![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/pix-2010\/zappa-fingerpoint.jpg\" "\\"Frank")
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For the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about Frank Zappa<\/strong>. One of my favorite experiences seeing Zappa live took place in 1980 at the Berkeley Community Theater, in Berkeley, CA. <\/p>\n At the time, there was a bit crazy chaos in getting a bunch of friends together to see this particular show. There was a group of four or five of us – me, Laura Narog, John Platt, Ronnie Simpson,<\/strong> and maybe someone else whose name I can’t remember. I think John Platt drove a bunch of us from San Jose to Berkeley in his dad’s station wagon. There was a 7 pm show and a 10 pm show. We were running late, and wound up missing most of the 7 pm show we bought tickets for. We arrived just in time to catch the last two songs of that set.<\/p>\n While most of the audience was cleared out of the theater to prepare for the 10 pm show, somehow or another, Laura and I were able to sweet-talk our way into staying in the theater while the rest of our friends were kicked outside. I forget exactly how we pulled it off – we either convinced the ushers we were friends of the band (which we weren’t)<\/em> or someone actually took pity on us, and allowed us to stay in the theater for the second show. <\/p>\n When nobody was looking, as the show started, we were able to open one of the exit doors, and sneak our friends back into the theater… with a few extras….<\/p>\n I remember being completely blown away by this performance. Frank Zappa played a lot of songs I’ve never heard before, and the new guitar player, some guy named Steve Vai<\/strong>, also sounded really good. <\/p>\n The date of this show was December 5, 1980. A couple days later, a real awful tragedy took place in New York, putting a damper on what should have been a great time for celebrating music that month.<\/p>\n Frank was born on December 21, 1940 and died on December 4, 1993, adding more December memories for the legacy of Mr. Zappa.<\/p>\n That particular show in Berkeley that I attend was actually recorded, and used as part of Frank’s next album – Tinseltown Rebellion<\/strong>. Ironically, this album had a worldwide premiere on KFJC Radio<\/strong> – the station that would produce the Maximum LOUIE LOUIE marathon three years later, which in turn, inspire me to get involved with this LOUIE project.<\/p>\n My friend Alex Pantages<\/strong>, a KFJC DJ, along with fellow DJ Paul “Buddy Awreetus” Korntheuer<\/strong>, DJ Russ “Winston Q” Reynolds<\/strong> and journalist Dan Forte<\/strong> had a brainstorm about doing a big Frank Zappa radio special, using Dan’s raw interview tapes from his Musician<\/strong> magazine article to celebrate Frank’s musical legacy. When Alex contacted Frank’s manager about this proposed broadcast, he learned that Frank was about release a new album in a few months. Originally planned for April 1981, the radio special was rescheduled for May 1981 to tie in with the official release of the new album. <\/p>\n With due diligence on behalf of some dedicated disc jockeys, KFJC Radio not only scored with the worldwide broadcast premiere of the new Tinseltown Rebellion<\/strong> album that was officially released a week or two later, but was also the very first radio station to share a preview of a second album – Return of the Son of Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar Some More<\/strong>. <\/p>\n And so today, a day in December, seems like a good time as any to celebrate the legendary Frank Zappa. The connection between Frank and LOUIE has been acknowledged in one of my previous webpage articles<\/a>, and I figured it was time to share another one of his LOUIE-inspired performances as part of the ongoing LOUIE of the Week feature! <\/p>\n WHOOPS!!!<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/pix-2010\/zappa-Tinseltown-350x.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/pix-2010\/zappa-ShutUp-350x.jpg\")
\nBy some odd coincidence, this particular radio special was one of a handful of ambitious radio specials that were broadcast during the month of May 1981 as part of a “Month of Mayhem<\/strong>,” which initiated an annual tradition that continues to this day at KFJC.<\/p>\nOn YouTube, I found a rare, not-commercially-available archival recording of “Plastic People,” Frank’s inspired rewrite of LOUIE LOUIE. This is a recording of the song captured at Olympia, Paris on October 26th, 1968.<\/del> <\/p>\nI don’t know where this video footage came from. but it works nicely with the music…<\/del><\/p>\n