The Multi-faceted Frank Zappa

[Guybrush]

The Multi-Faceted Frank Zappa



Out of all American popular artists, Frank Zappa is certainly the most musically interesting. His bands (The Mothers of Invention and later hired guns) were always amazing and Zappa pushed them to an excellence that was virtually unknown at the time. He was also extremely creative and prolific and overwhelmingly has the most interesting discography of any one artist I can think of. He released 62 albums during his lifetime and his trust has released a similar volume meaning his discography currently sits at something like 120-130 releases.

In there, you can find things like the poppy doo-wop of Any Way the Wind Blows, the brilliantly fun and almost childish Let's Make the Water Turn Black, the proto-punk attitude of My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, the impenetrable avantgarde fusion of It Must Be a Camel, the melodic jazz of 20 Small Cigars or the blissful tones of Blessed Relief, the catchy soul of Village of the Sun, the blues of Advance Romance, the classic rock of Wonderful Wino, the banal humour of Titties 'n Beer, the sinister dreaminess of Filthy Habits, the bizarreness of Sofa no. 2, the virtuosity of Inca Roads, the frenetic electronica of G-spot Tornado, the Mongolian throat singing of Dance Me This, the London Symphony Orchestra's drunken horn section on Strictly Genteel and the beautiful modern classical reiterations of earlier compositions like The Dog Breath Variations and Uncle Meat on what's considered his last official release, The Yellow Shark (feat. Ensemble Modern).

Outside of music, he appeared intelligent, confident, unafraid and uncompromising. He was outspoken on things like the commercialization of music and censorship and had plans on both having his own talk show and running for president. Unfortunately, none of those things came to fruition and he died in 1993 at 53 years of age from prostate cancer.

I wanted to create a thread to honour and celebrate what's possibly the greatest artist to ever grace our stereos. So please, use this place to share with us your favorites out of all things Zappa!

[Guybrush]

The above took a little while to write and so I'll just share this very quickly

I LOVE the late version of The Mothers seen here with George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ruth Underwood and others. Here they're playing Inca Roads, a song that contains a lot of typical Zappa-isms like internal references (python boots? guacamole queen?), extended guitar soloing, overall exquisite virtuosity (check out Ruth's percussion runs here) and a composition that features the same set of notes played at different tempos, etc.

It is also absolutely brilliant!

[Lexi Darling]

There's no doubt the man was a musical genius. I adore his instrumental albums, Hot Rats and The Grand Wazoo have such unique and colorful compositions. He was also an extremely underrated guitarist as a whole.

I'm not quite as keen on his lyrical music, but I certainly respect him for going against the grain and doing something different.

[Rubber Soul]

Frank Zappa, who happened to have been born in Baltimore (we like to brag about that here) was also my first concert back in 1976. Crack the Sky opened for him at the Capital Centre and between the sets, we were treated to a showing of Baby Snakes. It was a phenomenal show and I never saw a concert afterwards that topped him (and I saw Led Zeppelin a year later).

[Guybrush]

There's no doubt the man was a musical genius. I adore his instrumental albums, Hot Rats and The Grand Wazoo have such unique and colorful compositions. He was also an extremely underrated guitarist as a whole.

I'm not quite as keen on his lyrical music, but I certainly respect him for going against the grain and doing something different.

If you like his instrumental music, perhaps you'll appreciate this trio's cover of Let's Make the Water Turn Black

Frank Zappa, who happened to have been born in Baltimore (we like to brag about that here) was also my first concert back in 1976. Crack the Sky opened for him at the Capital Centre and between the sets, we were treated to a showing of Baby Snakes. It was a phenomenal show and I never saw a concert afterwards that topped him (and I saw Led Zeppelin a year later).

Oh man, if I could go back in time to watch ONE show, Frank Zappa would be a likely pick for me. The Baby Snakes concert videos look like so much fun. It'd be hard to pick between that and the latest version of the mothers for me.

[Nimbly9]

Great thread. Zappa is essentially responsible for two of my favorite artists, Patrick O'Hearn and George Duke, really taking off and finding their wings.  He really could do anything, even wonky Chick Corea Elektric Band-sounding fusion on 1986's Jazz From Hell.

[Lexi Darling]

Oh yeah, I forgot Patrick O'Hearn played with him. Kind of an interesting connection.

[Guybrush]

Great thread. Zappa is essentially responsible for two of my favorite artists, Patrick O'Hearn and George Duke, really taking off and finding their wings.  He really could do anything, even wonky Chick Corea Elektric Band-sounding fusion on 1986's Jazz From Hell.

Thanks, mate!

I love me some Chick, but this one's too much fun

[Janszoon]

Out of all American popular artists, Frank Zappa is certainly the most musically interesting.

I'll be watching this space for any support for this claim. 

[Guybrush]

Out of all American popular artists, Frank Zappa is certainly the most musically interesting.

I'll be watching this space for any support for this claim. 

There's a lot of it here's a little slice:


Frank's German songs

I've discovered a couple that nearly seem related, but maybe there are more? Let me know!

Frank obviously thinks the German language is fun (he's right) and there are some songs with verses sung in German. The first appearance I know of is Sofa no. 2, presumably the piece of furniture that graces the cover.

It is wonderfully weird and goes like this:

The second one is the much more crude (but fun) Stick It Out from the later Joe's Garage. It's about sex with a robot and also contains the line "don't get no jizzm on that sofa sofa", first in German, then English.

Might he be referencing the earlier sofa?

[Janszoon]

Those tracks are definitely what I think of when I think of Zappa. To me it always sounds like ordinary music with extra noodling and jokey vocals. Where is all his alleged weird stuff? I'll keep listening, but it's been about 30 years of fruitless searching for me.

[Lisnaholic]

I hope a 120-130 album discography is not going to stop you from reviewing each album for us, Guybrush !

I'm not a big fan of the jokey vocals, and this (instrumental) track falls squarely into Janszoon's description of "ordinary music with extra noodling", but it's a real favourite of mine: a relatively relaxed workout from various soloists who all work to keep the pot bubbling along with no low points:-

[Guybrush]

Those tracks are definitely what I think of when I think of Zappa. To me it always sounds like ordinary music with extra noodling and jokey vocals. Where is all his alleged weird stuff? I'll keep listening, but it's been about 30 years of fruitless searching for me.

I was a little hesitant to reply because if you've been searching for 30 years without finding a weird Zappa song, then maybe you should focus on a different aspect or quality. We have different ideas of weird and I don't wanna be tasked with solving this 30 years quest for you. It might be impossible Also, I don't know how imporant weird should be. He has great songs.

To me, a song written from the perspective of a couch with soulful vocals mixed with Frank's german is weird. I can't think of another artist who would write, make and produce that song. I also think the description "ordinary music with extra noodling" seems a little dismissive. Depending on what you mean by noodling, if analyzed, it might contain a lot of what I think of as weird, like Tina Turner & The Ikettes sung part in Montana or the beat that's just a little out of tempo on Catholic Girls or pretty much the entirety of OP-mentioned It Must Be A Camel.

What you describe as noodling was probably also written down in musical notation as that was his method. He's by far not the only rock musician to write notation, but he played around with it a lot in a way I haven't heard much elsewhere in rock music - like mirroring a run of notes or reusing them in different tempos etc. I think these are ideas that might come to someone who writes a lot and is really comfortable in that medium, but not to someone who does things by ear. The most famous example of such creativity is, of course, The Black Page (so titled because it's sheet music so densely packed with notes it appears as a black page). So I think he brings a kind of composer's creativity to rock music which had not been seen or heard before.

His most dense music may be his synclavier compositions or modern classical music, like The Girl In The Magnesium Dress which he wrote, but didn't think humans could or would perform. To me, that piece of music is weird (though I much prefer this), but to you it might just be orchestral music with extra noodling. If so, it's not like I'm determined to prove you otherwise

Because she's an absolute treasure, I'll sign off with Ruth Underwood telling us some of her thoughts while playing The Black Page on piano.

edit:

Lisna, thanks for your reply! I have heard Zappa in New York, but still am not very familiar with the song you posted. Isn't it wonderful? You can be a Zappa fan for many years and still get recommendations that are relatively unknown to you

About reviewing his entire discography.. I'm sure his post-humous discography is ripe with treasures and I have heard some of it, but I'm not really familiar with even all of his studio albums yet. So you may have to wait a while!

[Comus]

The thing about Zappa is that he was pivotal in shaping music the way it is today given his influence over a lot of other very influential musicians. It is also worth noting that a lot of what Zappa did that was "weird" was very meta, like making a doo wop album essentially lampooning the genre he was quite fond of, and playing with lots of different genres, experimenting with Double albums and Concept albums (or both with Freak Out!) before they were really a "big thing". Weird is a subjective term, my enjoyment from Zappa comes from the awesome music, history and humour (when applicable)

[Psy-Fi]

I posted this in the Frank Zappa Appreciation thread over at MB back in 2015 (sure doesn't seem like it was 8 years ago) so I'll just copy & paste it here...

I have around 40 Zappa bootlegs (mostly on vinyl) and around 60 of his official releases (about half of those on vinyl) a few CD's and a few VHS tapes and DVD's, along with a couple of tour shirts from shows I saw and a couple of 60's Mothers of Invention concert posters. I've also seen The Grandmothers and The GrandMothers of Invention, and have some albums and CD's and a tour shirt from The Grandmothers. Over the past 15 years, I've also had the opportunity to chat with several members of the original Mothers of Invention as well as several members of Zappa's solo bands from the 70's & 80's.

Needless to say, I'm a fan.