NC b/c there's hardly
Anything fun to do
Since they made
Music illegal

I've only heard one Frank Zappa song and it was completely by accident. Didn't even know it was Zappa until years later. I was at a Mötley Crüe show on their tour supporting Girls, Girls, Girls. Right before their walk-on music, "The Stripper," an odd song was playing overhead about a groupies trying to get backstage. Didn't really think too much about it until months later after I had bought a bootleg cassette of the show and there it was again. The song sounded too composed and clever for it to be a Crüe B-side (and by that point I had amassed quite a collection of bootleg shows so I was aware of all of their rare and unreleased material) but I couldn't figure out who was the composer being that it was pre-Shazam/Internet-as-we-know-it-era. I remained in ignorance for years - some will say it's ongoing - until I talked about it on early Facebook. An ex-Crüe roadie saw my post and told me it was "Crew Slut" from Joe's Garage. That song is OK, but it's püre nostalgia for me. I will refrain from voting but the outlook ain't so good.

it looks just like a telefunken u47

zircona1 wrote: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:49 pm He's got a bunch of instrumental stuff that I find boring, but Freak Out, Absolutely Free, Joe's Garage, Weasels Ripped My Flesh and the You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore albums are all enough for a N/C vote from me. His autobiography is pretty interesting as well.

Wood Goblin wrote: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:17 pm
The anti-PMRC stuff was not crap, but his lifelong misogyny negates it.

I could be wrong, but I always assumed he was saying stuff like that on record because he thought 'love songs' were bullshit, and/or he was just trying to get a rise out of people.

See, exact opposite for me. Mothers-era instrumentals are pretty good, but anything with lyrics is guaranteed either stupid or childishly provocational. Provocation isn’t always satire. The desire to get a rise out of people for its own sake isn’t a good thing.

The feeling i get is that Frank Zappa is a mediocre novelty song writer with a Napoleon complex. It’s basically just Snoopy vs the Red Baron and Ahab the Arab, with dick jokes. I see no hidden depths or much in the way of biting satire. I like that he hates cops and hippies, but despite his genius label, his music never rises above what he’s parodying, whether that is Sgt Peppers, Disco, Jazz, or Hair Metal. Imagine if Weird Al kept insisting that he was a singular genius, without peer, and he played 15 minute accordian solos. Zappa’s guitar playing is accomplished, but soulless and self indulgent. The tunes are forgettable, not one melody or riff that I remember, and I don’t hear the challenging progressive elements that I’m expecting, just an awful lot of marimbas. I can almost hear him driving himself crazy trying to be clever and failing, and then getting bitter and angry. I would blame his fans, but he loves himself so much, and he’s such a smug prick, that he sets expectations that he doesn’t come near achieving. The best I can say for him is that when he’s not doing his worst to make something overtly psychedelic or moronic, his sound experiments and editing feel genuinely accomplished for the early era. Crap.

Post-script…after a lifetime of fighting censorship and the industry, his family sold all of his music, and even his name and likeness(!) to Universal.

zorg wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:10 pm The feeling i get is that Frank Zappa is a mediocre novelty song writer with a Napoleon complex. It’s basically just Snoopy vs the Red Baron and Ahab the Arab, with dick jokes. I see no hidden depths or much in the way of biting satire. I like that he hates cops and hippies, but despite his genius label, his music never rises above what he’s parodying, whether that is Sgt Peppers, Disco, Jazz, or Hair Metal. Imagine if Weird Al kept insisting that he was a singular genius, without peer, and he played 15 minute accordian solos. Zappa’s guitar playing is accomplished, but soulless and self indulgent. The tunes are forgettable, not one melody or riff that I remember, and I don’t hear the challenging progressive elements that I’m expecting, just an awful lot of marimbas. I can almost hear him driving himself crazy trying to be clever and failing, and then getting bitter and angry. I would blame his fans, but he loves himself so much, and he’s such a smug prick, that he sets expectations that he doesn’t come near achieving. The best I can say for him is that when he’s not doing his worst to make something overtly psychedelic or moronic, his sound experiments and editing feel genuinely accomplished for the early era. Crap.

Post-script…after a lifetime of fighting censorship and the industry, his family sold all of his music, and even his name and likeness(!) to Universal.

It is worth noting that what is there in red in not exactly a true statement.

look at the turd lets laugh at it

crap total fucking crap

numberthirty wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 8:18 pm

zorg wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:10 pm Post-script…after a lifetime of fighting censorship and the industry, his family sold all of his music, and even his name and likeness(!) to Universal.

It is worth noting that what is there in red in not exactly a true statement.

Pray tell, I’m genuinely interested if there is a story here.

I used to try to think the first couple LPs of Mothers stuff was OK, but really I do not like any of it at all.

His music does have any of the things I value in art. No soul, no good humor, nothing really trenchant, no sense of mystery. There's nothing beguiling or passionate about it.

It is all quite peevish and often mean-spirited, but it doesn't have the force of real hate behind it. Which makes it irritating itself in turn, ironically enough.

I'd definitely rather listen to any band made up of the hippies he liked to run down. I'd rather listen to Phish, his progeny, who at least seem to have some enthusiasm for things outside their ecosystem.

zorg wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:10 pm Imagine if Weird Al kept insisting that he was a singular genius, without peer, and he played 15 minute accordian solos.

This is pretty much the Weird Al movie, BTW

eephus wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:36 pm I used to try to think the first couple LPs of Mothers stuff was OK, but really I do not like any of it at all.

His music does have any of the things I value in art. No soul, no good humor, nothing really trenchant, no sense of mystery. There's nothing beguiling or passionate about it.

It is all quite peevish and often mean-spirited, but it doesn't have the force of real hate behind it. Which makes it irritating itself in turn, ironically enough.

I'd definitely rather listen to any band made up of the hippies he liked to run down. I'd rather listen to Phish, his progeny, who at least seem to have some enthusiasm for things outside their ecosystem.

If you've ever had the misfortune of seeing Phish live, you might roll that one back.