RDH Comix

 UK

 
Comics fanzine published by Dave Harwood, who usually signs his cover work as RDH.

1971 September

No. 1

 

200 Motels
By Robert Carrington, p 32


On page 32 is an article by composer Robert Carrington.

Zappa is preoccupied with music-theatre techniques reminiscent of John Cage e.g. Water Music and Music Walk. Here the whole process of musical performance is parodied and taken to absurd excesses. The act of pulling the bow across the strings of a violin becomes a ritualistic act. Thus theatre and concert hall are brought together by the fact that the musician is called upon to play two roles, the actor and the musician. It is this dual role which can transform a rather sterile and dead event into something more alive and exciting. It is this fact that Zappa is exploiting in his concerts. It is not the music he is poking fun at, but the dead serious aura of mystique which surrounds a musical performance. It becomes one in which the musician becomes too overawed with his own importance and loses his humanity. (read more)

Also contained in this issue is a 5-page strip by Brian Bolland, "It Can't Happen Here" ("sub-editorial" featuring The Sub-Mariner & Frank Zappa cameo).

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