2017... Hail and Farewell

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UPDATE (January 1): In the last few days since I’ve written this, we have lost two more.  I should have known better than to tempt fate by saying, “The good news is, as of this writing, we have lost no one during the month of December.”  It has also been brought to my attention that I missed one significant one we lost back in June.  I have added the three names to the list in red.  I have also made a few other changes, mostly to programing notes concerning tomorrow’s show, also in red.

Last year, at the end of 2016, we had lost so many people that I was moved to write a blog post and do a special set.  The post started with a spoof magazine cover showing the Grim Reaper as Time’s Person of the Year.  After all, the Reaper had had an amazing year, claiming 33 significant people in the music industry during 2016.  You can read that post from last year, and see the mock Time Magazine cover, here.

I thought for sure that we had had a better year and I was shocked when I compiled the list.  Last year, I fit the entire list into a two hour show.  This year there were 44 names and I’d need to start the show early.  I’ll point out some of the more interesting ones then give a complete list in the order we lost them.

We lost Tommy Allsup who was a guitarist for Buddy Holly and the Crickets.  Everyone still talks about that fateful day, the day the music died in 1959, the day of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens (of La Bamba fame) and others.  As people discuss it, they often tell the story how there was one seat left and two people, and a coin toss decided the fate of Ritchie Valens.  He won the toss and was on the plane and lost his life with the others.  It was Tommy Allsup who lost that coin toss and remained behind.  He lived another 58 years and went on to work with other greats like Roy Orbison, the Ventures and Willie Nelson.  He was 85 years old when he died on January 11.

We lost two founding and long standing members of the Allman Brothers Band this year.  On January 24^th, we lost drummer, Butch Trucks.  He was with the band throughout its entire history starting in 1969.  We lost the band’s namesake, Greg Allman on May 27^th.  The other Allman Brother, Duane Allman, was killed in a motorcycle crash back in 1971.

The last day of January saw the death of John Wetton.  He was a critical member of a number of successful bands, which include Asia, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep and others.

On February 5^th, Sonny Geraci, the vocalist for Climax, passed away.  Who can forget his amazing voice on Predacious and Few, which came out in 1971 and climbed to #3 on the charts?

Chuck Berry passed away on March 18^th.  There is not much I can say about this legend that hasn’t already been said.  Maybe Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones put it best.  On hearing of Berry’s death, he tweeted, "One of my big lights has gone out.”

We lost Rosie Hamlin on March 30^th.  Though she is relatively unknown today, she was the front woman for Rosie and the Originals.  The band had a big hit, Angel Baby, in 1960 when Rosie was just fifteen!  The song made it all the way to #5 on the charts and she became the first Latina to be featured on American Bandstand with Dick Clark.  At 15, she not only sang the song, she co-wrote it.  John Lennon has cited this song as one of his favorites and he released a cover of it in 1975. It has been covered by many others, including Linda Ronstadt.  Hamlin maintained an almost cult like following within the Latino community and she was the first Latina ever honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of fame.  For these reasons, she earned a place in my collage at the top of the page.

J. Geils was a staple of rock music through the 70’s and 80’s.  He seemed to just get more successful with age, breaking into video during his later career and releasing his biggest hit, Centerfold, in 1981.  It was on his tenth album, out of a total of eleven.  He died on April 11^th.

Cuba Gooding Sr. died on April 27^th.  Today he is probably best known as the father of actor, Cuba Gooding Jr., but he had a successful career in the early 70’s as the lead singer for the Main Ingredient.  He had five Top 10 hits, including Everybody Plays the Fool, which reached #2.

After finishing a concert with his band, Soundgarden, on May 18^th Chris Cornell decided to hang himself in his hotel room.  He is considered one of the chief founders of the Grunge movement in the Seattle area in the 80’s and 90’s.  He was just 52 years of age.

About two months later on July 20^th, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and the Stone Temple Pilots also decided to commit suicide by hanging.  Linkin Park was an incredibly successful band and won many awards including, MTV Music Awards, American Music Awards and one Grammy. He has the unfortunate distinction of being the youngest on our list this year at only 41 years old.

Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2010 and we watched him slowly fade away.  He continued to tour with his kids, whom he relied on to function, until he was no longer able to continue a couple of years ago.  His body finally gave out on August 8^th.  He was a Beach Boy for a brief time and was an inductee of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

We lost Fats Domino on October 24^th.  He was a pioneer of Doo Wop and early Rock and Roll with such hits as I’m Walkin’ and Blueberry Hill.  He was 89 years old.

Della Reese was an amazing woman.  She had a successful music career and got a Grammy nomination for her 1959 hit, Don't You Know, which rose to #2 on the charts.  She went on to star in major motion pictures and had a television career that included both an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Tess in Touched by an Angel.  We lost Della on November 19^th.

Okay, who didn’t have a crush on David Cassidy at some point?  He was both an actor and a singer, and came to fame as Keith Partridge on the Partridge Family television show.  The show ran from 1970 to 1974 and portrayed a family that was also a rock band.  When I was young, he was the epitome of what the young generation was and his loss on November 21^st really drives home the point that we are getting old.  David was 67 years young.

Rosie Hamlin wasn’t the only former teen star to leave us this year.  On November 24^th we lost Mitch Margo, the lead singer for the Tokens.  He was only 14 when their hit, the Lion Sleeps Tonight, went to #1 on the charts in 1961.

Many of us are old enough to remember Gomer Pyle, who worked at the gas station in Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show.  Gomer was played by actor, Jim Nabors, and became even more famous when he got his own series in which he joined the Marines. Nabors played the bumbling simpleton to the hilt and surprised the world with his singing voice during one particular episode.  “Did that voice came out of that buffoon?”  He went on to record several gold records and became a fixture at the Indianapolis 500 motor race, where each year he would open the festivities by singing (Back Home Again in) Indiana.  Jim Nabors left this world on November 30^th.

Maybe 2016 was the surge of death that it seemed to be and it just extended into this year a little.  We lost twelve alone in January.  If we could just move January’s totals to 2016, the numbers would be 45 lost in 2016 and only 32 in 2017.  We had a bad March with six deaths and November saw seven check-out, so November seems to be another rise.  The good news is, as of this writing, we have lost no one during the month of December.

Game: In the list below there are 14 names in green.  They correspond to the 14 photographs I used to create the collage at the top of this post.  Can you match up the names to the photos above?  I’ll post the solution in the comments after I do the “Hail and Farewell” show on January 1.

Here is the complete list of the 44 that we lost this year:

Sylvester Potts, (died Jan. 6) singer, songwriter and member of the Contours (1938-2017)

Peter Sarstedt, (died Jan. 8) award winning folk singer and songwriter; had #1 hit in the UK with his song, Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? (1941-2017)

Tommy Allsup, (died Jan. 11) guitarist for Buddy Holly and the Crickets (1931-2017)

Steve Wright, (died Jan. 16) bassist for the Greg Kihn Band (1950-2017)

Mike Kellie, (died Jan. 18) drummer for the V.I.P.’s, Spooky Tooth and the Only Ones (1947-2017)

Joey Powers, (died Jan. 20) had a single Midnight Mary that hit #10 on the charts in 1964. (1934-2017)

Pete Overend Watts, (died Jan 22) bass player for Mott the Hoople (1947-2017)

Bobby Freeman, (died Jan. 23) He had two Top 10 singles including Do You Want to Dance in 1958, which climbed to #5. (1940-2017)

Gil Ray, (died Jan. 24) drummer for Game Theory and the Loud Family. (1956-2017)

Butch Trucks, (died Jan. 24) drummer for the Allman Brothers Band (1947-2017)

Geoff Nicholls, (died Jan. 28) keyboardist for Black Sabbath (1948-2017)

John Wetton, (died Jan. 31) bassist and keyboardist for Asia, Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, and Wishbone Ash (1949-2017)

Steve Lang, (died Feb. 4) bassist for April Wine (1949-2017)

Sonny Geraci, (died Feb. 5) lead singer for the Outsiders and Climax (1947-2017)

Clyde Stubblefield, (died Feb. 18) drummer for James Brown (1943-2017)

Jim Fuller, (died Mar. 3) known as the “Godfather of Surf Music” and front man for the Surfaris (1947-2017)

Tommy Page, (died Mar. 3) known for his #1 hit single in 1990, I'll Be Your Everything (1970-2017)

Joni Sledge, (died Mar. 10) vocalist for Sister Sledge (1956-2017)

Chuck Berry, (died Mar. 18) singer and guitarist (1926-2017)

Sib Hashian, (died Mar. 22) drummer for Boston (1949-2017)

Rosie Hamlin, (died Mar. 30) front woman for Rosie and the Originals (1945-2017)

David Peel, (died April 6) front man for David Peel and the Lower East Side Band (1942-2017)

Bob Wootton, (died April 9) guitarist for Johnny Cash (1942-2017)

J. Geils, (died April 11) front man for the J. Geils Band (1946-2017)

Cuba Gooding Sr., (died April 27) lead singer for the Main Ingredient (1944-2017)

Clive Brooks, (died May 5) drummer for progressive rock band, Egg (1949-2017)

Chris Cornell, (died May 18) lead singer for Soundgarden and Audioslave (1964-2017)

Greg Allman, (died May 27) front man for the Allman Brothers Band (1947-2017)

Rosalie Sorrels, (died June 11) folk singer (1933-2017)

Gary DeCarlo, (died June 28) member of the band, Steam, and writer of Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (1942-2017)

Chester Bennington, (died July 20) lead singer for Linkin Park and the Stone Temple Pilots (1976-2017)

Michael Johnson, (died July 25) had a hit single, Bluer than Blue, that went to #12 in 1978 (1944-2017)

Glen Campbell, (died Aug. 8) rock, folk, country and pop singer (1936-2017)

Sonny Burgess, (died August 18) rockabilly singer, guitarist and front man for the Legendary Pacers (1929-2017)

Walter Becker, (died Sept. 3) guitarist, bassist and one half of Steely Dan (1950-2017)

Tom Petty, (died Oct. 2) front man for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1950-2017)

George Young, (died Oct. 22) member of the Easybeats and Flash and the Pan, co-writer of Friday on my Mind (1946-2017)

Fats Domino, (died Oct. 24) piano player and early Rock and Roll pioneer (1928-2017)

Robert Knight, (died Nov. 5) had a hit in 1967 with his song, Everlasting Love, which climbed to #13 on the charts (1945-2017)

Fred Cole, (died Nov. 9) singer and guitarist; member of the Lollipop Shoppe, Dead Moon, and Pierced Arrows (1948-2017)

Warren “Pete” Moore, (died Nov. 19) singer, songwriter and founding member of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles; wrote the vocal arrangements for every one of their hits (1938-2017)

Della Reese, (Died Nov. 19) singer, motion picture and television actress (1931-2017)

David Cassidy, (died Nov. 21) actor, singer, guitarist and member of the Partridge Family (1950-2017)

Mitch Margo, (died Nov. 24) vocalist for the Tokens (1947-2017)

Jim Nabors, (died Nov. 30) actor and singer (1930-2017)

Curly Seckler, (died Dec. 27) played guitar, banjo and mandolin, member of Lester Flatt’s & Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys from 1949 onward (1919-2017)

Rose Marie, [real name: Rose Marie Mazzetta] (died Dec. 28) Vaudevillian, singer, comedienne and actress, started her recording career in 1932 under the name, “Baby Rose Marie,” starred on the TV show, the Dick Van Dyke Show, last living artist to chart before World War II (1923-2017)

So, someone will inevitably ask, “What are the criteria for getting on the list?”  I can start that answer with this; these are the ones that I know about.  I may very well have missed someone.  The second factor is that I must know about them musically.  I either know the person, their song or their band.  They are not listed here unless I am familiar with at least one of those three things.

Join me this coming Monday night, New Year’s Day, at AWT from 6:00 to 9:00 PM as we say a final Hail and Farewell to those we lost in 2017.  Please note that this will start an hour early and go three hours, as I play one song by each artist in the order they are listed.

Note (12/31/21017):  I will start at 6:00 PM slt, but I don’t have a full three hours of “Hail and Farewell,” so I will kick off by counting down the top five hits of 2017 first.

"If there's a rock and roll heaven, well you know they've got a hell of a band."

 The Righteous Brothers, 1973

Suzy… Suzy Creamcheese?

Detail from the album cover of Freak Out! (1966)

Suzy…  Yes…  Suzy Creamcheese…  Yes…  This is the voice of your conscience baby.  I just want to check one thing out with you.  You don't mind, do ya…  What…  Suzy Creamcheese, honey, what's got into ya?

Intro to the Return of the Son of Monster Magnet by the Mothers of Invention, 1966

The song intro quoted above is taken from the first album by the Mothers of Invention.  Some of you may not have heard of the Mothers of Invention but you know their front man, Frank Zappa.  They were forever immortalized in the song, Smoke on the Water, by Deep Purple:

“Frank Zappa and the Mothers, burnt the place to the ground.”

I digress.  I’m here to talk about Suzy.  Who was Suzy Creamcheese?  Was she a real person?  If so, where is she today?  While the question has lost attention in recent times, and I’m sure many of you have never even heard of her, it was something of a hot topic for a couple of decades beginning in the 60’s.  There was, and continues to be, a lot of false claims and myths surrounding her and there have been many women claiming to be Suzy Creamcheese.  This wasn’t so hard back in the 70’s before people could go to the internet and look up information, pictures, etc.

Suzy Creamcheese did not start out as a real person.  She was a fictitious character created in the mind of Frank Zappa.  While working on their first album, the Mothers were playing at a bar in Hawaii called “Da Swamp.” (They obviously hadn’t made it big yet.)  There, Zappa came up with the idea that the back cover would contain a letter from a girl, remarking on how degenerate and undesirable the Mothers of Invention were.  Frank typed the following letter.  (Typos are as they appear on the album jacket.):

These Mothers is crazy. You can tell by their clothes. One guy wears beads and they all smell bad. We were gonna get them for a dance after the basketball game but my best pal warned me you can never tell how many will show up...sometimes the guy in the fur coat doesn't show up and sometimes he does show up only he brings a big bunch of crazy people with him and they dance all over the place. None of the kids at my school like these Mothers...specially since my teacher told us what the words to their songs meant.

Sincerly forever,

Suzy Creamcheese

Salt Lake City, Utah

Suzy was meant to be a high school girl and maybe a bit naive.  Zappa pictured her as straight laced and rather appalled at acts like the Mothers of Invention or things having to do with the counterculture.

It didn’t stop there and there are two songs on the album where we hear the voice of Suzy Creamcheese.  The first was a very brief exchange with between Frank Zappa and Suzy at the end of It Can't Happen Here and the second was the intro to the very next song, the Return of the Son of Monster Magnet, quoted at the beginning.  That quote is mostly by Frank Zappa and the few words (shown in red above) are in a female voice answering him, the voice of Suzy.

So Suzy started out as a bit of fiction that was voiced by Jeanne Vassoir on the Mothers’ first album.  After this, Jeanne was last known to have gone to Mexico and no one has been able to follow her trail after that and she has never come forward.

It might have stopped there and I’d not be writing this post.  Instead, it took on a life of its own.  Maybe it was because the letter appeared on the record using a typewriter font and was signed by “Suzy.”  There was also the real female voice done by Jeanne Vassoir but she was uncredited.  Much of the public just assumed she was real, especially the fans in Europe.  Many people were asking about her?  Who was she?  Was she part of the band?

Zappa decided to give the people what they wanted and hired another woman, Pamela Zarubica, to play the part of Suzy Creamcheese for their 1967 European Tour.  It started simple enough.  Suzy would be in the front row like a fan and she would reenact the quote from the first album(above) along with Frank Zappa.  Eventually she would come on stage and do other things.  The public saw her as a groupie and never suspected she was paid to act the part.

Zarubica would play the part well into the 70’s and even appeared on albums as Suzy.  There was also a third woman to play the part on albums and that was Lisa Cohen, the daughter of Mothers’ manager, Herb Cohen.  I know of no occasion where she played Suzy live, before an audience, but she does appear as the voice of Suzy on the Mothers’ 1967 album, Absolutely Free.

There is a lot of confusion over who played Creamcheese and when or even what parts are actually Suzy Creamcheese as often the female voice just appears on an album unnamed.  Some sources say that one woman played the voice of Suzy on a particular piece, yet another source will contradict it.  I’m going to do something here that I don’t believe has ever been done before.  I’m going to gather together the album cuts on which Suzy appears (all of the pieces of cheese) and I’m going to look at each one, identify who did the voice, and share some interesting facts.  I’m going to create here and now the ultimate Suzy Creamcheese Discography.  Much of this is probably detailed beyond what the average casual reader is willing to read, so feel free to skip ahead to the “Album Cover Spoof” below.

Suzy Creamcheese (The Ultimate Chronological Discography)

Song: It Can’t Happen Here

Album: Freak Out! (1966)

Voiced by: Jeanne Vassoir

Location (timestamp): 3:35

There is a brief exchange between Frank and Suzy in which he calls her by name.  After the exchange, they both sing the song title in unison as it echoes and fades off.

Song: Return of the Son of Monster Magnet

Album: Freak Out! (1966)

Voiced by: Jeanne Vassoir

Location (timestamp): 0:00

This cuts starts off in the beginning (0:00) with an exchange between Zappa and Suzy Creamcheese, which is quoted at the opening of this post.

Song: Son of Suzy Creamcheese

Album: Absolutely Free (1967)

Voiced by:  n/a

Location (timestamp): n/a

This song does not include the voice of Suzy Creamcheese; she is only the subject matter of the song.  It further asks the question of, “What’s got into her?”  See the opening quote to this post.

Song: Brown Shoes Don’t Make it

Album: Absolutely Free (1967)

Voiced by: Lisa Cohen

Location (timestamp): 5:20

The song title was inspired by a fashion faux pas made by U.S. President, Lyndon Johnson, that was mentioned in the press.  He wore brown shoes with a grey suit publicly one day.  The song itself is rather abstract but eventually turns itself to a politician (not necessarily Johnson who is never named) who is fantasizing (or really living out) an affair with a 13 year old girl in his bed.  Then Frank Zappa comes on and says, “If she were my daughter…”  Suzy replies, “What would you do, daddy?”  Eventually, Zappa answers her in the lyrics with, “Smother my daughter in chocolate syrup and strap her on again, oh baby.”  In this cut, Frank Zappa plays the part of Suzy’s father, which he will also do again in Bow Tie Daddy. (see below)

Song: Bow Tie Daddy

Album: We’re Only in it for the Money (1968)

Voiced by: Pamela Zarubica

Location (timestamp):  0:10

This song starts out with a telephone conversation, which includes Suzy Creamcheese.  In later releases and on the CD, this part is presented as a separate track aptly titled, “Telephone Conversation”.  It can be confusing to listen to since there are four participants, three of which are female, Suzy’s father (Frank Zappa), Suzy Creamcheese (unnamed), Vicky and the telephone operator.  Let me see if I can sort out the conversation for you and the three different female voices:

Suzy: Well, just ... operator?

Operator: Hold for a minute, please.

Suzy’s Father: Hello?

Operator: Yes, sir.

Suzy’s Father: Ah, can you call 678-9866?

Operator: Same area code?

Suzy’s Father: Yes.

Operator: Alright.

Suzy’s Father: Is that Vicky?

Suzy: Yeah... He's gonna bump you off yet, he's got a gun, you know.  If he didn't get ya in Laurel Canyon, he won't get you here.

Vicky: Hello?

Suzy: Vicky?

Vicky: Yeah?

Suzy: What's happening?

Vicky: Listen, your father has called me up this...

Suzy: Now look, just don't panic but just tell me...

Vicky: I'm not panicking!

Suzy: OK.

Vicky: I think my phone's tapped too.

Suzy: Well don't worry, that's quite alright.

Vicky: Alright, your father called me up this afternoon

Suzy: Just a second.

The song then begins.  I’ve not been able to identify who voiced Vicky or the telephone operator though I have seen Vicky referred to as a friend of Pamela Zarubica.  I’ll play the original version this Sunday with the conversation included as part of Bow Tie Daddy.

Song: The Voice of Cheese

Album: Uncle Meat (1969)

Voiced by: Pamela Zarubica

Location (timestamp): 0:00

This is a 27 second cut that is a statement made by Suzy Creamcheese. It starts out, “Hello teenage America, my name is Suzy Creamcheese…”

Song: Our Bizarre Relationship

Album: Uncle Meat (1969)

Voiced by: Pamela Zarubica

Location (timestamp): 0:01

This is a strange exchange between Suzy Creamcheese and Frank Zappa.  What is not clear is if this is Frank playing her father again or is this Suzy Creamcheese as the groupie talking directly to Frank Zappa.  In it, she recalls waking up and finding someone in bed with Frank, who is not the girl he went to bed with.  This new girl apparently yelled at Suzy.  I vote for this being Suzy talking to the actual Frank Zappa as his groupie.

All songs and albums mentioned above are credited to the Mothers of Invention.  Frank Zappa was their front man, creative force and creator of Suzy Creamcheese, but had not yet received separate distinction as he would in the future.  Other experts may include other cuts but these are the ones that I judge, in my opinion, to be related to Suzy Creamcheese.  Remember, there is much confusion on this matter and not everyone agrees.  I will play all of the above cuts during my set on Sunday.

There were other artists that jumped on the Creamcheese bandwagon and they are as follows:

Song: Suzy Creamcheese

Album: (non-album single)

Artist: Teddy and His Patches

Teddy and his Patches was a band out of San Jose, California.  They had a single released later the same year (1966) in which the Mothers released Freak Out!.  Their single became a regional hit in the Bay Area for the growing psychedelic audience at the time and was titled, Suzy Creamcheese.  I’ll play this single at my set on Sunday.

Song: Suzy Creamcheese

Album: 39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World)

Artist: The Caesars

Swedish rock band, the Caesars, released their album, 39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World), in 2003.  What was probably their biggest hit, Jerk it Out, was off of this album and gained notoriety as a theme for the iPod.  This band seems to have been heavily influenced by the sound of the psychedelic 60’s especially on this album.  Jerk it Out seems to fit this stereo type but another song on the album manages to take it a step further, Suzy Cheamcheese.  I will play both Jerk it Out and Suzy Creamcheese from this album during my set on Sunday. (The Caesars iPod advert featuring Jerk it Out is shown below.)

The following are others that I know about but will not be playing this Sunday:

Song: Suzy Creamcheese

Album: Blackhole Vertigo (2012)

Artist:  Epic

This one is not in my catalogue nor am I familiar with it.

Song: Son of Suzy Creamcheese

Album: Inventionis Mater (2014)

Artist: Kong’s Revenge

This cover of the original Mothers of Invention song is an instrumental done on guitars and woodwinds.  I will not play it Sunday because it would be redundant.

Song: Son of Suzy Creamcheese

Album: Nine (2017)

Artist: Commercial Interruption

This is just a cover of the original song by the Mothers of Invention.  I will not play it Sunday because it would be redundant.

Besides the songs concerning the subject of “Suzy Creamcheese,” I must acknowledge a band by the name of “Suzy Cream Cheese.”  This was a Japanese band and all information on them and their work is in Japanese and I can’t even decipher release dates.  They seem to be long avant garde pieces and they released three albums: Suzy Cream Cheese Vol. 1, Suzy Cream Cheese Vol. 2 and Suzy Cream Cheese Vol. 3.  They split the name “Creamcheese” into two words.

The Album Cover Spoof

The original album cover for their 1968 album, We’re Only in it for the Money (shown below) is an obvious parody to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released the year before.  Frank Zappa actually asked Paul McCartney for permission to do the spoof but McCartney preferred that their business managers work it out.  In the end Capitol Records forbade the parody and the cover’s original artwork was relegated to the inside of the gatefold.

Jimi Hendrix, a friend of Zappa’s, agreed to pose for this cover.  Below is a blowup of Zappa and Hendrix in which you can see Jimi Hendrix holding a photo of Lisa Cohen, who was the voice of Suzy Creamcheese on the Mothers previous album, Absolutely Free.  She would not voice Suzy on We’re Only in it for the Money. That would go to Pamela Zarubica but this remains a fun bit of Suzy Creamcheese trivia.

Fun Fact…

In the liner notes to Freak Out! (1966) is a long list of people who “contributed materially in many ways to make our music what it is. Please do not hold it against them.”  Nowhere on this list do you find Suzy Creamcheese or Jeanne Vassoir, who voiced her on that album.  She is completely uncredited but they do mention Frank de Kova (misspelled “De Cova”) who played Chief Wild Eagle on the TV show, F Troop. While it is not clear what de Kova contributed to the album, he remains credited and Suzy Creamcheese does not.

de Kova as Chief Wild Eagle

Conclusion…  So Who Really is Suzy Creamcheese?

Suzy started out as a concept in the mind of Frank Zappa and nothing more.  As often stated in Western Esoteric philosophy, all things that exist begin as simple thoughts.  Zappa’s thought became a real portrayal on an album and finally, a reality unto herself, a reality that would grow into something that was its own being and separate from Zappa.  Suzy Creamchesse became real.  Frank Zappa died in 1993, yet from the above, you can see that new artists still embrace her.  She has lived on beyond him.

When asking who she is, we must determine that she is a spirit that permeates through the music and our culture; she is no one person.  Yet it is human nature to ask, “Who is she?”  Many women have come forth in the past claiming that they were the original Suzy Creamcheese.  The creative void left by her physical absence, it would seem, must be filled and many so badly want to be recognized as her.

I must take an opportunity to acknowledge one other claimant to the title that I have not mentioned before now, Suzy Zeiger.  She has often come forward, among the other voices, and claimed that she was the original Suzy Creamcheese.  She was undoubtedly a groupie for the Mothers of Invention at the right time and hung out with the band.  Her first name really is “Suzy,” but it seems to stop there.  I can find no record of Frank Zappa ever acknowledging that she was in any way associated with Suzy Creamcheese.  I can find nothing else other than a first name, along with time and place as supportive of her claim.

If anyone should be awarded the real life role of Suzy Creamcheese, it would be Pamela Zarubica in my opinion.  She played the part live at concerts, voiced Suzy on two albums and went on to make appearances as Suzy Creamcheese long after her association with the Mothers or their continuance of the Creamcheese concept.

I hope I have helped to set the record straight.  There is a lot of confusion and disagreement on this subject and everything here is my opinion, my judgement from where I have sat watching through the decades.

Join me this Sunday at a Woman’s Touch as I do a special Suzy Creamcheese edition of my show at 7:00 PM slt.  I hope to see you there as we further explore the decades old question… “Suzy Creamcheese, what's got into ya?”

Pamela Zarubica (Suzy Creamcheese) with Frank Zappa