Well I was was just over at http://www.somethingawful.com and I have to say they are the exact opposite of this site. Believe it or not this got me banned there. I'm sure Ill get some answers here thought.



jazzstick
Nov 10, 2008


I first heard of Frank Zappa while I was going to music school. I had met and grown very close to one of the many drummers I played with at the time. I had come from a very liberal east coast background and he from a Conservative Midwest. While we where from opposite parts of the country we had a love for music that was exactly the same. We often had many a long discussions on composers and musicians we liked. My drummer friend was a huge Zappa fan and did one of the nicest thing anybody ever did for me which was play me Apostrophe.Over-nite Sensation and this opened the flood gates to Frank Zappa. I got my hands on as much of his music as I could find. For the last three years he has dominated my listening but the first time that Zappa really made a light bulb go off in my head was when I really digested the "You Are What You Is" album, more specifically on the track, "Dumb All Over". I would say that that tune killed any lingering shreds of faith in religion and mankind. After this and reading his biography over 10 times, I have grown to love Frank Zappa both as a deliciously weird human being, composer and secular Humanist. He has change my whole point of view on music and will always be my favorite composer! What have you experienced?

I think that Frank Zappa was an amazing individual and unique artist. It's too bad that he is no longer with us. I love the way that he was so anti-establishment, but not in a chaotic punk sort of way - it was an intellectual arguement backed up by and incredibly complex form of music.

I first heard 'Joes Garage', and was totally blown away with it. The music was great and the song lyrics were either weird or outrageous! I was young at the time and I didn't realise that people actually wrote stuff like that and got away with it!

I have to say that I have found some of his stuff a bit impenetrable though. Maybe I need to buy more and really get into it?

Note: I'm a Christian though so I still have faith in both Religion and Mankind - although Dumb all over is a great song.

Similar to how I feel about most jazz music, hearing Frank Zappa is one of those situations where I have a lot of respect and appreciation for it on an objective musical level, but have a hard time finding much that actually resonates with me in a deep way. Don't know if it's just the way I'm wired... happened to me a lot in music school too when studying avant garde/electro-acoustic type music. Brilliant on one level but didn't reach my soul. On the other hand something like Beethoven's 9th has an enormous emotional and "spiritual" impact on me.

That being said I'm always open to recommendations to help me "see the light".

I "found" Zappa in my teens - Swedish radio was strictly non-commercial back in those days and played all kinds of weird stuff!

Like Twizzle, I see common ground between punk rock and Zappa in challenging various conventions in Western society, including religion, censorship and patriotic brainwashing.

The Zappa sense of humour tends to be a discussion point. To me it's an ingredient sadly lacking in a lot of things I hear, including supposedly "progressive" music.

Having said all that, I must agree with Rob to a degree. The music of Zappa doesn't really move me that much on an emotional level...

Cheers,
Andy

Hey There,
Having listened to Zappa for alot of my life, and having almost the complete collection. I find that listening to his orchestral music (Yellow Shark, my favorite) is the best way to listen to his music. Strip away all the antics and weirdness to his music and you still have complex and interesting compositions. This is of course just my opinion, and still listen to a quite a bit of it.

Tim

To me Frank is a great example of trickster figure in modern culture; there is this pomposity, arrogance and seeming self absorption but it's just an assembled character for whatever the moment needs. Underneath is creative Genius on lots of different levels not the least of which
is the persona; let us not forget that not only did he get thousands to love him a few to hate
him and some larger number not to notice at all (an important trick in itself) but he also organized and made willing all the people involved to play all those shows, and produce all those records Below are a few of my "spiritual favorites"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUrizmh3 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFW8ecabSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQPkLuwy80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUi0izSWVU
^j^
. ~

Frank Zappa never gladly suffered a fool and when I was an angry young man, I greatly appreciated that in him. The Freak Out album along with Uncle Meat, and Weasels Ripped my Flesh were selections that got a lot of play on my stereo.