The cream of Frank Zappa
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – the only true Zappa fan that this humble editor found in the planet
Frank Zappa surely was one of the greatest musicians on the planet. But to hell of it, there are more “greatest musicians ever” than I could ever count, and that will not make a big impression on you. More important, this dude was simply the craziest and most unpredictable, sometimes, disturbing dude that the music scene had to offer. Most people will know the guy because of its single popular track: Yep, we’re talking about “Bobby Brown” – Zappa’s infamous crooning of his dirty sexual side in songs that would take 6 years each at least to be probably censored. What makes Zappa this unpredictable, hard to catch dude, is that despite this side, he has several more. He could be a straightforward dirty rocker but – and that´s the key – he also pulled the angry social commentator as well as the serious classical composer more than once on us.
Right, that Zappa, first and foremost, was a writer of instrumental, highly classical and jazz influenced multi-part operas, intertwined with gazillions of instruments, including synthesizers, horns, dozens pianos, clarinet, flutes, a full or somethings only half fledged orchestra, and tons of different percussion instruments…you name it. The same guy who used to highly offense with songs like “Jewish Princess”, was a classical composer, whose very last album before his untimely death was a album called The Yellow Shark, an album of pure orchestrated, dissonant modern classical music. Dirty Rock, serious classical music and, probably even more, important his sweet childish, colorful interpretation of jazz were all different facets of the guy, who at times would use all of these in a song at once!
So here comes a list! If you know the Rolling Stone Magazine you will probably stop reading now and smash your laptop on the next wall. You hate lists, I am slightly annoyed by them but hey, didn’t that introductory comment convince you that I am not to be trusted with full blown interpretative texts yet??? So here come the most important songs of Frank Zappa, destined to give you an impression of who the guy really was and how he tricked his fans and audiences again and again until they found themselves in a state of blur, where it was impossible to tell what the man actually was about.
Hungry Freaks Daddy – Frank, so it seems, hated society! In the early days, he wasn’t so much the dirty man, but he was simply pissed of. Pissed at the hippy culture especially, which he saw as a pathetic excuse to do drugs and not give a fuck about anything else. The very first song of the very first Frank record, Freak Out, is a deadly stab at “Mister America”. With a great riff to boot, nonetheless. And this is just a start of a crazy journey…
Absolutely Free – From the album, We’re only in it for the money, Another social comment, this time with piano and other instrumental touches that hint at the fact, that Frank is not a pure rocknroller. Not that the first album ever gave hope to that anyways…
Peaches En Regalia – Remember my comment about the “sweet childish, colorful interpretation of jazz”? This tune will make you hear it all. This track is the opener to Zappa´s first fully instrumental work, Hot Rats, an instrumental extravaganza that leaves no color unexplored. The song flows through one beautiful melody after another and finishes in a final beautiful melodic flourish at the end. Probably one of the best outro melodies ever created. The song has so much pure LIFE in it, that it was enough to convince me that Zappa did more than write a few good guitar riffs
Aybe Sea/The Little House I Used To Live In – I always like the sound of those titles. Sounded kinda mysterious and nostalgic to me and yes, it is one of the few times were Zappa sounds genuinely emotional, sweet and also manages to give a haunting touch to it. “Aybe Sea” is almost a reflective kinda instrumental, with a beautiful tinkling piano intro to flow into “The Little House I Used To Live In”. And what a track! Haunting piano intro and then this monster explodes! Instruments crashing in from all directions and then that vicious, mean tearing electric violin solo breaks down the little House! An excessive classical journey.
Camarillo Brillo – A song about Frank meeting a spanish, maybe mexican, chick and having a sweet night. So here we go, the pure rocking dirty Frank. Or is he?? Coming from the album Over-nite Sensation from 1973, along with every other track on this album, the tracks, simply in their hearts as they might be, are being played in deeply coloured, jazzy manners and are given a wonderful shove through the crazy factory before appearing in front of our ears as the musical version of the craziest comic books you ever seen! Each and every verse of the song is enriched with different instruments, and Frank himself shines as a guitarist and the song is one of these almost comforting and heart-lightening songs.
Montana – A song about travelling to, yep you clever bastards you guessed it, Montana! Becoming a salesman of dental floss which he grows out there in the fields. Shows two trademarks of Zappa: The guitar solo, which the guy almost always to incorporate in his lengthier tracks and some more crazy playing, special courtesy of Ruth Underwood’s marimbas, and I mean the instrument!! The outro is just wonderfully spaced out, paining the imago of late sunset montana desert, and should have been longer. But thats the thing with Frank you have to get used to: He wasn’t the man for perfect timing.
Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs It/St. Alphanso’s Pancakes/ Father O’Blivion – Just typing the titles make my fingers sore! Simply known as the “Yellow Snow Suite” just the titles tell it all. Frank, you guessed it, was a little loony. And the word ‘Suite’ tells you that this ain’t gonna be your everyday Limp Bizkit kind of lunatic. Its sort of like a sick jazz odyssey that Frank takes us on about an eskimo named nanook who rubs urin-stained snow into the eye of an evil fur-trapper to protect his baby seals and therefore forces the fur-trapper to look for st. Alphanso’s pancakes and Father O’Blivion for healing. (If you stop reading now and go to bed crying, I would understand…). Psychedelic funk jazz, the final prove that the guy with the moustache was not to be trusted.
Uncle Remus – What´s that???? A serious, emotional song?? With undertones from the blacks civil rights movement? Yep right, and probably the closest, Frank Zappa came to pure unadulterated pop music. Not quite, but hey, listen for yourself… Has also the advantage of being of the few Zappa tracks to not give you a heart attack and a severe rash…
The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution – By this time, the conclusion has come that an 11-Minute dissonant instrumental is nothing unusual for Zappa. First half is purely sick, acoustic playing (with an electric touch? it is hard to identify…). Sweet riffs and melodies passing by and the second half is purely Zappa guitar playing. It defines excess but it has that weirdly cartoony feel that is hard to pass by. A travel of the ocean indeed.
Lumpy Gravy (Part I) – Don’t listen to all of it!!!! You have been warned. About more than half of “Lumpy Gravy” is just nonsense spoken dialogs without music that don’t go nowhere. Just using the track as an example because: The orchestral parts (taken from his very song “Oh No I don’t believe it”) are gorgeous! Simply shows that Frank couldn’t be beat at taking classical music and making it sound unique and beautiful.
Dumb All Over – Frank is getting angry! A biting social commentary about all the morons, know-it-alls and religious fanatics taking over politics in this world. Set to a terrifying, angry, nasty and ugly beat with detached, sore vocals to boot. This track from You Are What You Is where Frank originally started with his first album, Freak Out! Biting social commentary tearing down the fucking society and all its nasty tidbits. Before the music, Frank was always a commentator of the world around him.
Put A Motor In Yourself – Instrumental from his very last album he recorded before his death, Civilization Phase III. Sick, dark, dissonant, weird, totally abnormal instrumental music, sounding like from some sick dark noire comic or even stranger video game…Not for the normal mind, but this dark, strangely atmospheric track is probably the only way to appropriately close this strange, twisted selection that hopefully done the Master of Fuck Up some justice…
Great article! A real Zappa fan!