Does Everyone Like Frank Zappa?

daza152

daza152

Super Member
Hi I am becoming quite a fan of Zappa and rightly so:yes: But seems the general consensess around here that he is extremely good. I just wanted to know do most of you really like his music? As a new comer to the "Zappa Scene" I find it is the kind of music that grows on you, and could be described as a required taste in music :yes: do you agree? Were you completely blown away on first listen or maybe you just can't stand him?

I own Trout Mask Replica and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, first one couldn't listen to even one track where as WRMF couldn't turn it off. Can you tell me was Frank only involved in the making of Trout.... or is he actually in the album itself? and do you own Weasels..... I realise by now I must get Hot Rats and am looking at getting one soon as :yes:

He had I believe major influences in many bands? His own record label and can play many instruments? My first encounter with his work was Trout Mask.. which I found very hard to listen to, do you like it? I read that it can be hard to enjoy on first listen.

Anyway I expect that I'll continue to listen to more and more of FZ:thmbsp:
 
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daza152 said:
Hi I am becoming quite a fan of Zappa and rightly so:yes: But seems the general consensess around here that he is extremely good. I just wanted to know do most of you really like his music? As a new comer to the "Zappa Scene" I find it is the kind of music that grows on you, and could be described as a required taste in music :yes: do you agree? Were you completely blown away on first listen or maybe you just can't stand him?
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General consensus around here is extremely popular. However, most of the public isn't really into him. More of a music lover's type of band, and even them, a select portion of it. I think alot of it has to do with disenchantment of common music genres, as Zappa tended to be totally unique.

My first listen was lukewarm, but really picked up later. Bought "sleep dirt" on lp, as it was well priced, and the first Zappa album I had ever seen in person. I had heard of him before, but no particular song. I kinda liked a couple of tracks my first time through, but it grew on me. Then I picked up "hot rats"-that sealed the deal. Been picking them up whenever I can now:yes:.

I own Trout Mask Replica and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, first one couldn't listen to even one track where as WRMF couldn't turn it off. Can you tell me was Frank only involved in the making of Trout.... or is he actually in the album itself? and do you own Weasels..... I realise by now I must get Hot Rats and am looking at getting one soon as :yes:
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He only produced Trout mask replica, as everything else was pure Captain Beefheart. He may have a small background recording in one of the songs (a voiceover from the recording booth), but he's not really in it per se'. Funny thing is, Beefheart had vocals in "hot rats" on "willie the pimp". Beefheart and Zappa worked together off and on, but had a falling out at some point, while hard to believe, their music had alot in common. I've heard Captain Beefheart's album "safe as milk" is much more listenable in terms of music. While I love Trout mask replica, it's really subjective, you can imagine how poorly putting it on the radio would go, for example.

Just got "Weasels ripped my flesh", loving it, while Zappa is a master in-of himself, the mothers really had their own thing going, really unique. In that same line, "were only in it for the money", "freak out", and "Absolutely Free" are other great mothers albums (it's basically all of their albums with frank, to:scratch2:). Can't get enough of Zappa, which is good, 'cause he has one hell of a Discography:D.
 
This happened to me sitting in my car 1979 in the daily trafficjam when Joes Garage Act I was presented in a radio show on RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) Berlin. I was hooked then.. and became a fan with the years...:music:

daza152 said:
Hi I am becoming quite a fan of Zappa and rightly so:yes: But seems the general consensess around here that he is extremely good. I just wanted to know do most of you really like his music? As a new comer to the "Zappa Scene" I find it is the kind of music that grows on you, and could be described as a required taste in music :yes: do you agree? Were you completely blown away on first listen or maybe you just can't stand him?
Click to expand...
 
Phish has been doing "Peaches en Regalia" on and off since 1986, so that's what initially lead me to Frank Zappa.

So the first thing I listened to was "Hot Rats", which includes "Peaches", and I downloaded a lot of his more known CDs.

Since I've more recently got into Vinyl, I've grabbed:
Over-Nite Sensation
Zoot Allures
Sheik Yerbouti
Joe's Garage

Whenever I go to the record store I always remember to hit up the Z's and see if anything new is in.
 
My (now) wife turned me onto the Mothers when we first started going out, with the live disc "Just Another Band from LA"

Everybody should listen to FZ, but most people would hate him
 
You can hear frank talking on Trout Mask Replica. I don't think he plays on it but the whole LP is constructed/ edited together using his "Modular" composition technique.
 
I remember going to a little record shop in Wurzburg germany in 1979 and buying my first Zappa LP, Sheik Yerbouti, I've been hooked ever since.

My (now) wife turned me onto the Mothers when we first started going out, with the live disc "Just Another Band from LA"

Everybody should listen to FZ, but most people would hate him


Your wife must be one hip lady. all my ex-wive have hated Zappa. One must be open minded and have a strange sense of humor to like his music.
 
The first album I heard was "Overnight Sensation", probably in High School, and I've liked him ever since.
 
I've started listening to FZ as I started collecting vinyl when I picked up a whole bunch of his LPs from a gentleman's collection I bought.

I'm still in the learning phase about his stuff though....
 
Frank's an interesting guy. Some of his stuff is really experimental. He was not only a wizard on guitar, but a real composer of classical music. He was also an incredible engineer, doing things with tapes back in the 60s that were truly cutting edge.

Some of his stuff in my collection I really don't listen to (e.g. Orchestral Favorites), but other stuff is just crazy good (I love Roxy and Elsewhere, Sheik Yerbouti, the Joe's Garage trilogy, and Apostrophe).

Some of his stuff is so over the top it's crazy. Anyone ever listen to Thingfish? It recycles a lot of his earlier stuff, but with a story line and libretto that'll make a sailor blush.
 
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Some of my all-time favorite lyrics from Absolutely Free (originally listened to at age 16 on a friends RCA console stereo in 1967, which permanently warped my brain...)


TV dinner by the pool
Watch your brother grow a beard
Got another year of school
You're okay, he's too weird
Be a plummer
He's a bummer
He's a bummer every summer
Be a loyal plastic robot
For a world that doesn't care
 
The Zappa/Beefheart connection goes way back. They were actually friends in high school.

I was lucky enough to see Frank perform 13 times, starting in 1975. I was 15. By the time CD's came out I had 36 different albums - not counting stuff like Wild Man Fischer or the stuff with the Plastic Ono Band. I've met him & his whole family. I have actually been to Joe's Garage (his rehearsal space in L.A.).I guess you could say I'm a fan. But - having said that - I don't believe that he is quite the God that some (including some of my old high school friends who still travel around to see Zappa Plays Zappa) make him out to be.

His music can be a bit....mmm.... pedantic. And mechanical. And self-indulgent. At times he seems to be obsessed with the mathematics of the music to the detriment of the song.
There is too often an element of "Look what I can do". Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

But man! I really do love some of those albums. I don't know of any other artist that I can be so of 2 minds about.
Frank never doubted his own genius. But, a little humility never hurts.
 
Naptown Rob said:
Frank never doubted his own genius. But, a little humility never hurts.
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What he said. I continue to appreciate Frank more over time. Though some of his stuff is just a little too much for me to ever get into or want to listen to more than once.
 
Ed in Tx said:
Some of my all-time favorite lyrics from Absolutely Free (originally listened to at age 16 on a friends RCA console stereo in 1967, which permanently warped my brain...)


TV dinner by the pool
Watch your brother grow a beard
Got another year of school
You're okay, he's too weird
Be a plummer
He's a bummer
He's a bummer every summer
Be a loyal plastic robot
For a world that doesn't care
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:thmbsp:, some favorites of mine, the delivery is great:yes:

Naptown Rob said:
- not counting stuff like Wild Man Fischer.
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Man, i'd love to find that album...last I recall there were a couple of singles up on you-tube. Rare little lp, there...
 
Quote:
- not counting stuff like Wild Man Fischer.
Man, i'd love to find that album...last I recall there were a couple of singles up on you-tube. Rare little lp, there...
__________________

He was like the original Wesley Willis...
 
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