Strange reasons for not liking Zappa

Maroual · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 6:05 am

Most told me they did not like "irritating" and "unusual" things such as rhythm changes, unconventional time signatures, tuplets, fanciful ornaments, dissonance, atonality, altered chords, weirdness, complexity, political and/or sexual connotations, etc.
This is basically everything I like :cry:

Maroual · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 6:10 am

BBP wrote:

mistrijah wrote:

(not gonna let a Zappa female fan get away) ...

Hello! Single female Zappa fan here! Single for ages!

No shit? I cannot believe it :shock:

adverb · **Joined:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:08 pm **Posts:** 135

Quote:

What's weird is that post-Mothers, the bulk of his music is neither good enough nor bad enough to warrant all this discussion. It's nerdy and self-conscious but hardly highbrow. He's a competent guitarist who typically had an atrocious sound and didn't play a single memorable lick. His band didn't make mistakes but were similarly insipid in tone and have no moments of genuine power.

It's like rock music devoid of rock, plus a few pages of music school exercises in odd-meter timekeeping. I can't understand how anybody could either like it or dislike it.

I mean, it's not as bad as the Eagles, but also not as good as the Eagles.

BloodSugar00 · **Joined:** Sat May 23, 2009 3:55 am **Posts:** 188

Mr_Green_Genes wrote:

Who cares, I like it... Although I don't mean it out of disrespect for the new member. Welcome.

Very much where I've evolved to-am consolidating evolution to now.

However, not many- 'close' or otherwise- people I'm around/have been around have appreciated Frank's output, with all reasons and senses I get/have gotten as to why- though not as perceptively/succinctly realised and/or expressed-, probably being encapsulated in the list given by Maroual. Also, the "cartoony/silly" vocal stylings have been a turn off for more than one person I've known as well (probably fits into Maroual's "irritating" and "unusual" umbrella, also).

VacuumCleaner · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:33 am

adverb wrote:

Quote:

What's weird is that post-Mothers, the bulk of his music is neither good enough nor bad enough to warrant all this discussion. It's nerdy and self-conscious but hardly highbrow. He's a competent guitarist who typically had an atrocious sound and didn't play a single memorable lick. His band didn't make mistakes but were similarly insipid in tone and have no moments of genuine power.

It's like rock music devoid of rock, plus a few pages of music school exercises in odd-meter timekeeping. I can't understand how anybody could either like it or dislike it.

I mean, it's not as bad as the Eagles, but also not as good as the Eagles.

Nice quote, but it would be interesting to know who said it?

adverb · **Joined:** Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:08 pm **Posts:** 135

steve albini

VacuumCleaner · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:40 am

adverb wrote:

steve albini

Thanks. That man must be deaf, I'll never listen to anything he did :mrgreen:

Ed Organus Maximus · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:07 am **Posts:** 1189

I found the quote, it's over here.

You could in fact fill this entire thread with quotes from that thread. So much prejudice against Zappa, esp. his post-MOI work.

My favourite is the sentiment that Zappa's music was in no way rock at all. This brings into mind Jonathan Coe of Rotters Club fame and his statement in the Prog Rock Britannia documentary that "if you judge [progressive music] by the standards of rock'n'roll, then it fails". Of course, Zappa did use electric instruments and he did harness some rock power every now and then, but alas, his problem was that his overall musical "ethos was completely different" (as Coe would again say).

It is little wonder a bunch of (indie-)rockers are taking a piss on anybody who they deem failures by the standards of rock'n'roll, they just don't really care to realise that some artists' ethos is completely different.

mistrijah · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 5:23 pm

Maroual wrote:

BBP wrote:

mistrijah wrote:

(not gonna let a Zappa female fan get away) ...

Hello! Single female Zappa fan here! Single for ages!

No shit? I cannot believe it :shock:

No Way? it's good to know that there is a few of you out there..

Plook · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:12 pm

The concerts are too long... :mrgreen:

mistrijah · **Posted:** Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:19 am

Plook wrote:

The concerts are too long... :mrgreen:

The guitar solo's are to long ;-)

Ed Organus Maximus · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:07 am **Posts:** 1189

Just remembered that Julian Cope was rather ambivalent about the Mothers of Invention in the Krautrocksampler book. From what I get, Cope clearly enjoys only the first few MOI LPs, dismisses "Uncle Meat" as a "crap-slack double album" (is "crap-slack" sort of a Cockney slang for "self-indulgent"? That's what I assume anyway, till I know any better) and has the unmitigated audacity to state that Mothers were a crap live band:

Julian Cope wrote:

Listen to the Mothers of Invention concert recordings from 1966 onwards and it's just trash. Musical bollocks of the most merely capable variety.

Cope clearly comes across as an avant-garde rock snob to whom dabbling in anything classical is a dangerous no man's land (he only liked the "funny bits" of Lumpy Gravy). I guess the German Krautrockers Faust were clearly the Mothers of Invention Cope would've wanted to have, rather than what MOI actually was.

Plook · **Posted:** Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:45 am

Ed Organus Maximus wrote:

Just remembered that Julian Cope was rather ambivalent about the Mothers of Invention in the Krautrocksampler book. From what I get, Cope clearly enjoys only the first few MOI LPs, dismisses "Uncle Meat" as a "crap-slack double album" (is "crap-slack" sort of a Cockney slang for "self-indulgent"? That's what I assume anyway, till I know any better) and has the unmitigated audacity to state that Mothers were a crap live band:

Julian Cope wrote:

Listen to the Mothers of Invention concert recordings from 1966 onwards and it's just trash. Musical bollocks of the most merely capable variety.

Cope clearly comes across as an avant-garde rock snob to whom dabbling in anything classical is a dangerous no man's land (he only liked the "funny bits" of Lumpy Gravy). I guess the German Krautrockers Faust were clearly the Mothers of Invention Cope would've wanted to have, rather than what MOI actually was.

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has them and sometimes the people giving them act like assholes... :smoke:

VacuumCleaner · **Posted:** Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:22 am

BBP wrote:

mistrijah wrote:

(not gonna let a Zappa female fan get away) ...

Hello! Single female Zappa fan here! Single for ages!

And you live only about 600 km away from me. I think you must be the nearest Zappa fan single lady from where I live.

just plain doug · **Posted:** Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:29 pm

VacuumCleaner wrote:

BBP wrote:

mistrijah wrote:

(not gonna let a Zappa female fan get away) ...

Hello! Single female Zappa fan here! Single for ages!

And you live only about 600 km away from me. I think you must be the nearest Zappa fan single lady from where I live.

Get 'em while they last. Order in the next 10 minutes!

polydigm · **Posted:** Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:27 am

I'm still waiting for someone to come up with a strange reason for not liking liking FZ. The man was strange compared to the norm, so, if you think about it, that would be the most common reason for not liking him, not a strange reason.

beajerkgotowork · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:06 pm **Posts:** 81

"He just makes his song titles weird to be cool."
-My idiot friend

Ed Organus Maximus · **Joined:** Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:07 am **Posts:** 1189

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/mu ... cal-genuis
Read at your own risk, I say. It's also bashing Zappa's fans.

calvin2hikers · **Joined:** Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:41 pm **Posts:** 14129

Ed Organus Maximus wrote:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/8068670/Zappa-no-musical-genuis
Read at your own risk, I say. It's also bashing Zappa's fans.

So his musical taste doesn't include Frank Zappa. Big fucking deal. He's neither right nor wrong. Let's argue over which food tastes best.

MentalTossFlycoon · **Posted:** Sun Dec 16, 2012 3:16 pm

I recall doing a double-take when I heard someone say this many years ago:

"He looks like he smells."

sleeping in a jar · **Posted:** Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:18 pm

Ed Organus Maximus wrote:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/8068670/Zappa-no-musical-genuis
Read at your own risk, I say. It's also bashing Zappa's fans.

ha! i KNEW it! i shall cease listening to frank at once. and to think of all the time i've wasted.

just plain doug · **Posted:** Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:33 pm

Ed Organus Maximus wrote:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/8068670/Zappa-no-musical-genuis
Read at your own risk, I say. It's also bashing Zappa's fans.

He must have run into Gary at a party.

The_Acadian_2 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2012 5:17 am

Ed Organus Maximus wrote:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/8068670/Zappa-no-musical-genuis
Read at your own risk, I say. It's also bashing Zappa's fans.

Of course he doesn't understand FZ....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/comm ... unky-music

How the fuck could he??

sleeping in a jar · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:45 pm

The_Acadian_2 wrote:

Of course he doesn't understand FZ....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/comm ... unky-music

How the fuck could he??

i'm guessing he wasn't fond of disco boy or bobby brown.

ReetyAwrighty · **Posted:** Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:00 pm

In the early 2000's there were a couple of guys at work who were dedicated Frank fans like I am. We talked about him constantly, borrowed each other's recordings to listen to at work, and used Zappa quotes whenever possible. Another coworker was around my age, late 30's or early 40's, so you would think she might have had some familiarity with him. One day she said "You guys are always talking about Frank Zappa. What's so great about him?" She said that she had heard his name before but not his music and asked me to let her listen to one of my CD's. It seemed like the Apostrophe / Over-Nite Sensation 2-albums-on-1-disc might be a good place to start for a beginner. Later that day I asked her "What do you think?" I can still picture the look of disgust on her face as she said "there's all of this... (5 - 10 seconds of stammering, trying to think up a word)...stuff going on. It's not music, it's just.......weird stuff. All this stuff going on, all at the same time, it's not normal". Boys and girls, trying to convert a country music fan to FZ just doesn't work. You could make more money as a butcher so don't you waste your time.

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Strange reasons for not liking Zappa

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