His music is weird, sometimes too weird for even me. He spent a large portion of his career parodying my favorite people, hippies. The only thing I really knew about the guy was "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", which I remembered as only slightly amusing. He tended to be an autocratic perfectionist. But, he's one of the most brilliant minds that music has ever seen. So for that reason, lately I've been attracted to the music of Frank Zappa.
Where to even begin? I shortly learned that Zappa produced 62 albums before his premature death in 1993 after a fight with prostate cancer. A quick Google search led me to some great lists of his best work (Top 10 Frank Zappa Albums, Top 10 Frank Zappa Songs). Upon my discovery of Zappa's second solo album, Hot Rats, I was in love as soon as "Peaches En Regalia" grabbed my ear with a snappy drum fill followed by a seductively hypnotic piano. Through the rest of my "research", Hot Rats is remaining my favorite...thus far.
Frank Zappa's 1974 album Apostrophe(') reached No. 10 on US Charts.
However, I needed to dig deeper. I found a great article on A.V. Club specifically designed as a beginner's guide to Zappa. Thanks to that helpful guide, I next tackled Zappa's biggest commercial success, Apostrophe('), the opening track of which was my only prior knowledge of Zappa, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow."
I first became acquainted with the song on a Dr. Demento CD that was given to me by my awesome parents (pictured above). However, I remember thinking I was too old to think jokes about yellow snow were funny, and I was more interested in my hero of the time, Weird Al Yankovic (I was a weird kid). But since I've revisited the track, I learned that it is best paired with the three that follow it ("Nanook Rubs It", "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast, and "Father Oblivion"). Together, the suite is random, yet every bit as fun and captivating as it is perplexing.
Further digging led me to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's first album, Freak Out!, and one of their most popular and satirical, We're Only In It For The Money. The progression between even these two albums is stunning, yet cohesive, as Zappa was a firm believer in his works being a part of a collective whole. As I became more fascinated with the man himself, I tackled more solo work like the ambitious Lumpy Gravy, and the bizarre Jazz From Hell.
I've been listening to nothing but Frank Zappa for a week, and I haven't even scratched the surface. The guy just loved to make creative content, and I feel as if that love sounds like it is missing in a lot of modern music. Chalk it up as yet another time that my initial impression was wrong, because I am slowly but surely becoming a devout Zappa disciple.
I always liked Frank Zappa even after he named his daughter Moon Unit. And parenthetically, the way you placed the parentheses above indicates that there should be a picture of your awesome parents instead of Dr. Demento. ;) I prefer that you move the parenthetical phrase and not change the picture. [PS - Your parents ARE awesome and you were not a weird kid. You were raised to be uniquely you.]
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