Cover #120: The Todd Grubbs Group covers "Transylvania Boogie" by Frank Zappa

 Frank Zappa's music gets covered a lot.  Maybe not as much as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan, but still, a lot.  On the other hand, I'm not sure if even those big name artists have yielded as many full tribute albums as Zappa has.  I personally own over sixty CDs that are full Frank Zappa cover albums, and I know that is not even close to most of what's available in terms of Zappa tribute albums.  From a Zappa tribute album I just picked up yesterday, called Mappa Zappa, we have this hear cover song.  "Transylvania Boogie" is rarely covered; in fact, I'm not sure if I have heard anyone cover this instrumental from Chunga's Revenge before.  How is it?  Really good.  The guitar player in this band turns down the fuzz and turns up the wah pedal, so it sounds a bit like Joe Satriani on the guitar, but this is a satisfying version.  I can't give any points for originality for the performance, but extra credit for choosing this overlooked gem of a song.   ✅✅✅✅

Cover #103: Ed Palermo Big Band covers "Village Of The Sun" by Frank Zappa

 Ed Palermo has done a lot of Zappa covers-  a handful of all-Zappa tribute CDs and a few more with Zappa tunes mixed in with others.  Obviously, there is a lot of material to cover over time on this here blog.  

Any Ed Palermo cover of Zappa falls somewhere between very good and excellent, depending on the arrangement, energy, and unique attributes that Palermo's highly talented band brings to each cover.  This cover is pretty basic as far as Ed Palermo Zappa covers go, but the unique quality by far are the female vocals.  Female singing is pretty uncommon in the original Zappa repertoire, so it is always interesting to hear a change in vocal styles.  

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Cover# 74: The Zappa Early Renaissance Orchestra covers "San Bern'dino

  This cover starts off promising enough:  it's a bit of a mashup with Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" in the beginning, then straightens into a more direct cover which wouldn't be so bad except the tempo is too slow.  When we get to the extended outro vocals (Johnny "Guitar" Wilson on the original, Adrian Belew in the Baby Snakes video and various 1977 live editions) we get a female lead that sounds about as flat and uninterested as she could be.  This cover is a promising idea that unfortunately does not work.

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