Baby Snakes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| - | *[[Anémone]], 68, French actress (''[[Santa Claus Is a Stinker]]'', ''[[The Grand Highway]]''), [[César Award for Best Actress|César]] winner ([[13th César Awards|1988]]). | + | '''''Baby Snakes''''' is a film which includes footage from [[Frank Zappa]]'s 1977 [[Halloween]] concert at [[New York City]]'s Palladium Theater, backstage antics from the crew, and [[stop motion]] [[clay animation]] from award-winning animator [[Bruce Bickford (animator)|Bruce Bickford]]. |
| - | *[[Bruce Bickford (animator)|Bruce Bickford]], 72, American animator (''[[Baby Snakes]]'', ''[[The Dub Room Special]]'', ''[[The Amazing Mr. Bickford]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Jean-Pierre Marielle]], 87, French actor (''[[Cookies (film)|Cookies]]'', ''[[Without Apparent Motive]]'', ''[[Coup de Torchon]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Dave Samuels]], 70, American percussionist ([[Spyro Gyra]]). | + | |
| - | *[[Ryszard Kaja]], 57, Polish graphic artist. | + | |
| - | *[[Les Reed (songwriter)|Les Reed]], 83, English songwriter ("[[It's Not Unusual]]", "[[Delilah (Tom Jones song)|Delilah]]", "[[The Last Waltz (song)|The Last Waltz]]"). | + | |
| - | *[[Gene Wolfe]], 87, American science fiction and fantasy writer (''[[The Shadow of the Torturer]]'', heart disease. | + | |
| - | *[[John McEnery]], 75, British actor (''[[Bartleby (1970 film)|Bartleby]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Bibi Andersson]], 83, Swedish actress (''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'', ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'', ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]''), complications from a stroke. | + | |
| - | *[[Seymour Cassel]], 84, American actor (''[[Faces (film)|Faces]]'', ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'', ''[[Dick Tracy (1990 film)|Dick Tracy]]''), complications from Alzheimer's disease. | + | |
| - | *[[Agnès Varda]], 90, French film director (''[[La Pointe Courte]]'', ''[[Cléo from 5 to 7]]'', [[Black Panthers (film)|''Black Panthers'']]), cancer. | + | |
| - | *[[Scott Walker (singer)|Scott Walker]], 76, American-born British singer-songwriter ([[The Walker Brothers]]), composer and record producer. | + | |
| - | *[[Larry Cohen]], 77, American film director (''[[It's Alive (1974 film)|It's Alive]]'', ''[[The Stuff]]'') and screenwriter (''[[Phone Booth (film)|Phone Booth]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Andre Williams]], 82, American R&B singer and songwriter ("[[Shake a Tail Feather]]"), colon cancer. | + | |
| - | *[[Dick Dale]], 81, American guitarist and [[surf music]] pioneer ("[[Misirlou#Later versions|Misirlou]]"), heart failure. | + | |
| - | *[[Okwui Enwezor]], 55, Nigerian art critic and writer, cancer. | + | |
| - | *[[Raymond Donnez]], 76, French music producer and conductor ("[[Standing in the Rain]]"). | + | |
| - | *[[Hal Blaine]], 90, American [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]] drummer (''[[Psychedelic Percussion]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Carolee Schneemann]], 79, American artist. | + | |
| - | *[[Keith Flint]], 49, English singer ([[The Prodigy]]), suicide. | + | |
| - | *[[André Previn]], 89, German-born American composer (''[[My Fair Lady (film)|My Fair Lady]]'', "[[Executive Party]]"). | + | |
| - | *[[Gillian Freeman]], 89, British author (''[[The Undergrowth of Literature]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Mark Hollis (musician)|Mark Hollis]], 64, English singer-songwriter ([[Talk Talk]]). | + | |
| - | *[[Stanley Donen]], 94, American film director (''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'', ''[[Bedazzled (1967 film)|Bedazzled]]''), heart failure. | + | |
| - | *[[Alessandro Mendini]], 87, Italian architect and designer (''[[Proust Armchair]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Lonnie Simmons]], American record producer ("[[Don't Stop the Music (Yarbrough and Peoples song)|Don't Stop the Music]]"). | + | |
| - | *[[Karl Lagerfeld]], 85, German fashion designer ([[Chanel]]). | + | |
| - | *[[Ken Nordine]], 98, American voice-over and recording artist (''[[Word Jazz]]'', ''[[Son of Word Jazz]]'', ''[[Love Words]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Bruno Ganz]], 77, Swiss actor (''[[Nosferatu the Vampyre]]''), colorectal cancer. | + | |
| - | *[[Tomi Ungerer]], 87, French illustrator (''[[Fornicon]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Albert Finney]], 82, English actor (''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]'', ''[[Erin Brockovich (film)|Erin Brockovich]]'', ''[[Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)|Murder on the Orient Express]]''), chest infection. | + | |
| - | *[[Marcel Azzola]], 91, French accordionist ([[Jacques Brel]]). | + | |
| - | *[[Dick Miller]], 90, American actor (''[[Gremlins]]'', ''[[The Little Shop of Horrors]]'', ''[[Death Race 2000]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[James Ingram]], 66, American R&B singer-songwriter ("[[Yah Mo B There]]"), brain cancer. | + | |
| - | *[[Michel Legrand]], 86, French composer ("[[The Windmills of Your Mind]]"), conductor and jazz pianist. | + | |
| - | *[[Florence Knoll]], 101, American architect and furniture designer. | + | |
| - | *[[Dušan Makavejev]], 86, Serbian film director (''[[Man Is Not a Bird]]'', ''[[W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism]]'', ''[[Sweet Movie]]''). | + | |
| - | *[[Jonas Mekas]], 96, Lithuanian-born American film director and poet. | + | |
| - | *[[Edwin Birdsong]] ("[[Rapper Dapper Snapper]]"), 77, American funk keyboardist. | + | |
| - | *[[Nathan Glazer]], 95, American sociologist. | + | |
| - | *[[Reggie Young]], 82, American musician ([[American Sound Studio|The Memphis Boys]]). | + | |
| - | *[[Francine du Plessix Gray]], 88, Polish-born American author and critic (''[[At Home With the Marquis de Sade: A Life]]''). | + | |
| - | ==See also== | + | == Release history == |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2018]] | + | |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2017]] | + | Initially, the film had particular difficulty finding a distributor. Frank Zappa tried to interest [[United Artists]], the company that released ''[[200 Motels]]'', but they declined. Other studios followed United Artists' lead, fearing that Zappa's "cinematic style" had lost considerable appeal in 1970s pop culture, and also declined to distribute the film. |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2016]] | + | |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2015]] | + | Several European distributors told Zappa that there might be interest if the running time was cut from its original 168-minute length. The film was cut to 90 minutes, but still, there were no takers. |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2014]] | + | |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2013]] | + | Even after Bruce Bickford's sequences won first prize at a French animated film competition, there was no interest. Eventually Zappa took it upon himself to distribute the film independently, via his own production company, Intercontinental Absurdities. The film ran 24 hours a day at the Victoria Theater in New York City. (This can be clearly seen in the opening credits to the film, "Eaten Alive," partly filmed in New York at the time ''Baby Snakes'' was playing. You can clearly see the theater marquee in said opening credits.) It made a handsome profit. |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2012]] | + | |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2011]] | + | The film, in its original version, was released on [[VHS]] tape via mail order directly from Zappa until the mid-90s when the double-tape set eventually "sold out" and further replication runs were not fulfilled. The 90 minute-version was briefly made available on [[home video]] in the 1980s also. Finally, after many years of being "out of print" ''Baby Snakes'' was released on [[DVD]] on December 9, 2003 by Eagle Vision United States with a new [[5.1]] [[Surround]] mix. This was the first time that the film was made commercially available to the public at large rather than through limited mail order directly from Zappa. |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2010]] | + | |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2009]] | + | == Soundtrack == |
| - | * [[Deaths in 2008]] | + | |
| + | The [[Baby Snakes (soundtrack)|soundtrack album]] was first released on [[Gramophone record|vinyl]] in 1983 as a [[picture disc]], and subsequently on [[compact disc]] with different artwork. | ||
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Baby Snakes is a film which includes footage from Frank Zappa's 1977 Halloween concert at New York City's Palladium Theater, backstage antics from the crew, and stop motion clay animation from award-winning animator Bruce Bickford.
Release history
Initially, the film had particular difficulty finding a distributor. Frank Zappa tried to interest United Artists, the company that released 200 Motels, but they declined. Other studios followed United Artists' lead, fearing that Zappa's "cinematic style" had lost considerable appeal in 1970s pop culture, and also declined to distribute the film.
Several European distributors told Zappa that there might be interest if the running time was cut from its original 168-minute length. The film was cut to 90 minutes, but still, there were no takers.
Even after Bruce Bickford's sequences won first prize at a French animated film competition, there was no interest. Eventually Zappa took it upon himself to distribute the film independently, via his own production company, Intercontinental Absurdities. The film ran 24 hours a day at the Victoria Theater in New York City. (This can be clearly seen in the opening credits to the film, "Eaten Alive," partly filmed in New York at the time Baby Snakes was playing. You can clearly see the theater marquee in said opening credits.) It made a handsome profit.
The film, in its original version, was released on VHS tape via mail order directly from Zappa until the mid-90s when the double-tape set eventually "sold out" and further replication runs were not fulfilled. The 90 minute-version was briefly made available on home video in the 1980s also. Finally, after many years of being "out of print" Baby Snakes was released on DVD on December 9, 2003 by Eagle Vision United States with a new 5.1 Surround mix. This was the first time that the film was made commercially available to the public at large rather than through limited mail order directly from Zappa.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was first released on vinyl in 1983 as a picture disc, and subsequently on compact disc with different artwork.
