for marketing and advertising thatwas often provocative, witty and lovely to behold.
There would be many more slogans, including:
"We came. We saw. We left", "When You Kill Time, You Murder Success" "In '78 everyone born in '45 will be 33-1/3" "If they're dead, we'll sign them" "Undertakers to the Industry"
and to this day, people are still buying t-shirts that say "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck".
Each release would be given individual attention, with inventive artwork, picture sleeves and a range of snappy slogans, often coupled with inventive marketing campaigns that achieved the label a great deal of publicity, if not always huge profit margins.
Some of the great marketing ideas and designs for Stiff were created byColin Fulcher aka Barney Bubbles*. His resume ranged from redesigning Motor Racing magazine and weekly music bible NME, to bands like Hawkwind and Brinsley Schwarz and a recipe book for the English Egg Marketing Board.
Stiff released their first single on 14 August 1976- a 7" vinyl 45 rpm by Nick Lowe called"So It Goes". It sold 10,000 copies.
When Elvis Costello's first two singles quite literally 'stiffed', their marketing plan for his first album My Aim Is True included advertisements in the major UK music papers from which a poster of Costello could be assembled.
The first 1,000 pressings of the album contained an insert asking the purchaser to Help Us Hype Elvis. If completed and returned to Stiff, the label sent their friend a free copy.
Stiff had many Top 20 singles, including a song that went all the way to the top when Ian Dury's "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" was No. 1.
They also released many big-selling albums. Dury's debut album New Boots & Panties raced up the charts in '78 and stayed there for two years.
The sales kept the label going for months while they developed new artists.
In 1979, Madness joined the roster and would soon enjoy considerable commercial success in Britain and overseas: 18 Top 20 singles and six Top 10 albums.
One of their most unusual hits was an LP released on a sub-label they called Magic Records (the slogan? "If it sells, it must be Magic").
"The Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reagan"was completely silent on both sides. It sold well over 30,000 copies.
Their first tour hit the road on October 3, 1978.
Known as the Live Stiffs Tour or 5 Live Stiffs, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop and Larry Wallis's Psychedelic Rowdies did 24 gigs together and made musical history.
"We always told other people who wanted to start their own labels how to do it. We were always there as an encouragement. If we could do it, you could do it!" Dave Robinson
By 1985, they were somewhere between £1.4 million and £3.5 million in debt and it was all over. Founding partner Dave Robinson was the biggest creditor.
Stiffs'assets were bought by the ZTT label for £300,000.
* Bubbles was also bipolar and in November 1983, took his own life.
