Top 5 Frank Zappa Album Discussion/ The "Big Song"

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AAL2014




United States

  • #1
  • Posted: 04/11/2018 19:03
  • Post subject: Top 5 Frank Zappa Album Discussion/ The "Big Song"
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Good afternoon, BEA. I hope Spring has been kinder to you than it has been to us here in Michigan.

Frank Zappa is an artist I've always had a fascination with due to his legacy, composition, drummers, and facial hair. With such a huge catalog, I will not lie and tell you I have a vast knowledge of his work, but I'm a fan of nearly everything I've heard. It's funny because most of the time when you've listened to 10 or so of an artist's albums, you've knocked out a good portion of the catalog. With Frank, you're not even a tenth of the way done. With so many albums and eras of his work I've yet to overturn, I've decided to embark on the journey now. Why not go further since I'm already a fan?

One of the things that's inspired me to do so is a new podcast from Consequence of Sound hosted by Marc Sirdoreus. The first season is dedicated to diving into Zappa's entire discography and uncovering more about what Frank described as "The Big Song". Apparently the man himself said if you play all of his official releases in order it becomes one huge song.

https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/04/...more-east/
You can listen to the podcast's first episode here, Marc does a great job.


This idea of one big song brings me to the question.. Has anyone here listened to every one of the official Zappa releases? In order or otherwise.

Also, to be inspired even further to dive into Frank's work, what are your top 5 Frank Zappa albums? Top 3? Top 1? What style/era in the Zappa canon appeals most to you?

And where does Frank rank among musical geniuses of the modern era?
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YoungPunk





  • #2
  • Posted: 04/11/2018 20:00
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Scaruffi says Frank did not understand the laws of harmony... That is untrue...
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Tha1ChiefRocka
Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.



Location: Kansas
United States

  • #3
  • Posted: 04/11/2018 21:13
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I don't think I believe Frank when he says that, he was a cheeky fellow you know.

I've probably listened to at least 30 or so Zappa albums? To listen to every release would require a lot of mental fortitude.

Here would be my Top 5

1 Uncle Meat
2 Weasels Ripped My Flesh
3 One Size Fits All
4 Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar
5 Lather

BTW I recently watched a lot of episodes of Duckman, which had Dweezil Zappa as a voice, and the show has a lot of Zappa music in it, including the Theme song.


Link



ALSO, you should list the albums that you have listened to. I can better reccommend what albums you might want to prioritize over others that way.
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad



Location: Ground Control
United States

  • #4
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 03:22
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I love Frank Zappa as a person. His interviews are great. I even attended his Zappa Institute of Technology class, taught by his sound guy.

But... I gotta be honest, there's yet to be anything I can take seriously that he's written. It's either too silly or too experimental for my tastes. I don't feel "enlightened" when I listened to his music, mentally or emotionally.

Now keep in mind I've only listened to 4 albums... and I likely only listened to them once, but when I did, I wasn't craving more.

Joe's Garage Act l
Hot Rats
We're Only In It For The Money
Freak Out! The Mothers of Invention

Any tips for getting into his music... it's rare, but sometimes taking a different approach, changing my mindset helps understand the artist better.


Last edited by RoundTheBend on 04/12/2018 03:30; edited 1 time in total
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PurpleHazel




United States

  • #5
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 03:24
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AAL2014 wrote:
The "Big Song"

It's "The Big Note."


YoungPunk wrote:
Scaruffi says Frank did not understand the laws of harmony... That is untrue...

Scaruffi didn't mean "rules of harmony" in a technical sense -- Scaruffi has no music training that I know of.

This is the quote in context:

Scaruffi wrote:
He was a new kind of composer, one who knew no stylistic barrier: he bridged rock and pop and rhythm and blues and jazz and classical music. And one who knew no rules of harmony: he would play anything that made sense to him, not to a certain tradition.

Pretty sure he means that Zappa smashed different genres and traditions together in a jarring and inharmonious way.

Scaruffi expresses this point in a confusing fashion due to his less than perfect command of English and punctuation.
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indieshins




Age: 25
Australia

  • #6
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 03:35
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sethmadsen wrote:
I love Frank Zappa as a person. His interviews are great. I even attended his Zappa Institute of Technology class, taught by his sound guy.

But... I gotta be honest, there's yet to be anything I can take seriously that he's written. It's either too silly or too experimental for my tastes. I don't feel "enlightened" when I listened to his music, mentally or emotionally.

Now keep in mind I've only listened to 4 albums... and I likely only listened to them once, but when I did, I wasn't craving more.

Joe's Garage Act l
Hot Rats
We're Only In It For The Money
Freak Out! The Mothers of Invention

Any tips for getting into his music... it's rare, but sometimes taking a different approach, changing my mindset helps understand the artist better.


I second this. The sense of humour annoys me a little bit, and I have little patience for musique concrete. That being said I think the first half of Freak Out is quality - the send up of the juvenile conception of love present in many doo-wop songs is hilarious! But then he had to ruin it with the second disk. I haven't enjoyed much else from him. Tips also welcome!
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad



Location: Ground Control
United States

  • #7
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 03:37
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Yeah - I could see that quote meaning he wasn't a master at music theory.

Doesn't mean he sucked at harmonies, he just wasn't a master of it...

At the same time The Beatles weren't trained musicians but there are plenty of actual musicians whose minds are blown when you look at their harmonizing abilities/play with music theory. I remember reading The Anthology (story of Beatles by Beatles) - Paul said he hired someone to teach him how to read music and transcribe music, and after a bit he just gave up because he felt it didn't further his ability to write... this was after Sgt Pepper... ahahaha. Now in fairness the song structures were written by a Beatle and George Martin did some magic on top of that, which we can't discount, but I'm not talking about George Martin, I'm talking about just piano chords... I mean - I am the Walrus has an 8 chord structure...

I digress... my take on the quote is he wasn't trained in harmonies or consciously made harmonies in a music theory way, but that doesn't mean he didn't have good harmonies.
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bobbyb5



Gender: Male
Location: New York
United States

  • #8
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 04:20
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I know so little about him that all I could add to the conversation is to.say that I like these albums here. Although over the years I've owned a couple more than these, these are the only ones I own now.. both of which I like and listen to sometimes.


Hot Rats by Frank Zappa


Sheik Yerbouti by Frank Zappa
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Lachapelle



Gender: Male
Canada

  • #9
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 05:18
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sethmadsen wrote:
Any tips for getting into his music...


I've tried to get into Zappa recently as well. Have listened to 5 or 6 of his studio albums.

I've found the skits on his earlier albums make it a bit hard to sit through the entire thing,
but I've always been one to enjoy a difficult listen so I will likely be going back to them.

However this one here hit me on the first listen.


One Size Fits All by Frank Zappa

I'd recommend checking this out as it is the most rewarding first-listen of the bunch I've heard so far,
and I've already went back to it multiple times.
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Tha1ChiefRocka
Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.



Location: Kansas
United States

  • #10
  • Posted: 04/12/2018 05:31
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For those complaining about the lyrics, this might clear some stuff up. Frank didn't care about the lyrics.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/324135...the-causes

If the silliness bothers you, then you should listen to the Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar album. The title is self explanatory.
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