Reason # 1754 – The Ballad of John and Frank

On June 5th, 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers of invention on stage for their first and last collaboration. The result was 40 odd minutes of either brilliant musicianship and improvisation, ora small eternity in hell.

J & O appeared that night during the encore as special guests, much to the delight of the unsuspecting crowd. It started out innocently enough with a rocking version of Well (baby please don’t go). This found Lennon in front of the tightest band he’d ever played with, at his side Yoko was in fine form… doing her thing.

After a lengthy improv it became apparent that John was understandably out of his element. After a few attempts to nudge him back to reality, Zappa narrowly avoided a trainwreck and steered the band into some original material before a blues based form was introduced. The brilliant Howard Kaylan and Mark Bolan, aka Flo and Eddie, took over on vocals and introduced a new lyrical theme for the silver tounged song smith to expand upon, Scumbag. John happily grabbed onto this new word and sang to save his life while Flo and Eddie draped a potato sack over Yoko.

The good news was Zappa and the Mothers had booked a recording truck for the weekend as they were in the process of making the legendary Fillmore East ‘71 album. After the show there was an arrangement made so both parties would have access to the tapes, and they could each release their own mixes of the performance.

And then they all lived happily ever after.

Until suddenly…

John and Yoko released Some Time in New York City. For the record sleeve they used the album cover from Fillmore East ‘71, scribbled all over it and scrawled in what they thought the songs were. Then they took writing credits and publishing credits, stealing Zappa’s music for a profit (if anybody had bought the album, but thats beside the point).

lennonzappasmall.jpg

For the final insult… here’s the story of the from Frank himself:

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Its all part of a long line of undocumented theft and disrespect towards the inimitable Zappa who saw through them from the beginning. He released the worlds first concept album and double album in ‘66 with his major label debut Freak Out!.
McCartney owned a copy, and called Zappa to ask permission to use the idea. Expecting to get a drugged out hippie on the phone drooling over his famous moptop, he was instead met with a fiercely intelligent composer and business man who expected to be compensated for his own ideas. Instead of all that fuss, the beatles just stole the idea and claimed it as their own. Zappa retaliated with the famous We’re Only In It For The Money, an album vilifying hippie pretensions, sporting on the cover a parody of Sgt Peppers.

woiftm.jpg

There’s been countless other violations of trust and utter lack of respect from the FF towards Zappa. We won’t get into everything, but here’s an ironic example:

Zappa recorded a medley of beatles songs, the lyrics were changed to make fun of disgraced TV evangelist Jerry Falwell. The FF had lost control of publishing rights at this time when suddenly, out of nowhere, Michael Jackson jumped out and blocked the songs release! Why? Who knows. Either the idea of adults having sex was too much for him, or the FF mafia had already seized control of his brain.

Here’s a copy of the unreleased, and likely never to be released medley for your listening pleasure. This is Zappa, so be forewarned if you’re the sensitive type:

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If you happen to be the curious type, here are some direct links to the unedited concert:

Well (Baby, please don’t go)

Scumbag

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October 29th, 2007

18 Responses to “Reason # 1754 – The Ballad of John and Frank”

  1. tivadar30000000 Says:
    October 30th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

    holy fucking shit this blog is great. about time someone told the world how shit their taste in music is.

  2. Steve Says:
    November 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 am

    The parody song by Frank Zappa was not about Jerry falwell but rather Jimmy Swagert.

  3. Das Says:
    November 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    Thanks Steve, I can never keep those evangelists names straight.

    -Das

  4. Ian Says:
    August 24th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    Wow this blog is.. so… surpisingly necessary.

  5. ZappaFan Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    I’m ambivalent about Lennon and the Beatles but have been a FZ fan for 37 years. I found this site by doing a google search on “Frank Zappa + John Lennon” I want to thank you for having the 1988 tour Beatles medley. On the same tour of course, he took some musical digs at Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin.

    I’m especially glad that you had the sound link to FZ’s truth of John & Yoko’s piracy of “King Kong” from the ‘71 Filmore East jam. The complete REAL Zappa-Lennon jam is on the 1992 Zappa CD “Playground Psychotics”.

  6. Steve c Says:
    September 9th, 2009 at 8:18 am

    Mark Volman (not Mark Bolan).

  7. jON Says:
    March 9th, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    There were double albums before FREAK OUT, how about [Harry] BELAFONTE AT CARNEGIE HALL?

  8. Das Says:
    March 11th, 2010 at 5:52 am

    I’ll give you Benny Goodman, but the line is drawn at Belafonte.

  9. Jim Says:
    July 21st, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    The double album “Blonde on Blonde” by Dylan precedes “Freak Out” in recording and release.

  10. Eric Says:
    April 8th, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    The reason of the Beatles Melody Michael Jackson blocked the released is because there was a legal battle about the rights of the McCartney/Lennon songs that resulted Michael Jackson owning them from the early ’80s til his death (in which he returned ownership back to McCartney, I believe).

    Also, the Sgt. Pepper parody was moved into the booklit (when it first came out) and replaced by a photo of the band in drag as the result of a legal battle between the Bealtes’ American record company and Zappa.

  11. DogShit Says:
    April 16th, 2011 at 4:47 am

    I have to pee now! :)

  12. Stelth Says:
    June 16th, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    john & yoko:the ultimate scumbags. One doesn’t have to do much research to see how motivated by money they both were. How is it people think this man was such a saint? Lennon DESERVED her. What a hideous, screeching harpy.

  13. Kuha Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 12:22 am

    Where do you get this information? I’m having a hard time finding a source.

  14. Das Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 5:04 am

    Hi Kuha, I should have listed my sources because I’m having a hard time remembering now. The two I know for sure are Real Frank Zappa, and this audio interview: http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=61645

  15. Moishe Pippick Says:
    November 4th, 2011 at 10:54 am

    What permission exactly did Macca ask FZ to grant? Permission to make a rock concept album? They should have asked the Ventures. “The Colorful Ventures” is from 1961 !

  16. JohnnyBoy Says:
    December 20th, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks for getting the REAL truth out there about Frank Zappa/John & Yoko.

    Not surprisingly, the three Beatles songs FZ satirized were all (if JL’s Playboy interview is to be believed) Lennon compositions.

  17. Ramon Says:
    April 26th, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    the guy who’s site this is needs to get laid.

  18. Das Says:
    April 27th, 2012 at 6:07 am

    Thanks for the offer Ramon. I don’t usually swing that way, but your offer is very tempting.

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