Frank Zappa
By Paul Evans
The Rolling Stone Album Guide, 1992
FRANK ZAPPA
★★★★ Freak Out (1966; Rykodisc,
1985)
★★★ Absolutely Free (1967;
Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★★★ We're Only in It for the Money
(Verve, 1967)
★★★½ Lumpy Gravy (Verve, 1967)
★★★½ Cruisin' With Ruben and the
Jets (1968; Rykodisc, 1985)
★★★★ Mothermania (Verve, 1969)
★★ The Worst of the Mothers
(Verve, 1969)
★★★★★ Uncle Meat (1969; Rykodisc,
1987)
★★★★ Weasels Ripped My Flesh
(1970; Rykodisc, 1990)
★★★★ Chunga's Revenge (1970;
Rykodisc, 1990)
★★★★ Hot Rats (1970; Rykodisc,
1987)
★★★★ Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970;
Rykodisc, 1991)
★★ Mothers Live at the Fillmore
East – June, 1971 (1971;
Rykodisc, 1990)
★★ Just Another Band from L.A.
(1972; Rykodisc, 1990)
★★ 200 Motels (United Artists,
1972)
★★★★ The Grand Wazoo (1972;
Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★★ Waka Jawaka (1972; Rykodisc,
1988)
★★★ Overnite Sensation (Discreet,
1973)
★★★ Apostrophe (Discreet, 1974)
★★★ The Roxy and Elsewhere
(Discreet, 1974)
★★★½ One Size Fits All (1975;
Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★ Bongo Fury (1975; Rykodisc,
1989)
★★★ Zoot Allures (1976; Rykodisc,
1990)
★★★ In New York (Discreet, 1978)
★★★ Studio Tan (Discreet, 1978)
★★★ Sleep Dirt (Discreet, 1979)
★★★ Orchestral Favorites (Discreet,
1979)
★★½ Sheik Yerbouti (1979; Rykodisc,
1990)
★★★ Joe's Garage, Act I (Zappa,
1980)
★★★ Joe's Garage, Acts II and III
(Zappa, 1980)
★★★½ Tinseltown Rebellion (1981;
Rykodisc, 1990)
★★★½ You Are What You Is (1981;
Rykodisc, 1990)
★★★★ Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
(Barking Pumpkin, 1981)
★★★★ Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
Some More (Barking Pumpkin,
1981)
★★★★ Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n
Play Yer Guitar (Barking
Pumpkin, 1981)
★★★ Ship Arriving Too Late to Save
a Drowning Witch (Barking
Pumpkin, 1982)
★★★★ London Symphony Orchestra
(Barking Pumpkin/Rykodisc,
1983)
★★★½ Thing-Fish (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1984)
★★★ Apostrophe/Overnite Sensation
(Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★ Them or Us (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★★★ We're Only In It for the
Money/Lumpy Gravy
(Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★★ Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
(Complete Set) (Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★★ Jazz From Hell (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★½ Meets the Mothers of
Prevention (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★ Joe's Garage, Acts I, I, & il
(Rykodisc, 1987)
★★★★ Guitar (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★★½ You Can't Do That on Stage
Anymore Vol.1 (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★★½ You Can't Do That on Stage
Anymore Vol. 2 (Barking
Pumpkin/ Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★★½ You Can't do That on Stage
Anymore Vol. 3 (Barking
Pumpkin/ Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★ Broadway the Hard Way (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1989)
★★★★½ You Can't Do That on Stage
Anymore Vol. 4 (Barking
Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1991)
★★★★ Beat the Boot, #42 (Rhino, 1992)
Relentlessy experimental, Frank Zappa defies categorization. In a sly manner that recalls Warhol's odd fusion of parody and homage, he has worked at virtually all kinds of music – and, whether it's guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius is undeniable. Cross Dion and the Belmonts with Harry Partch, and you get some idea of Zappa's musical sensibility; as a humorist – and humor is crucial to Zappa – he comes on like a hybrid of Lenny Bruce and the Three Stooges. Elusive, indulgent, at times inscrutable, Zappa's tone and intention are often hard to determine – it seems calculated to provoke equal measures of fury, awe and giggling. An early crusader against rock censorship, he has always been political – if sometimes perplexingly so – but his ultimate significance resides in his music. Brandishing as his motto a quote from his idol, the French avant-gardiste Edgar Varèse, "The present-day composer refuses to die!," Zappa is indeed as much a modern classical composer as he is a rock legend – and the erasure of the lines between high and pop art that he premiered with his first band, the Mothers of Invention, remains one of the emancipatory gestures of the '60s.
With a riff aping the Stones' "Satisfaction," "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" provided the anthemic intro to Freak Out. Lyrically, the record's antilove songs and daft non sequiturs raised the rebel flag for the misfit clowns and underdogs Zappa and the Mothers would henceforth champion; the music was both a triumph and mockery of psychedelia, folk rock, blooze and doo-wop. Considerably more demanding, Absolutely Free pushed the envelope even further – composed of fragmentary jazz allusions, vibraphone noodlings, chanting and operatic vocals, its determined messiness seemed totally mad. On "Plastic People," a "Louie, Louie" guitar motif disintegrates into freeform swinging, all in service of a poke at LBJ and American suburbia. And, with We're Only in It for the Money, with its mock-Sgt. Pepper's cover art, orchestral segments and general ferocity, the Mothers had already achieved their masterpiece.
The prototype of the technically brilliant aggregations upon which Zappa would come to insist, the Mothers of 1967 were basically a crack rock outfit with woodwind capability. Money was, of course, in large part the musicians' work, but the vision was assuredly Zappa's. "Who Needs the Peace Corps?," "Flower Punk" and "Harry You're a Beast" were early exercises of his trademark themes – paranoia, political and sexual; hatred for the bourgeoisie; and a utopian insistence on completely free expression. In search of that goal, Zappa detoured from the Mothers that same year by putting out Lumpy Gravy, his first solo work. Recorded with a 50-piece orchestra, this difficult and sometimes suprisingly lovely record of John Cage-ish modern music paved the way for the Mothers' second major set, Uncle Meat. A pastiche of 31 sound bites – either in the form of tape edits, nonsense phone conversations, "songs," or instrumental passages – Meat was an inspired monstrosity. There are lyrics, but they're secondary to the assault of glorious noise. A kind of musical version of William Burroughs's "cut-up" method of literary construction – the insertion of random passages within an otherwise narrative text – Meat reinvented pop music. The only problem was that this kind of zonked brilliance could never be "popular"' – and Meat marked the coalescence of one of Zappa's characteristic stances, the cryptic prophet howling in the wilderness.
The quartet of Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Chunga's Revenge, Hot Rats and Burnt Weeny Sandwich was a high point of a consistency Zappa never again achieved. While members of the Mothers would resurface throughout his career, the band as such was kaput – and Zappa began working with a bewildering array of talents (Little Feat's Lowell George, violinist Don "Sugarcane" Harris, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, keyboardist George Duke). While there were vocals on all these albums, it was the music that mattered. Propulsive neo-jazz alternated with gorgeous, classically derived pieces that flourished the grace or power of soundtracks for dreams. A collaboration with Captain Beefheart resulted in Hot Rats' nifty standout "‘Willie the Pimp." And in "Peaches en Regalia," from Rats as well, Zappa had found a music of majesty.
In comparison, the next Mothers records, Live and Just Another Band, sounded lame or silly – adding ex-Turtles singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman only increasted the yuks factor – and while the 200 Motels soundtrack was fairly ambitious, the movie that accompanied it was mere weirdness. Grand Wazoo (jazz-rock fusion recalling Bitches Brew-period Miles or the Mahavishnu Orchestra), Waka Jawaka, and One Size Fits All made for an impressive clutch of Mothers-less outings; Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe (despite good work by ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce), however, were squawking, predictable and only desperately "hilarious."
Although Zappa's approach resists generalization, it became apparent by the mid-'70s that those albums that concentrated on humor would be the least satisfying; the musical experiments would be the ones to watch out for. The records that balanced both approaches varied: Bongo Fury was a stronger Beefheart performance than a Zappa one; Zoot Allures was comparatively bland – but the "funny" Sheik Yerbouti, with its disco parody and churlishness ("Broken Hearts are for Assholes'') was much less impressive than the three Shut Up sets, wherein Zappa simply turned loose his astonishing guitar playing. By the time of Joe's Garage, Act I, and such fare as "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" the sophomoric smuttiness of Zappa's humor had gotten very old (sexism remained this freethinker's egregious blind spot) – and his turn strictly toward music was welcome. You Are What You Is, however, found the naughty lad reclaiming the stand-up stage. But this time, the musical parodies were varied enough to carry the day. Mock versions of reggae, ska, Journey-style power ballads and country music, and a hilarious takeoff on the Doors, produced the most inventive comedy he'd attempted in years.
More recently the joke-predominant albums (Tinseltown, Broadway, Them or Us) have been fairly tasty, especially the rock send-up, Them or Us, but the real excitement has been elsewhere. London Symphony Orchestra finally found Zappa in an all-orchestral setting, with impressive results; Jazz From Hell, with Zappa executing virtually all the pieces on synclavier, displayed his longtime mastery of music tech. His most ambitious releases, however, were retrospectives – Guitar, a sequel to the Shut Up series, that featured 32 live solos recorded between 1979 and 1984; and the staggering eight-CD You Can't Do That package. Twenty years in the making, the set presents previously unreleased live work from 1968 to 1988. Obviously intended for Zappaddicts, it's hardly the best place for a neophyte to start. But, undeniably, it's monumental. Absolute Frankophiles will want to check out Beat the Boot, #2. Seven CDs of live work from 1968-1977 presents the Mothers at their fiercest and sometimes most inspired. The set includes a massive scrapbook that loosely chronicles Zappa's career from high school through his scrape with the PMRC.
– P.E.