Posted on 06/19/2008 6:36:10 AM PDT by CharlieOK1
I am not really into the music scene of today, as I believe that everything that is touted as 'new' or 'the next big thing' always ends up being something somebody else already did. I have lately found myself digging back into music that really was innovative and ground-breaking. A lot of which was done before I was even around (I am 30). For example, Steely Dan, King Crimson, Yes, David Bowie...
I have always been fascinated by Frank Zappa, as he is basically universally thought of as a musical genius, but just have never really dove into his musical catalog as I really don't know where to start.
I agree. He created a lot of really excellent stuff.
But, of course, all of that (like your comments) is purely subjective, personal opinion, without a single shred of objectivity.
I disagree.
There is such thing as an objective standard of craftsmanship in any craft, including the craft of being a recording artist.
In some aspects of that craft, Zappa excelled: he was innovative and had an impressive knowledge of musical theory as well as being a technical master of his instruments.
In some aspects: i.e. shaping ideas into a coherent whole - he was not. There are songs of his whose guitar solos will be considered important compositions in years to come. None of his lyrics will be, and few of his songs, as wholes, will be considered as such.
In fact, outside of his circle of devoted fans, few of his songs are even recognizable to the general public.
BTW, I don't think variety is unfocused - variety for variety's sake is.
I had the opportunity to attend a forum put on by Nebraska Wesleyan University where Zappa appeared to oppose a local chapter of the PMRC. If memory serves, (this was in ‘85 or ‘86 when I was attending the University of Nebraska at Lincoln) Zappa ran verbal and mental rings around the other panel members and the members of the audience who opposed his viewpoint. It was very entertaining (lots of laughs from the miscreants like me who came to see Zappa as I recall).
He was very gracious and hung out afterwards to meet fans. I was lucky enough to shake his hand and get his autograph on my vinyl copy of “Joe’s Garage”. I sure wish I could find that thing. I think one of my college buddies absconded with it.
“I think one of my college buddies absconded with it.”
Shoot, I lost more than half my vinyl in college. Bunch of d*mn thieves. :-)
Oh my! another Zappa thread!
Indeed. But it was a natural eccentricity, honestly acquired.
As you pointed out, he did not approve of drinking or drugging.
Despite his clean living, he tragically died young.
The famous French conductor (and modern composer) Pierre Boulez has conducted some of Zappa's work on record. It's a very interesting look at his work in a different context - like his own London Symphony recordings.
Zappa once uttered a timeless axiom that only improves with age as I see today's mindless, spoiled, over-indulged and yet under-nurtured youth (including twenty-and thirty-somethings) with their incessant need for attention exhibited in their endless facination with themselves manifest by the one-ups-man-shipping each other by mutilating and defacing their bodies.
I paraphrase Zappa as he addressed the crowd at one of his concerts: You all think you're showing your individualism by the way you dress, but each one of you is in fact wearing a uniform.
Those are pretty much the 'essential' Zappa albums IMO.
L
I didn’t say he was an unfocused composer or instrumentalist.
He was an unfocused artist.
_______
So an unfocused artist can be a peerless instrumentalist, create focused compositions, and play his instrument in a focused manner? So his lack of focus as an artist had no bearing on the art he actually produced? On what possible basis, then, do you suggest he was an unfocused artist? And if his lack of focus as an artist did not impact the artistic product, why then even mention it?
I think these apparent contradictions stem from your attempt to make the subjective objective.
I got “Freak Out” from the record club by accident. One album is doo-wop, the other disc is just way out there.
Hot Rats has some good jazzy numbers. Don’t overlook “Willie the Pimp” on the “Zapped” WB promo album, with vocals by Beefheart. Zappa wails on riff after riff through 9 minutes or so.
Overnight Sensation is great, just a little risque.
“Movin’ to Montana soon, gonna be a mental toss flycoon (Yippie Yi Yo Kai-Yay)”
"Peaches En Regalia" called. It wants to kill you.
Check out the old Genesis with Peter Gabriel from the 70’s (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), old Wishbone Ash, Gentle Giant, Blind Faith, Cream, The Nazz, Todd Rundgren, John Mayall (blues) to name a few.
Greatest album ever.
Yep, ‘Hot Rats’ it is!
His best album, not a dud track, not a fallow minute. Inventive and tight as a DA in turns. Hot zoots....!?
But hardly representative...but then what is?
On this basis his work was the equivalent of an extremely talented writer who wrote a large number of well-written fragments of stories - rarely finishing any complete story - and strung the fragments together randomly.
You would say that despite the beauty of his prose and his command of language, his ability to create coherent naratives was lacking.
I would compare him with Franz Kafka in some ways, who never completed a single novel and only a few short stories. The vast bulk of his work consists of brilliantly written but unfinished pieces.
I really like the bands I mentioned because they have a reputation for working with the very best musicians around.
Honestly, I couldn't play a note if I had to, but I enjoy experiencing what many people consider 'The Best'.
Actually they were real kind.
That’s what I love about Zappa, and King Crimson and Steely Dan. They surrounded themselves with top-notch musicians in order to make the best possible sounds they could.
I love FZ and am a fan of all sorts of wierdo music (any other No New York fans out there?). Even I couldn’t sit through Thing-Fish!
I believe Elliot Randall played the solo on “Reelin”.
Baxter does play one of the greatest solos on “Midnight Cruiser”.
Actually, you prove my point.
"Peaches En Regalia" is one of his few songs, as I said, that is considered an important composition as a whole.
Yet those groups who perform it are usually jam bands and jazz ensembles that use the song as a starting point for their own improvisations - replicating it note for note is not the point.
And the song, in its best known version, is - unlike the bulk of Zappa's 70's work - brief, complete in itself and tightly realized. Every part of it works toward creating a beautiful whole.
For Zappa that was an exception, not a rule.
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