FZ
Frank Zappa died 25 years ago today. Hard to believe.
He died fairly young--52 years of age--but was incredibly prolific. Pretty much all he did in his adult life was music (and various art projects). Compose, record, perform. While he was alive he put out over sixty albums, and since his death, close to fifty more have been released. He recorded just about every Zappa concert, so there was plenty of material available.
He had no single style, beyond being different from most mainstream pop. His work included straight R&B, rock 'n' roll, jazz, modern classical and lots of things in-between. Different fans like different parts of his oeuvre, so it would seem pointless to choose his top ten albums. But I figured I might as well go for it.
So here they are, in chronological order:
Absolutely Free (1967)
We're Only in It for the Money (1968)
Uncle Meat (1969)
Hot Rats (1969)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)
Over-Nite Sensation (1973)
Apostrophe (1974)
Studio Tan (1978)
Joe's Garage (all three acts, now sold together) (1979)
I guess I go for the more poppy stuff, though that's a relative standard with Zappa.
I also tend toward his early stuff. He would probably disapprove. But while Frank would brag about the superior chops of his later bands, that was never as important as what they were playing.
posted by LAGuy @ 10:00 AM
3 Comments:
I find it interesting that Zappa's music is rarely categorized as "progressive rock". There isn't a fixed definition of prog, but surely any definition would mention long tracks (sometimes subdivided in a structure reminiscent of European classical music), with complex time signatures, harmonies rarely seen in a rock context, and virtuoso musicianship. Indeed, some of Zappa's pieces were written out as sheet music before being performed.
Yet in my experience, Zappa fans rarely care for the great prog-rock bands, and prog-rock afficionados rarely care for Zappa. Bill Martin, an eccentric musicologist, devoted a whole section of his book "proving" that Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd are not true prog-rock.
I suspect the reason is cultural. The progressive rock movement emerged from psychedelic rock, and its most famous proponents really believed that the purpose of their music was to say something (although the message was more often mystical than political). The message might be optimistic (Yes, Procol Harum, Renaissance) or pessimistic (King Crimson, ELP, Van der Graaf Generator) -- but either way, the message is intended earnestly. Prog is firmly in the Romantic tradition, where the musician mediates a transcendent experience to the listener, almost in a liturgical fashion.
Zappa, on the other hand, was the ultimate cynic when it came to music having any deep meaning or message.
So Yes, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa might all have written an eight-minute instrumental piece in 7/8 time featuring electric guitars, mellotrons, and sitars. But Yes would name the piece "Revelation of the Dawn", Crimson would name it "The Starless Night," and Zappa would name it "My Poop Smells Bad."
I am the Slime with Don Pardo would have to ne my favorite track
Prog rock grew out of psychedelic rock, whereas Zappa came from an earlier era, and when the hippies appeared he mostly mocked them.
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