Frank and Frank

Well, well, well. Here we are. When Glenn first asked me to join in on this MUSICBLOGGING(!!!) adventure, my first concern was that we might populate it exclusively with Frank Zappa songs.

So, I consider it my duty to begin with a Mothers tune. Or rather, two tunes in one. I don’t have this album (We’re Only In It For The Money – link to amazon.com) on CD, just taped off a friend’s LP, so I’m not sure where I got this mp3 from. It takes an instrumental he did in 1961 and pairs it with the lambast against hippies and not-hippies and just about everyone that runs through this album. It’s also a couple of really catchy songs. The reprise of Ugliest Part is a classic. It’s the kind of song that you sneak onto mix tapes for friends at the very end.
Frank Zappa – Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance / What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body (reprise) (mp3 format) (2.4 mb)

I’ll balance this out with another Frank of reknown.

Frank Sinatra – On The Road To Mandalay (mp3 format) (1.4 mb)

I was reminded of this song while reading Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic book, which is fantastic and should bear no relation to the movie). Volumn two, Issue Three is titled And The Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder, which is the strange ending line in this song. Sinatra gives it such a strange gusto everytime he comes to it, it really stands out as memorable. It’s a strange song, period; it’s much more flexible and all over the place than most of the standards he sang. The song is from Come Fly With Me (link to amazon.com), one of his many theme albums on the Capitol label. If you have any interest in Sinatra, start out with the Capitol albums. I know you want to hear “My Way”. Buy the song on i-tunes, but don’t buy his later albums. The Capitol albums are class all the way through for the most part, and arguably his best years singing.

OK, that’s it for me this time. I’m just glad this sort of thing is legal up here in the fabled Canadas. For now.