Shut up and play yer guitar [3 album box set]
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As FZ once said, all his music would be instrumental, if it weren’t for the fact that there’s no market for that in ’modern’ pop culture. So vocals were a necessary requirement to get his material in the market place. But if you can grasp the human voice as just another musical instrument, the whole catalogue is open to investigation. Which is as it should. My no.1 recommendation would be ’Uncle Meat’. While it has some vocals - mostly for comic relief - this is some of the most intricate instrumental music ever put on tape. It’s like looking at one of those fractal images, where a few recognizable patterns (in this case musical ’themes’) are being juggled around in constantly changing variations and/or instrumentations. For me it’s the ultimate expression of Zappa’s project/object narrative. ’You need a chicken to measure it’..... |
@edgewear: I recently watched a documentary about FZ where he said something to the effect that, in his view, "the absurd" was the primary reality. No doubt, this was a major factor that determined the flavor of the vocals he felt were "necessary" to provide to meet the dermands of "Pop culture" (if that phrase isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is). I suppose this could be viewed as something somewhat akin to Dadist art. My BA is in studio art so I've been exposed to many styles but although I can appreciate what the Dada artists were doing, the work itself doesn't appeal to me, aesthetically and this is the exactly the issue I encounter with the vocals in Zappa's music. Although I share many of his opinions regarding the aspects of american culture he delights in poking fun at, I don't as a rule enjoy satire as a fundamental focus of music. The best adjective I can think of to describe how the vocals in Zappa's music sound to me is "cartoonish", which is not a quality that I find esthetically appealing. In other words, I'm unable to regard the human voice "as just another instrument" where Zappa's music is concerned. When listening to music with vocals, I want to be able to idenitify or at least empathize with the story the singer is telling and with Zappa's music, this cartoonish quality has the effect of constantly undermining any such identification, which, to be honest, I find pretty frustrating. |
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That's an interesting question, tvad. I've never thought about that! I suspect I somehow manage to ignore that aspect to some degree. In any event, Fagan's delivery is still that of a "conventional" singer, delivering a "conventional" narrative. I don't perceive the aspect I referred to as "cartoonlsh" as present in the music of Becker and Fagan. I'd never heard "Cousin Dupree" so I just listened to it. In this case, the lyrics are simply so blatantly sleazy that I don't see how the meaning could possibly be misconstrued. My greatest issue with Steely Dan is the slickness of the music, beginning with Aja. Last night, I watched one of that series on the making of Classic albums that focused on Aja and it was illuminating to hear Fagan and Becker talk about, for example, their loser would-be hipster protagonist in "Deacon Blues". When they talked about this character, I felt much more able to relate to him, than when I listen to the song, itself. There's something about the degree to which the music has been fastidiously groomed that I find offputting or alienating. I much prefer the CTE, PL and KL albums. And this is not because I don't like Jazz! I listen to more Jazz (50's to present) than anything else. Because of this and the fact that I've played guitar for many decades, I can really appreciate the high level of S. Dan's musicianship. But the Jazz elements in their recordings beginning with Aja sound very cheesy/lounge-y to me. They may be hip but they are so highly polished that they fail to engage me, emotionally. I dislike most prog and a lot of Fusion for the same reason. I'm afraid I'm rather myopic in this regard-- music that doesn't engage me emotionally doesn't interest me, period. When it comes to S. Dan, the recordings I like, I really like and I listen to them regularly. When it comes to explaining my musical preferences, it's really just guess-work. I can come up with reasons why I think I may prefer X yo Z, but I suspect a lot of this stuff really has very little to do with rationality. . . |
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@stuartk the likeness with dadaïst art is not far off the mark. FZ definitely had an absurdist outlook on life. He even called his non musical business ventures 'intercontinental absurdities'. If you're open to a new 'take' on Zappa's lyrics, you should make an effort to read the book "The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play" by Ben Watson, a British literature scholar. I won't spoil the fun by saying any more about its contents, but intertextual connections are made from ancient Greek tragedies to James Joyce and all stops in between. you won't believe what you read. The author apparently was dead serious, but Zappa himself couldn't stop laughing. Ill as he was at the time, he even considered making a project out of it, inviting the author to his house and have him record a spoken word document 'with the fancy English accent and all', perhaps with musical embellishments to be added later. Regrettably this never came to be, it would have been hilarious. Does Humor Belong in Music? You bet. |
@tvad: I can appreciate the unique capacity for comedy to unearth truths. @tuberist: "Hot Rats which is a terrific intro to Zappa's world" In fact, I began listening to "Hot Rats" last night. I enjoyed the instrumental portions but the vocals in "Willie The Pimp", no. It's a perfect example of the "cartoonish" aspect that I find so unappealing. @edgewear: "Does Humor Belong in Music? You bet" I can't possible make a case against this. All I can say is that I prefer a more straightforward, sober point of view. You sound like a very well-read person so I'll mention that my favorite author is Wendell Berry. His novels are certainly not without humor but either do they consist of a series of jokes, which is how Zappa's lyrics strike me. And once I've heard a joke, why would I want to hear it over and over? It's entirely possible I'm simply too literal-minded and unsophisticated to appreciate Zappa and that's OK. |
If you want to hear more "traditional" style vocals coming from Frank Zappa, then you should consider The Mothers "Fillmore East, 1971" or even "Cruising With Ruben and the Jets". Fillmore is a truly fun to listen to album that features Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, aka Flo & Eddie, who were the lead singers with the pop band The Turtles. Ruben is a carefully crafted recreation of a 50's Do-Wop band sound that actually fooled people into thinking it was a real band. On both albums the vocals are somewhat stylized, but what elements of Zappa aren't? BTW, "Willie the Pimp" is a great vocal done by Capt. Beefheart. If you think Zappa is out there, then Beefheart is from another solar system. |
@middlemass: "How can you exclude "Don't eat The Yellow Snow" Hello Hello.. Don't go where the huskies go, don't be eatin' that yellow snow.. Hello Hello.." Yeah-- when that came out I was in HS. . . we used to listen to that one often when we were high. I haven't done either for decades, now. . . @onhwy61: Thanks for the recommendations. I'm not a fan of Doo Wop but I'll check out the Filmore recording. |
I assume FZ would have been highly amused by the very idea that a person might consider himself too UNsophisticated to appreciate his stuff. The deliberate crudeness of much of his lyrical content had every intention to scare away the pretentious ’young sophisticate’. Zappa considered his social commentaries to be ’antropological field studies’, describing situations and characters pretty much as they appeared to him in real life. Politicians and evangelicals were the easy targets, but his insensitivity was pretty evenly spread around. Back to instrumental recommendations: if electronic music doesn’t scare you, by all means investigate his synclavier compositions, most of all Civilization Phase III. He considered this material as being impossible to play by humans, but the Ensemble Modern proved him wrong by insisting to play several of these pieces live on The Yellow Shark. ’G Spot Tornado’ has remained one of their signature pieces. Another great recommendation would be The Zappa Album by a bunch of enthousiastic young musicians from Finland called the Ambrosius Ensemble, using baroque instruments. Great stuff! |
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@edgewear: "I assume FZ would have been highly amused by the very idea that a person might consider himself too UNsophisticated to appreciate his stuff". What I had in mind when I suggested I might be too unsophisticated was my difficulty enjoying the juxtaposition of a high level of musicianship with, to borrow your phrase, "deliberate crudeness". |
The most recent release “Zappa ‘88” is from his last US show. As is the case with most of his records, there are vocals on most tracks. The instrumental composition that Steve Vai once said was so difficult to play that the band feared playing it is called “The Black Page.” It appears on Zappa ‘88 and a few others. It is a musical masterpiece IMO. |
After he cashiered the original Mothers, Zappa tended to go back and forth between instrumental music and his day/night job of being a latter-day version of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. To the best of my knowledge (though often off the top of my head): Essentially Instrumental: Lumpy Gravy Waka/Jawaka The Grand Wazoo Orchestral Favorites London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1, 2, 3 Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger Francesco Zappa Some Vocals, Largely Instrumental Uncle Meat Burnt Weeny Sandwich Weasels Ripped My Flesh 200 Motels My favorites out of these would be Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat, Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Francesco Zappa. Many of the live recordings have long instrumental interludes. |
@stuartk There are many reasons to hold FZ in high regard as a musical force, but his complete disregard and rejection of the high culture/low culture divide is certainly one of them. These cultural categories are associated with class, status and power within our society. Things Zappa questioned and ridiculed at every opportunity. In the end all musical sounds, no matter in what style, were nothing but ’wiggling air molecules’. His job as a composer was to ’organize the material’ towards an intrinsic musical logic. For Zappa that logic was ultimately ’anything as long as it sounds good’. If that meant putting a Stravinsky quote next to a doowop line, than so be it. The sounding result doesn’t fall inside any established or accepted cultural category, so whether you like it or not is entirely up to you. |
@edgewear: "There are many reasons to hold FZ in high regard as a musical force, but his complete disregard and rejection of the high culture/low culture divide is certainly one of them. These cultural categories are associated with class, status and power within our society" Thanks for providing useful context. My Dad considered european classical music superior to all others, so I can relate to the "highbrow" attitude. Having grown up a poor, marginalized Jewish kid in NYC, no doubt this attitude was part of his strong desire to improve his "class, status and power". "His job as a composer was to ’organize the material’ towards an intrinsic musical logic. For Zappa that logic was ultimately ’anything as long as it sounds good’. If that meant putting a Stravinsky quote next to a doowop line, than so be it. The sounding result doesn’t fall inside any established or accepted cultural category". This irreverence regarding common stylistic boundaries is one of the things with which I struggle the most, listening to Zappa. To me, it more often sounds jarring than "logical". "...so whether you like it or not is entirely up to you". I'm not convinced our aesthetic tastes are a matter of conscious choice, if that's what you're suggesting but that's a debate for another day. I very much appreciate all of your contributions to this thread! port this |