Disclaimer for anyone who doesn’t know: Frank Zappa is irreverent!
Please don’t check these out if you don’t enjoy irreverence!
(He’s brilliant, but he’s not for everyone. LOL.)
Honestly, I respect his musicianship and political critique, but I’m not a huge fan of his music personally (I don’t listen to him in my free time.)
Anyways, here’s a couple of his raunchy tunes that have harmonica.
Mmmm. When I was young I loved his weird crude sence of humour. I even liked his music. Had his albums etc. I revisted his music after seeing a full length movie about his life. I agree he is kind of funny but there’s a fine line between irreverence and disrespect. His attitude to women in his music and in his life was, it seemed to me, if they didn’t like it they could fuck off. Very true obviously but not very nice.
The music now seems a bit boring but we are spoilt for choice these days. We don’t have to listen to whatever the local record shop guy is into. Thank heavens. Although I do miss the record shop guy.
Tooooog! I love this. Thank you so much for your rich perspective. I’m reminded of the words of the great 20th century philosopher Tupak Shakur And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman (yeah, yeah) I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? (Why? Why?) I think it’s time to kill for our women (why? Why? Why? Why?) Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies, that make the babies (oh, yeah, baby) And since a man can’t make one He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one So will the real men get up I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up
(From 1993 rap song, Keep Ya Head Up.)
I just stumbled upon this thread. I’m a huge Zappa fan! If you look beyond the irreverant stuff there’s a lot of very complex but entertaining music going on. From orchestral, to rock, jazz, funk, rap etc etc. I don’t think he ever took himself that seriously but when it came to music that was different. He always thought of himself as a serious composer and started playing the guitar and rock music to pay the bills and make enough money to record new stuff.
The song Flakes contains a Bob Dylan parody that includes some harmonica (29) Frank Zappa - Flakes (Visualizer) - YouTube
I am a huge Zappa fan. Just noticed this thread.
In fact, the inspiration to take up harmonica came from, of all things, the Bongo Fury Album with Don van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart on harp.
The solo in Advance Romance [Frank Zappa - Advance Romance (Bongo Fury) -starting after 3:50 grabbed me. (Frank Zappa - Advance Romance (Bongo Fury) - YouTube)
Poofters Froth wyoming plans ahead is another Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead (Live) - YouTube.
Good bit of Harmonica on this album. A good bit of Beefheart weirdness as well. Awesome guitar by FZ and great drumming by my all time favorite Terry Bozzio (I am a long time drummer who recently took up the much more portable harmonica…)
Erich
Hey @erich.blatter - Welcome to the forum. So happy to have you here, and thank you much for sharing this!
Wow Advance Romance is an amazing song - love the harmonica, LOVE the guitar, and of course Terry Bozzio is just KILLING it (as always.) I could def see how this song would inspire you to wanna play harmonica. This may be my new favorite Frank Zappa song (though I DO love his cover of Stairway to Heaven! )
Poofters Froth - once again, yeah Captain Beefheart is a fun harmonica player for sure. And I do love Zappa’s insight into politics and capitalism.
On Stairway-you mean the reggae version with the horn section playing the Jimmy Page solo? Yeah that is super cool! Not sure if there are other versions out there lol
Erich
…
I love this. Thank you so much for your rich perspective. I’m reminded of the words of the great 20th century philosopher Tupak Shakur 
)