Zappa!

Here it is, my blog on the one and only Frank Zappa!

Here you will find notes, commentaries, and reflections on Zappa, his music, and the Concordia FFAR course. What will also be discussed is the broader cultural tapestry that Zappa helped forge, as well as the world that lead up to Zappa. The bigger picture is key to understanding not only Zappa, but his place in history and his importance as a figure.


Notes on the first few lectures:

I've been a long time Zappa fan, well maybe not for a long time, but I've been heavily into his music since the summer 0f '08. I found a lovely torrent of all his albums between 1966 and 2005 covering his entire career and then some.

What interests me about Zappa is that his music is primarily intellectual, yet it still rocks. Being a die hard fan of King Crimson, Zappa appeals to me on the same level as does Crimson. It's hard rocking intellectual music, progressive as well, yet both Crimson and Zappa have a strong punk ethos. Unlike their contemporaries, they are not out to wow audiences with fast licks, psychedelic stage shows, or flamboyant - over the top playing. Both Zappa and Crimson started genres we take for granted today - Zappa jump started the 1960s counter revolution, but was undeniably at the forefront and did not cater to the mechanization of his movement. Neither did Crimson and Fripp who jump started the progressive/art rock scene. While Yes and Genesis copied their style and were prolific is distributing 'art rock' en mass, Crimson stood by the sidelines reinventing themselves constantly and popular music as well. In that sense, both Crimson and Zappa while 'progressive' acts, were/are undeniably alternative bands/artists.

Today alternative rock has almost lost all meaning. In the wake of Nirvana, anything that sounds post-80s and 70s is deemed alternative. I disagree. Alternative is first and foremost a method of music and creative performance. It implies consistent rebellion and creative leisure from the mass. Zappa stood outside the status quo and remained able to do as he wished musically, always thinking rationally and freshly towards music like a true composer. Crimson were equally able to have this control, as did Nirvana who I believe marked the climax and shift in the rock market. Nirvana were special because they were a wholly alternative band - they had the punk ethos, the originality, the creative liberty to create what they wanted, the intellect necessary to write with wit, vigor, and even grace, and the balance brought forth from Kurt's years of appreciation of old records. They were in their totality a true classic band with honesty and alternative wit, not too distant from the likes of Zappa and his mothers or King Crimson, and yet they were the most popular band of the 1990s, way after the height of rock and roll.

What remains fascinating is that there are common treads underpinning the bands of some of the greatest musical thinkers of the last century. Zappa, Fripp, and Cobain were all musicians who seemed possibly more skilled in language, philosophy, and rhetoric than music per se. Even when listening to Zappa's famous solo styling, one can hear the phrasing of his guitar picking like the way one would speak. To cut to the basics, these three composers had something to say, opinions to voice, ideas to discuss, and a life to mock, that which their music came to aid them in their voicing.