Dancing Fools

Few rock musicians had more integrity than Frank Zappa. Uncompromising, non-conformist, prolific - FZ may have appeared on an episode of Miami Vice as a drug dealer, but he never sold out. And then suddenly... this footage surfaces!

Comments

[K]

Whatever.

Hey, I need some help here, Zappa heads! Back in "the day" (tm), frank's label Barkin' Pumpkin had a video arm which distributed, amongst other things, work by a claymation artist whose name escapes me at the moment. The video was fantastic; the claymation was remarkable but the content was truely breathtaking. Frank basically gave this guy money and a studio and told him he could do what he wanted. Needless to say, actual art was able to happen. The tape was rudely stolen from me by a long ago ex, and now I can find no trace of the labels catalog. Anyone know anything? Post here.

[Listener Stan]

Was it the Dub Room Special animated by Bruce Bickford? Here's a link to the video he made for City of Tiny Lights:

http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/youtube/index.php?page=7

[Listener Kliph]

His work is also prominent in the Baby Snakes film.

[Krys O.]

It's the Amazing Mr. Bickford:
http://www.brucebickford.com/index1.shtml

[K]

Ahhh, the sweet sweet loving of the WFMU listeners/DJs restores my shaky faith in the essential goodness of humanity! See you all at the Paw on Dog Slope...

[Norton Zenger]

I'm glad to see this footage on the net finally; I've had it on videotape for at least ten years now, and it's some of my favorite footage of Zappa out there. It commonly circulated with clips of Zappa on a game show called "Make Me Laugh", where a young Gallagher, among others, tried to make Zappa laugh and failed miserably (though Zappa's reaction to the pathetically unfunny hack comedians they parade before him never fail to make _me_ laugh) and his appearance on the Monkees TV show. There's no shortage of great Zappa video out there- also worth seeing is his '67 appearance on "The Bitter End" lip-syncing "Son of Suzy Creamcheese" where all he does is mouth the word "motherfucker" over and over again. Anyway, that Mirthkon guy has lots of great Zappa videos, although I really wish he'd put up some stuff by his _own_ band, which is, from what I've heard, really great. Definitely up there with Yugen and Sebkha-Chott as some of the best stuff to come out of the "prog" scene last year.

[Chimpinalls]

I don't believe "The Amazing Mr. Bickford" has ever been released on dvd you can find used vhs though. The Zappa video label was called "Honker Home Video" btw. For Bickford fans you must see the documentary "Monster Road". http://www.monsterroad.com/ It will answer all your questions.

[K]

Yes, once I had the name, I was able to find all the rest. Someone on the Monster Road message board asked one of Franks kids(?) about re-releasing "The amazing Mr. Bickford" and the reply was basically, "It'll cost a bunch of money and given the market it's not on the top of the list of stuff to do". I can understand that, but it's still shameful. The used copies I found were grossly overpriced. I just now bought a copy of the documentary, and I suggest others do so if only to support the artist and encourage him to release more of his work.

[jtm]

Amazing find Kliph!

[Emile]

Miami Vice linked yanked from YouTube!

[Wally Scharold]

That Mirthkon guy has put up vidz of his own band. All under the same account, ya just gotta dig a little deeper.

[Wladimir Ohrelianov II]

Hi Guyz !

Can't see the video you're talking about on my Debian station, but I'm glad to see Sebkha-Chott's name on a board talking about Frank Zappa.
We thank you a lot !

See ya !