Born on this date. Here’s a strong writeup from Guitar World from 21 years ago. If Zappa thought the music industry incompetent, crooked and imbecilic back then, he’d be even more appalled now, if that were even possible. I’d recommend the recently released documentary for a decent enough sketch of Zappa’s life. And in many…
Released on this day in 1969. Hot Rats’ genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock’s down-and-dirty attitude — AllMusic. Frank Zappahot rats
Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy. — AllMusic Frank Zappahot ratsjazz-rockmusic
Born on this day — the radical individualist that was FZ. Look out for the forthcoming Who the Fuck is Frank Zappa? movie and also The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa hologram tour. Also well-worth a read is Barry Miles’ excellent biography reviewed by the redoubtable Camille Paglia in the NYT. Barry MilesCamille PagliaConservatismcultural criticismFrank Zappafree speechLibertarianismmusic
Waiting with bated breath for Who the F is Frank Zappa? I chanced upon this documentary called Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words. Like George Carlin, more than ever we need Zappa. Even The Guardian gets his value: he along with Bowie was the most articulate, independent-minded and philosophical, the funniest and artistically, the bravest of…
Released on this day in ’79 Zappa’s target was, according to some sources, motivated by the banning of music in revolutionary Iran. The target we do know Zappa had in mind was the ascendancy of the fundamentalist Right of the ’80s and the idiotic PMRC proposal . . . but now the target is more appropriately applicable to the regressive…
Released 50 years ago. Frank would roll in his grave knowing that the Brain Police are their most powerful right now. In the ’80s they were primarily daft pearl-clutching Washington Wives (abetted by the so-called “Moral Majority”/ in the UK we had Mary Whitehouse). But thanks to Frank we had some push back because these pearl-clutchers weren’t the sharpest pencils in…
Frank Zappafree speechmusic
Commemorating the birth of Zappa and here. censorshipFrank Zappafree speech
This from the NME. Always good to hear that Frank is getting recognition from unlikely quarters on the grounds that he gets no real radio play and that he pissed off the ideologues of both political wings. P. Zappae is not the first time that Zappa has inspired the name of a new discover. The musician has provided inspiration…
manwithoutqualities 