Frank Zappa
 

Any Zappa fans in here?

I'm not a huge fan, but I do have a soft spot for "Crew Slut". That is one hilarious tune!

His first three albums are genius.

He's one of those artists that is all across the board. He has some really good stuff, but also some total crap that is almost unlistenable.

He's like Woody Allen-his earlier, funnier records were the superior works. Anything before "Overnight Sensation" in 1974 is pretty good-even the albums with the Turtles singing are terrific.

If you don't want to hear too much singing, check out "Uncle Meat", "Hot Rats", "Burnt Weeny Sandwich", and "Weasels Ripped My Flesh", which has the greatest album cover of all time.

In a few weeks, I'll be visiting his grave, which is a few miles away from my house.

oh yeah..Hot Rats, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe, Overnight Sensation to name a few

The early stuff is great. That said, one of my favorite Zappa albums is one of his later ones... Broadway The Hard Way.

I guess I just agreed with his politics.

Zappa is probably one of the most intelligent songwriters ever to live. Utterly unbelievable how good his music is on a technical level. Some of his music gets very difficult to listen to though.

It's always difficult to talk about Zappa, because to me there are three:

FZ the composer/conductor
FZ the guitar god
FZ the social critic/humorist

Most folks like 2 and/or 3, but very few seem to be able to wade into 1. His stuff is very dense, complicated and not chained to conventional ideas about melody. I like it in small doses, but I definitely don't come home from a hard day at work and slap "Jazz From Hell" into the ol' CD player.

My personal favorites are "Burt Weeny Sandwich", "We're Only In it For the Money", "Overnight Sensation", "Hot Rats", "Apostraphe", and (in the right mood) "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar"

Sure would be nice to get 200 Motels on DVD. Wonder who's holding it up: MGM or the Zappa Family Trust?

Fave albums: Freak Out!, Hot Rats, and Roxy and Elsewhere!