Emerson, Lake & Palmer
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Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1973
Background information
Origin England
Genres Progressive rock
Symphonic rock
Years active 1970–1979
1990–1999
2010–present
Labels Manticore, Atlantic, Cotillion, Island, Sanctuary, Rhino, Shout! Factory, Victor, Sony Music, Orizzonte
Associated acts King Crimson, The Nice, Atomic Rooster, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Asia, Qango, 3, Emerson, Lake & Powell
Website Official website
Members
Keith Emerson
Greg Lake
Carl Palmer
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Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1973
Background information
Origin England
Genres Progressive rock
Symphonic rock
Years active 1970–1979
1990–1999
2010–present
Labels Manticore, Atlantic, Cotillion, Island, Sanctuary, Rhino, Shout! Factory, Victor, Sony Music, Orizzonte
Associated acts King Crimson, The Nice, Atomic Rooster, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Asia, Qango, 3, Emerson, Lake & Powell
Website Official website
Members
Keith Emerson
Greg Lake
Carl Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums[1] and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (bass guitar, vocals, guitar) and Carl Palmer (drums, percussion). They are one of the most commercially successful progressive rock bands and from the outset focused on combining classical pieces with rock music.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Background and Formation
1.2 Debut album and Pictures at an Exhibition
1.3 1971–1972: Tarkus and Trilogy
1.4 1973–1974: Brain Salad Surgery and worldwide touring
1.5 1975–1977: Hiatus, Works Albums
1.6 1978: First break-up
1.7 Later incarnations: Emerson, Lake & Powell and 3
1.8 1990s: Reformation and second break-up
1.9 2000s: Re-releases, 2010 Tour and one-off 40th anniversary concert
2 Criticism
3 Discography
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
[edit]History
[edit]Background and Formation
On several occasions in 1969, The Nice (with Keith Emerson on keyboards) and King Crimson (with Greg Lake on bass and vocals) shared the same venue, first on 10 August 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumpton, England and on 17 October 1969 at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, England. Emerson and Lake actually met, however, at Bill Graham's Fillmore West in San Francisco and soon tried working together. The pair found their styles to be not only compatible but also complementary. They wanted to be a keyboard/bass/drum band, and so sought out a drummer.
Before settling on Carl Palmer, who at that time was a member of Atomic Rooster, they approached Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Emerson and Lake were uninterested in Mitchell, however, as he showed up for a 'jam' session with an arsenal of guns and unruly bodyguards. Hendrix, tired of his band and wanting to try something different, expressed an interest in playing with the group. Since Emerson and Lake had settled on Palmer by then, this led the British press to speculate about a supergroup called HELP, or "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer".[2] Because of scheduling conflicts, such plans were not immediately realised, but the initial three planned a jam session with Hendrix after their second concert at the Isle of Wight Festival (their debut being in The Guildhall, Plymouth, on 23 August 1970), with the possibility of his joining. Hendrix died 26 days later, and the three pressed on as Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Greg Lake made this comment on ELP's discussions with Hendrix:
"Yeah, that story is indeed true, to some degree...Mitch Mitchell had told Jimi about us and he said he wanted to explore the idea. Even after Mitch was long out of the picture and we had already settled on Carl, talk about working with Jimi continued. We were supposed to get together and jam with him around August or September of 1970, but he died before we could put it together."
Carl Palmer had previously been the drummer for the highly successful psychedelic band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. ELP were, from the outset, a prototype of the 'rock supergroup'. Aside from providing vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar and lyrics, Lake also produced five of their first six albums (Brain Salad Surgery being co-produced with Pete Sinfield, who had recently left King Crimson).
[edit]Debut album and Pictures at an Exhibition
Their debut album was simply titled Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and was released in 1970. It was mostly a collection of solo pieces, highlighting the virtuosity of each member of the band. Keith Emerson contributed a series of treatments of classical pieces (such as Bach's BWV 812), Carl Palmer provides a driving drum solo (called Tank) and Greg Lake provides two ballads, beginning with folky, extended work Take A Pebble. It was the ballad "Lucky Man", which was based on a poem Lake had written at the age of 12, that brought the band to prominence. A soulful acoustic ballad, it received heavy radio play not only in the UK and Europe, but it also became a surprise hit in America. The commercial success of "Lucky Man" combined with their strong performance at the Isle of Wight festival to bring ELP rapidly to prominence.
The band's March 1971 live recording, Pictures at an Exhibition, an interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky's work of the same name, was issued as a low-priced record, the success of which contributed to the band's overall popularity. Due to management conflicts, the recording was not released until after Tarkus (their second studio album, which was actually recorded later). The record company was reluctant to release a classical suite as an album, and insisted it be released on their classical music label instead. Fearing (quite justifiably) that this would lead to poor sales, ELP instead decided to shelve the work. After the success of their second album, however, the label agreed to release Pictures as a budget live album.
It was unprecedented for a rock band to devote an entire album to a treatment of a classical work, and to this day, Pictures remains the only complete classical suite that has hit the top 10 in either the US or the UK. The album mixed in a ballad by Greg Lake (The Sage), a Blues Variation section by Emerson and many instances of heavily electronic and synthesised interpretations of Mussorgsky's work (although the opening promenade was played faithfully on a pipe organ).
[edit]1971–1972: Tarkus and Trilogy
Tarkus, released in 1971, was their first successful concept album, described as a story about "reverse evolution". Combining a side-long song (an early progressive rock 'epic') with an assortment of hard rock songs, an instrumental and even some comic songs, it was quickly recognised as landmark work in progressive rock. The epic Tarkus, recorded in just 4 days, is a seven-part rock suite which incorporates a number of complex time signatures (such as 10/8) and striking dynamics. The virtuosic, extended keyboard work of Emerson combines with Lake's soloing and Palmer's percussion to tell a story about the futility of war and also religious hypocrisy. The breadth and complexity of the music combined with the series of William Neal paintings incorporated into the album to cement ELP's reputation as being on the forefront of creativity and experimentation in rock music.
The 1972 album Trilogy contained ELP's best-selling single, "From the Beginning". It featured a cover of Hoedown from Aaron Copland's Rodeo as well as some original multi-part suites (The Endless Enigma and Trilogy). It was their most tightly produced and carefully orchestrated album so far, and is cited by some band members as their favourite ELP album. However, only Hoedown persisted as a live song. It was with the release of Trilogy that ELP were able to focus heavily on international touring.
[edit]1973–1974: Brain Salad Surgery and worldwide touring
In 1973, the band had garnered enough recognition to form their own record label, Manticore Records, and purchased an abandoned cinema as their own rehearsal hall. In late 1973, Brain Salad Surgery, with sleeve designed by H. R. Giger, became the band's best-known studio album. The lyrics were co-written by Peter Sinfield, who was the primary lyricist for King Crimson's first four albums. It was their most ambitious album to date, incorporating a multi-part 'super epic' (Karn Evil 9), which was split over both sides of the album. It also contained a cover of Alberto Ginastera's Toccata, in which Carl Palmer was the first musician to employ synthesized percussion, which was actually an acoustic drum kit fitted with pickups that triggered electronic sounds, which were combined with the kit's acoustic sounds. The subsequent world tours were documented with a massive three-LP live recording, Welcome Back my Friends to the Show that Never Ends.
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer at a record store signing, Toronto, February, 1978.
By April 1974, ELP were top of the bill during the California Jam Festival, pushing co-stars Deep Purple to second billing. ELP's California Jam performance was broadcast nationwide in the United States, and attended by over 200,000 paying fans. By the end of 1974, ELP were just about tied with Led Zeppelin as the highest grossing live band in the world.
The ELP sound was dominated by the Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer of the flamboyant Emerson. The band's compositions were heavily influenced by classical music in addition to jazz and – at least in their early years – hard rock. Many of their pieces are arrangements of, or contain quotations from, classical music, and they can be said to fit into the sub-genre of symphonic rock. However, Lake ensured that their albums contained a regular stream of simple, accessible acoustic ballads, many of which received heavy radio airplay.
On stage, the band exhibited an unorthodox mix of virtuoso musicianship and over-the-top theatrical bombast. Their extravagant and often aggressive live shows received much criticism in this regard, although in retrospect it was all rather small change compared to later rock spectacles: the theatrics were limited to a Persian carpet, a grand piano spinning end-over-end, a rotating percussion platform, and a Hammond organ being up-ended and thrown around on stage to create feedback. Emerson often used a knife given to him by Lemmy (who had roadied for Emerson's previous band, The Nice) to force the keys on the organ to stay down. Another unusual factor was that Emerson took a full Moog modular synthesizer (an enormous, complex, and unreliable (tuning-wise) instrument) on the road with him (which Dr. Robert Moog thought "insane"), which added greatly to a tour's complexity.
[edit]1975–1977: Hiatus, Works Albums
ELP then took a three-year break to re-invent their music, but lost contact with the changing musical scene. They eventually released the double album, Works (later renamed Works, Volume I), in which each member had a 'side' to themselves. Side 4 contained 'full band' pieces, including their most enduring legacy: a highly synthesised cover of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. A great deal of the Works album was recorded with an orchestral accompaniment – in fact, Keith Emerson's side consisted solely of a 20 minute piano concerto which he had composed himself. This album was soon followed by Works Volume II, which consisted entirely of 3–4 minute songs including ballads, pop songs, jazzy instrumentals and a Christmas single. It was seen as a collection of leftovers (not helped by the fact that one of the songs was actually called Brain Salad Surgery, and another had previously been released as a solo single by Lake) and was ELP's first commercial failure.
The band toured the US and Canada in 1977 and 1978 with a schedule of night-after-night performances – some with a full orchestra, which was a heavy burden on tour revenues. These late-1970s tours found ELP working harder than ever to stay in touch with their audience. But as disco, punk rock, corporate rock and New Wave styles began to alter the musical landscape, ELP could no longer generate the excitement of being forerunners in musical innovation. Eventually, they drifted apart due to personality conflicts and irreconcilable differences concerning musical direction.
Greg Lake commented on the DVD Beyond the Beginning documentary, about the Works tour that they had lost about 3 million dollars from their pockets. On the same documentary, Keith Emerson said, they (Lake and Palmer) still blame him for it, "you and your bloody orchestra".
[edit]1978: First break-up
Their last studio album of the 1970s, Love Beach (1978), was dismissed even by the trio itself, who admitted it was delivered to fulfill a contractual obligation.[3] The Love Beach album has been ill-received not only by the music press but also by the fans, who easily understood that the group was tired, something Greg Lake admitted in various interviews. Side One features Lake and consists of several shorter songs in a late 70's attempt to put something in the pop charts. Side Two's composition, "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman", is a four-part narration of the tale of a soldier in the Second World War, and his ordeal of love and death as well as tragedy and triumph. The album's cover photograph – which showed the three band members posing with their shirts unbuttoned, on a tropical beach – engendered no small amount of ridicule, with Palmer complaining the group looked like disco stars the Bee Gees. Love Beach, along with Yes's Tormato, Genesis' ...And Then There Were Three..., and The Moody Blues' Octave, are considered by critics to be an example of the shift of progressive rock to a lighter, more commercial pop sound. Emerson, Lake and Palmer disbanded later in 1979. The live LP In Concert was released after they had broken up, also to fulfil contractual obligations. It was cobbled together from the ill-fated orchestral tour, and was later rebranded Works Live.
[edit]Later incarnations: Emerson, Lake & Powell and 3
In 1985, Emerson and Lake formed Emerson, Lake & Powell with ex-Rainbow and session drummer Cozy Powell. Palmer declined to participate in a reunion, as he was too busy with commitments to Asia. Rumours also linked Bill Bruford to their new lineup, but the former Yes drummer remained committed to King Crimson and his own group, Earthworks. The album Emerson Lake & Powell charted reasonably well, with a major single, "Touch and Go" generating some radio and MTV exposure for the trio. However, the old interpersonal tensions between Lake and Emerson resurfaced during the 1986 tour. Emerson and Palmer subsequently joined with Robert Berry to form the band 3.
[edit]1990s: Reformation and second break-up
In 1991, Emerson, Lake & Palmer reformed and issued a 1992 comeback album, Black Moon, on JVC. Their 1992–93 world tours were successful, culminating in a performance at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles in early 1993 that has been heavily bootlegged. But, reportedly, Palmer suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome in one hand and Emerson had been treated for a repetitive stress disorder. In 1994, the band released a follow-up album, In the Hot Seat. Overall, this album was viewed as a failure to live up to the 'comeback' expectations that Black Moon had created.
Emerson and Palmer eventually recovered to tour again, beginning in 1996. Their tour schedules brought them to Japan, South America, Europe, the United States and Canada and ELP played fresh new versions of older work. They played in significantly smaller venues compared to their heyday (sometimes fewer than 500 people, as in Belo Horizonte, Brazil). Their last show was in San Diego, California, in August 1998. Conflicts over a new album led to another break-up: Greg Lake insisted on producing the next album, having produced all of the successful ELP albums in the 1970s. Keith Emerson complained in public (on the Internet) that although he and Carl Palmer worked out on a daily basis to maintain their musical skills, Greg Lake did not make the effort to do the same. Lake admitted that he did not train his voice: a few live shows were generally enough to get it in shape, he claimed.[citation needed]
[edit]2000s: Re-releases, 2010 Tour and one-off 40th anniversary concert
In 2003, UK independent label Invisible Hands Music released the 3CD box set Reworks: Brain Salad Perjury, a new work created by Keith Emerson in collaboration with Mike Bennett, using sampling technology with an eye on club and ambient music styles. Emerson and Bennett sampled musical elements from the entire ELP oeuvre, creating new electronica music opening with a reinterpretation of Fanfare For The Common Man. The musical complexity of the source material provided rich pickings for sampling: the album found favour with critics and the dance music community.[citation needed] Cuts from the album were widely played in clubs and, fleetingly at least, the band's music found a new audience who had never heard (or heard of) ELP.
In March 2009, Palmer said on his website that there is "talk of an ELP reunion in the fall". Emerson, Lake, and Palmer made plans to tour at the end of that year; however, due to Keith Emerson's hand injury, further tour plans were cancelled.
In November 2009, Greg Lake confirmed on a live chat via his website that he and Keith Emerson had been writing new songs for a new album.
In order to satisfy American fans, Emerson and Lake embarked in April 2010 on a North American tour, presenting an acoustic repertoire of their work.
On 14 May 2010, Shout! Factory released a 4-CD collection of Emerson, Lake and Palmer live tracks called A Time And A Place.
On 25 July 2010, Emerson, Lake and Palmer played a one-off 40th anniversary concert, headlining the High Voltage Festival event in Victoria Park, London. The entire concert was later released as the double-CD live album "High Voltage".
ELP have signed a worldwide licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment.[4]
[edit]Criticism
Like most progressive rock bands, ELP were heavily and mercilessly criticized by some music critics. Critics frequently lambasted the band as pretentious[citation needed]. However, the particularly venomous criticism itself frequently approached the overreaching self-importance that the critics so despised in the band.
One critic asking, "how do you spell pretentious? Emerson, Lake, And Palmer?"[5][6][7][8][9][10] typifies the reaction of a critic whose tastes aligned more with The Ramones, REM, and The B-52's, attempting to digest ELP's output.
With an even more cruel take on ELP, even going on to insult the group's sizeable fan base, Robert Christgau said of the band "these guys are as stupid as their most pretentious fans".[10] Christgau also called ELP the "world's most overweening 'progressive' group".[10]
ELP could also be their own worst enemy. Double albums featuring each member separately on an album side stretched inspiration to the breaking point. In 1978, a completely exhausted and uninspired ELP would make the album Love Beach mainly to fulfill their contractual obligations. Unsurprisingly, Michael Bloom of Rolling Stone encapsulated the result fairly well, stating in his review that "Love Beach isn't simply bad, it's downright pathetic.[11] Stale and full of ennui, this album makes washing the dishes seem a more creative act by comparison."[11]
In a more even-handed approach to analyzing ELP, John Kelman of All About Jazz noted that an "overbearing sense of self-importance...turned ELP from one of the 1970s' most exciting new groups into the definition of masturbatory excess and self-aggrandizement in only a few short years."[12] Kelman also stated that "in (ELP's) fall from grace, (ELP) represented everything wrong with progressive rock."[13] Still, Kelman also states that ELP, in its heyday, was a positive force, describing the 2010 Deluxe DVD Edition of Pictures at an Exhibition as "raw energy and flat-out hunger...with enough self-deprecation to not take themselves too seriously."
[edit]Discography
Main article: Emerson, Lake & Palmer discography
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970)
Tarkus (1971)
Trilogy (1972)
Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
Works Volume 1 (1977)
Works Volume 2 (1977)
Love Beach (1978)
Black Moon (1992)
In the Hot Seat (1994)
[edit]See also
Emerson, Lake & Powell
3 (Emerson, Berry & Palmer)
Alliance (band)
List of rock instrumentals
[edit]References
^ Forrester, George; Askew, Frank; Hanson, Martyn (2005). Emerson, Lake and Palmer: The Show That Never Ends. Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 1900924714.
^ ELP – Biography[dead link]
^ Emerson Lake & Palmer. (2008). Beyond The Beginning. [DVD].[dead link]
^ http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/elp-sign-major-new-deal/
^ Hochman, Steve (26 August 1992). "That 'Pretentious' Trio ELP Is Back on the Rock Scene : Pop music: After splitting up in 1978, Emerson, Lake and Palmer are together again for 'Black Moon,' their first album ...". Los Angeles Times.
^ Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Guitar Noise
^ Emerson, Lake, and Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery < PopMatters
^ The Harbinger. Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) Interview
^ Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Love Beach - On Second Thought - Stylus Magazine
^ a b c Robert Christgau: CG: emerson lake and palmer
^ a b Rolling Stone review, March 1979
^ Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Pictures At An Exhibition - Special Edition
^ Emerson, Lake & Palmer: A Time and a Place.
[edit]Further reading
Edward Macan. Endless Enigma, A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. 2006, Open Court Publishing Company, ISBN 0-8126-9596-8.
Forrester, George, Martyn Hanson and Frank Askew. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Show That Never Ends, A Musical Biography. (2001) Helter Skelter Publishing ISBN 1-900924-17-X.
The New Musical Express Book of Rock, 1975, Star Books, ISBN 0 352 300744
[edit]External links
Official website
Keith Emerson Official
Greg Lake Official
Carl Palmer Official
ELP Digest
Emerson, Lake & Palmer discography at Discogs
ELP at the Open Directory Project
ELP through the eyes of Tony Ortiz, Band Archivist
Friday, May 6, 2011
Frank Zappa's Biography
Frank Zappa (guitar, keyboards, Synclavier, vocals; born December 21, 1940, died December 4, 1993)
Frank Zappa was rock and roll’s sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres – rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music - with masterful ease. Under his own name and with the Mothers of Invention, Zappa recorded 60 albums’ worth of material in his 52 years. Many were double albums or CDs, making his output even more impressively huge. Not surprisingly, he was occupied nearly every waking hour by the composing, recording, editing and performing of music. He also found time to produce and collaborate with acts as widely varied as Captain Beefheart, Jean-Luc Ponty, Grand Funk Railroad, Wild Man Fischer, the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin’s Ensemble Modern.
Zappa challenged the status quo on many fronts. As a plainspoken curmudgeon, he confronted the corrupt politics of the ruling class and held the banal and decadent lifestyles of his countrymen to unforgiving scrutiny. He pioneered the artist-run independent record label, launching his Straight and Bizarre imprints back in 1969 and later founding the Zappa, DiscReet and Barking Pumpkin labels. In the Sixties, he mocked middle-class mores in “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” (from Absolutely Free) and sang about the climate of racial inequality and discord on “Trouble Every Day” (from Freak Out). In the Seventies, he satirized everything in sight, including disco music (“Dancin’ Fool,” from Sheik Yerbouti) and new-age movements (“Cosmik Debris,” from Apostrophe). In the Eighties, he enjoyed his one and only Top Forty hit, “Valley Girl,” and took on the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), delivering memorable testimony about the First Amendment at a congressional hearing.
He was born Frank Vincent Zappa in Baltimore, Maryland. Gifted with a keen interest in music from an early age, he became conversant in everything from doo-wop - to which he cast an affectionate nod on the album Cruising With Ruben and the Jets - to the “serious” music of classical composers Bartok and Stravinksky and avant-garde pioneers Varese and Shoenberg. In 1965, Zappa joined the Mothers of Invention (previously the Soul Giants and later, simply the Mothers), who were deliberately and diabolically unconventional. From the way they dressed to the music they played, Zappa intended the Mothers to be provocative, controversial and unafraid of the consequences. He often quoted mentor Edgard Varese’s credo, “The present-day composer refuses to die!”
Zappa brought a high degree of compositional sophistication to a genre that had typically taken its cues from the simplistic chord progressions of songs like “Louie, Louie.” At the same time, Zappa freely acknowledged the naive genius of “Louie, Louie” and the unalloyed brilliance of Fifties doo-wop and R&B, even incorporating them into his program material. Zappa greatly extended the range of rock, composing oratorios, symphonic pieces, ballets, digitized extravaganzas for the Synclavier keyboard, and satirical musicals. A brilliant guitar soloist who recruited similarly adventurous musicians, Zappa helped further the art of improvisation in a rock context. Over the years, his ensembles included such notable musicians as keyboardist George Duke and guitarist Steve Vai.
Throughout his career, Zappa darkly but humorously depicted a landscape of wasted human enterprise largely driven by Pavlovian desires for consumer goods, sports and sex. His brutal jibes began with the first release by the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out (1966), and continued to the posthumous release of his final recorded work, Civilization Phaze III (1995). He reserved some of his keenest insults for rock journalists, which he once described as “people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” But mainly he vented against mindless hedonism and the dumbing down of popular culture.
Rock’s foremost satirist tempered his borderline misanthropy with a high regard for human potential and a fierce belief in free speech and the ideal of democracy. Zappa frankly hated much about what America had become in the late 20th century, expressing deep disgust in this couplet from We’re Only In It for the Money’s “Concentration Moon”: “American way, try and explain/Scab of a nation driven insane.” His finest hour as a songwriter/satirist may have been “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” a seven-minute suite from a self-described “underground oratorio” that appeared on the second Mothers album, Absolutely Free (1967). In this audacious indictment of the American Dream gone awry, Zappa foresaw coming trends, equating political power with personal immorality (“A world of secret hungers perverting the men who make your laws”), reproving the vapid pastimes of a dim-witted citizenry (“Do your job and do it right/Life’s a ball!/TV tonight), and pointing out the stultifying effects of the corporate state upon the individual (“Be a loyal plastic robot for a world that doesn’t care”).
Zappa’s work sold largely to a core audience who faithfully attended his concerts and bought his records. His popularity with a broader audience peaked in 1973-74 with the albums Over-nite Sensation and Apostrophe, which married crude humor and virtuoso playing; both went gold (500,000 copies sold). Zappa finally infiltrated the Top Forty in 1982 with “Valley Girl,” a keenly observed satire of California “airhead” culture, complete with slang-driven repartee from daughter Moon Unit. This song’s title subsequently became a national catchphrase. At last being given some overdue recognition by the music industry, Zappa also went on to win a Grammy for his 1986 album Jazz from Hell.
With an unswerving conviction in his own rectitude, Zappa remained an often brilliant voice of dissent to the end of his career. When the music industry began branding albums with voluntary warnings about offensive content under pressure from the PMRC in the mid-Eighties, Zappa wrote a disclaimer of his own, which he stickered on his releases:
“WARNING! This album contains material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress. The language and concepts contained herein are guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the place where the guy with the horns and pointed stick conducts his business. This guarantee is as real as the threats of the video fundamentalists who use attacks on rock music in their attempt to transform America into a nation of check-mailing nincompoops (in the name of Jesus Christ). If there is a hell, its fires wait for them, not us.”
In 1993, Frank Zappa died at age 52 of prostate cancer, but not before culling, mixing and sequencing enough material from his vast archive to ensure the release of even more albums long after his passing.
Frank Zappa was rock and roll’s sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres – rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music - with masterful ease. Under his own name and with the Mothers of Invention, Zappa recorded 60 albums’ worth of material in his 52 years. Many were double albums or CDs, making his output even more impressively huge. Not surprisingly, he was occupied nearly every waking hour by the composing, recording, editing and performing of music. He also found time to produce and collaborate with acts as widely varied as Captain Beefheart, Jean-Luc Ponty, Grand Funk Railroad, Wild Man Fischer, the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin’s Ensemble Modern.
Zappa challenged the status quo on many fronts. As a plainspoken curmudgeon, he confronted the corrupt politics of the ruling class and held the banal and decadent lifestyles of his countrymen to unforgiving scrutiny. He pioneered the artist-run independent record label, launching his Straight and Bizarre imprints back in 1969 and later founding the Zappa, DiscReet and Barking Pumpkin labels. In the Sixties, he mocked middle-class mores in “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” (from Absolutely Free) and sang about the climate of racial inequality and discord on “Trouble Every Day” (from Freak Out). In the Seventies, he satirized everything in sight, including disco music (“Dancin’ Fool,” from Sheik Yerbouti) and new-age movements (“Cosmik Debris,” from Apostrophe). In the Eighties, he enjoyed his one and only Top Forty hit, “Valley Girl,” and took on the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), delivering memorable testimony about the First Amendment at a congressional hearing.
He was born Frank Vincent Zappa in Baltimore, Maryland. Gifted with a keen interest in music from an early age, he became conversant in everything from doo-wop - to which he cast an affectionate nod on the album Cruising With Ruben and the Jets - to the “serious” music of classical composers Bartok and Stravinksky and avant-garde pioneers Varese and Shoenberg. In 1965, Zappa joined the Mothers of Invention (previously the Soul Giants and later, simply the Mothers), who were deliberately and diabolically unconventional. From the way they dressed to the music they played, Zappa intended the Mothers to be provocative, controversial and unafraid of the consequences. He often quoted mentor Edgard Varese’s credo, “The present-day composer refuses to die!”
Zappa brought a high degree of compositional sophistication to a genre that had typically taken its cues from the simplistic chord progressions of songs like “Louie, Louie.” At the same time, Zappa freely acknowledged the naive genius of “Louie, Louie” and the unalloyed brilliance of Fifties doo-wop and R&B, even incorporating them into his program material. Zappa greatly extended the range of rock, composing oratorios, symphonic pieces, ballets, digitized extravaganzas for the Synclavier keyboard, and satirical musicals. A brilliant guitar soloist who recruited similarly adventurous musicians, Zappa helped further the art of improvisation in a rock context. Over the years, his ensembles included such notable musicians as keyboardist George Duke and guitarist Steve Vai.
Throughout his career, Zappa darkly but humorously depicted a landscape of wasted human enterprise largely driven by Pavlovian desires for consumer goods, sports and sex. His brutal jibes began with the first release by the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out (1966), and continued to the posthumous release of his final recorded work, Civilization Phaze III (1995). He reserved some of his keenest insults for rock journalists, which he once described as “people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” But mainly he vented against mindless hedonism and the dumbing down of popular culture.
Rock’s foremost satirist tempered his borderline misanthropy with a high regard for human potential and a fierce belief in free speech and the ideal of democracy. Zappa frankly hated much about what America had become in the late 20th century, expressing deep disgust in this couplet from We’re Only In It for the Money’s “Concentration Moon”: “American way, try and explain/Scab of a nation driven insane.” His finest hour as a songwriter/satirist may have been “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” a seven-minute suite from a self-described “underground oratorio” that appeared on the second Mothers album, Absolutely Free (1967). In this audacious indictment of the American Dream gone awry, Zappa foresaw coming trends, equating political power with personal immorality (“A world of secret hungers perverting the men who make your laws”), reproving the vapid pastimes of a dim-witted citizenry (“Do your job and do it right/Life’s a ball!/TV tonight), and pointing out the stultifying effects of the corporate state upon the individual (“Be a loyal plastic robot for a world that doesn’t care”).
Zappa’s work sold largely to a core audience who faithfully attended his concerts and bought his records. His popularity with a broader audience peaked in 1973-74 with the albums Over-nite Sensation and Apostrophe, which married crude humor and virtuoso playing; both went gold (500,000 copies sold). Zappa finally infiltrated the Top Forty in 1982 with “Valley Girl,” a keenly observed satire of California “airhead” culture, complete with slang-driven repartee from daughter Moon Unit. This song’s title subsequently became a national catchphrase. At last being given some overdue recognition by the music industry, Zappa also went on to win a Grammy for his 1986 album Jazz from Hell.
With an unswerving conviction in his own rectitude, Zappa remained an often brilliant voice of dissent to the end of his career. When the music industry began branding albums with voluntary warnings about offensive content under pressure from the PMRC in the mid-Eighties, Zappa wrote a disclaimer of his own, which he stickered on his releases:
“WARNING! This album contains material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress. The language and concepts contained herein are guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the place where the guy with the horns and pointed stick conducts his business. This guarantee is as real as the threats of the video fundamentalists who use attacks on rock music in their attempt to transform America into a nation of check-mailing nincompoops (in the name of Jesus Christ). If there is a hell, its fires wait for them, not us.”
In 1993, Frank Zappa died at age 52 of prostate cancer, but not before culling, mixing and sequencing enough material from his vast archive to ensure the release of even more albums long after his passing.
The Frank Zappa Guitar Book
The Frank Zappa Guitar Book is a book of musical transcriptions of some of Frank Zappa's guitar solos. The Frank Zappa Guitar Book was distributed by The Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation in 1982, and is currently out of print. The book was transcribed by Steve Vai. Vai has talked about some of his experiences while transcribing this book: "Frank gave me these two cassettes filled with wild guitar playing, some of which was released on the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar records, and some of which has never been released. And the more I transcribed, the more he piled the stuff on. At the time, I was getting paid $10 a page, and it would take me three days to do one page!"
[edit]Song list
five-five-FIVE
Hog Heaven
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
While You Were Out
Treacherous Cretins
Heavy Duty Judy
Soup 'n Old Clothes
Variations on The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression
Gee, I Like Your Pants
The Deathless Horsie
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More
Pink Napkins
Stucco Homes
Theme from the 3rd movement of Sinister Footwear
Watermelon in Easter Hay
Packard Goose
Outside Now
He Used To Cut The Grass
Sheik Yerbouti Tango
Rat Tomago
Mo' Mama (unreleased song)
Black Napkins
[hide]v · d · eFrank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Albums
1960s
Freak Out! • Absolutely Free • Lumpy Gravy • We're Only in It for the Money • Cruising with Ruben & the Jets • Uncle Meat • Mothermania • Hot Rats
1970s
Burnt Weeny Sandwich • Weasels Ripped My Flesh • Chunga's Revenge • Fillmore East – June 1971 • 200 Motels • Just Another Band from L.A. • Waka/Jawaka • The Grand Wazoo • Over-Nite Sensation • Apostrophe (') • Roxy & Elsewhere • One Size Fits All • Bongo Fury • Zoot Allures • Zappa in New York • Studio Tan • Sleep Dirt • Sheik Yerbouti • Orchestral Favorites • Joe's Garage Act I • Joe's Garage Acts II & III
1980s
Tinseltown Rebellion • Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar • Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More • Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar • You Are What You Is • Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch • The Man from Utopia • Baby Snakes • London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I • Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger • Them or Us • Thing-Fish • Francesco Zappa • The Old Masters, Box I • Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention • Does Humor Belong in Music? • The Old Masters, Box II • Jazz from Hell • London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II • The Old Masters, Box III • Guitar • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 - The Helsinki Concert • Broadway the Hard Way • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3
1990s
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 • Make a Jazz Noise Here • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 • Playground Psychotics • Ahead of Their Time • The Yellow Shark • Civilization Phaze III • The Lost Episodes • Läther • Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute • Have I Offended Someone? • Mystery Disc • EIHN (Everything Is Healing Nicely)
2000s
FZ:OZ • Halloween • Joe's Corsage • Joe's Domage • QuAUDIOPHILIAc • Joe's XMASage • Imaginary Diseases • MOFO (Deluxe 4-Disc) • MOFO (2-Disc) • Trance-Fusion • Buffalo • The Dub Room Special • Wazoo • One Shot Deal • Joe's Menage • Lumpy Money • Philly '76
2010s
Greasy Love Songs • Congress Shall Make No Law... • Hammersmith Odeon
Other releases
The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa • Beat the Boots • Beat the Boots II • Strictly Commercial • Strictly Genteel • Cucamonga • Cheap Thrills • Son of Cheep Thrills • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle 2006 • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAA Birthday Bundle 2008 • Beat the Boots III • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAAA Birthday Bundle 2010
Singles
"Who Are The Brain Police? • How Could I Be Such A Fool • Why Don't You Do Me Right • Lonely Little Girl • Tears Began To Fall • What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning • Don't Eat The Yellow Snow • Sofa • Disco Boy • I Don't Wanna Get Drafted • Bobby Brown • Dancin' Fool • Joe's Garage • Love Of My Life • Goblin Girl • Valley Girl • The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou • Cocaine Decisions"
Filmography
200 Motels • Baby Snakes • The Dub Room Special • Video from Hell • Does Humor Belong in Music? • The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels • The Amazing Mr. Bickford • Uncle Meat • The Torture Never Stops
Relatives
Gail Zappa • Moon Zappa • Dweezil Zappa • Ahmet Zappa • Diva Zappa
Related articles
Discography • In popular culture • Musicians • Captain Beefheart • The Real Frank Zappa Book • The Frank Zappa Guitar Book • Zappa Plays Zappa • Suzy Creamcheese
[edit]Song list
five-five-FIVE
Hog Heaven
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
While You Were Out
Treacherous Cretins
Heavy Duty Judy
Soup 'n Old Clothes
Variations on The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression
Gee, I Like Your Pants
The Deathless Horsie
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More
Pink Napkins
Stucco Homes
Theme from the 3rd movement of Sinister Footwear
Watermelon in Easter Hay
Packard Goose
Outside Now
He Used To Cut The Grass
Sheik Yerbouti Tango
Rat Tomago
Mo' Mama (unreleased song)
Black Napkins
[hide]v · d · eFrank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Albums
1960s
Freak Out! • Absolutely Free • Lumpy Gravy • We're Only in It for the Money • Cruising with Ruben & the Jets • Uncle Meat • Mothermania • Hot Rats
1970s
Burnt Weeny Sandwich • Weasels Ripped My Flesh • Chunga's Revenge • Fillmore East – June 1971 • 200 Motels • Just Another Band from L.A. • Waka/Jawaka • The Grand Wazoo • Over-Nite Sensation • Apostrophe (') • Roxy & Elsewhere • One Size Fits All • Bongo Fury • Zoot Allures • Zappa in New York • Studio Tan • Sleep Dirt • Sheik Yerbouti • Orchestral Favorites • Joe's Garage Act I • Joe's Garage Acts II & III
1980s
Tinseltown Rebellion • Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar • Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More • Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar • You Are What You Is • Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch • The Man from Utopia • Baby Snakes • London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I • Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger • Them or Us • Thing-Fish • Francesco Zappa • The Old Masters, Box I • Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention • Does Humor Belong in Music? • The Old Masters, Box II • Jazz from Hell • London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II • The Old Masters, Box III • Guitar • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 - The Helsinki Concert • Broadway the Hard Way • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3
1990s
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 • Make a Jazz Noise Here • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 • You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 • Playground Psychotics • Ahead of Their Time • The Yellow Shark • Civilization Phaze III • The Lost Episodes • Läther • Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute • Have I Offended Someone? • Mystery Disc • EIHN (Everything Is Healing Nicely)
2000s
FZ:OZ • Halloween • Joe's Corsage • Joe's Domage • QuAUDIOPHILIAc • Joe's XMASage • Imaginary Diseases • MOFO (Deluxe 4-Disc) • MOFO (2-Disc) • Trance-Fusion • Buffalo • The Dub Room Special • Wazoo • One Shot Deal • Joe's Menage • Lumpy Money • Philly '76
2010s
Greasy Love Songs • Congress Shall Make No Law... • Hammersmith Odeon
Other releases
The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa • Beat the Boots • Beat the Boots II • Strictly Commercial • Strictly Genteel • Cucamonga • Cheap Thrills • Son of Cheep Thrills • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle 2006 • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAA Birthday Bundle 2008 • Beat the Boots III • The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAAA Birthday Bundle 2010
Singles
"Who Are The Brain Police? • How Could I Be Such A Fool • Why Don't You Do Me Right • Lonely Little Girl • Tears Began To Fall • What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning • Don't Eat The Yellow Snow • Sofa • Disco Boy • I Don't Wanna Get Drafted • Bobby Brown • Dancin' Fool • Joe's Garage • Love Of My Life • Goblin Girl • Valley Girl • The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou • Cocaine Decisions"
Filmography
200 Motels • Baby Snakes • The Dub Room Special • Video from Hell • Does Humor Belong in Music? • The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels • The Amazing Mr. Bickford • Uncle Meat • The Torture Never Stops
Relatives
Gail Zappa • Moon Zappa • Dweezil Zappa • Ahmet Zappa • Diva Zappa
Related articles
Discography • In popular culture • Musicians • Captain Beefheart • The Real Frank Zappa Book • The Frank Zappa Guitar Book • Zappa Plays Zappa • Suzy Creamcheese
Is PKR an Umno Clone?
Everyone of us, supporters or members of Pakatan Rakyat are looking forward and fighting very hard to see a change in Federal government comes this 13th general election.
As the days go by, the road to PutraJaya seems to be getting further and further away. What has happen? Everything seems to be breaking apart other then once in a while screaming from leaders that the coalition is still strong, working together and they are going to capture PutraJaya.
How is that to be when PKR leaders cannot provide truthful answers to all their follies. MPs and Aduns jumped ship, party members leaving, existing members not happy with what is going on and supporters dwindling.
There is no room for decent or vocal, all must abide according to what the leader said or instructed. Sound familiar and akin to Umno?
Within the three parties in the coalition, PKR wants to be the master and only what its leader says or instructs are valid. DAP suggest a merger with SNAP and without giving it a second thought was immediately rejected by PKR, the master. My tweet to PKR Anwar Ibrahim, "Explain why DAP can work with PAS despite history of differences, why PR cannot work with SNAP" and of course receive no reply.
The Sarawak shadow cabinet list can have so many controversies, mind you, its just a shadow cabinet and PKR wants to be in control. Following are my tweets with zero reply:
work wth SNAP no no, shadow cabinet list not acceptable, only what PKR @anwaribrahim says r right & acceptable @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang
2 hours ago
Funny @anwaribrahim keeps saying GE coming instead of preparing 4 it, r fighting 4 shadow cabinet @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang damn sick
2 hours ago
Shadow cabinet also cannot agree how 2 run Federal @baru_bian @anwaribrahim If u want control just say so lah @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang
2 hours ago
PKR shoots down S'wak shadow cabinet line-up" @baru_bian @anwaribrahim @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang U all cannot c I 2 I I propose split up
PKR is just like najib who never reply point blank hard questions and only reply to those good ones that praise him.
No doubt that PKR is fighting against Umno/bn but using the same method of running the coalition like Umno treating its other coalition parties.
What I see is that PKR, just like Umno, wants to be the master in control of its so call partners and just wanted them to be obeying dogs.
As the days go by, the road to PutraJaya seems to be getting further and further away. What has happen? Everything seems to be breaking apart other then once in a while screaming from leaders that the coalition is still strong, working together and they are going to capture PutraJaya.
How is that to be when PKR leaders cannot provide truthful answers to all their follies. MPs and Aduns jumped ship, party members leaving, existing members not happy with what is going on and supporters dwindling.
There is no room for decent or vocal, all must abide according to what the leader said or instructed. Sound familiar and akin to Umno?
Within the three parties in the coalition, PKR wants to be the master and only what its leader says or instructs are valid. DAP suggest a merger with SNAP and without giving it a second thought was immediately rejected by PKR, the master. My tweet to PKR Anwar Ibrahim, "Explain why DAP can work with PAS despite history of differences, why PR cannot work with SNAP" and of course receive no reply.
The Sarawak shadow cabinet list can have so many controversies, mind you, its just a shadow cabinet and PKR wants to be in control. Following are my tweets with zero reply:
work wth SNAP no no, shadow cabinet list not acceptable, only what PKR @anwaribrahim says r right & acceptable @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang
2 hours ago
Funny @anwaribrahim keeps saying GE coming instead of preparing 4 it, r fighting 4 shadow cabinet @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang damn sick
2 hours ago
Shadow cabinet also cannot agree how 2 run Federal @baru_bian @anwaribrahim If u want control just say so lah @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang
2 hours ago
PKR shoots down S'wak shadow cabinet line-up" @baru_bian @anwaribrahim @cmlimguaneng @abdulhadiawang U all cannot c I 2 I I propose split up
PKR is just like najib who never reply point blank hard questions and only reply to those good ones that praise him.
No doubt that PKR is fighting against Umno/bn but using the same method of running the coalition like Umno treating its other coalition parties.
What I see is that PKR, just like Umno, wants to be the master in control of its so call partners and just wanted them to be obeying dogs.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Aug31 The Malays of Tomorrow
Aug
31The Malays of Tomorrow August 31, 2009
Malays speaking without fear
MP for Lembah Nurul Izzah Anwar
by Nurul Izzah Anwar
I can’t say that I know Datuk Zaid Ibrahim very well. Our past encounters have been limited to a fleeting hello in front of the steps of my alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 2006, another chat during a reception in honour of Datuk Ambiga Sreevanesagan in June and, most recently, at the PKR’s recent EGM. It’s amazing, but perhaps unsurprising that he has in these three years evolved from an ambiguous reformist in UMNO into the conscience of all Malaysians.
I had always been impressed by his outspokenness, and his willingness to fearlessly voice out his views on issues of national importance is nothing short of inspirational. Zaid does not mince his words where many hesitate to call a spade a spade, especially where it matters the most.
An articulate Malay speaking out for a multiracial and progressive Malaysia is terribly important in this current political climate. For our own community, Zaid epitomises how the Malays might redefine ourselves, to re-imagine a world where we do not think that we are inferior or threatened but are rather confident in whom we are.
In reading Zaid’s book Saya Pun Melayu, I sense the need for Malays to embrace a new paradigm on what it means to be Malay. Many indeed are doing so and this is a heartening. “Malay” need no longer carry connotations of dependency on the state, insecurity, or the crippling feeling alienation and the lack of self-worth.
The word “Malay” can and must eventually mean a call to embrace a broader Malaysian identity, along with a true, inclusive nationalism that is proud of who we are individually but also in what we have accomplished together. We can be sure of our identities and yet still be a part of something greater than all of us — and this is something all the ethnic groups in Malaysia ought to aspire to.
Zaid’s book highlights that fact that we need to look beyond the stereotypes and take an objective, albeit positive look at our community’s accomplishments. We have made great strides in business, the arts, education and the professions. Our success extends from Lembah Pantai where Malays own vibrant businesses selling products made by Malays to the flourishing nasi lemak stalls in Kota Baru.
We attend leading universities throughout the world, increasingly through our own merit. We can count internationally recognised choreographers, painters, cartoonists, writers, and film directors amongst our numbers.
Beyond these markers, our success can more often that not be seen at home through our everyday acts of compassion and sensitivity to others, which spread to our fellow Malaysians to become a national virtue. The kindness shown towards our children, parents and neighbours is perhaps one of the most important signs of who we Malays are as a community. These are real achievements that no one can or would want to take from us.
I’m not denying that we still have a long way to go in moving our community forward, nor am I unmindful that a lot of our successes would not have been in possible without the NEP and its institutions. However, it has become patently obvious that these structures are now holding the Malays back, and that the world has changed since then.
The Malays and, as a-matter-of-fact, all Malaysians need to change as well if we want to remain relevant in this world. We need to step away from our obsession with all things racial and realise that the project of nation-building is not a zero-sum game. Malaysia can never succeed until and unless its entire people feel like they are truly a part of it.
Why then does the old paradigm of ethnic insecurity persist? Why does suspicion and acrimony towards our fellow Malaysians and they towards us still linger? Why are mainstream newspapers calling for ethnic conflict, accusing minority communities of all sorts of ludicrous plots?
The sad reality is that these myths are being perpetuated by UMNO and Barisan Nasional for their own gain. The fact is that UMNO wants to keep the Malay community under its suzerainty forever. They do this by focusing on what we have supposedly not achieved, rather than acknowledging our gains and potential.
They claim to want to protect and uplift the Malay community, but all they have been doing for the last few years is playing on their fears and prejudices. The same can be said for the Barisan components with the non-Malays. This glass-half-empty mentality is being used by UMNO/BN to protect each other and to ward off challenges to their stranglehold on power.
We’ve seen from the case of Zaid of how UMNO demonises anyone who steps out of the pattern of complete loyalty to the party and who have different ideas on how to improve the livelihoods of Malays and Malaysians. We have also as of late seen their scare tactics in action. They have labeled people as “traitors” for calling for a new path of development for Malaysia. They prefer to protect their interests rather than allow the Malaysian people — especially the Malays — to benefit from reform, less corruption and more inclusion.
UMNO also regrettably perpetuates the myth that the Malay community is perpetually under threat from their non-Malay counterparts, and that UMNO is the only party that can save them from this supposed “servitude”. This, rather than anything else, is why race relations have gotten worse in Malaysia.
You cannot expect harmony in a country where its largest ethnic group is constantly bombarded with the message that the minorities are supposedly out to get them and take away their rights. Yet, they chose to follow this tactic since they believe in the short term this will strengthen UMNO and bring Malays back to the party.
They use these “attacking” tactics because they cannot offer anything else. They have shown that they would prefer to entrench those in power rather than allow new ideas and reforms to increase our chances for greater success. There is a real danger that their short-sightedness may cost future generations of Malaysians dearly.
The fact is that Malays have nothing to fear. We are demographically the largest ethnic group in Malaysia and the birth rate is going to keep it that way. Our position in the constitution is enshrined and this isn’t going to change either.
That is what UMNO and the Malay extremists do not get, and what the community as a whole needs to understand. The non-Malays and Malays who challenge UMNO are not seeking to reduce the position of the Malays in anyway, but to defend and uplift all Malaysians. We have to understand that we are all tied together and that we all have a stake in the land. We cannot survive individually as Malays, Chinese or Indians but as Malaysians.
Our non-Malay fellow citizens are not “challenging” our rights or “insulting” or culture and religion — rather they are calling for our nascent nationhood to be allowed to achieve it’s full potential than for us to remain stuck in our ethnic and mental ghettos. The liberals and moderates amongst the non-Malays also suffer from the depredations of extremists within their own communities — they deserve our support as well. The wave of reactionary politics that is engulfing us can only be turned back if progressive Malaysians stand firm against their threats and untruths.
While it is true that much more needs to be done to address those who have not benefited — for all Malaysians — the focus on what we don’t have rather on what we have accomplished only undermines us. We need to imagine a better future, for Malays and Malaysians — this will incidentally make it easier for all of us to achieve what we might lack.
The Malaysia of tomorrow cannot be one in which we are blinded by fear and negativity. The first step in imagining and defining a better future for all of us is to open our eyes and speak out like Zaid and others like him.
31The Malays of Tomorrow August 31, 2009
Malays speaking without fear
MP for Lembah Nurul Izzah Anwar
by Nurul Izzah Anwar
I can’t say that I know Datuk Zaid Ibrahim very well. Our past encounters have been limited to a fleeting hello in front of the steps of my alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 2006, another chat during a reception in honour of Datuk Ambiga Sreevanesagan in June and, most recently, at the PKR’s recent EGM. It’s amazing, but perhaps unsurprising that he has in these three years evolved from an ambiguous reformist in UMNO into the conscience of all Malaysians.
I had always been impressed by his outspokenness, and his willingness to fearlessly voice out his views on issues of national importance is nothing short of inspirational. Zaid does not mince his words where many hesitate to call a spade a spade, especially where it matters the most.
An articulate Malay speaking out for a multiracial and progressive Malaysia is terribly important in this current political climate. For our own community, Zaid epitomises how the Malays might redefine ourselves, to re-imagine a world where we do not think that we are inferior or threatened but are rather confident in whom we are.
In reading Zaid’s book Saya Pun Melayu, I sense the need for Malays to embrace a new paradigm on what it means to be Malay. Many indeed are doing so and this is a heartening. “Malay” need no longer carry connotations of dependency on the state, insecurity, or the crippling feeling alienation and the lack of self-worth.
The word “Malay” can and must eventually mean a call to embrace a broader Malaysian identity, along with a true, inclusive nationalism that is proud of who we are individually but also in what we have accomplished together. We can be sure of our identities and yet still be a part of something greater than all of us — and this is something all the ethnic groups in Malaysia ought to aspire to.
Zaid’s book highlights that fact that we need to look beyond the stereotypes and take an objective, albeit positive look at our community’s accomplishments. We have made great strides in business, the arts, education and the professions. Our success extends from Lembah Pantai where Malays own vibrant businesses selling products made by Malays to the flourishing nasi lemak stalls in Kota Baru.
We attend leading universities throughout the world, increasingly through our own merit. We can count internationally recognised choreographers, painters, cartoonists, writers, and film directors amongst our numbers.
Beyond these markers, our success can more often that not be seen at home through our everyday acts of compassion and sensitivity to others, which spread to our fellow Malaysians to become a national virtue. The kindness shown towards our children, parents and neighbours is perhaps one of the most important signs of who we Malays are as a community. These are real achievements that no one can or would want to take from us.
I’m not denying that we still have a long way to go in moving our community forward, nor am I unmindful that a lot of our successes would not have been in possible without the NEP and its institutions. However, it has become patently obvious that these structures are now holding the Malays back, and that the world has changed since then.
The Malays and, as a-matter-of-fact, all Malaysians need to change as well if we want to remain relevant in this world. We need to step away from our obsession with all things racial and realise that the project of nation-building is not a zero-sum game. Malaysia can never succeed until and unless its entire people feel like they are truly a part of it.
Why then does the old paradigm of ethnic insecurity persist? Why does suspicion and acrimony towards our fellow Malaysians and they towards us still linger? Why are mainstream newspapers calling for ethnic conflict, accusing minority communities of all sorts of ludicrous plots?
The sad reality is that these myths are being perpetuated by UMNO and Barisan Nasional for their own gain. The fact is that UMNO wants to keep the Malay community under its suzerainty forever. They do this by focusing on what we have supposedly not achieved, rather than acknowledging our gains and potential.
They claim to want to protect and uplift the Malay community, but all they have been doing for the last few years is playing on their fears and prejudices. The same can be said for the Barisan components with the non-Malays. This glass-half-empty mentality is being used by UMNO/BN to protect each other and to ward off challenges to their stranglehold on power.
We’ve seen from the case of Zaid of how UMNO demonises anyone who steps out of the pattern of complete loyalty to the party and who have different ideas on how to improve the livelihoods of Malays and Malaysians. We have also as of late seen their scare tactics in action. They have labeled people as “traitors” for calling for a new path of development for Malaysia. They prefer to protect their interests rather than allow the Malaysian people — especially the Malays — to benefit from reform, less corruption and more inclusion.
UMNO also regrettably perpetuates the myth that the Malay community is perpetually under threat from their non-Malay counterparts, and that UMNO is the only party that can save them from this supposed “servitude”. This, rather than anything else, is why race relations have gotten worse in Malaysia.
You cannot expect harmony in a country where its largest ethnic group is constantly bombarded with the message that the minorities are supposedly out to get them and take away their rights. Yet, they chose to follow this tactic since they believe in the short term this will strengthen UMNO and bring Malays back to the party.
They use these “attacking” tactics because they cannot offer anything else. They have shown that they would prefer to entrench those in power rather than allow new ideas and reforms to increase our chances for greater success. There is a real danger that their short-sightedness may cost future generations of Malaysians dearly.
The fact is that Malays have nothing to fear. We are demographically the largest ethnic group in Malaysia and the birth rate is going to keep it that way. Our position in the constitution is enshrined and this isn’t going to change either.
That is what UMNO and the Malay extremists do not get, and what the community as a whole needs to understand. The non-Malays and Malays who challenge UMNO are not seeking to reduce the position of the Malays in anyway, but to defend and uplift all Malaysians. We have to understand that we are all tied together and that we all have a stake in the land. We cannot survive individually as Malays, Chinese or Indians but as Malaysians.
Our non-Malay fellow citizens are not “challenging” our rights or “insulting” or culture and religion — rather they are calling for our nascent nationhood to be allowed to achieve it’s full potential than for us to remain stuck in our ethnic and mental ghettos. The liberals and moderates amongst the non-Malays also suffer from the depredations of extremists within their own communities — they deserve our support as well. The wave of reactionary politics that is engulfing us can only be turned back if progressive Malaysians stand firm against their threats and untruths.
While it is true that much more needs to be done to address those who have not benefited — for all Malaysians — the focus on what we don’t have rather on what we have accomplished only undermines us. We need to imagine a better future, for Malays and Malaysians — this will incidentally make it easier for all of us to achieve what we might lack.
The Malaysia of tomorrow cannot be one in which we are blinded by fear and negativity. The first step in imagining and defining a better future for all of us is to open our eyes and speak out like Zaid and others like him.
Aug31 Perutusan Anwar Ibrahim sempena Hari Merdeka
Aug
31Perutusan Anwar Ibrahim sempena Hari Merdeka4 Comments31hb. Ogos 2009
Perutusan Anwar Ibrahim sempena 31hb Ogos, 2009: Semangat Kemerdekaan Menyanggah Perhambaan dan Membina Keyakinan Baru
Apabila mendekati tarikh 31hb Ogos, ingatan kita akan mengimbas kembali rentetan peristiwa dan perjuangan rakyat yang berkemuncak dengan Kemerdekaan. Tarikh tersebut terungkap sebagai tarikh keramat, menjanjikan kebebasan daripada cengkaman penjajah dan menyelamatkan martabat hidup rakyat.
Persoalan yang menerjah kita semua ialah : bagaimana kita menghayati makna tarikh tersebut hari ini. Pergulatan ini menjadi penentu kepada persoalan makna diri kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia.Tekad baru untuk memahami makna diri Malaysia sebagai bangsa merdeka juga menuntut kita untuk memahami bagaimana kita menjadi tidak merdeka; bagaimana kita hilang kemerdekaan sebelum kita memperolehinya kembali.
Lebih dua ribu tahun yang lalu, Brutus bertanya warga Kota Rom “siapakah yang begitu hina sehingga mahu hidup sebagai hamba ?” Ceasar mahu memiliki kuasa yang tidak terbatas. Nafsunya sebegitu besar dan mahu memastikan Rom dalam genggamannya.
Pertentangan antara Brutus dengan Ceaser adalah pertentangan antara kebebasan menentang nafsu kekuasan tidak terbatas. Sejak negara kita merdeka kita masih bergelut dengan pertentangan ini. Kebebasan – kebebasan bersuara, kebebasan media, kebebasan institusi kehakiman sentiasa mahu disekat oleh penguasa. Oleh itu kita menginsafi hanya bangsa yang pernah melalui gelita penjajahan akan mengerti makna cahaya kemerdekaan. Bagitu juga, hanya diri yang pernah kebebasannya diragut akan menghargai nilai kebebasan.
Syarahan Perdana Professor Dr. Syed Muhammad Naguib al-Attas yang berjudul Islam Dalam Sejarah Dan Kebudayaan Melayu juga menghuraikan dengan panjang lebar peranan paksi tauhid sebagai aqidah menambat keyakinan baru yang menolak faham tahyul dan perhambaan, seterusnya menjadi pelantar kepada pemikiran yang berakar dengan tradisi aqliyah dan mencernakan budaya segar dengan bahasa Melayu sebagai pertuturan kepustakaan(lingua franca) rantau ini. Ratusan tahun berlalu yang sewajarnya tambah memperkukuh dan memantapkan semangat dan keyakinan baru tersebut.
Cantik sungguh puteri Palembang,
Sayang bersunting bunga pudak;
Betapa keras dilambung gelombang,
Kucacak tiang, kulayar jua.
Manakala melangkaui separuh abad kemerdekaan, kita rakyat Malaysia sewajarnya mempunyai kesedaran betapa Bahasa Melayu bukan sekadar bahasa pasar, bahasa komunikasi basahan untuk berjual beli. Bahasa Melayu adalah bahasa ilmu, bahasa tamadun dan bahasa untuk mengungkapkan pengalaman kemanusian yang paling mendalam dan luhur. Bahasa Melayu telah menjadi bahasa intelektual dan kerohanian untuk umat Islam, makanya Bahasa Melayu juga seharusnya menjadi bahasa intelektual dan kerohanian umat Buddha, Hindu, Kristian dan lain-lain keyakinan.
Bahasa Melayu yang saya sebutkan di sini bukanlah bahasa milik orang Melayu semata-mata. Bahasa Melayu adalah milik rakyat dan bangsa Malaysia yang berketurunan Melayu, Cina, India, Kadazan, Dayak dan lain-lain. Bahasa Melayu adalah milik semua rakyat Malaysia.
Kemerdekaan mestilah tidak terperangkap dengan bahana dari politik sempit dan kelam sesebuah parti politik tertentu. Kemerdekaan perlu di lihat dari perspektif rakyat keseluruhannya ; perjuangan pelbagai kaum, menggunakan pelbagai wadah, dan melibatkan pelbagai aliran pemikiran. Sejarah ternyata mengajar kita bahawa Perjuangan Menuntut Kemerdekaan menerbitkan kesatuan semangat untuk menentang penjajah dan imperialisme Barat ketika itu.
Generasi terdahulu yang sama-sama berjuang untuk kemerdekaan, dan mereka yang menempuh zaman mudanya di masa awal kemerdekaan menjadi saksi kepada kepelbagaian aliran dan wadah perjuangan rakyat. Tetapi penulisan sejarah kemerdekaan yang disampaikan kepada generasi hari ini masih belum berlaku adil kerana fakta yang bercampur propaganda. Ini merupakan beban dan tanggungjawab kepada ahli-ahli sejarah kerana tanpa pensejarahan yang adil, kita tidak akan dapat melihat dan menemui makna dan rupa diri bangsa kita yang sebenarnya. Nama pejuang kemerdekaan seperti Dato’ Onn Jaafar, Ustaz Abu Bakar Baqir, Dr Burhanuddin al Helmy, Ahmad Boestamam, S P Seenivasagam, Tan Chee Koon, Mat Salleh, Panglima Rentap dan Rosli Dhobi tidak sewajarnya digelapkan dari sejarah menuntut kemerdekaan.
Kemerdekaan adalah untuk kebebasan dan keadilan. Inilah yang dijanjikan kepada kita pada 31 Ogos 1957. Sekiranya kita mahu berdegil untuk meneruskan saki baki peninggalan feudal, atau mahu memperkokohkan lembaga-lembaga sistem otoritarianisme, sudah pasti kita menjadi bangsa yang terpinggir. Bangsa Malaysia tidak miskin dengan sumber daya manusianya. Dengan paras pembangunan yang telah dicapai dan kekayaan yang kita miliki Malaysia boleh menjadi negara yang besar. Dan kita perlu yakin bahawa Malaysia boleh menjadi bangsa yang besar. Tetapi kita tidak boleh menjadi bangsa yang besar sekiranya rakyatnya tidak bebas dan merdeka.
ANWAR IBRAHIM, Ketua Pembangkang, Parliamen Malaysia
31Perutusan Anwar Ibrahim sempena Hari Merdeka4 Comments31hb. Ogos 2009
Perutusan Anwar Ibrahim sempena 31hb Ogos, 2009: Semangat Kemerdekaan Menyanggah Perhambaan dan Membina Keyakinan Baru
Apabila mendekati tarikh 31hb Ogos, ingatan kita akan mengimbas kembali rentetan peristiwa dan perjuangan rakyat yang berkemuncak dengan Kemerdekaan. Tarikh tersebut terungkap sebagai tarikh keramat, menjanjikan kebebasan daripada cengkaman penjajah dan menyelamatkan martabat hidup rakyat.
Persoalan yang menerjah kita semua ialah : bagaimana kita menghayati makna tarikh tersebut hari ini. Pergulatan ini menjadi penentu kepada persoalan makna diri kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia.Tekad baru untuk memahami makna diri Malaysia sebagai bangsa merdeka juga menuntut kita untuk memahami bagaimana kita menjadi tidak merdeka; bagaimana kita hilang kemerdekaan sebelum kita memperolehinya kembali.
Lebih dua ribu tahun yang lalu, Brutus bertanya warga Kota Rom “siapakah yang begitu hina sehingga mahu hidup sebagai hamba ?” Ceasar mahu memiliki kuasa yang tidak terbatas. Nafsunya sebegitu besar dan mahu memastikan Rom dalam genggamannya.
Pertentangan antara Brutus dengan Ceaser adalah pertentangan antara kebebasan menentang nafsu kekuasan tidak terbatas. Sejak negara kita merdeka kita masih bergelut dengan pertentangan ini. Kebebasan – kebebasan bersuara, kebebasan media, kebebasan institusi kehakiman sentiasa mahu disekat oleh penguasa. Oleh itu kita menginsafi hanya bangsa yang pernah melalui gelita penjajahan akan mengerti makna cahaya kemerdekaan. Bagitu juga, hanya diri yang pernah kebebasannya diragut akan menghargai nilai kebebasan.
Syarahan Perdana Professor Dr. Syed Muhammad Naguib al-Attas yang berjudul Islam Dalam Sejarah Dan Kebudayaan Melayu juga menghuraikan dengan panjang lebar peranan paksi tauhid sebagai aqidah menambat keyakinan baru yang menolak faham tahyul dan perhambaan, seterusnya menjadi pelantar kepada pemikiran yang berakar dengan tradisi aqliyah dan mencernakan budaya segar dengan bahasa Melayu sebagai pertuturan kepustakaan(lingua franca) rantau ini. Ratusan tahun berlalu yang sewajarnya tambah memperkukuh dan memantapkan semangat dan keyakinan baru tersebut.
Cantik sungguh puteri Palembang,
Sayang bersunting bunga pudak;
Betapa keras dilambung gelombang,
Kucacak tiang, kulayar jua.
Manakala melangkaui separuh abad kemerdekaan, kita rakyat Malaysia sewajarnya mempunyai kesedaran betapa Bahasa Melayu bukan sekadar bahasa pasar, bahasa komunikasi basahan untuk berjual beli. Bahasa Melayu adalah bahasa ilmu, bahasa tamadun dan bahasa untuk mengungkapkan pengalaman kemanusian yang paling mendalam dan luhur. Bahasa Melayu telah menjadi bahasa intelektual dan kerohanian untuk umat Islam, makanya Bahasa Melayu juga seharusnya menjadi bahasa intelektual dan kerohanian umat Buddha, Hindu, Kristian dan lain-lain keyakinan.
Bahasa Melayu yang saya sebutkan di sini bukanlah bahasa milik orang Melayu semata-mata. Bahasa Melayu adalah milik rakyat dan bangsa Malaysia yang berketurunan Melayu, Cina, India, Kadazan, Dayak dan lain-lain. Bahasa Melayu adalah milik semua rakyat Malaysia.
Kemerdekaan mestilah tidak terperangkap dengan bahana dari politik sempit dan kelam sesebuah parti politik tertentu. Kemerdekaan perlu di lihat dari perspektif rakyat keseluruhannya ; perjuangan pelbagai kaum, menggunakan pelbagai wadah, dan melibatkan pelbagai aliran pemikiran. Sejarah ternyata mengajar kita bahawa Perjuangan Menuntut Kemerdekaan menerbitkan kesatuan semangat untuk menentang penjajah dan imperialisme Barat ketika itu.
Generasi terdahulu yang sama-sama berjuang untuk kemerdekaan, dan mereka yang menempuh zaman mudanya di masa awal kemerdekaan menjadi saksi kepada kepelbagaian aliran dan wadah perjuangan rakyat. Tetapi penulisan sejarah kemerdekaan yang disampaikan kepada generasi hari ini masih belum berlaku adil kerana fakta yang bercampur propaganda. Ini merupakan beban dan tanggungjawab kepada ahli-ahli sejarah kerana tanpa pensejarahan yang adil, kita tidak akan dapat melihat dan menemui makna dan rupa diri bangsa kita yang sebenarnya. Nama pejuang kemerdekaan seperti Dato’ Onn Jaafar, Ustaz Abu Bakar Baqir, Dr Burhanuddin al Helmy, Ahmad Boestamam, S P Seenivasagam, Tan Chee Koon, Mat Salleh, Panglima Rentap dan Rosli Dhobi tidak sewajarnya digelapkan dari sejarah menuntut kemerdekaan.
Kemerdekaan adalah untuk kebebasan dan keadilan. Inilah yang dijanjikan kepada kita pada 31 Ogos 1957. Sekiranya kita mahu berdegil untuk meneruskan saki baki peninggalan feudal, atau mahu memperkokohkan lembaga-lembaga sistem otoritarianisme, sudah pasti kita menjadi bangsa yang terpinggir. Bangsa Malaysia tidak miskin dengan sumber daya manusianya. Dengan paras pembangunan yang telah dicapai dan kekayaan yang kita miliki Malaysia boleh menjadi negara yang besar. Dan kita perlu yakin bahawa Malaysia boleh menjadi bangsa yang besar. Tetapi kita tidak boleh menjadi bangsa yang besar sekiranya rakyatnya tidak bebas dan merdeka.
ANWAR IBRAHIM, Ketua Pembangkang, Parliamen Malaysia
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
What's Up PM?
Malaysian PM urges beer-drinking model to appeal sentence
Posted: 25 August 2009 1424 hrs
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday urged a Muslim model who faces being caned for drinking beer to appeal the sentence and not be "so willing" to accept her fate.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, won a surprise reprieve on Monday when religious officials who took her into custody ahead of the caning abruptly released her and delayed the punishment until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
She was sentenced by a religious court last month to six strokes. If the punishment is carried out she would be the first woman to face caning under Islamic law in Malaysia, a moderate Muslim-majority country.
The mother-of-two has stared down religious authorities by saying she is ready to be caned, refusing to appeal against her sentence, and challenging them to cane her in public.
But Najib said that while he would not interfere with the Sharia courts, which operate alongside the civil court system in Malaysia, there were still avenues for Kartika to appeal.
"I believe the authorities concerned are sensitive on this matter and realise the implications of this case," he told a press conference.
"I feel the person concerned should appeal to the state authorities and not be so willing to accept the punishment," he said.
Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Malaysia to abolish the "cruel and degrading punishment" and critics have said the case threatens to damage Malaysia's international standing.
- AFP/so
Posted: 25 August 2009 1424 hrs
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday urged a Muslim model who faces being caned for drinking beer to appeal the sentence and not be "so willing" to accept her fate.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, won a surprise reprieve on Monday when religious officials who took her into custody ahead of the caning abruptly released her and delayed the punishment until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
She was sentenced by a religious court last month to six strokes. If the punishment is carried out she would be the first woman to face caning under Islamic law in Malaysia, a moderate Muslim-majority country.
The mother-of-two has stared down religious authorities by saying she is ready to be caned, refusing to appeal against her sentence, and challenging them to cane her in public.
But Najib said that while he would not interfere with the Sharia courts, which operate alongside the civil court system in Malaysia, there were still avenues for Kartika to appeal.
"I believe the authorities concerned are sensitive on this matter and realise the implications of this case," he told a press conference.
"I feel the person concerned should appeal to the state authorities and not be so willing to accept the punishment," he said.
Human rights group Amnesty International has urged Malaysia to abolish the "cruel and degrading punishment" and critics have said the case threatens to damage Malaysia's international standing.
- AFP/so
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