Zappa Plays Zappa

Admiteddly, for me, my life with Zappa started some 34 years ago ... with 200 Motels ... and not the movie either! My roomie used a song from it on his play at Santa Barbara City College (Mystery Roach was the cut) ... and I was hooked. And I thought it was hilarious that the 2 guys singing it at the front were the singers from The Turtles ... at least you knew they could sing!

 

So I picked up Chunga's Revenge ... why? (You gonna love this !!!) ... a small band Babe Ruth with an unbelievably great lead singer (Janita Haan) played "King Kong" on their first album.

 

Right after this Overnight Sensation came up ... there was no going back ... period!

 

And I had to get Apostrophe, his next album .... and then Roxy and Elsewhere came up ... ohhh my gawdddd ...

 

30 years later ... and even after the man's sad departure from our sights ... there is no comparison between any band's music ... and Frank Zappa ... he is, by far and away ... one of the greatest American composers of this time and probably the 20th century ... I mean ... who do you have? Aaron Copland, some Gershwin ... who else? The rest is all popular music and has little compositional value ... really ... let's not fool ourselves and consider popular music in this area ... this is not a popularity contest -- the main reason why a lot of classical music in America can not gain ... some respect!

 

So you get to see his son ... play this stuff ... and you better be prepared ... for this ain't just a rock show ... this is music at its best ... and it is astonishing to see that ... the music is as fresh and exciting today as it was 30 years ago ... and you know what? It is positively astounding to see this on the stage ... and sorry ... Pavarotti and Rampal will never come close to this excitement and level of music ... ever!

 

From the beginning you are going to see the most unbelievable combination of music talents ... and how they work together so well ... probably do so better now than they did then with Frank himself ... but in a way it is possible that time has soothed this stuff some ... but ... all it takes is 5 minutes of Napoleon Brock Murphy before you realize ... this is the real thing ... this is it.

 

As you watch into the 2nd CD/DVD and get into the guest members, you realize one very important thing ... how special and strong the influence of this stuff is on a lot of progressive and metal music ... by the time you see Steve Vai ... you will comprehend the likes of a lot of bands ... and how they learned when they were kids.

 

Perhaps most astounding in watching this ,.. is realizing that ... I'm not bored. And even though here comes Terri talking about the Ramones (please ... !!!! ) ... at least he is up to the task, and you can see why he played with Frank so many times ... master musician is the word for it ... and you can say that all of these people here are excellent and then some.

 

I doubt that any concert will be half as good as this CD/DVD ... and unless you are in NY, LA or Seattle ... the chances that you will ever see something like this are probably next to none.

 

Do yourself a favor ... check out where so much music came from and why so many artists clamor and still say that Frank was the best ... it's not even close! Not even close!