I should add that Zappa was obviously a very amusing guy, so I have no doubt the film will be worth seeing.
I should also add that Zappa and his music otherwise sucked hippo root, IMHO. He was the world's most tedious guitarist, and as far as I'm concerned, he wrote and recorded exactly one really good song.
Have a great weekend, everybody!!!
3 comments:
Those first four paragraphs in your Stereo Review piece are brilliant, even though I disagree with you regarding Zappa and his place in the rock pantheon, not only as a recording artist, but as an entertainer and businessman as well. The guy was pure dada at a time when avant-garde was nowhere to be found in pop music. Being a provocateur is no bed of roses. And while lots of Zappa's stuff is ... ahem ... hard to listen to, much of his work is pretty brilliant stuff even when it's hard to listen to.
Wise of you to focus on his guitar-playing, which best expresses the self-indulgence at the root of his music. In 100 years Zappa will be remembered only as a footnote to the career of Captain Beefheart.
On further consideration I should mention two things I agree with FZ on here: the British press is every bit as debased and "snotty" as he says it is, which comes as a shock to anyone first visiting the place after reading a lot of English literature. And the world of academic composition is every bit as cynical and pay-for-play as he says it is, which I know from personal experience. Want to get hired as a guest lecturer? (The tenure-track professorship has gone the way of the passenger pigeon.) Then you better make some noise in the endowment fund.
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