{"id":22641,"date":"2022-03-31T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22641"},"modified":"2022-03-31T08:54:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:54:16","slug":"march-through-time-frank-zappa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/31\/march-through-time-frank-zappa\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: Frank Zappa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even before his untimely death in the 1990s, Frank Zappa\u2019s body of work was staggeringly large. And it was certainly intimidating to the novitiate: Where to start, especially in light of the fact that Zappa\u2019s music changed wildly throughout his career? Rather than attempt the unwieldy task of discussing all of his releases up through <i>The Yellow Shark<\/i>, I\u2019m going to single out seven of them that I find of special note. Other than the annoyingly execrable <i>The Man from Utopia<\/i> (and possibly <i>Bongo Fury<\/i> if you&#8217;re not a Captain Beefheart fan) there\u2019s something special on all of the 40-plus albums Zappa released during his lifetime.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-22642\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa.jpg 1400w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_zappa-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Cruising with Ruben and the Jets<\/b><\/i><b> (1968)<\/b> &#8211; Casual listeners might not even be aware of Zappa\u2019s deep and abiding love of doo-wop. This 1968 LP features The Mothers of Invention, and while there are bits of snark here and there, it\u2019s really a heartfelt expression of the form, albeit through the use of original material. Beware of the CD-era remix which replaces some of the original instrumentation.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Mothermania<\/b><\/i><b> (1969)<\/b> Zappa&#8217;s primary artistic medium was always the album, so the idea of a best-of or greatest-hits compilation would have been anathema. Still, this collection of eleven songs from the Mothers\u2019 early period is a tidy sampler of what that group was all about. It\u2019s a good entry point into that period of Zappa\u2019s work.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Fillmore East \u2013 June 1971<\/b><\/i><b> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 For the Flo and Eddie-era Mothers, this is their finest hour. Less intimidating than <i>200 Motels<\/i> and more tuneful than <i>Just Another Band from L.A.<\/i>, it\u2019s also a lot of fun.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>The Grand Wazoo<\/b><\/i><b> (1972) <\/b>\u2013 Zappa had already been exploring progressive, jazz and fusion textures. But with <i>The Grand Wazoo<\/i> he made a &#8220;big band\u201d album. And it\u2019s an impressive work.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Orchestral Favorites<\/b><\/i><b> (1979)<\/b> \u2013 Zappa likely won\u2019t have considered this part of his official catalog, as it was released against his wishes. But as the strongest piece of a trilogy that also included <i>Studio Tan<\/i> and <i>Sleep Dirt<\/i>, it\u2019s perhaps an even better big band\/orchestral work. It\u2019s among his most accessible offerings, too.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>You Are What You Is<\/b><\/i><b> (1981)<\/b> \u2013 A personal favorite, not least because I first saw him live onstage on this tour. Smutty, puerile and featuring strictly non-P.C. lyrics, it\u2019s a guilty pleasure. The music is superb, and the lyrics are often quite funny and on-the-nose.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Tinsel Town Rebellion<\/b><\/i><b> (1981)<\/b> \u2013 Sort of a live corollary to <i>YAWYI<\/i>, with no overlap in material. Includes the third reading of the classic \u201cPeaces en Regalia,\u201d possibly his finest composition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note: If you find that you enjoy any of the above, there\u2019s much more to discover. If your tastes run toward live recordings, Any of the six-volume <i>You Can\u2019t Do That On Stage Anymore<\/i> series is worthwhile \u2013 as are live albums released in the late \u201880s, but note that Zappa was notorious for chopping, editing and overdubbing his live recordings, so they may not meet strict definitions of \u201clive\u201d albums.<\/p>\n<p>And with reaching the letter Z, this month-long rundown of the bodies of work of some of my favorite artists has reached its conclusion. Regularly-scheduled programming will return tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even before his untimely death in the 1990s, Frank Zappa\u2019s body of work was staggeringly large. And it was certainly intimidating to the novitiate: Where to start, especially in light [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[861],"class_list":["post-22641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","tag-frank-zappa","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22687,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22641\/revisions\/22687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}