Word: zappa
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SEXUAL perversity is perhaps Zappa's best-known theme, stemming from his noted lack of sexual inhibitions. If, as a cherubic young schoolboy, Francis Vincent has been cast as the innocent child in "The Emperor and His Clothes," he would sooner have made unflattering remarks about the emperor's genitals than about his lack of apparel. Always fond of extended "comedy show" tunes, Zappa has recorded rock's kinkiest scenarios on wax with nary a batting of his beady eyes. (Those of unsalvageable purient interest may refer to the Live at the Fillmore East "white album," or the equally memorable...
There are some songs that work. Relative to pop music's more recent trends, Zappa recently observed, "Disco music makes it possible for mellow, laid-back, boring kinds of people to meet each other and reproduce." Marshalling his talents to forge a particularly scathing attack on disco, Frank wrote "Dancin' Fool," which is due to be spun at Boston-Boston any night now. In this song, some lame guy decides he'd rather be a fool and get laughed at than not dance at all. "I got it all together man / With my very own disco clothes,hey! / My shirts...
...comment on the subverted chicness of punk, "I'm So Cute" emulates the "beat-it-into-their-heads" method: stupid words, short lines, and screaming repetition. Many of the other songs on this album, although not deliberately mimicking punk, are painfully consistent with this style. And they're boring. Zappa lets his compositions ramble in a way that shames his genius as an arranger. Usually a clever and inventive songwriter, Zappa here contrives disappointingly sparse and uncreative lyrics. Only his provoking cynicism remains...
...past few years, Zappa has become increasingly monomaniacal regarding his music, Though an iconoclast who deplauds seriousness of any kind, he works like a demon in the recording studio, With enough original material on tape to press at least twenty albums, he has long since become a faultlessly conscientious producer. And as a performer, he rehearses his bands unmercifully, six hours a day for months before a tour, "getting it right." The ultimate indication of his extreme nature is his renaming of the Mothers of Invention. They are now simply "Zappa...
Sheik Yerbouti, while a neat idea, shows more than anything else Zappa's growing tendency to churn out songs that rely solely on shock value and unnerving repetition. In his best moments, Zappa is a musician of wit and surprise. A diverse composer and a melodically gifted guitarist, he is capable of highly original fusions of rock and jazz. Why drain all his energies on social satire when others will continue to produce it unwittingly? American Society provides more than enough material for satire--Zappa the critic will always persist. Let us hope that he can revive his musical ingenuity...