Beppe Colli, at Clouds and Clocks, commemorates the 20th anniversary of Zappa’s death with a slew of reviews — 14 in all, in both English and Italian — culled from his large archives. I look forward to digging into these reviews, and still hope to continue, in some shape or form, the Zappa throwdown in the new year. Continue reading Zappa (17)

Alas, a little something about the music. Or maybe a lot of something, who knows? Jeff Pike, who has occasionally written about Zappa on his excellent Can’t Explain blog, provides a Top 10 (+9) Zappa-themed list, along with a few additional thoughts on the man. I’ll follow-up Jeff’s list in a later post with my own Top 10+, and we’ll see where it goes from … Continue reading Zappa (12): Jeff Pike’s Top 10 (+9)

  “Memories of El Monte,” the Penguins, 1963 — written by Frank Zappa and Ray Collins. Not often commented upon (at least from what I’ve seen) is the fact that “El Monte” holds its place in pop history as one of the early sampling records, stitching in, as it does, quotes from eight doo-wop classics, all of which are helpfully listed on the song’s Wiki … Continue reading Zappa (9): “Memories of El Monte”

“Thanks to songs like ‘Dinah Moe Humm,’ ‘Titties & Beer’ and ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,’ I managed to accumulate enough cash to bribe a group of drones* to grind its way through pieces like ‘Mo ‘n Herb’s Vacation,’ ‘Bob in Dacron’ and ‘Bogus Pomp’ (eventually released on London Symphony Orchestra, Volumes I and II) — in performances which come off like high-class ‘demos’ of … Continue reading Zappa (8): Yellow Snow Beer Hum part one

“‘Louie Louie’ repeatedly figured in the musical lexicon of Frank Zappa in the 1960s. An early live version of his original composition ‘Plastic People’ (from his You Can’t Do That Onstage Anymore series of live albums) was set to the melody of ‘Louie Louie’ (the official version was released on the album Absolutely Free in 1967). Zappa reportedly fired guitarist Alice Stuart from The Mothers … Continue reading Zappa (7) : “Louie Louie” part one

“FWIW, Joe’s Garage is probably one of my favorite albums, and I absolutely hate parts of it, too. But it was very mind-opening for me when I was sixteen, moreso than the early Mothers albums or fusion stuff or post-Demento crap etc. New [Janelle] Monae reminds me of JG in weird ways — self-consciously flimsy conceit keeps getting in the way, mildly amusing in-song narrative … Continue reading Zappa (6)

I started responding in the comments box to something from Patrick regarding Zappa and the critics, but I ended up writing stuff I thought would make more sense in its own post, so — I’ll just post it here instead. Patrick mentioned Christgau’s “A” review of We’re Only In It for the Money (as partial proof against my contention that Zappa is the most “critically … Continue reading Zappa (5)

Some good email comments from Steven Rubio re: Zappa, which he said I could use here. …an interesting discussion might be had about Ruben and the Jets. [Zappa’s] love of doo wop oozes from the record, but he can’t help himself, he has to fuck with it, so the album works more as comedy than as doo wop. You could say he’s messing with our … Continue reading Zappa (4)