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”

  5. toms uomo italia

    Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your article seem to be running off the screen in Ie. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The la…

  7. toms kitchen hong kong

    Hey would you mind letting me know which web host you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price?…

  8. toms rosso 599

    When someone writes an article he/she maintains the thought of a user in his/her brain that how a user can know it. So that’s why this piece of writing is outstdanding. Thanks!

  9. nike air max 90 tokyo

    When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Bless you!

  10. nike mercurial cr7 price

    Can I just say what a relief to uncover someone that really knows what they are discussing over the internet. You actually understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More people really need to read this and understand this side o…

  14. oakley radar path prezzo

    Good day! I simply wish to offer you a huge thumbs up for the excellent info you have got right here on this post. I’ll be returning to your website for more soon.

  15. nike air max ltd 42

    I like the helpful information you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I’m quite sure I will learn a lot of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!

  16. nike huarache milano

    We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your web site provided us with useful info to work on. You have performed an impressive process and our whole group will probably be grateful to you.

  19. bambas asics running hombre

    Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thank you

  20. toms coral and blu quilted canvas

    I blog often and I truly appreciate your information. This article has really peaked my interest. I will bookmark your website and keep checking for new details about once per week. I subscribed to your Feed too.

  22. Route One Itinere Felpa – Marina Militare – Piano Prezzo

    I’ve been browsing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful…

  23. nike man shoes price

    When I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the exact same comment. Is there an easy method you can remove me from that servic…

  25. oakley radar ciclismo

    Good day I am so excited I found your web site, I really found you by accident, while I was browsing on Yahoo for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say cheers for a tremendous post and a all round thrilling blog (I also love…

  27. hermes shoes replica

    It is an great gifts of ones loved ones. I’d highly incourage individuals to purchase it that makes a ideal gifts. That the transmitter does outstanding time duty at buying ones items concerning instant. I purchased my material every day ago and I als…

  30. ray ban 4118

    Your way of describing the whole thing in this piece of writing is truly pleasant, every one can without difficulty be aware of it, Thanks a lot.

  31. oakley italia cologno monzese hotel

    Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very hard to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and visual appearance. I must say that you’ve done a excellent job with…

  33. nike air force 180 prezzo

    I comment each time I especially enjoy a post on a website or I have something to valuable to contribute to the discussion. Usually it is caused by the sincerness displayed in the article I read. And on this post %BLOG_TITLE%. I was actually excited en…

  35. scarpe da ginnastica nike femminili

    I have been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or blog posts in this sort of area . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this site. Reading this information So i am glad to express that I have a very good uncanny feeling I came…

  39. nike scarpe bambino

    Hi there everyone, it’s my first pay a quick visit at this web site, and article is truly fruitful in support of me, keep up posting these types of content.

  40. Dickies Lannon Camicia – verde – High Cut

    It is appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions. Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article. I desi…

  44. nike air max cage kopen

    Does your site have a contact page? I’m having a tough time locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an email. I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it expand…

  45. ray bans sunglasses for men

    I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text f…

  47. nike outlet leesburg va hours

    Greetings, I do think your site could be having internet browser compatibility issues. When I look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in IE, it’s got some overlapping issues. I just wanted to provide you with a quick heads up!…

Comments are closed.