Who IS Frank Zappa

Lifeofprog wrote: I think the best place to start is FREAK OUT.This is the album that was a MAJOR influence on the Beatles SGT. PEPPER.The album itself like many of Zappa's is a social commentary on California society as well as a heavy critique of corporate America.The production is ragged,the music sometimes out of time and tune...all elements of the best music that came out of the 60's! lol Zappa is very difficult to get into initially because of his non-commitment to commercial music and his incredibly complex and off beat harmonic musical mind.He is an incedible guitar player and a great intellect.In my op' Zappa,Mike Oldfield and Brian Wilson can be considered the grand old men of symphonic rock

I had always suspected that Freak Out might have had an influence on Pepper, but part of me always thought that Zappa was too obscure at the time to influence much of anybody.  So I did a quick search on Google and did indeed find a reference to Paul saying that Pepper was "our Freak Out", referring to Zappa's album.  Interesting.

And welcome to the forum!

Zappa until 1968 suffered from the Velvet Underground syndrome. Nobody bought his records, but the few that did all started a band themselves.

Edited by HarbouringTheSoul - October 19 2012 at 12:00

Yes, today is the sad day. It amazes me that almost 25 albums (not including box sets like Greasy Love Songs, MOFO, or Lumpy Money) have been released since his passing, most of which are great, many including previously unreleased material, and should be in anyone's Zappa collection. At least 3-4 more are supposed to be out within the next year or so, including the Roxy performances, "The Lost Episodes Vol. II", and "Finer Moments", and it doesn't look like there's going to be a shortage of new stuff any time soon.

Zappa was one of the most diverse and incredible composers in the history of modern music.  I guess you already figured that out (in writing).  Now, from the 60's - 'Uncle Meat' is an adventurous double album showcasing many different styles and approaches the man undertook with his band of classy (if often drugged out) musicians (The Mothers of Invention).  From the 70's - The Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka are highly recommended first up.  From there, most of his 70's work is impressive (if a bit crass toward the end of the decade).  The 80's, hmmmm, I'd say 'Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch', which tackles his brand of skewed pop and complex instrumental extravaganzae, again selecting a host of top musicians at the time.  From my point of view, you had to be a fantastic 'master-of-your-instrument' to perform with this man. I currently have 31 of Zappa's albums and find each have much to enjoy, even if some are more inconsistent than others.

I got Orchestral Favorites in the mail yesterday, I forgot how awesome that album is. Never owned a hard copy, and I got the reissue, along with a bunch of others. I'll be updating the FZ 2012 reissues thread soon.

presdoug wrote: Hate to say this, but despite his great image as a "merciless critic of the right", Frank Zappa  was a card carrying, dues paying member of the NRA. Oh, well, nobody is perfect. He still had a unique invective.

I prefer to think that Zappa was God.

What kind of a man would write these 3 albums in a row?

darkshade wrote: What kind of a man would write these 3 albums in a row? Conceptually, these all run together as a trilogy. The conceptual continuity is all over Frank's music, but these three are linked by the events surrounding Lather, the "in between tracks" found on Lather and Shiek, and you can even see that somewhere in the beginning of Lather, is a short version of Little Green Rosetta, and Joe's Garage ends with A Little Green Rosetta, longer and with a lot of crazy stuff.  It's a 5+ hour listen, but how do you guys feel about this? I thought about it earlier, and thought it was a cool enough idea to present to the PA Zappa fans.

Guess I'm going to have to do this now.

Also, I've been in love with The Adventures of Greggery Peccary lately. What a solid track.


Edited by The Truth - January 03 2013 at 11:40

Never thought of those three as a trilogy, but since there is a certain common thread running through almost all of his albums, and since he treated his albums as part of some big macrostructure anyway, it's not far fetched at all to see them as a trio.

I will take this opportunity, though, to "call BS" on Joe's Garage a little bit.  I can't help but feel like the concept/storyline was just kind of grafted on after the fact, and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to me anyway.  A lot of the songs were recycled from older days (e.g. "Stick it Out" from the old 1971 "Sofa" suite, "A Token of My Extreme" from the Roxy era, "Green Rosetta" from Lather, etc), and that also suggests to me that he was reaching a bit.  Of course, it IS Frank Zappa, who couldn't make a bad album if he tried.  So it's still a good album, and it does seem to work on some level, both as a rock album and as a story line.   Still, there are too many random detours (Sy Borg? wtf is that?) to really remain convincing to me.