RADIATE O' SPIRIT OF FRANK ZAPPA !

© 2009 Howard McQueen
Lyrics by Frank Zappa

The other morning I was in Kannapolis at a trailer sales and supply store to have a towing wiring harness connected to my 1995 F-150. A buzz-shaved man in his late 30s was behind the counter, wearing a T-shirt print of skull and crossbones and other symbolisms. As I arrived at the counter, he spent every bit of five minutes telling me about what was going on in his shop and what was going on in his mind.

When his conversation naturally ebbed, I politely introduced myself as the 10 am appointment for the wiring harness. He grabbed the part from behind the counter and I backed the truck in the bay and he got started.

It is almost always rewarding when we wait patiently for intuition and insight to guide a relationship into avenues of exploration and discovery (the silver lining where gifts are stored). While he was working under the tailgate of themy truck, I asked him if he happened to be a fan of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (I suspect I had not thought about Frank Zappa for a number of years, but hey, we learn to trust intuition). There was a brief pause before he responded, then he got up off the ground and invited me to follow him back behind the counter where I first met him. He had pulled from his home studio yesterday an old video of a Frank Zappa concert (1979?) and burned this on a DVD, which was now in the DVD drive of the office computer. As we started to watch the intro to this concert, the hair was rising on the back of my neck and it was then that he simultaneously turned to me and said “I’m getting a huge crop of goose bumps", and he held out his arm and indeed the goose flesh was quite impressive.

In the first video segment Frank is at the front conducting the small band and all sorts of unusual music is pouring out of the musicians and their instruments. This music was not for everyone, and Frank Zappa was not concerned that many people did not particularly care for his music. He also did not give his attention to the many people that spread rumors that he was a radical or labeled a drug user, weirdo, etc. Frank hung out with some very unusual looking friends/musicians and gifted the world some really unique music.

To the best of my knowledge, in his adult life, Frank Zappa was drug-free. I believe he embodied this irrepressible artistry and expression for life, found in exploring off the beaten paths, liberating music that built up as pressure within him.

I attended a Mothers of Invention concert ~ 1975 during a time when I was serving as an usher at the Fox Theater (Atlanta, Ga.). Prior to hearing this concert, I was not a Frank Zappa fan and did not really follow his music. I remember one particular song/lyric “Movin’ to Montana Soon” that really struck me as vivid and entirely original.

This song just "happened" to be next up on the DVD my host and I were enjoying behind the counter, so I was literally transported back to 1975 and I told him so. He then told me when he was ten years old, he relentlessly badgered his mom to buy him a ticket to a Frank Zappa concert near his rural home town. His mom did finally relent and this young boy of ten was turned on to the musical feast of a genius – Frank Zappa, playing his holy, unabashed music. Today, my friend is a guitarist by night and has an in-home studio where he records with friends.

As I left the shop, this fella and I had become intimately connected through the passion of creative music from a genius that lived and died young, quite a long time ago. This blog posting is to commemorate the irrepressible bright light that Frank Zappa brought into many lives through his music and dedication to living a life of fierce independence and raw celebration, irrespective of what anyone else thought of him or his music.

Below are the lyrics to the song - that raised the hair on my neck and created my friend’s gooseflesh – again!

And this below link goes out everyone on the blog, with a timely emphasis to Kimberly in celebration of her birthday

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBERLY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY [spirit of FRANK ZAPPA]

MAY WE ALL BE SO SUBLIMELY INFECTED AND IN LOVE WITH LIFE

:-)

Montana
By Frank Zappa

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of
Dental Floss

Raisin' it up
Waxen it down
In a little white box
I can sell uptown

By myself I wouldn't
Have no boss,
But I'd be raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss

Raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss

Well I just might grow me some bees
But I'd leave the sweet stuff
For somebody else...but then, on the other hand I'd

Keep the wax
N' melt it down
Pluck some Floss
N' swish it aroun'

I'd have me a crop
An' it'd be on top (that's why I'M movin' to Montana)

Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a Dental Floss tycoon (yes I am)
Movin' to Montana soon
Gonna be a mennil-toss flykune

I'm pluckin' the ol'
Dennil Floss
That's growin' on the prairie
Pluckin' the floss!
I plucked all day an' all nite an' all
Afternoon...

I'm ridin' a small tiny hoss
(His name is MIGHTY LITTLE)
He's a good hoss
Even though
He's a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or
Blanket on anyway
He's a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or
Blanket on anyway
Any way

I'm pluckin' the ol'
Dennil Floss
Even if you think it is a little silly, folks
I don't care if you think it's silly, folks
I don't care if you think it's silly, folks

I'm gonna find me a horse
Just about this big
An' ride him all along the border line

With a
Pair of heavy-duty
Zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand
Every other wrangler would say
I was mighty grand

By myself I wouldn't
Have no boss
But I'd be raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss

Raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss
Raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss

Well I might
Ride along the border
With my tweezers gleamin'
In the moon-lighty night

And then I'd
Get a cuppa cawfee
N' give my foot a push...
Just me 'n the pymgy pony
Over the Dennil Floss Bush

N' then I might just
Jumb back on
An' ride
Like a cowboy
Into the dawn to Montana

Movin' to Montana soon
(Yippy-Ty-O-Ty-Ay)
Movin' to Montana soon

***