Frank Zappa

By Paul Evans & Mac Randall

(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide, 2004

Frank Zappa

★★★★ Freak Out! (1966; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★½ Absolutely Free (1967; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★½ Lumpy Gravy (1967; Video Arts, 2001 )
★★★★★ We're Only in It for the Money (1968; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Cruising With Ruben & the Jets (1968; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★★ Uncle Meat (1969; Video Arts, 2001 )
★★★★ Hot Rats (1969; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★ Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★ Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★ Chunga's Revenge (1970; Video Arts, 2001)
★★ The Mothers: Fillmore East – June 1971 (1971; Video Arts, 2001)
★★ Just Another Band From LA. (1972; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★★ Waka/Jawaka (1972; Video Arts, 2001 )
★★★★ The Grand Wazoo (1972; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Over-Nite Sensation (1973; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Apostrophe (1974; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Roxy & Elsewhere (1974; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★½ One Size Fits All (1975; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Bongo Fury (1975; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Zoot Allures (1976; Video Arts, 2001 )
★★★ In New York (1978; Video Arts, 2001)
★★★ Studio Tan (1978; Video Arts, 2001 )
★★★ Sleep Dirt (1979; Video Arts, 2002)
★★½ Sheik Yerbouti (1979; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★ Orchestral Favorites (1979; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★ Joe's Garage: Acts I, II & III (1979; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★½ Tinseltown Rebellion (1981; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★½ You Are What You Is (1981; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★ Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (1982; Video Arts, 2002)
★★½ Baby Snakes (1983; Video Arts, 2002)
★★ The Man From Utopia (1983; Video Arts, 2002)
★★★ Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★ Them or Us (1984; Zappa Family Trust, 2002)
★★★½ Thing-Fish (1984; Vack, 2002)
★★ Francesco Zappa (1984; Vack, 2002)
★★★½ Meets the Mothers of Prevention (1985; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ Jazz From Hell (Barking Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1986)
★★★ Does Humor Belong in Music? (1986; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ 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)
★★★ Broadway the Hard Way (Barking Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1988)
★★★★½ You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (Barking Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1989)
★★★★½ You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 (Barking Pumpkin/Rykodisc, 1991)
★★★½ The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (1991; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★ Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 (Rykodisc, 1992)
★★★★ You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (Rykodisc, 1992)
★★ Playground Psychotics(1992; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★½ Ahead of Their Time (1993; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ The Yellow Shark (1993; Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★½ London Symphony Orchestra, Vols. 1 and 2 (Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★★ Strictly Commercial: The Best of (Rykodisc, 1995)
★★★½ The Lost Episodes (Rykodisc, 1996)
★★★ Läther (Rykodisc, 1996)
★★★ Have I Offended Someone? (Rykodisc, 1997)
★★★★ Strictly Genteel: A Classical Introduction to Frank Zappa (Rykodisc, 1997)
★★ Cheap Thrills (Rykodisc, 1998)
★★★½ Mystery Disc (Rykodisc, 1998)
★★★ Cucamonga(Del-Fi, 1998)
★★ Son of Cheap Thrills (Rykodisc, 1999)
★★★★★ Threesome No. 1 (Rykodisc, 2002)
★★★★ Threesome No. 2 (Rykodisc, 2002)

Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music – and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was 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; they seem calculated to provoke equal measures of fury, awe, and giggling. An early crusader against rock censorship, he was always political, if sometimes perplexingly so, but his ultimate significance resides in his music. Brandishing as his motto a quote from French avant-garde icon Edgard Varèse, "The present-day composer refuses to die!," Zappa was indeed as much a modern classical composer as a rock legend, and his erasure of the lines between high and pop art remains one of the most 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 his first band, the Mothers of Invention, 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 – comprising 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. By 1968 and 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 late-'60s Mothers 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 explorations 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 in 1967 by putting out Lumpy Gravy, his first solo work. Recorded with a 50-piece orchestra, this difficult but often lovely record of John Cage-ish modern music paved the way for the Mothers' second major set, Uncle Meat. A collage of 31 sound bites – tape edits, nonsense phone conversations, "songs," mind-boggling instrumental passages – Meat was an inspired monstrosity, a kind of musical version of William Burroughs' "cut-up" method of literary construction (the insertion of random passages within an otherwise linear text). This album reinvented pop
music; the only problem was that its zonked brilliance could never be "popular," so Meat also marked the coalescence of one of Zappa's characteristic stances: the cryptic prophet howling in the wilderness.

On Hot Rats, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, and Chunga 's Revenge – all four released within a single 12-month period – Zappa's creative juices flowed with a consistent quality that he 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). There were vocals on all these albums, but it was the music that mattered. Propulsive neojazz alternated with gorgeous classically derived pieces evoking phantasmagorical dreams. A collaboration with childhood friend Captain Beefheart resulted in Hot Rats' gritty standout "Willie the Pimp," and on the same album's "Peaches en Regalia," Zappa the composer reached a majestic peak.

In comparison, the next Mothers records, Fillmore East and Just Another Band, sounded either lame or silly. Adding ex-Turtles singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, a.k.a. Flo and Eddie, only increased the yu(c)ks factor. The Miles/Mahavishnu-style fusion of Grand Wazoo, Waka/Jawaka, and One Size Fits All made for an impressive clutch of Mothers-less outings; Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe, however, were squawking, predictable, and only desperately "hilarious" (despite good work by ex-Cream bassist
Jack Bruce).

Although Zappa's approach resists generalization, it became apparent by the mid-'70s that the albums concentrating 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 parodies and churlishness ("Broken Hearts Are for Assholes"), was much less engaging than Shut Up, a three-disc set wherein Zappa simply turned loose his astonishing guitar playing. By the time of Joe's Garage 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 toward strictly instrumental music was welcome. You Are What You Is 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, plus a hilarious Doors takeoff, produced the most inventive comedy he'd attempted in years.

Later joke-predominant albums (Tinseltown, Broadway) were fairly tasty, especially the rock sendup Them or Us, but the real excitement was elsewhere. London Symphony Orchestra, originally released as two separate discs in the '80s, finally found Frank in
an all-orchestral setting, with impressive results; Jazz From Hell, executed mostly solo by Zappa 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 12-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 its monumentality is unquestionable.

A far more modest project. The Yellow Shark, features the Ensemble Modern's wonderfully simpatico readings of some of Zappa's thornier compositions. His finest "classical" venture, it was also the last album he saw completed before his untimely death in December 1993. The absence of any new Zappa music in the past decade hasn't stemmed the tide of new releases one bit. Most are mixed bags, although Ahead of Their Time, The Lost Episodes, and Mystery Disc are all noteworthy for presenting rare or neverheard
selections from the Mothers' late-'60s/early-'70s golden era. Cucamonga, a collection of Zappa's pre-Mothers (mainly doo-wop) recordings, is intriguing, but only for established fans. Compiling the best of Zappa on a single disc is an impossible task; considering that. Strictly Commercial and Strictly Genteel are surprisingly effective. But the real prize is Ryko's first Threesome, which brings the first three Mothers albums together in a single box. If you're looking for a perfect Zappa entry point, your search is over. 

– P.E./M.R.