The Frank Zappa
Review Page
Who Is Frank Zappa?
Frank Zappa was an
american singer, composer and all round musician who produced over 60 albums in
30 years. The style of his music is nearly impossible to define because he
utilised many styles. Simplistically I would say that he was a Jazz/Rock
composer, but he dabbled in many others styles. He recorded doo wop, big band,
jazz, hard rock, comedy rock and modern classical albums. One of the main
influences on his early career was 50's doo wop and this was reflected in his
debut album Freak Out!
and Cruising With Ruben And The
Jets . In the early 70's Zappa started to produce Jazz/Rock
material, Hot Rats is
regarded as a Jazz/Rock classic,Zappa also worked with former Turtles
frontmen Flo and Eddie who featured on one of Zappa's most straight forward
rock albums Chunga's Revenge.
Zappa also tried his hand at big band with The Grand Wazoo. The mid 70's was a time
when Zappa produced some of his most conventional rock music eg. Over-nite Sensation, this was still very
avant-garde compared to other 'pop' music, Apostrophe followed in the same
vein, it was a rock album with a funny story about an eskimo! It was one of
Zappa's most commercially successful albums. The early 80's was a low point in
Zappa's career, he produced several albums which were instantly forgetable. Sheik Yerbouti,The Man From Utopia and Tinseltown Rebellion
were all poor albums. Zappa starting churning out the good stuff again in the
late 80's with The Best Band You Never Heard
In Your Life and You Are What You Is. Following his death in 1993 of
cancer Rykodisc, his label, brought out several compilation albums, some were
better than others, the pick of the bunch was Have I Offended Someone
which contained many of his best songs from the mid 1970's to the mid 1980's.
Two budget albums were also released Cheap Thrills
and Son Of Cheap Thrills,
both contained quality live material. However I believe his best
material was nearly all his early works. If I was advising a first time Zappa
listener to buy an album I think that Freak Out! would be a great start.
Zappa's finest album was We're Only In It For The Money, his 1968
classic.
Frank Zappa was at
times pretensious and patronising but he was such a talent. He had a great
sense of
humour which was reflected in his lyrics and he produced some exceptional
music. Of course some of his output
was not good, because he produced so much! Generally he maintained a very
high standard throughout his career and anyone with an open mind should be able
to get into his music. The way he did things was certainly different but that
is what separates him from the rest and insures he will always have a huge cult
following.
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