Frank Zappa’s music is weird by design, and most of his albums sound like they were constructed to circumvent thoughtful appraisal. Delve too deeply into the meaning of Zappa’s music, or take any of this too seriously, and you run the risk of coming away with yellow snow on your nose.
Freak Out!, his 1966 debut with The Mothers Of Invention has been critically acclaimed as a pre-cursor to punk and art rock, cited as one of the first concept albums, and lauded as one of the most ambitious debuts ever released. To my ears it’s a confusing pastiche of noise, doo-wop, and coded cultural references, so once again I’m turning to you to help me sort out an album that has my head spun around…
THUMBS UP: It’s impossible not to admire Zappa’s adventurous streak. He charted new, often strange, territory in music – an approach that was heralded from the first notes of Freak Out! The spectacle of the sounds here put basic song structures to shame, although there are some great individual songs to be found among these looney tunes – ‘Trouble Every Day’ is one of the greatest odes to civil unrest in America, and still rings true in its damning take on the media. You’ve also gotta love any album that comes with the offer of “a special map we have prepared for you: FREAK-OUT HOT-SPOTS” that highlights the locations of some of Los Angeles’ heppest spots and “shows where the heat has been busting frequently.” Freak Out! is more (and less) than a record album – it’s a way of life…
THUMBS DOWN: ‘Who Are The Brain Police?’ ‘Hungry Freaks Daddy’ and especially ‘Help I’m A Rock’ are just plain strange, and as Zappa gleefully and repeatedly mentions in the liner notes to the album, the music here has an “obvious lack of commercial potential.” Zappa has a great sense of humor, and there are some laugh-out-loud moments here, but cultural humor ages like a jug of milk, and most of the bits here have no context. Much of the album feels like a spoof on doo-wop, and if that phrase doesn’t define the concept of ‘dated’ I’m not sure what does it. Hot Rats or Strictly Commercial: The Best Of are albums that put the jokes in the background and the music up front, making them the perfect places to jump on the Zappa bandwagon. He was an incredibly prolific artist, but even though Freak Out! was Zappa’s first album, it isn’t a good introduction to his music.
[What's your take? Genius or nonsense? Enquiring minds want to know...]
12 January 2009 at 11:07 am |
he’s both….
a nonsensical genius… but that don’t mean i have to like it…
i’m sure lot sof smart people wrote books i’ll never read.
90% of his stuff I could live without…..
10% is pretty awesome…..
100% of his kids = garbage…
12 January 2009 at 11:10 am |
Zappa…never got it, never will.
12 January 2009 at 11:28 am |
I get the sense that Zappa wasn’t totally lampooning Doo-Wop. He legitimately loved it. The doo-wop numbers are some of my favorite ones on here: especially Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder (”fooled around with all those other guys, that’s why i had to get my khakis pressed”), You Didn’t Try To Call Me, and Any Way The Wind Blows (which the Turtles band would make mincemeat of in live shows later on). I can’t say why the funny parts are funny, or why I wait patiently for every low-down “yeaaaah,” or why I feel like I get FZ’s endless string of non-in-jokes, you just love it one day and never turn back.
In the doowop sense, Ruben and the Jets makes a handy companion piece to Freak Out! I need to post about these myself soon. As for any new fan to Zappa, give it time.
12 January 2009 at 11:30 am |
oh and Help I’m A Rock destroyed me the first time I heard it. It’s like a hip hop beat. An outstanding track.. you really didn’t like it? I wonder if anybody has sampled it yet.
12 January 2009 at 11:45 am |
Zappa goes beyond like/dislike for me, into the realm of comprehension/non-comprehension.
Asking me what I think about Zappa is like asking someone who can’t read what they thought of War And Peace. I’m musically illiterate when it comes to most of his stuff…
12 January 2009 at 12:26 pm |
I file Zappa under “supposedly-brilliant artists I’m apparently not smart enough to understand” (see also: Tom Waits). I guess I’m a less-is-more person when it comes to what makes great music.
Thumbs down.
12 January 2009 at 1:09 pm |
I have been a Zappa fan for well over 20 years now, I’ve met him and his family on a few occasions as well. He is and always will be an aquired taste, such as progressive rock would be (or hip-hop, if you want to classify that as “music”). Zappa always sailed outside the typical comprehension of the typical audience. I always applauded that take on culture. So Zappa was absolutley a genius. You either get it or you don’t.
12 January 2009 at 2:06 pm |
Apostrophe, Joe’s Garage, probably more accessible, Sheik Yerbouti, and Hot Rats already mentioned come to mind.
I saw him in the 70’s at the Uptown in Chicago, a small theatre, one of the first shows where I ventured into psychedelics, Zappa started the show by sweeping the stage with a broom, the drum kit was front left on the stage, his band formed a big U around the stage, and Zappa did a lot of orchestrating during the show, unless he was ripping another amazing guitar solo. I guess that is what always drew me to his music, the guitar playing, wry lyrics, he surrounded himself with good musicians and remained fiercely independent. At least that’s how I’ll remember him.
12 January 2009 at 4:05 pm |
OK, so gotta be honest, (at the risk of ridicule) i never got zappa. it was ingrained in me as a child that i “have to love zappa” and “zappa is a god.” so like most impressionable kids eager to please i too loved zappa. zappa is a genius. but never really knew why. and not sure i even like most of his music. could a more educated musical mind than mine please explain the nuances of zappa to me. once and for all, i would love to know.
12 January 2009 at 5:51 pm |
Rob, if a picture is worth a thousand words, an album must be worth a million. Just absorb the albums, you’ll find amazing things in them.
I hate to hijack dk’s thread, but check out my ongoing series of posts on Zappa. It might serve as a good intro.
12 January 2009 at 6:14 pm |
Not a bit. I’m psyched that somebody around here can provide some answers.
I second Brendan’s recco, and suggest that you read more than just his Zappa posts…
12 January 2009 at 7:18 pm |
Voted for Zappa in the 1st presidential election that I was eligible for ‘88 (Seriously-Bush v. Dukakis, and yes they’ve all been jokes since anyway- you heard me) but I don’t remember the last time I heard “Freak Out” or if I even liked it. I guess I never considered that a full on Zappa Album, rather a Mothers album. What’s the diff? I don’t know, it’s just how I thought of it.
Sometime you like just what an artist(s) mutates to much more than what they mutated from: Joy Division/New Order, Green River-Mother Love Bone/Mudhoney-Pearl Jam or the reverse Jeff. Airplane/Starship, Pink Floyd/Pink Floyd without Waters, etc.
More of a Van Morison with Them vs. Van Morrison kind of deal or like comparing the Silver Beatles/Quarrymen to Rubber Soul.
No rock snob, just talkin’ shit
Anyway . . .
I LOVE Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation, got the Combo of both on one CD.
Give it a listen: “Poodle bites . . . ”
Serious Jams on: Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar
And Craig See turned me on to some of his killer live shit on: Beat the Boots and You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore.
PS –Danny is there a 2008 year end review coming?
FYI- y’all: Rick Wright died in September, so much for that Floyd reunion I’ve been praying for.
;(
Ramble on
12 January 2009 at 8:40 pm |
I had the pleasure of seeing Frank and band at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theatre in ‘84. He never sang when he played and MAN he lit the place up. We had first row balcony seats about eye level with 100 pair of panties hanging from the lights. Probably from Catholic girls (with their tiny little moustaches).
12 January 2009 at 11:01 pm |
Never got it. Always wished I did. Good insights throughout this post. Thanks.
13 January 2009 at 5:41 am |
in a seriousness i wish he would have just shut up and played his guitar….
13 January 2009 at 4:10 pm |
i cant say ive heard much zappa. but that which i have heard, i didnt “get.”
19 April 2009 at 7:42 am |
Yes, Freak Out! is not one of my all-time favorites. I like “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” and “Trouble Every Day”. “Motherly Love” is a classic, but much of the rest on this album I could leave. I really liked the album “We’re Only In It For The Money”.
1 June 2009 at 9:02 pm |
Freak Out is a tour de force of comedy, satire, doo wop, social commentary, avant garde, psychedelic sound and good rock and roll. Very, very quirky and grows on you like NOTHING before it or since.
This thread kicks ass. Zappa has been sort of a teacher and mentor to me and I like everything he and he kids do. I’m seriously envious of the guy who knew him and his family. I was too young I guess. Think of Valley Girl. A “throw away” single where Zappa’s teenage daughter makes brilliant impressions of the way the women in San Fernando Valley talk. It’s silly and confusing that that would be his biggest hit BUT listen to the sick, sick bass guitar and drums. Jesus!! Zappa stands for absurd sometimes offensive comedy and virtuosity on the level of Coltrane or The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
For the people who don’t get it or him it’s really okay. YOU ARE DEFINITELY THE MAJORITY. Zappa also represents the the freedom to be freaky which is common today but was treasonous in the sterile late fifites and early sixties when he came of age. He also represents the freedom to be silly and meaningless because, no offense, you just fucking feel like it. Fuck the status quo who want to homogenize people into a plastic obedient dumbed down society.
Zappa’s intellect was so large and he had Bucky Fuller’s 360 degree curiosity about life. He was fiercely interested in recording technology, languages, symphonic music, doo wop, fusion jazz, avant garde jazz, Stravinsky, Varese, the Blues and pop culture. He was also probably second only to Jimi Hendrix in rock guitar technique. Supposedly Hendrix said so himself.
Many people find it annoying when someone seems too smart or doesn’t talk in a clear straightforward manner but this guy was absolutely free. He could also be obnoxious and silly on purpose. He liked comedy and used it as a weapon and a teacher. When he made fun of himself and released the trilogy Shut Up and Play Your Guitar, Shut Up and Play Your Guitar Some More and Return of The Son of Shut Up and Play Your Guitar in the 1980s he unleashed a guitar technique that will sound futuristic 20s years from now! Indescribable. Far beyond beauty or ugliness. “Canarsie. Where everything looks the same.” Sounds like ancient Persia acid. Zappa never drank or did drugs either. That’s certainly one for Ripley’s.
Those who are curious enough about him to read this entire post might benefit greatly from starting with Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation and working your way outwards. By the way those two cds include Jack Bruce from Cream, Tina Turner and the Ikettes, jazz keyboardist George Duke, fusion violinist Jean Luc Ponty and many others.
Peace,
Zane
planetupz@gmail.com