A tribute to the Avante Garde… Posthumously

As a lifelong fan of rock music, I have collected a wide variety of genres of Rock and pop music. My first musical true love was, and still is, the music of the Beatles. But, over the years, as the Beatles, together and separately, exposed me to more esoteric styles as they grew and changed, I began to stretch my listening wings into music that many considered weird, out of the norm or even shunned.
My holy trinity of Avante Garde musicians included Lou Reed, Frank Zappa and David Bowie. Each of these artists is now deceased. Zappa passed away in ‘92. Reed expired in 2013 and Bowie passed as recently as January of 2016.
I remember first hearing of Lou Red when the song “Walk on The Wild side” played on pop AM stations in 1972. Hard to imagine that a song about transvestites could pay on pop radio at that time, but that subject had already been introduced on radio by the Kinks in their 1970 in their radio hit “Lola.” The fact that many saw “Walk on the Wild Side” as a novelty song like “Lola” probably got it air time. “Lola” approached the subject in a comic way. Novelty, ”Walk on the Wild Side” was not, but instead another chronicling of Reed’s bohemian lifestyle in New York City.
At that time, I didn’t realize Reed had released several albums with the group “Velvet Underground.” Their music, including songs like “Heroin,” “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and “Sweet Jane” were not the stuff of AM pop radio in the pre FM album oriented rock days.
Reed was born in Brooklyn in 1942, and raised by a pair of fairly conservative, Jewish parents. Redd admitted to his religious background, but liter quipped "My God is rock'n'roll.”
A socially awkward boy, prone to panic attacks, he learned to play guitar listening to radio. He played in a number of high school bands, playing early rock and roll, Do Wop and R and B. Lou left home to attend Syracuse University. His drug use there and wild behavior so scared his parents that they subjected him to electro shock treatments suggested by a psychiatrist to cure these “homosexual tendencies.” Reed blamed his father for this for years, and spoke of it in later music.
The Velvet Underground, composed of Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale and Maureen Tucker sold few LP’s, but attracted edgy artist Andy Warhol’s attention. He managed them briefly. One LP cover contains Warhol’s art. They went through several personnel changes in their short career before Reed left for a solo career.
His first solo LP was little noticed despite having progressive Rock members of Yes, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman, as studio musicians. The second, “Transformer, produced by David Bowie made Reed’s name and contained “Walk on the Wild Side,” his first song to receive a lot of radio air time.
Over the years, Reed released a number of successful LP’s, including influential tunes like “Small Town,” “I Love you, Suzanne” and one of my personal favs, “Little Sister.” He recorded “Perfect day” and “Satellite of Love.” “Satellite of Love” influenced the creators of Mystery Science Theater, Reed fans themselves, to name their TV space ship the same as the song tittle.
Ever the multi-talented artist, Reed released a book of photography, wrote an opera, released an album based on “The Raven,” recorded with the Killers, and made an LP with Metallica. In the 90’s, Reed was matched romantically to multi-media performance artist Laurie Anderson. Anderson was beside Reed when he passed away in 2013 of liver failure.
The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reed’s near spoken singing style and the subject matter of his songs still evokes a New York City Bohemian lifestyle. In Fact, I’m listening to “Sweet Jane” as I type.
Then, there’s David Bowie, born David Jones, who released his first LP in 1967. The LP sounds nothing like the Bowie most people know. Even Bowie, who wrote all of the tunes, said it was “all over the place.” He had changed his name from Jones to Bowie due to the fame of the Monkees singer Davey Jones and their late 60’s TV popularity.
In 1969, he gained radio time with the release of “Space Oddity.” This sci-fi rock song also started his conversion to the more Glam look and sound. His next album, “Hunky Dory”, contained “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” a song revitalized in the 90’s by Nirvana on their live album.
Bowie’s release of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)” captured the public with his androgynous appearance and Hard Rocking Glam music. “Pin Ups” and “Diamond Dogs” featuring “Rebel Rebel” made Bowie a rock radio mainstay despite his less than traditional appearance.
The era of Glam rock was made for Bowie. Many critics give him credit for its creation. It gave birth to T Rex, Queen, Kiss, Gary Glitter, the Sweet and the Tubes. Spandex, androgyny, outrageous stage shows and showmanship became as important as the music itself. Bowie’s music lost nothing in quality. It had that hard rocking edge of :Suffragette City,” and :”jean Genie.”
Then Bowie, ever the rebel, became the Thin, White Duke. His appearance shifted along with a more R&B music style. His career featured many transition and morphing images. When MTV premiered, when they actually played music videos, Bowie was exactly what they had in mind.
I remember clearly, as a college freshman, overwhelmed and beaten with class and football practice, sitting with my friends in the a small pizza place in Lyons, Kansas and Listening to Bowie’s “Changes” as it played on a scratchy juke box. It was a tune I saw as a theme song at the time.
Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” seemed a return to Ziggy Stardust and Major Tom. He even appeared on Saturday Night Live in a solid skirt and make up, and had to be carried to the microphone. Performance art and music blended. He wrote and sang the theme song to the remake of a 50’s sci fi film, “Cat People.” His “Putting Out The Fire (With Gasoline)” was eerie and sensuous at the same time.
He made the first extra length videos for MTV (Blue Jean) and md music with a collection of other artists including Brian Eno and Trent Reznor of 9 Inch Nils. Bowie’s collaboration with Reznor resulted in one of my fav Bowie cuts, “I’m Afraid of Americans.” In 1981, Bowie collaborated with Freddie Mercury and Queen to produce the number one hit “Under Pressure.”
Bowie and his distinctive look/voice made many movie appearances ranging from “Last Temptation of Christ,” “Labyrinth,” The Hunger.” “The Man Who Fell to earth,” and even an episode of sponge Bob Squarepnts.
Bowie created a huge catalog of recognizable music, solo, in collaboration and as part of a short lived band “Tin Machine” with the two sons of comedian Soupy Sales.
Bowie passed away due to liver cancer just 2 days after his 69th birthday and the release of his newest LP. He had known for 18 months of his condition, but according to his longtime producer, Tony Visconti, he worked tirelessly to finish his last musical contribution. Despite a heart problem a decade before which caused him to withdraw from the public, he never released publically his condition of liver cancer until his death.

It’s hard to describe Frank Zappa. Zappa is often under rated because of his musical subject matter ranging from the comedic to the raunchy and offensive. Those who pushed him aside because of the unique style of his music missed his dazzling guitar playing and complex compositions. Zappa composed rock n' roll, jazz, jazz fusion, and orchestral works, He recorded more than sixty albums with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. He directed feature-length films and music videos.
He was born in Baltimore as the oldest of four kids. He was often sickly as a child, a condition that he later attributed to the fact his father worked at a chemical warfare plant and he had once been treated for sinusitis by insertion of radioactive granules into his sinuses. Zappa recalled his parents being "pretty religious" and trying to make him go to Catholic school despite his resentment. Zappa first played drums in high school and later switched to guitar. He had classical, R&B and Jazz influences in his early days of self-taught composition.
Frank eventually finished high school (he attended 6 different ones) near Edwards Air Force Base close to Los Angles. At the high school, he composed several Avante-Garde performance pieces for the high school orchestra. He graduated in 1958 and after 1 semester of college, he moved into an apartment in Echo park in 1959. He studied composition with a private instructor and married in 1960. That Marriage lasted only 4 ears, but he remarried in ’67 and they remained married until his death in ’92.
In the early 60’s Zappa worked at a recording studio making money composing and playing. His first recording under the names “Soot” was a failure. In 1965 he joined a band as guitarist. They called themselves the Mothers. In ’66, they were signed to a label by a produced who insisted they change their name to “The Mothers of Invention.”
Their 1st Lp, “Freak Out” was released the same year. It was only the 2nd rock double Lp released after Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde.” It contained experimental music, sound collages and an 11 minute track called "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet."
They recorded and released a second LP, with Zappa in absolute creative control. He also recorded an orchestral LP the same year called “Lumpy Gravy.: It was supposed to be a "monument to John Cage," post WWII avante-garde composer.
The Mothers released several late 60’s LPs before disbanding. Zappa started two record labels that were distributed by warner Brothers, and included artists like Captain Beefheart and Alice Cooper. He also appeared, oddly enough, in a segment of “The Monkees” TV show and made a cameo in their movie “Head.”
Zappa released his first solo LP, “Hot Rats”, that featured for the first time his guitar solos and Jazz Rock Fusion. He wrote and directed the feature film “200 Motels.” It had several cameos from Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. It also introduced a band that included vocals from Howard Kaylan and Mark Vorman, the onetime pop singers known as “The Turtles.”
In 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono jammed with Zappa onstage at the Fillmore east in New York City. That recording was captured and released as part of Lennon’s “Sometime in New York” LP.
In 1971, While performing at Montreux in Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by a fan started a fire that burned down the casino. The event was immortalized in Deep Purple's song "Smoke on the Water,” The same year, Zappa suffered severe head trauma and broken legs when a fan pushed him off the stage into the orchestra pit at the Rainbow Theater in London. He was inactive for quite a while, but his reappearance produced 3 solo LPs and his first top ten LP, “Apostrophe.”
“Apostrophe” was the first Zappa LP at our house, My brother Tim bought it and it included the instrumental “Apostrophe,” along with the FM hit “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow.” His Bizarre and Straight labels were retired and replaced with Discreet. He followed Apostrophe with Overnight Sensation and Zoot Allures. Kit was an era of a lot of radio play for Zappa, including one of my favorite Zappa cuts, “Montana.”
Zappa ended the 70’s with the bestselling LP of his career, “Shiek Yurbouti.” It contained the Grammy nominated “Dancing Fool,” a parody of disco culture. In 1980, Zappa released “I Don’t wanna get Drafted.” He toured with Steve Vi as part of his band. He also released several songs critical of Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. He was more and more politically involved.
In 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate as one of many musicians in opposition the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, an organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of senator Al Gore. The PMRC was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. It followed on the heels of ridiculous evangelical changes of satanic back masking in popular music that had set off a storm of anti-rock sermons. Zappa saw their “labelling” as simple censorship.
In 1990, Frank Zappa was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. He devoted his remaining time to classical composition and experimentation with the digital Synclevier.
In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the Frankfurt Festival of ’92. One of the other featured composers was John Cage. They chose to perform some of his new works, and even though his illness had progressed to the point of great pain, he made two appearances and received a 20-minute ovation.
Frank Zappa died December 4th of 1993, surrounded by his wife and children. Two days later, his family announced "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday"
Zappa’s fans are a dedicated group. There were several posthumous albums released of his stockpile of recordings. Creative and prolific, his music still lives on as his son Dweezil tours as “Zappa Plays Zappa,”
“Cosmik Debris,” “Valley Girl.” “The Slime.” “Stink Foot” “You Are What You Is,” and a collection of other songs mostly heard on edgier FM stations, but familiar to fans. They contain the humor and irreverence of the genius of Frank Zappa.

Zappa was inducted into the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 71 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and in 2011 at number 22 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Lou Reed, David Bowie and Frank Zappa paved a road for a whole generation of artists who didn’t play in the boundaries of standard pop music.