Ritual Dance of the Young Zappa

Andre, , ,

CAL 110 (sleeve front)

At a young age, Zappa bought a copy of The Rite of Spring and loved every note:

The second 33 1/3-RPM record I bought was by Stravinsky. I found a budget-line recording (on Camden) of The Rite of Spring by something called ‘The World-Wide Symphony Orchestra.’ (Sounds pretty official, eh?) The cover was a green-and-black abstract whatchamacallit, and it had a magenta paper label with black lettering. I loved Stravinsky almost as much as Varèse.[1]

Much of my research relies primary sources. Lyrics, liner notes, bootlegs, interviews, and The Real Frank Zappa Book (FZ’s autobiography) make up the bulk of these sources. Along these lines, Avo Raup’s fantastic website Zappa Books–with its search-able database of interviews and zine articles–and Román García Albertos’ IINK (Information Is Not Knowledge)–a huge, cross-referenced database of lyrics and other album information–have been a tremendously helpful resources. But occasionally, I need to get right to the source. Such was the case with finding Zappa’s copy of Stavinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

In my current chapter (which examines cases of musical borrowings from Stravinsky in Zappa’s music), I make the argument that much of Zappa’s understanding of Stravinsky is influenced by the mythology surrounding the older composer. I wondered if there might be any juicy details on the liner notes that would provide some insight regarding the idiosyncrasies with which Zappa viewed Stravinsky. Armed with Zappa’s description I set out to find a copy of the same record…

As it turns out, Camden was a budget label for RCA Victor records, first introduced in 1955 (right about when Zappa would have been buying the record). Some quick Googling revealed that the Camden catalog did include a recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring! (I express surprise here due to prior aggravations brought on by tracing comments from The Real Frank Zappa Book…) CAL 110 features World Wide Symphony Orchestra performing The Rite!

341995093_7aa83c50f9The RCA Building in Camden, NJ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebot/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Further research revealed some interesting facts about the record. The World Wide Symphony Orchestra, it seems, was a pseudonym for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. This particular record (CAL 110) was actually dubbed from 78 rpm discs of another recording by the SFSO conducted by Pierre Monteux. (Monteux, like the SFSO, isn’t mentioned anywhere on the record. Presumably, the motivation here was to re-release a back catalog of 78 rpm records in a more commercially-viable format using pseudonyms to avoid conflicting with sales of newer recordings of the same artists. It was, as Frank would say, strictly commercial.)

3359562292_d1a7096d70The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kerolic/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Monteux, as any responsible Stravinsky scholar will jump to tell you, premiered The Rite at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in 1915 1913 (noted, of course, for the riot it incited). Zappa doesn’t seem to have been aware that his record featured such a prestigious conductor.

And–lucky me–a quick WorldCat search found a copy of the record at UC Santa Cruz! (Which means I could request it and get my grubby hands on it right quick.) This turned out to be a little more difficult that expected (frustrations with an inefficient interlibrary loan system), but the record arrived yesterday! Green-and-black abstract whatchamacallit and all!

Unfortunately, being the budget label that it was, Camden seems to have cut costs by not including liner notes. Oh well… The adventure wasn’t a total bust. I got to listen to the record and pretend to be a young Zappa listening to “The Augers” for the first time.

I snuck off to a remote corner of the library and took a few pictures of the record as well. You can see where some helpful librarian has scratched out “World Wide” and entered the correct performer data. (I would have ripped the vinyl to mp3s, but it was “in library use only.”) Here are some scans of the sleeve and label. Enjoy!

CAL 110 (sleeve front)CAL 110 (sleeve back)

CAL 110 (side A)CAL 110 (side B)

The first record Zappa bought, by the way, was The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Vol. I (EMS 401). And if Zappa played the Stravinsky as much as he played the Varèse, this disc got a lot of attention. (By one account, Zappa claimed to have listened to The Rite of Spring more than “any man in the world”![2])

References:
[1] Frank Zappa and Peter Occhiogrosso, The Real Frank Zappa Book (New York: Poseidon Press, 1989), 34.
[2] Rip Rense, “A Unique Musical Force or Blasphemous Freak: Which Is Frank Zappa?,” The Valley News (June 27, 1976).
Ritual Dance of the Young Zappa

47,791 thoughts on “Ritual Dance of the Young Zappa”

  1. botas de fútbol sala nike

    Hi there would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a reason…

  11. nike air max 1 maat 38

    I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!

  12. salomon botas esqui mujer

    Hi, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, excel…

  14. ray ban occhiali goccia

    Hey! I know this is kind of off-topic but I needed to ask. Does building a well-established website like yours take a lot of work? I’m completely new to blogging but I do write in my journal every day. I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share m…

  16. toms santa rosa ca zip

    What’s Happening i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It positively useful and it has aided me out loads. I hope to contribute & aid different users like its aided me. Great job.

  17. ray ban 3025 sizes

    Hi there! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to look it over. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Terrific blog and fantastic design and style.

  18. scarpe nike 47.5

    Hi there to every , because I am in fact eager of reading this blog’s post to be updated on a regular basis. It includes pleasant information.

  19. nike roshe price

    I have been browsing online more than three hours today, but I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s lovely price enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made excellent content material as you probably did, the…

  24. oakley mframes

    We stumbled over here coming from a different page and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking over your web page yet again.

  26. salomon mejores precios

    Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say superb blog!

  28. Hombre – Zapatillas Supra Axle Marina De Guerra/Blanco

    I think that everything typed made a bunch of sense. However, what about this? what if you wrote a catchier title? I ain’t saying your information isn’t solid., however what if you added something to possibly grab a person’s attention? I mean %BLOG_…

  29. nike air max 97 pris 2014

    Hmm it appears like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any points f…

  32. BOH T-shirt Famous Wild – Nero – In vendita Designer

    Hmm it seems like your blog ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you…

  34. gafas oakley militares

    My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to exploring your web page yet again.

  36. botas snow nike

    You could definitely see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. At all times follow your heart.

  39. nike air jordan shoes for women

    Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon everyday. It will always be exciting to read content from other writers and use something from their websites.

  44. ojotas salomon hombre

    Thanks for one’s marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you may be a great author.I will make sure to bookmark your blog and will often come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice evening!

  48. oakley bikes

    I absolutely love your blog.. Great colors & theme. Did you create this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as I’m planning to create my own blog and would love to know where you got this from or just what the theme is named. Cheers!

Comments are closed.