Th Joes Garage Sale

Good Frank

OK, perfect moment for a dumb story.

When Frank Zappa died his family sold at very low prices his tour gear, some may remember the Joes' Garage Sale. At the time I had more space and decided that despite my not really giving a shit about famous people's stuff I'd rifle through the list.

Despite my initially looking for bargains, I spotted what clearly was in my mind a perfect tribute to the artist and his sense of humor, it was his wardrobe road case.

Frank Zappa was not the best dressed guitar player on the block, in fact he prided himself on saying fuck you to what ever was hip at that moment. By the 1980's his wardrobe was amazingly awful, sometimes making him look like a pastel Cosby sweater joke.

Bad Frank

I figured it was the most ridiculous item I could possibly buy from the estate. He had nothing to do with music, represented something I didn't feel was his strong point and would be hard to find any realistic use in the studio for it.

I called the guy who was handling the sales, bought it and received a faxed receipt.

Sadly, as is my understanding of what happened the guy who was "in charge" was selling multiple people the same items. He wasn't putting payment through he just was going through the motions. I think I was told that he was simply not capable of handling this job, screwed things up for the family who were no doubt busy was more important things like mourning and I think one collector ended up just buying everything lock stock and barrel.

I admit that it was disappointing because it was as if I was having a laugh with Frank Zappa who had certainly given me a lot of music to enjoy over the years and I had felt it was a tribute he might have liked.

I still keep that fax and maybe one day I'll here what really happened or another similar story. I have no real idea if the details as to what went array with the sale are correct, simplified or erroneous. Either way I am glad to have the story.   

OT: Rock $ Roll placement

Nobody thought that anyone could out do Guns & Roses in terms of greed. When the band released two albums on the same day instead of a double album and claimed this would save their fans money we on the outside laughed at the giant grunt of stupidity. No one from the underground music world would fuck their fans like that.

Flash forward...

Smashing Pumpkins has gone above and beyond by signing on for 4 different version of their new album. Each one has a "bonus" song (read an extra song that wasn't good enough) and all "special" versions of the CD will be sold by big chain stores and iTunes (which isn't any different) No special version for the indy shops, unless they are the ones who will get the vinyl version which will probably be at a fair number of places any way.

As I skimmed forums looking for reaction from the bands audience I could see a lot of people were pissed off, few were surprised. I guess when a band I like pulls a stunt, like most of The Sex Pistols branded output I just laugh it off and go "good one guys" so who am I to cast a stone?

Okay, now let's play devil's advocate...

People want their favorite musicians to keep making music and love to stay in denial that their pop stars really have day jobs. So what should a working musician do? They can either make money doing music or they can cop to having a straight job. Tough call.

A second point that some people may not have thought of... Collectors live variations on releases. Color vinyl, etc.

So only a real fan can decide what they feel is a rip off. I can't comment with any authority on Guns & Roses or Smashing Pumpkins, they really aren't bands I listen to. I can say that lot's of Punk bands have been returning in many ways, some just for the cash.