Introduction I
The point on the map
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CUCAMONGA YEARS Introduction I The point on the map |
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| Cucamonga Years is a two-year period in Frank Zappa life, from 1963 to 1964. Rancho Cucamonga itself is the point on the map of South California where was located Frank Zappa' first recording studio, originally owned by Paul Buff and finally by Frank himself. | ||
| "Going west out of San Bernadino, Route 66 becomes Foothill Boulevard and 16 miles later reacheas Cucamonga, where it crosses Archibald Avenue. Just north of the interseption at 8084 North Archibald in 1963 was Pal Recording Studio, owned by Paul Buff. Buff had learned electronics in the US Marines and on his discharge had rented the three-room premises and set about constractinig a record studio. The control room contained an eight-channel Presto mixixng desk, a Hammond spring echo unit and Rec-O-Cut cutting lathe for acetats. More importantly, he built his own tape machine. | ||
| 'I think he's genius guy', Frank told William Ruhlmann. 'He built his own five-track recorder at a time when four-track was an absolute exotic piece of equipment in the industry. Three-track was somethying that they use for filmwork. Four-track was rare'. | ||
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| Frank was introduced to Buff by Ronnie Williams, 'a guitar-player that I was working with in some local bands at that time. Ronnie had joined him up there and was putting guitar parts on some on his thinks and then Ronnie brought me over and I worked with him one some stuff'. Some stuff turned out to be 14 singles over the course of two years by sundry real and invented artists. The first record from the alliance was 'Breaktime' and '16 tones', the a-side written by Buff, Williams and Zappa and released by the Mastres on Emmy 10082, a label owned by Buff 'Gotta Find My Roogolator', written by Frank and sung by Paul Jameson, followed on Penthouse 503, of which only promotional copies survive. | ||
| Ten singles on various labels were issued during 1963, including 'Love Of My Life' and 'Tell Me' (Daani 101) by Rom Roman, 'Dear Jeepers' and 'Letter From Jeepers' (Donna 1380) by Bob Guy, 'Cradle Rock' and 'Everytime I See You (Donna 1381) by the Heartbeats, 'The Big Surfer' and 'Not Another One' (Vigah! 001) by Brian Lord and Midnighters, 'Hey, Nelda' and 'Surf ALong' (Vigah! 002) by Ned and Nelda and 'Tijuna Surf' and 'Grunion Run' (Original Sound 32) by the Hollywood Persuaders." | ||
| And so on, and so on. Read Cucamonga chapter in Neil Slaven's book Electric Don Quixote. pp.34-37 | ||
| Immortalized:-) in a FZ song Cucamonga.BONGO FURY | ||
| CUCAMONGA YEARS - THE EARLY WORKS OF FRANK ZAPPA (1962-1964) or MSI 10037 is the most complete (but not complete:-) anyway) legal collection of both Zappa and Buff Cucamonga's era sound | ||
| Another known to mankind compilation is Del-Fi's CUCAMONGA album (DFCD 71261) that lacks Frank compostions (notable Memories Of El Monte and Grunion Run) owned by Original Sound and with a lot more Buffs as a compenstaion. | ||
| Much more details, dates and catalog numbers here http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-59501/weirdo/cucamonga.html |
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Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
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Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004 You could download, copy and redistribute this material freely as long as you keep copyright notice intact and don't make any profite on it. |