FRANK ZAPPA Watermelon In Easter Hay | REACTION

[@GoodCorporateRobot]

This piece of music gets better every time you listen to it. And I have listened to it thousands of times. Fucking brilliant.

[@Grithron2]

The marimba is played by Ed Mann (the credited percussionist). We should remember this is a concept-album/hypotehetical-stage-musical - the spoken intro makes sense in context.

[@JustinPanariello]

i'm sure it does, I wasn't trying to dog it or say anything besides it's funny

[@sethcashman1011]

Great request and great commentary! People like to say something is the best. They need to rank things. All I can say is that this composition is one of my favorites. I know Acts 1, 2, and 3 backwards and forwards. Every nuance. Have listened to it so many times. Have always loved this one and Outside Now, both ofwhich I saw the band play in '88.

[@yar9333]

This is one of my favorite Zappa tunes

[@raymondregis6219]

I can't wait to see what it's like on the outside now

[@altohippiegabber]

Yep, I knew it, only halfway in this song and I started bawling my eyes out! This song always does that to me, especially when played at high volume. It is so goddamn fcking beautiful that years ago I already decided that this song (Joe's Garage version with the Central Scrutinizer spoken intro) has to be played at my (hopefully far in the future) funeral!

[@edwardilowiecki8925]

RIP Frank, gone way to soon...

[@alldayadventures5418]

There is a great song by his sons on the Music for Pets album. Called "Father Time" a tune which recounts the last moments of Frank.

[@chrisdover2634]

Awwwww one of THE most beautiful pieces ever written. You should listen to the entire Joe’s Garage album 😉

[@timfeeley714-25]

L Ron Hoover, The First Church of Applliantology.

[@raymondregis6219]

My favorite is still Black Napkins.

[@larryhelmeczy4320]

I think that there are "epic" aspects to this in Zappa's catalogue, but not just because it's a 9 minute guitar piece. He has a ton of long solos. 4 albums worth of solos on "Shut Up and Play Your Guitar" and "Guitar" as well as long solos on other albums. It's distinctive for Frank because it's a beautiful memorable melody, a nicely constructed solo, some nice subtle arrangement aspects with the percussion, overdubbed guitar and verb on the snare, a beautiful guitar tone. I don't know, what more do you need? I have most of Zappa's albums and this one brings out emotions that I rarely feel from his music and I've heard it at least 100 times.

[@williamschrom1584]

Let it be said, the imaginer imagined one hell of a tune!!!

[@mocthezuma]

Ed Mann plays the marimba on this. And other percussion. Zappa is all about 2 chords. As in moving the third down to the second. That's all over his music and sort of his signature sound. Here's a clip of one of his other percussionists, Ruth Underwood, explaining how Frank wrote music (for her): kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKPHm56aiMSkj5o

[@grahamkey8496]

I always imagined a version of this song without the whispered monologue at the start. There may have been a live version that meets that description, but none of them beats the sound of the original. Just sublime.

[@WilliamWiest1959]

A solo guitar or a guitar solo, ultimately who gives a fuck anyway? 😅

[@sethcashman1011]

Some friends of mine put a band together and performed Joe's Garage in its entirety for the album's anniversary. I think clips from the show are on KZbin. Pretty amazing.

[@uncletom618]

Mayhap you’ll share a link to said KZbin clip?

[@leddygee1896]

Every one of Zappa's shows were one offs. The guitar solo in "Inca Roads" is straight up Badassery...

[@andreasrosenberg9317]

Back tune goes in 9, solos in 8

[@thomasvieth578]

Many people are not able to distinguish between the song and the solo because it's all guitar, So confusing ;-)

[@yes_head]

Makes me think of the song "Ice" by Camel. Same languid feel and tempo with a big guitar solo over fairly basic (but nice) changes. And for my money the solo on "Ice" is better. This might be sacrilegious, but I feel like FZ is a bit overrated as a guitar player.

[@HakanTunaMuzik]

they sound nothing alike

[@timfeeley714-25]

Not when you consider that Frank doesn't write out or practice any of his solos they are all improveized.

[@Artificialintelligentle]

​@@HakanTunaMuzik Fake reverbed drum sound.Sloppy Colai's kit with Frank,in reality was a tinny piece of sh*t. Over abused polyrhythms smeared Frank's conceptual continuity.

[@HakanTunaMuzik]

@@Artificialintelligentle I don't engage with anonymous accounts, bye

[@Artificialintelligentle]

@@HakanTunaMuzik You don't have to. I merely state facts you're not familiar with, for the other posters to learn. "vinnie" overplayed his polyrhythmic drumming, only to satisfy Franks direction at that time. Long drawn out guitar "air sculptured" solos which Frank was already doing for years with Bozzio. . Otherwise, vinnie was as useless as tits on a boar.He couldn't even sing a lick. On his 1980 comeback for a few concerts, Frank insisted he upgrade his kit, which he had to. Using DOUBLE BASS, which he was caught in a lie 10 years ago saying he never played using double bass before Zappa. I don't believe him. He was a FLOP for frank with sales from the prior era, concert attendance fell,many sloppy drum solo performances recorded live. Frank even declined to renew colaiutas contract. Contrary to any quote by Frank saying he and vinnie had a good rapport,"vinnie" wasn't the right fit. FACTS....

[@fzmoifzmoi2575]

It should be mandatory to listen to Acts 1, 2 & 3 in its chronological, contextual entirety to get to this song......If you don't, it takes away a lot from the songs IMO.

[@donnelson6694]

Not a big Zappa fan. While I can appreciate some of his stuff, I thought this was just ok.