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The Beast

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Use the Zappa stuff.  I can't stomach his music...

Ach!!! Frank was a sharp wit and an iconoclast to be sure, but was also a brilliant composer. He'll be remembered in music history textbooks as one of the more innovative 20th century American composers. Yes, he also wrote music about the do's and don't of eating yellow snow, but that's Zappa for you.

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Ach!!!  Frank was a sharp wit and an iconoclast to be sure, but was also a brilliant composer.  He'll be remembered in music history textbooks as one of the more innovative 20th century American composers.  Yes, he also wrote music about the do's and don't of eating yellow snow, but that's Zappa for you.

I don't doubt you, just saying that I haven't liked what I've heard. Give me some recommendations and I'll give 'em a try.

 

I won't pretend to know anything about music, so I'm not judging Zappa. I feel pretty stupid usually while listening to great composers. I do enjoy Mozart, Shubert, and (somewhat oddly I guess) Schoenberg. But then of Beethoven and Bach, I don't like much besides the Goldberg variations. Needless to say, I avoid giving musical advice.

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Jackie: Check out the Apostrophe album. Cozmik Debris is an awesome song.

 

"Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?"

 

Beastly:

 

Consider this in your argument, discretionary warnings are usually voluntary - and they aren't even applied equally. Certain stores will not carry CDs with Warning labels on them (Wal-Mart for example) and others will not sell them to people under 16, 17 or 18. Some movie theatres will also not admit people under 17 to R rated movies, but its not a hard and fast rule either.

 

When you consider your "freedom to buy whatever," does that mean a "freedom from selling to whomever as well"?

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I'm in high school now as som of you know and I have 2 projects to do. One for American Literature is a 5000 point project (basically you pass and get an A or fail and get an F), a U.S. History project, and a Geometry project. I did about 1/2 of it so far and its all due Monday. Yippee!

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Will do.  Any other suggestions?

Apostrophe is excellent - it was the album that started me down the path of no return into Zappa fandom. My favorite cut on the album - actually one of my favorite songs period - is called 'Uncle Remus.' It's simultaneousely a scathing commentary on social complacency in black society, an awesome blues-rag with George Duke on piano and Chester Thompson on drums, and possible the watershed signature FZ solo during a period when his chops were right up there.

 

If you like that stuff, the albums that flanked Apostrophe - Overnite Sensation and One Size Fits All - are worth checking out.

 

As expansive as his career was and as prolific as his output was, it's hard to point out anything and say it represents his music. But for classic anti-establishment Mothers of Invention, We're Only In It For the Money is my pick. For a glimpse of his early instrumental leanings, try Lumpy Gravy or the more jazzy Grand Wazoo. Cruizing With Reuben and the Jets is a very loving send-up of Franks first musical loves, R&B and Doo-wop. Hot Rats has some good stuff with Captain Beefheart on it and also a great jazz-blues violinist by the name of Sugarcane Harris that never became quite as successful as John-Luc Ponty but should have.

 

Later albums were less socially biting in a lot of ways but always musically very progressive and very demanding of the listener. I particularly like Zoot Alures (including the song 'Wonderful Wino' that always makes me think of a certain SoxTalk poster), Sheik Yerbuti, and You Are What You Is. Great later live stuff abounds on Does Humor Belong in Music?, Broadway the Hard Way (including stuff from two Chicago shows I was at), Make a jazz Noise Here, and the Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life.

 

The two London Symphony Orchestral albums are good to hear the 'serious' side of his music (especially Vol. 2, conducted by Kent Nagano), as is The Perfect Stranger (conducted by Pierre Boulez) and The Yellow Shark, released right before he died. Jazz From Hell is the album that got him his only Grammy (because it was an instrumental and he didn't swear all over it no doubt). But for one song, it is completely programmed and played on the Synclavier - a high end digital music synthesizer that Frank grew very fod of late in life.

 

Since that is such a massive list, Rykodisk made jumping in a little easier with the release of two pretty good samplers, "Cheap Thrills" and "Son of Cheap Thrills". Neither of these discs gives you a feel for the 'conceptual continuity' that was at the heat of everything he put out, but they'' give you an idea of whether his catalog is worth digging into from your perspective.

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I'm in high school now as som of you know and I have 2 projects to do. One for American Literature is a 5000 point project (basically you pass and get an A or fail and get an F), a U.S. History project, and a Geometry project. I did about 1/2 of it so far and its all due Monday. Yippee!

Geometry project? Crazy.....I've NEVER had a project for a math class.

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Apostrophe is excellent - it was the album that started me down the path of no return into Zappa fandom.  My favorite cut on the album - actually one of my favorite songs period - is called 'Uncle Remus.'  It's simultaneousely a scathing commentary on social complacency in black society, an awesome blues-rag with George Duke on piano and Chester Thompson on drums, and possible the watershed signature FZ solo during a period when his chops were right up there.

 

If you like that stuff, the albums that flanked Apostrophe - Overnite Sensation and One Size Fits All - are worth checking out.

 

As expansive as his career was and as prolific as his output was, it's hard to point out anything and say it represents his music.  But for classic anti-establishment Mothers of Invention, We're Only In It For the Money is my pick.  For a glimpse of his early instrumental leanings, try Lumpy Gravy or the more jazzy Grand Wazoo.  Cruizing With Reuben and the Jets is a very loving send-up of Franks first musical loves, R&B and Doo-wop.  Hot Rats has some good stuff with Captain Beefheart on it and also a great jazz-blues violinist by the name of Sugarcane Harris that never became quite as successful as John-Luc Ponty but should have.

 

Later albums were less socially biting in a lot of ways but always musically very progressive and very demanding of the listener.  I particularly like Zoot Alures (including the song 'Wonderful Wino' that always makes me think of a certain SoxTalk poster), Sheik Yerbuti, and You Are What You Is.  Great later live stuff abounds on Does Humor Belong in Music?, Broadway the Hard Way (including stuff from two Chicago shows I was at), Make a jazz Noise Here, and the Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life.

 

The two London Symphony Orchestral albums are good to hear the 'serious' side of his music (especially Vol. 2, conducted by Kent Nagano), as is The Perfect Stranger (conducted by Pierre Boulez) and The Yellow Shark, released right before he died.  Jazz From Hell is the album that got him his only Grammy (because it was an instrumental and he didn't swear all over it no doubt).  But for one song, it is completely programmed and played on the Synclavier - a high end digital music synthesizer that Frank grew very fod of late in life.

 

Since that is such a massive list, Rykodisk made jumping in a little easier with the release of two pretty good samplers, "Cheap Thrills" and "Son of Cheap Thrills".  Neither of these discs gives you a feel for the 'conceptual continuity' that was at the heat of everything he put out, but they'' give you an idea of whether his catalog is worth digging into from your perspective.

Hey, Jim, if I wanted the complete discography I could just go to rollingstone.com. :lol: J/k, thanks for this, I will check him out again.

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I was really lucky to not get any homework over break. Some of my friends got a 500 page book to read over break and some had papers and such. Even my Algebra teacher, who has given us homework every day this year, didn't give us any homework, and we get extra credit for being there on the Friday before break and the Money after break.

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