Frank Zappa And The And

Frank Zappa And The And
ed. Paul Carr

Ashgate
2013 February
ISBN 978-1-4094-3337-8
266 pp, hardcover, 23,5 x 16 cm
English

Paul Carr
Academic

Being neither a musician nor an academic, articulating your thoughts about Zappa and his music can be a little challenging. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily appreciate him or his work any less. While this book is squarely aimed at the latter camp, there’s still much to tickle the more casual Zappa fan – not least the copious footnotes and lists of other relevant source material that comprise about one third of the book. But between all that, there’s much to agree and disagree with (eg. while I personally deem FZ’s film work as somewhat half-arsed, Manuel de la Fuente makes a good fist of singling him out as a unique filmmaker in rock – albeit by completely overlooking the work of Bernard Shakey). And if you found the books by Kevin Courrier, Kelly Fisher Lowe and Ben Watson of interest, you should get this. But perhaps you’d first like to read what Mr Watson himself has to say? Okay, check this.

About the editor:

Paul Carr is Head of the Division of Music and Sound and Reader in Popular Music Analysis at the ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan, in Cardiff. His research interests focus on the areas of musicology, widening access, the music industry and pedagogical frameworks for music related education - publishing in all of these areas.