Please Discuss

  • Thread starter Thread starter dragonworks
  • Start date Start date
Zappa was a genius who got in his own way. He wanted to be taken seriously as a composer, then wrote an amazing piece of music and called it "I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth". A brilliant satirist who had the balls to call them like he saw them and made no apologies.
 
The years with Flo & Eddie were ... weird ... I mean weirder than previous stuff. I love Fillmore and 200 Motels, but can't listen to them too often.
 
I never could listen to Zappa. I appreciate his talents, his art, but he left me standing at the door before I could even get it. Maybe I was too young and should give it another go.
 
this has to be one of the funniest albums I have heard. I put here because of the hook thread, and the lyrical content thread and the offensive thread. I can see where people might find this record rather offensive.
 
The live at the Fillmore album was actually my first exposure to Zappa - and it appealed to me musically and to my warped sense of humor. I then saw him in concert opening for the Mahavishnu Orchestra (I think 1973), was totally blown away by the amazing skill of his musicians (and his compositional skill), and became a lifelong fan. I must own at least 20of his albums (mostly on CD) and a have about 4-5 videos of his various bands performing live (and naturally I have Zappa does Zappa - it's nice that Dweezil is keeping Frnak's music alive). Clearly he did not make an effort to be commerically appealing - and much of his music is an acquired taste - but he was an amazing composer.

Even if someone is not a fan of his compositional skills - to see a Zappa band (any configuration) live is an amazing experiance, we are talking world class musicians playing incredibly complex arrangements (and not a sheet of music on stage)!!!!!
 
Zappa was a musical genius, I saw Frank live Halloween night front row at StonyBrook University, never seen anything since that compared. He was an extreme disciplinarian and it showed in his performances.
 
There are certain artists that I like on levels beyond their music, or you might say, in spite of their music. I'm not into the Ramones at all, but Douglas Colvin's autobiography is one of the most gripping I've ever read so when Greg goes on about the band, I'm all ears. I only like 2 songs that Neil Young has been involved with but I have his autobiography and when documentaries involving him are on, I'll watch. I find him interesting. I feel similarly about the Doors, Mott the Hoople and a load of others.
Frank Zappa kind of fell into that category for me. I listened to some of his stuff stoned as a young man, had a laugh, didn't really go for it, but I found him and his concepts rivetting so I'd read biogs, interviews and watch documentaries.
Then I bought "Piquantique".
I had just come off a solid 2 year jazz fusion kick where I had bought loads of albums and immersed myself in a lot of new stuff and that year I was solidly into Irish folk & folk rock when I read about Zappa acquiring bootlegs of his gigs and putting them out as official albums coz he was tired of bootlegs. The sheer audacity of and humour in the situation tickled me so much and when I heard Jean Luc Ponty was in the band on violin and George Duke was on keyboards and they played jazz rock, I thought, "I've got to hear this album !"
I wasn't disappointed.
I love the album. The thing that really stands out is that although it probably is really complex and it's unclear how much is written and how much is improvised, it hangs together so well. It has wild moments, funny moments, wonderfully melodic moments, baffling moments, they're quiet, they rock out in a great piss take way and it's accessible all the way. Some of the titles are so stupid like "Father O'blivion" and "Mershi Duween", which I incorporated into my phraseology for a while in the early 90s.
 
Other than the "...don't you eat that yellow snow" song that I heard on the radio all the time as a kid, the fillmore album was my first introduction to Zappa. I bought it based on the version of Happy Together alone after a room mate in college played it for me.

I love the guitar sounds on that album. Actually, I like the way all the instruments sound. There was so much cool shit played at that venue in 1970-71...almost every band I've heard live recordings of from that place sound their best. I have a bootleg somewhere of the beach boys and the dead playing together there around that time. The Allman bros. of course...hmmm...many others.

Anyway, I like a lot of the music on this album, but I really don't care for the vocals or the lyrics at all. For me, Zappa is decidedly unfunny. I found myself often thinking, "shut up and play your guitar", then I discovered he had a record of that exact name. I checked it out and didn't like it, go figure.

The only other thing of his I own is Live at Roxy (?). Same deal...awesome guitar sounds with what I consider obnoxious and goofy singing.
 
I loved the Flo & Eddie years but then again i'm a Flo & Eddie fan.
Complex and sometimes overly complicated music that often missed it's potential audience is how I'd decribe Zappa's stuff.
Classic lines though...
"Just like a penguin in bondage - boing"
"Billy was a mountain, Ethyl was a tree growing out of his shoulder"
"Don't you go to the yellow snow"
"Ethyl, we're going on vacation"
& anything with mudshark even near it.
Simply because that was my stage of development when I encountered him/it/them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top