"Fallen Idols" @ Spectrum Culture

This week's "List Inconsequential" over at Spectrum Culture is about "Fallen Idols." Frank Zappa was the first to come to mind. I had to restrain myself at only 223 words--I could have gone on and on (as you can see here).

Playlist Week of 04-30-11

* Englische Virginalmusik um 1600 (Leonhardt) (Telefunken LP)
* Biber: Missa Christi Resurgentis (The English Concert/Manze) (Harmonia Mundi SACD)
* Biber: Mensa Sonora (Musica Antiqua Köln/Goebel) (Archiv Produktion CD)†
* Rebel: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi CD)†
* Musica Florea (Stryncl): Scholss Eggenberg, Graz, Austria 9-01-08 (FM CDR)
* Westminster Choir/Flummerfelt: O Magnum Mysterium (Chesky LP)
* Sun Ra: Out Beyond The Kingdom Of (Saturn LP>CDR)
* Sun Ra: Hunter College, New York, NY 6-16-74 (AUD 2CDR)
* John Abercrombie: Cat And Mouse (ECM CD)
* Willie Nelson: Teatro (Island CD)
* Emmylou Harris: Hard Bargain (Nonesuch CD+DVD)
* Lucinda Williams: Blessed (Deluxe Edition) (d.1) (Lost Highway 2CD)†/‡
* The Beatles: Abbey Road (2009) (selections) (Apple/EMI CD)†/‡
* The Who: Quadrophenia (Track 2LP)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol.4 No.3: Denver ’73 (GDP/Rhino 3CD)
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips 2011 “Bonus Disc” (12-06-73x) (GDP/Rhino CD)
* Grateful Dead: Feyline Field, Tempe, AZ 11-25-73 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Onandaga War Memorial, Syracuse, NY 5-17-81 (set 2) (SBD 2CDR)‡
* Love: Forever Changes (Elektra/Rhino CD)†/‡
* Led Zeppelin: How The West Was Won (Atlantic 2DVD-A)
* Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Reprise/Warner Bros. 2-45RPM LP)
* Stevie Nicks: Belladonna (Modern Records/Warner Bros. LP)
* Frank Zappa: Wazoo (Zappa Records 2CD)
* Frank Zappa: Imaginary Diseases (Zappa Records 2CD)
* Frank Zappa: Läther (Rykodisc 3CD)
* Frank Zappa: Zoot Allures (Warner Bros. LP)
* Frank Zappa: Sheik Yerbouti (Zappa Records 2LP)
* Frank Zappa: Joe’s Garage, Act I (Zappa Records LP)
* Frank Zappa: Joe’s Garage, Acts II & III (Zappa Records 2LP)
* Frank Zappa: Shut Up And Play Your Guitar (Barking Pumpkin 3LP)
* Frank Zappa: Guitar (Rykodisc 2CD)
* Frank Zappa: Trance-Fusion (Zappa Records CD)
* The Red Krayola: The Parable Of Arable Land/God Bless The Red Krayola… (Int’l. Artists/Charly CD)
* The Red Krayola: Live 1967 (d.1) (Drag City 2CD)
* The Red Krayola: Singles (Drag City CD)
* The Red Krayola: The Red Krayola (Drag City LP)
* Mayo Thompson: Corky’s Debt To His Father (Texas Revolution/Drag City CD)
* The Fall: The Wonderful And Frightening World Of… (Omnibus Edition) (d.4) (Beggars Banquet 4CD)
* My Bloody Valentine: Isn’t Anything (Plain LP)
* My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (Plain LP)
* Mars Classroom: The New Theory Of Everything (Happy Jack Rock Records LP)
* Pavement: Slanted & Enchanted (Luxe & Reduxe) (Matador 2CD)
* Radiohead: In Rainbows (TBD CD)†
* Radiohead: The King Of Limbs (TBD/Ticker Tape CD)†
* Panda Bear: Person Pitch (Paw Tracks CD)
* Panda Bear: Tomboy (Paw Tracks CD)
* Broken Bells: Broken Bells (Columbia LP)
* Broken Bells: Meyrin Fields EP (Columbia EP)

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

Lizzy’s been out of town, so I’ve been left to my own devices this week in terms of the music choices. Of course, one of the many amazing things about her is her refined taste in music and, moreover, her big ears and infinitely open mind. But there are some things she barely tolerates (Led Zeppelin) and others she simply cannot abide (AC/DC). So while there is seldom a conflict, you could rightly conclude she is not into “heavy metal.” Accordingly, I rocked out a bit, given the opportunity. But that was not my main focus this week. Instead, I decided to pick up where I left off with my chronological survey of Frank Zappa.

Actually, it was prompted by having recently picked up Wazoo, a 2-CD set recorded at the Boston Music Hall on September 24, 1972, featuring his ambitious 20-piece “Grand Wazoo” orchestra playing purely instrumental music. Listening to it, I was reminded of Zappa’s undeniable genius and how much the guy meant to me in my youth. So, I decided to wade back into the skanky waters of the later discography, despite my revulsion at some of the lyrics. I’m no prude—but some of this stuff is downright offensive, even to me. It’s probably a good thing Lizzy wasn’t around.

This is precisely the point, as dubious as it might be. Sure, I thought this stuff was hilarious when I was fifteen (although I didn’t quite get all the jokes), But now, most of it just makes me cringe. I can remember my Dad accusing me of “getting off” on that “degenerate smut” and my feebly trying to defend Zappa’s musicianship compositional complexity—and insisting it was all satire. Frank didn’t really feel that way about women or Jews or Catholics or homosexuals—or did he? (it’s hard to tell, even now). Nevertheless, I memorized every filthy routine and sniggered with pretended knowingness—but what really “got me off” was the music, particularly Zappa’s ecstatically mind-blowing guitar solos. At the time, I only dreamed of plugging in an electric guitar and wailing away like Frank, with lascivious abandon. Honestly, it was his example, more than anyone else’s, which inspired me to ditch the piano and pick up a Stratocaster years later. But that’s another story…

I still have a special fondness for Sheik Yerbouti (get it?). The double-LP set came out in March of 1979, at the height of my Zappa infatuation and still gives me a thrill to listen to it again. Sure, most of the songs are ridiculous, but they are surrounded by such richly detailed musical accompaniments I am inclined to forgive the puerile and cynical lyrics. Mostly recorded live and then extensively overdubbed in Zappa’s own meticulous fashion, this is about as high-tech as analog tape ever got and the original vinyl, mastered by Bob Ludwig, sounds stunningly great. And side four is one of Zappa’s most powerful works: “Wild Love” takes another snide look at dysfunctional sexual politics, but without the overbearing scatology and wrapped in a deliriously hyper-modal musical setting. It’s a wild ride and over before you know it, segueing immediately into “Yo Mama.” A sneering putdown of a hapless hipster wannabe, the song appears to be downright cruel. And yet the music is gentle, almost sweet—mercifully erupting into an extended guitar solo of awe-inspiring majesty. Hotdamn! This is one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded! As it builds and builds to a densely orchestrated reprise, this seemingly nasty little number becomes genuinely redemptive. There may not be any hope for the song’s subject, but listeners are fundamentally transformed. All these years later, it still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Joe’s Garage is perhaps Zappa’s late masterpiece, an elaborate three-act musical about a dystopian world where music is made illegal. Inspired by the Iranian Revolution (where such laws were being contrived), the plot is admittedly thin, based on the characters’ suffering and degradation at the hands of a criminalized music business. But all that is secondary to the gloriously baroque music. Beyond the gleefully labyrinthine arrangements, Zappa’s guitar playing is uniformly magnificent—culminating in the surprisingly sentimental set piece, “Watermelon In Easter Hay.” Built upon a deceptively simple-sounding series of arpeggios in an irregular 9/4 meter, Zappa renders Joe’s “last imaginary guitar solo” with astonishingly tenderness and exquisite tonal control. This is god-like guitar playing! Truly one of Zappa’s most intensely emotional and truly moving performances, it is the pot of gold at the end of a smoggy rainbow. Ultimately, Frank’s guitar wizardry can’t redeem the embarrassment of “Wet T-Shirt Nite” or “Dong Work For Yuda,” no matter how impressive it is. And so it goes…

So, Shut Up and Play Your Guitar! This is what many of us wished—and Frank answered. But that sprawling three-LP set is almost too much of a good thing. Nothing but a string of guitar solos, recorded live but brutally shorn of their context; it is imposingly monolithic, if not to say boring—despite Zappa’s deft editing. The later Guitar and Trance-Fusion collections are even more diffuse and while I can marvel at the virtuosic displays I am left wondering if those stupid songs are actually what make these instrumental forays seem so genuinely miraculous. On their own, they start to pile up and lose their impact. Even so, there is much to savor here if you love Zappa’s guitar playing.

As the ‘80s wore on, I turned my back on Zappa. I sold all my albums and dismissed him as a depraved merchant of “smut”—just as Dad decreed. Instead, I monkishly worshiped at the altar of free jazz and punk rock (even though I still wanted to sound like Frank on guitar). Later, in the 1990s, I re-purchased all the original albums and, after listening to them once, filed them away. I needed to have them—not to listen to, necessarily, but to own them, take control of them. Obviously, I have a contentious relationship with Mr. Zappa. I keep thinking I’ve outgrown him only to re-realize his unique brilliance and his profound influence on me. There is something uplifting in the overall depravity I cannot quite reconcile—it makes me dizzy thinking about it, like I’m still defending him from my father’s bitter accusations. Zappa continues to exert a deep but uncomfortable influence in my life.

I started this chronological survey a year ago and still have a way to go in the official discography. After this week’s overdose, it will likely be sometime this summer before I can stand to wade into the swamp again. Stay tuned—if you wanna.

Playlist Week of 12-18-10

* Palestrina, et al.: Die Kleinorgel (de Klerk) (Telefunken LP)
* Buxtehude: Six Sonatas (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (Naxos CD)
* Biber: Mensa Sonora (Musica Antique Köln/Goebel) (Archiv Produktion CD)†
* Biber: Harmonia Artificioso (Musica Antique Köln/Goebel) (Archiv Produktion CD)†
* Handel: Organ Concertos, Op.4 (Academy of Ancient Music/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi SACD)
* Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words (Rév) (Hyperion 2CD)
* Gershwin: Rhapsody In Blue, etc. (Boston Pops/Fiedler/Wild) (RCA SACD)
* Lachenmann: Schwankungen am Rand (Ensemble Modern/Eötvös) (ECM CD)
* John Coltrane: One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note (Impulse! 2CD)
* John Coltrane: John Coltrane Quartet Plays (Impulse! CD)
* John Coltrane: Living Space (Impulse! CD)
* John Coltrane: Transition (Impulse! CD)
* Tony Williams: Life Time (Blue Note CD)
* Andrew Hill: Andrew!! (Blue Note CD)
* Andrew Hill: Compulsion (Blue Note CD)
* Andrew Hill: Change (Blue Note CD)
* Sun Ra: The Singles (d.2) (selections) (Evidence 2CD)
* Sun Ra: What Planet Is This? (Leo 2CD)
* Anthony Braxton/Walter Thompson Orchestra: Irondale Center, Brooklyn, NY 4-16-09 (AUD 2CDR)
* Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul/Aretha Now (Atlantic/Mobile Fidelity CD)
* Grateful Dead: Assembly Hall, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana 2-21-73 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Assembly Hall, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana 1-22-73 (d.1) (SBD 2CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY 3-27-93 (SBD 3CDR) ‡
* Grateful Dead: Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY 3-28-93 (SBD 3CDR) ‡
* Grateful Dead: Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY 3-29-93 (selections) (SBD 3CDR) ‡
* Van Morrison: Poetic Champions Compose (Polydor CD)
* Van Morrison: No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Polydor CD)
* Chicago: VII (Columbia 2LP)
* Frank Zappa: Studio Tan (DiscReet LP)
* Frank Zappa: Orchestral Favorites (DiscReet LP)
* Frank Zappa: Sleep Dirt (DiscReet LP)
* Frank Zappa: Zappa In New York (Rkyo 2CD)
* Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica (Reprise CD)
* Yes: Tormato (Atlantic/Rhino CD)
* Phil Collins: Face Value (Atlantic/Audio Fidelity CD)
* The Fall: This Nation’s Saving Grace (Beggar’s Banquet—UK CD)
* The Fall: Bend Sinister (Beggar’s Banquet—UK CD)
* The Fall: The Frenz Experiment (Beggar’s Banquet/RCA CD)
* Sonic Youth: Goodbye Twentieth Century (SYR-4 2LP)
* Kim Gordon/DJ Olive/Ikue Mori: SYR-5 (SYR-5 2EP)

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

What a week! Even though we’re days away from the Solstice, winter weather moved in on Sunday with six inches of snow, and topped it off with freezing rain on Wednesday. Fortunately, it warmed up overnight and regular wet rain on Thursday melted everything. Sheesh! Is this what it’s going to be like? Today is the first time we’ve seen the sun all week. Well, one nice thing about a “snow day” is getting time to listen to more records!

+++

I’m a huge fan of John Coltrane, but, for me, the music he made in 1965 is by far the most astonishing. He was incredibly prolific during this period, as if he could barely keep up with the flood of ideas—as if he knew he only had another couple of years left—and you can hear his rapid development from the relatively straightforward modalism of John Coltrane Quartet Plays through the experimental chamber jazz found on Living Space and Transition, leading directly to the cathartic spiritualism of Sun Ship, Ascension and Meditations later in the year. In the process, the so-called “classic quartet” disintegrated, as first Elvin Jones, and then McCoy Tyner quit the band, unwilling to go as far as Coltrane needed to go (or maybe they were just unwilling to share the stage with newcomers Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali). By November, the tension is audible. Nevertheless, the almost overwhelming intensity of the music is part of what makes these last records of 1965 the summit of Coltrane’s achievement and I’m looking forward to listening them this coming week.

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Debate rages amongst Zappaphiles regarding Frank’s true intentions regarding Läther (pronounced “leather”), a proposed four-LP box set of high-gloss rock-jazz and ambitious orchestral music recorded in 1974-1976. As the story goes, test pressings were made but Warner Bros. apparently refused to release it. But I suspect the mythical Läther was just a ploy to break his contract with the label. Zappa was in the midst of myriad disputes with his manager and Warner Bros. during this period, and, in December, 1977, he played an entire eight-sided test pressing over KRQQ radio station in Pasedena, encouraging listeners to tape it off the air, which, of course, many of them did. This tactic evidently worked: by 1978, Zappa had extricated himself from the contract with Warner Bros.—but the Läther material began to appear on the now defunct DiscReet label on four separate albums, Zappa In New York, Studio Tan, Orchestral Favorites and Sleep Dirt (the latter three with lurid artwork by Gary Panter and zero credits). Regardless of their provenance, these are some of my favorite Zappa records.

As usual, the music ranges from brilliantly sophisticated instrumentals to the most puerile songs imaginable. The twenty-minute “Greggery Peccary” (Studio Tan) manages to combine it all into a metaphorical fable about the invention of the calendar—probably one of Zappa’s most successful musical satires ever. Orchestral Favorites is just what it says, Frank’s demanding “classical” scores—sometimes augmented by his rock band. Good stuff. Sleep Dirt is another all-instrumental album but with a more jazz-rock-fusion feel—except for the title track, an acoustic guitar duet with James Youman, which exhibits Frank’s rarely-heard soft and sensitive side. Zappa In New York compiles live recordings from The Palladium in December, 1976 and while the jokey material has worn thin for me (e.g. “Titties and Beer”; "The Illinois Enema Bandit”), the musicianship is uniformly spectacular. The Ryko CD restores the censored “Punky’s Whips” (another bit of homophobic (?) theatricality) along with four other unreleased tracks from these shows, but the digital mastering leaves a lot to be desired. The sound quality of the original LPs is fantastic: warm and detailed, with a vast, welcoming soundstage. Further, the official Läther three-CD set released by Ryko in 1996 includes dubious editing and overdubs that lessen the impact of many of these tracks. Whatever Frank’s true intentions, I prefer the individual albums in their original presentation. Your mileage may vary.

Playlist Week of 12-04-10

* Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (Concentus Musicus Wien/Harnoncourt) (Telefunken 2LP)
* Buxtehude: Sonatas, Op.1 (Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden) (Naxos CD)
* J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (Academy of Ancient Music/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi 2SACD)
* Count Basie: Basie Big Band (Pablo LP)
* John Coltrane: Live at Birdland (Impulse! CD)
* John Coltrane: Newport ’63 (Impulse!/GRP CD)
* John Coltrane: Crescent (Impulse! CD)
* John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (Impulse! SACD)
* John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (Deluxe Edition) (d.2) (Impulse! 2CD)
* Sun Ra: College Tour Vol.1: The Complete Nothing Is… (ESP-Disk’ 2CD)
* Anthony Braxton Falling River Quartet: Marta-Museum, Herford, Germany 11-22-08 (AUD CDR)
* David S. Ware Quartets: Live in the World (Thirsty Ear 3CD)
* Mat Maneri featuring Joe McPhee: Sustain (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Grateful Dead: Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, IA 7-04-84 (d.1-2) (SBD 3CDR)
* Frank Zappa: Apostrophe (’) (DiscReet LP)
* Frank Zappa/Mothers: Roxy & Elsewhere (DiscReet 2LP)
* Frank Zappa/The Mothers: One Size Fits All (DiscReet LP)
* Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart/The Mothers: Bongo Fury (DiscReet LP)
* U2: The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Edition) (Island 2CD)†/‡
* U2: The Joshua Tree (Deluxe Edition) (Island 2CD)†/‡
* New Order: Power, Corruption and Lies (Deluxe Edition) (d.1)(Factory/Rhino 2CD)†/‡
* The Smiths: The Sound of The Smiths (Sire 2CD)
* Beck: Sea Change (DGC/Mobile Fidelity 2LP)
* Robert Pollard: The Crawling Distance (GBV, Inc. CD)
* Robert Pollard: Moses On a Snail (GBV, Inc. CD)†/‡

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

This past spring, I embarked on a project to listen to all of my Frank Zappa LPs in chronological order and I wrote about my long, complicated relationship with Zappa’s music back in April. But by July, I had to stop and take a break, having reached Over-Nite Sensation (1973), an album I found uproariously funny as a teenager, but now find to be pretty much totally embarrassing. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. Well, this past week, I decided to pick up where I left off. I guess I was in a more receptive frame of mind, as I quite enjoyed listening to these albums again after many years. Maybe it’s just the new amplifier that made ‘em sound so good (indeed, these are great sounding records regardless of the musical content).

Apostrophe(‘) (1974) yielded an unlikely hit single with “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” which is really just the introduction to a side-long suite of songs that loosely tell a story about Nanook The Eskimo, parish priest, Father O’Blivion, pancake breakfasts, and the rejection of easy metaphysics. Or something like that. For the most part, Frank keeps the potty humor in check (or at least cloaks it in clever, euphemistic wordplay) and the musicianship is, of course, superb. Side one is quintessential Zappa. The second side is a bit more problematic: it opens strong with a quick ditty (“Excentrifugal Forz”) which seems to pick up where the other side left off, but the following track is a rather pointless jam with Cream bassist, Jack Bruce (“Apostrophe(')”). Then there’s the discomfiting “Uncle Remus.” The music and the sentiments are about as straightforward and sincere as Frank ever got, expressing a lament for the victims of a racist society. And yet the lyrics, with their exaggerated dialect, wrapped up in Zappa’s outrageously salacious voice—well, it will make even (especially?) right-thinking liberals squirm. Which is the point, I guess. “Stink Foot” is as stupid as it sounds and thereby nullifies any big ideas raised in the previous song. Oh well, this is an almost-great record.

On the other hand, Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) has always been one of my favorites, ever since I was a teenage kid with my first hi-fi. Recorded (mostly) live for a never-released film/TV project, this is about as charming and friendly as Frank Zappa ever got. The band is stocked with early-fusion hotshots like George Duke on keyboards, Tom Fowler on bass, Chester Thompson on drums, and the virtuoso percussionist, Ruth Underwood. But it is Tom’s brother, Bruce, who really shines here, both as a soloist and ensemble player, on the otherwise unwieldy trombone. While there is a fair share of comedic nonsense, the music is so compelling, it hardly matters how dumb the subject matter. Zappa is at the height of his powers here. Side two is perfect: opening with a remarkably warm and un-ironic paean to Zappa’s hometown in rural California (“Village of the Sun”). The band then executes a sequence of instrumental pieces which demonstrate Zappa’s command of his quirky, immediately identifiable compositional language, combining a highly chromatic harmonic sensibility with insane rhythmic complexity which culminates in ecstatic releases of rock energy and jazzy soloing (“Echidna’s Arf (Of You)” and “Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?”). Side three follows up with an endearing send-up of cheesy monster movies (“Cheepnis”) and some pointed political commentary (“Son of Orange County,” about the disgraced Richard Nixon; and “More Trouble Every Day,” a song from Freak Out (1966) about the Watts Riots). Side four concludes with “Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen’s Church)” another ridiculously complicated modern-classical-style composition followed by an equally absurd audience participation segment that goes on for far too long but at least provides us with the classic Zappa quip: “Jazz is not dead; it just smells funny.”

One Size Fits All (1975) is another almost-great album, starting out as it does with “Inca Roads,” probably Zappa’s finest moment. Ostensibly about the crash landing of an alien spaceship, the song begins with an ingratiating yet odd-metered groove and soulful yet quasi-atonal singing by George Duke. Imminently catchy yet severely off-kilter, it draws you in and makes you want to listen, even though it sounds like no other music ever made. Layers of intricately layered instrumental and vocal textures are built up before finally unleashing a towering guitar solo from Frank. Interestingly, the guitar solo is taken from a live recording which is seamlessly spliced into the track. Zappa taped everything and insisted on exact tuning and tempos in live performances, enabling him to utilize a collage approach to musical construction in the studio. The song climaxes with an elaborately asymmetrical coda that doesn’t so much end as segue immediately into the satirical blues, “Can’t Afford No Shoes.” And so it goes with this record: brilliant music, banal lyrics. Thankfully, Frank isn’t going out of his way to be offensive and the songs are wryly humorous, if inconsequential. Ultimately, the rest of the album doesn’t live up to the promise of “Inca Roads,” although that might not be humanly possible, even for Frank Zappa.

Bongo Fury (1975) is a mixed bag, but will be of particular interest to fans of Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet), who is featured prominently on this (mostly) live recording. Beefheart’s stories and harangues are amusing, but the band sounds a little unsure of themselves, which is disconcerting given their pedigree. Nevertheless, this album represents an uncharacteristic act of generosity towards Zappa’s childhood friend, whose overt freakiness challenged even his own. (Van Vliet went on to a successful career as a painter.) There are moments that make the experiment worthwhile, but side two is the most satisfying with Frank playing guitar hero on the eleven-minute “Advance Romance” and on the concluding “Muffin Man.” This album gets overlooked by most Zappa-philes, including myself, and while it is somewhat claustrophobic and schizophrenic, there is enough interesting stuff here to warrant multiple listens.

Zappa’s DiscReet label would collapse under the weight of acrimonious lawsuit against his manager, Herb Cohen, and a later dispute with the corporate parent, Warner Bros., over the release of a proposed four-LP box set, to be entitled, Läther. (That material was instead released piecemeal without Zappa’s authorization before the DiscReet label was finally dissolved.) The resulting bitterness is audible in Zappa’s subsequent music, manifesting itself in a palpable contempt for just about everybody, including his listeners. The searing cynicism of his later albums make his mid-‘Seventies works seem lighthearted and sweet by comparison. The Mothers were unceremoniously disbanded and Zappa continued his own way with various musicians who would bend to his iron will—or be sacked. Although there was still interesting music to come, things would never be quite the same.

Playlist Week of 4-10-10

* Dowland: ‘Flow My Teares’ (Guillon/Bellocq): Église Abbatiale, Saintes 7-18-09 (FM CDR)
* Biber: Missa Christi resurgentis (English Concert/Manze) (Harmonia Mundi SACD)
* Rebel: Violin Sonatas (Manze/Egarr/ter Linden) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Vivaldi: Concertos and Sinfonias for Strings (VBO/Marcon) (Arkiv Prod. CD)
* J.S. Bach: The Works for Lute (Kirchhof) (Sony Classical 2CD)
* Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden: Garrison Church, Copenhagen 4-08-08 (FM 2CDR)
* Berio: Coro (Kolner Rundfunkchor/Sinfonie-Orchester/Berio) (DG CD)
* Sun Ra: Calling Planet Earth (DA Music/Freedom CD)
* Sun Ra: Horizon (Art Yard CD)
* Sun Ra: Nidhamu + Dark Myth Equation Visitation (Art Yard CD)
* Cecil Taylor Quartet, et al.: At Newport (1957) (Verve CD)
* Cecil Taylor Unit/Roswell Rudd Sextet: Mixed (Impulse! CD)
* Cecil Taylor: Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come (Revenant 2CD)
* Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (Blue Note CD)
* Mary Halvorson Trio: The Vortex, London, England 12-14-09 (FM CDR)
* Herbie Hancock: Secrets (Columbia LP)
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Berkeley Community Theatre, CA 11-9-72 (Pre-FM 2CDR)
* Praxis: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) (Axiom/Island CD)
* The Beatles: Abbey Road (2009 remaster) (Apple/EMIT CD)
* Rolling Stones: Unsurpassed Masters, Vol.1 (fan/boot CDR)
* Rolling Stones: Unsurpassed Masters, Vol.2 (fan/boot CDR)
* Bob Dylan: Together Through Life (Columbia 2LP)
* The Mothers of Invention: Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Bizarre/Reprise LP)
* Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Bizarre/Reprise LP)
* Frank Zappa: Chunga’s Revenge (Bizarre/Reprise LP)
* Grateful Dead: Winterland, June 1977: The Complete Recordings (d.7-9) (GD/Rhino 9+1CD)
* Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise LP)
* Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Into the Great Wide Open (MCA LP)
* The Style Council: The Cost of Loving (Polydor LP)
* Spacemen 3: The Perfect Prescription (Genius CD)
* Chemical Brothers: Exit Planet Dust (Astralwerks CD)
* Future Sound of London: The Isness (FSOL/Hypnotic CD)
* The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros. DVD-A)
* David Gray: White Ladder (RCA CD)
* Robert Pollard: We All Got Out of the Army (GBV, Inc. LP)
* Circus Devils: Mother Skinny (Happy Jack Rock Records LP)

Commentary:

You might have noticed that I’m slowly making my way chronologically through the Frank Zappa catalog (on original vinyl, I might add). I was exposed to Zappa’s music at an early age by my middle school/high school music teacher, the (now legendary) (Dr.) Gary Sousa. I was maybe a bit too young -- I can’t imagine a junior high school teacher getting away with playing this stuff for kids today, but things were different (perhaps better) back then. Mr. Sousa was a great teacher and a profound influence on me, way beyond Zappa records -- he could (sometimes) make those ragtag bands sing! In any event, boy did Zappa’s music ring my bell -- and not just the pre-pubescent thrill at hearing dirty words coming out of the hi-fi. No, I immediately recognized the compositional brilliance and virtuosic musicianship behind the snickering, jokey veneer. You see, I was also by then deep into piano studies with composer, Dr. Allen Brings, who inculcated a love for modernistic weirdness, but who abhorred popular music of all stripes. Zappa was someone who didn’t take it all so darn seriously and could make “classical music” rock. I was in heaven. To me, “Inca Roads” was perfect! I thought this was the future! Furthermore, Zappa instilled a burning desire to play electric guitar -- after all, you can’t bend the pitch or, better yet, generate howls of feedback on a piano! It was not until much later that I finally “plugged in,” but in the meantime I bought all of Zappa’s records I could get my hands on. The Verve albums were long out of print and are still hard to find, but the Discreet albums were readily available and I loved the new stuff like Sheik Yerbouti and Joe’s Garage, which even garnered some radio play at the time.

I saw him once at the Hartford Civic Center in 1981, but I was sorely disappointed. He pranced around the stage in hot pink, skin tight trousers singing the stupidest songs in the repertoire, only strapping on the guitar for a couple of condescending, carelessly tossed off solos over simplistic (yet emptily hyperactive) one-chord vamps. After going away to college, my love affair with Zappa soured completely and I eventually sold all my albums in a fit of pique after discovering punk rock (a genre which Frank had gone out of his way to ridicule). I thereafter dismissed Zappa as a sneering, cynical purveyor of pompous, puerile junk -- which is true enough, but misses the point.

After moving to Tennessee, I had a change of heart and I started re-buying all the original LPs I could find, listening to them once and filing them away. I enjoyed hearing them again, but mostly I just had to have them, if only to reclaim some lost part my lost childhood. Music, like smell or taste, has the innate ability to summon up the past with an immediacy that mere memory can never equal. And there is that compositional brilliance and instrumental virtuosity that is still compelling, despite all the toilet humor. 1969 was a good year for Frank: Uncle Meat is probably The Mothers of Invention’s most perfectly realized conception, but Zappa’s first solo album, Hot Rats, is more immediately enjoyable, focusing on musicianship for its own sake rather than relegating it to the service of arch social commentary.

So it goes with Frank and me. The music is uniformly great, but the jokes are stale and the politics dubious. Ultimately, I think Zappa did himself a disservice with his insistence on being as irreverent and offensive as possible while also desperately wanting to be taken seriously as a composer. Then again, this was just a measure of his peerless integrity: he did it his way and couldn’t care less what I (or anyone else) thought about it. For myself, I can only listen to this music when I feel like I can tolerate being insulted in return for musical kicks. That doesn’t happen very often, but I have enjoyed listening to this stuff over the past couple weeks. We’ll see how far I get in this chronological survey before I abandon ship. The seas really get rough from this point forward.

NB: In Zappa’s own perverse fashion, he messed with the 1960s-era albums when transferring them to compact disc, going so far as to overdub new rhythm section parts on some and digitally remixing just about the whole catalog. Accordingly, the CDs represent a questionable revisionist history and make the original vinyl LPs highly desirable. I’m sure Frank thought the CDs sounded better and maybe in some objective ways they do; but they don’t sound anything like the original albums.