"Plastic People" is the first track of the Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free . It also was featured on the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Volume 1) compilation as Track 1 on disc 2, along with a "Louie, Louie/Plastic People"-like version titled "Ruthie-Ruthie" as Track 10 on disc 1. It was also featured on the 1998 Mystery Disc release.
"Plastic People" | |
---|---|
Song by The Mothers of Invention | |
from the album Absolutely Free | |
Released | May 26, 1967 |
Genre | Experimental rock |
Length | 3:42 |
Label | Verve |
Composer(s) | Frank Zappa [1] |
Producer(s) | Frank Zappa, Tom Wilson |
The title was the inspiration for the name of the Czech band Plastic People of the Universe. [2] The tune is loosely based on Richard Berry's 1957 classic "Louie Louie". The song is a manifesto against conformity and materialistic culture, with Frank Zappa finally asking, "Go home/and check yourself/you think we're singing 'bout someone else?"
It is sampled throughout the GZA single "Cold World" from the Liquid Swords album. [3]
"Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written and composed by American musician Richard Berry in 1955, recorded in 1956, and released in 1957. It is best known for the 1963 hit version by the Kingsmen and has become a standard in pop and rock. The song is based on the tune "El Loco Cha Cha" popularized by bandleader René Touzet and is an example of Afro-Cuban influence on American popular music.
Liquid Swords is the second solo studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member GZA, released on November 7, 1995, by Geffen Records. Recording sessions for the album began midway through 1995 at producer RZA's basement studio in the New York City borough of Staten Island. The album heavily samples dialogue from the martial arts film Shogun Assassin and maintains a dark atmosphere throughout, incorporating lyrical references to chess, crime and philosophy. Liquid Swords features numerous guest appearances from the other eight members of Wu-Tang Clan along with Wu-Tang affiliate Killah Priest.
Richard Berry, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins.
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band, released in December 1969 on Apple Records. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono received a phone call from the festival's promoters John Brower and Kenny Walker, and then assembled a band on very short notice for the festival, which was due to start the following day. The band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The group flew from London, and had brief unamplified rehearsals on the plane before appearing on the stage to perform several songs; one of which, "Cold Turkey", was first performed live at the festival. After returning home, Lennon mixed the album in a day.
Elephant's Memory was an American rock band formed in New York City in the late 1960s, known primarily for backing John Lennon and Yoko Ono from late 1971 to 1973. For live performances with Lennon and Ono, the band was known as the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band.
The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name.
Overkill is the second studio album by English rock band Motörhead, released in March 1979. It was the band's first album with Bronze Records. Kerrang! magazine listed the album at number 46 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". American thrash metal band Overkill was named after this album.
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono, released on Apple Records in December 1970 alongside her husband's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Ono's album features her vocal improvisations against backing by the Plastic Ono Band, with the exception of the track "AOS", which is backed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet.
Ronald Maurice Bean, better known professionally as Mathematics, is a hip hop producer and DJ for the Wu-Tang Clan and its solo and affiliate projects. He designed the Wu-Tang Clan logo.
Grandmasters is a collaborative studio album by American Los Angeles-based record producer DJ Muggs and New York-based rapper GZA. It was released on October 25, 2005 via Angeles Records, serving as Muggs' first in his "DJ Muggs vs." series and GZA's fifth album. Produced entirely by Muggs, it features fellow Wu-Tang Clan members and affiliates Raekwon, RZA, Masta Killa and Prodigal Sunn, as well as Cypress Hill's Sen Dog. The project has a theme of chess as can be seen by the track names. Introductions featuring chess strategy, including instruction for a chess opening using algebraic notation, are within the album. The album was also released in 'Instrumentals' and 'Remix' versions. The latter containing a bonus DVD featuring world tour and studio footage.
Sixty Six to Timbuktu is a greatest hits/compilation album featuring the history of the career of ex-Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, from 1966 to a recording done at the Festival in the Desert in Mali. The album was released in 2003 and contains songs from Plant's eight solo albums up to the time of its release on its first disc, and rarities on its second disc. Some of his well-known songs were omitted from this release, such as "Burning Down One Side", "Moonlight in Samosa", "Slow Dancer", "Other Arms", "In the Mood", and "Hurting Kind ".
Sweet Toronto is a documentary by D.A. Pennebaker of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, a one-day festival held September 13, 1969, at Varsity Stadium on the campus of the University of Toronto and attended by some 20,000 people. The event was produced by John Brower and Ken Walker. John Lennon, who seven days later would unofficially resign as a member of the Beatles, played as part of the Plastic Ono Band, whose members also included Yoko Ono, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Eric Clapton. Their set was released as the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969.
"Have Love, Will Travel" is a 1959 song written and recorded by Richard Berry. While the song may have been recorded before the end of 1959, the correct release date appears to be January, 1960. The title is based on a popular television/radio western serial Have Gun, Will Travel.
Volume One is the first album recorded by the psychedelic rock band the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. It was first released in 1966 on the small FiFo Records label. It was reissued in both compact disc and vinyl in 1997 by Sundazed. The album features covers of pop classics such as Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie" and the Kinks' "You Really Got Me". The songs mellow out into a blues/folk style with covers of Bob Dylan songs.
Funky Kingston is the name of two albums by Jamaican reggae group Toots and the Maytals. The first was issued in Jamaica and the United Kingdom in 1973 on Dragon Records, a subsidiary label of Island Records, owned by Chris Blackwell. A different album, with the same cover and title, was issued in the United States in 1975 on Mango Records. That album was compiled from three previous Maytals albums by Island Records employee Danny Holloway and peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200. It was also voted the eleventh best album of 1975 in the annual Jazz & Pop poll. In 2003, the American version was placed at number 378 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 380 in a 2012 revised list and 344 in a 2020 revised list.
Instant Karma: All-Time Greatest Hits, a three-disc compilation album of music recorded by John Lennon, is a budget release targeted for sale at warehouse-type stores such as Sam's Club and Costco. The album was released in 2002 by Timeless/Traditions Alive Music under license from Capitol/EMI Special Projects.
The Kinks Are Well Respected Men is a two disc compilation album by British rock group the Kinks, released in 1987. The album consists of all the non-album singles and b-sides released in the UK by the Kinks from 1964 to 1970. It also includes all of the tracks from the 1964 Kinksize Session EP and the 1965 Kwyet Kinks EP.
Gary Eldridge Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper. A founding member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group's "spiritual head", being both the first member in the group to receive a record deal and being the oldest member. He has appeared on his fellow Wu-Tang members' solo projects, and has maintained a successful solo career starting with Liquid Swords (1995).