Frank Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) – Trouble Every Day (1966)
Written by the late musical genius after he watched news coverage of the Watts Riots, this one song got the Mothers Of Invention signed to Verve Records.
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Frank Zappa was a multi-talented composer, bandleader, producer, musician, and singer/songwriter. He produced 62 albums in his lifetime, both with his group the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. He was an outspoken public figure, using his music and celebrity to advocate against censorship, racism, and organized religion, and in favor of free speech, self-education, and more political participation by those who felt locked out of the system.
For more on Zappa's musical career, explore this detailed Zappa interviews and articles index, which compiles all known articles by Zappa and interviews with him. Also see the documentaries Frank Zappa, broadcast in 1993 on the BBC program The Late Show, and Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music, directed by Frank Scheffers and broadcast in April, 2007 on VPRO in the Netherlands.
One of Zappa’s earliest records was the superb R&B surf jam “Grunion Run” (1963) which he wrote and played all instruments on. He recorded it at Paul Buff’s Pal Recording Studio (which Zappa later bought and re-named Studio Z) in Cucamonga, California, located in San Bernardino County. Credited to “The Hollywood Persuaders,” it spent 17 weeks at #1 in Mexico.
After Zappa assumed ownership of Studio Z in 1964, he moved into the building and began working 12-hour days recording and experimenting with overdubs and studio techniques. In April, 1965, he was asked to join a local R&B band called the Soul Giants as guitarist, and soon became its leader and co-lead singer. They renamed themselves The Mothers, partly because their first gig took place on Mother’s Day, May 10, 1965, at the Broadside Club in Pomona, California.
In early 1966, the Mothers were performing in Los Angeles. Tom Wilson was in the audience, the legendary producer whose short-lived Transition Records label released the debut albums by Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Donald Byrd in the late fifties. In the first half of the sixties, he produced seminal albums by Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel for Columbia Records.
Wilson only heard them perform one song, “Trouble Every Day,” which Zappa had written in 1965 after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots. This stellar garage band jam with socially conscious, Dylan-esque lyrics gave Wilson the impression they were a white blues band.
He signed them to a contract with MGM’s Verve Records subsidiary on March 1, 1966, and almost immediately they began recording their debut double album, Freak Out! “Trouble Every Day” (also titled “Trouble Comin' Every Day” on early pressings) was released as the B-side of the album’s lead single, the dark, experimental “Who Are The Brain Police?” which was the second song recorded for the album.
When Wilson first heard “Who Are The Brain Police?,” he immediately rushed for the phone to call MGM executives. He probably wanted to pre-empt any news from getting back to them that the Mothers were much more out there than a typical white blues band.
Whatever he told them, it worked, because no one pulled the plug on Freak Out!, and it became one of the most avant garde, groundbreaking records ever released. MGM did insist they re-name themselves The Mothers of Invention, a change Zappa agreed to.
A re-arranged version called “More Trouble Every Day” became a staple of his live sets in the early 70s, a period when the Mothers included keyboardist George Duke, saxophonist and flutist Napoleon Murphy Brock, and Chester Thompson on drums. It was included on the live double album Roxy & Elsewhere, released in September, 1974. The Mothers’ performance of “More Trouble Every Day” was recorded on May 8, 1974 at Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania.
Rest in Power, Frank Zappa.
Further info:
“Zappa interviews and articles index: Articles by Zappa and interviews with Zappa,” Zappa Books.
“The Rolling Stone Interview: Frank Zappa,” by Jerry Hopkins, Rolling Stone, July, 1968.
“The 1993 Playboy Interview With Frank Zappa,” Playboy, 1993.
Frank Zappa, interview/documentary, The Late Show, BBC, 1993.
“A Life in Focus: Frank Zappa, genre-defying musician,” obituary, The Independent (UK), December 7, 1993.
Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music, documentary by Frank Scheffers, VPRO, The Netherlands, April, 2007.
#R&B #jazz #funk #rock #MothersOfInvention #FrankZappa
Glad they didn't pull the plug because Watermelon In Easter Hay..