The Louie Report

Today is officially Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore. Mayor Sheila Dixon has declared it so. Last week, Baltimore’s public art commission decided that it will erect a bust of Zappa outside a public library. The statue of Zappa was donated over a year ago by a Lithuanian Zappa fan club. Since that time, city officials [...]

As administrator of a website that receives a lot of traffic from fellow Frank Zappa fans, I feel it is my duty to pass along some information about a special auction that just started. Here’s some recycled words from a press release: For all of the Zappa webmasters, fanatical fans and serious collectors, we’d like [...]

There’s a few comments I thought I’d share from some folks that know something about the music business. First, my friend Jack Ely, former singer of the Kingsmen, voice of the world’s most recognizable LOUIE LOUIE recording, wrote an article for Counterpunch.org entitled “Stop Sobbing About Free Music Downloads.” The suggestions that recordings are produced [...]

It’s always a hoot when I stumble upon nice musical recordings from an unlikely musicians. I fully expect to find different versions of LOUIE LOUIE by both “up-and-coming” rock bands and “drunken-guys-in-the-garage” doing their interpretations of this iconic melody. A lot of times, it’s a combination of the two. A couple of weeks ago, I [...]

Here’s a video I didn’t know existed until now. On my Frank Zappa & LOUIE LOUIE page, I documented all the known instances where Frank Zappa utilized elements from this iconic rock song. I mentioned that Yellow Shark, the last project released before his death in 1993, contained a track entitled “Welcome to the United [...]

Here’s something I can’t help but love. Two delicious beers from two different companies utilizing two pop culture icons to label their product. I like good beer. I like the works of Frank Zappa and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. This is the type of product that screams out to me…. “take me home!” … and [...]

God damn it! It was less than a week ago that I posted information about the reunion of the Beat Famers with original member Buddy Blue . Now, Buddy Blue is dead. The San Diego Union-Tribune has an obituary for today’s paper: Bernard “Buddy” Seigal was a tireless mainstay of the San Diego music scene [...]

“Do you want Grace Slick to sing LOUIE LOUIE? Would that be the ultimate get-off for a Fillmore East audience or what?” Damn, I loved hearing that phrase spoken by Frank Zappa at a Mothers of Invention show at a Fillmore East concert recorded on on November 14, 1970! I don’t think the Jefferson Airplane [...]

My pal David the Punmaster just sent me a link to a webpage that lists a whole bunch of Frank Zappa articles: http://home.online.no/~corneliu/interviews.htm It doesn’t list the Rip Rense article about Frank Zappa, but it’s still the most comprehensive Zappa article online database I’ve seen so far. And yes, there are some LOUIE references within [...]

Monday May 23rd, 2005 – Announced today the First Duly Authorized & Certified Frank Zappa Respective! And Perspective! Zappa Brothers Dweezil & Ahmet have called together many mighty musicians to join them in playing the Music of Frank Zappa – Live! Authentic: This is the first OFFICIAL presentation of Frank Zappa Music since the Composer [...]