FRANK ZAPPA - Joe's Garage (Ryko)

[dot_fennel]

Recommended to me as a first purchase by some heavy Zappa fans -- but why?

Act I is accessible as in "stupid", with catchy parts separated by too much soulless humor (and the oddly appealling but momentum-killing segues from The Central Scrutinizer) to add up.

Act II drops most of Act I's coy smarminess and hits its sexual themes directly, which would be great if it didn't mean more lameness about homosexuality. Plus side: some flashy guitar rock songs. Minus side: interminable reggae.

Only Act III has anything like the scope listeners deserve for listening to a two-hour song cycle narrated lackadaisically by Zappa pretending to be an Eastern European robot... I expected to hate "Packard Goose" (synopsis: Zappa hates critics and punk rock) but hearing Zappa sing honestly about anything, as it turns out, makes him not an asshole, just an angry (and in this case, misguded but who cares) guy. Angry's fine! I'm now curious to read his autobiography.

Having now heard lots of Zappa, my reflex to single out the better 50% of Joe's Garage and mentally note conceptual continuity references for later comes naturally. If I'd picked this up first, though, you would have been spared many, many Zappa reviews.

There are two kinds of recommendations: (a) People who only feel the need for one record by Musician X are usually happiest with this record. (b) People who eventually become obsessed with Musician X usually find it started with this record. Sometimes these point to the same thing. When they don't, though, I want type (b).

Comments

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

this is going to sound really bizarre, but i really appreciate your posts on frank zappa. i'm going through a similar phase with the twilight zone -- wanting to like it, liking some of it, trying to figure out where i stand with it -- and reading your stories about zappa is helping me try and understand it. :)

[dot_fennel]

Not bizarre at all! I've stuck with it (the writing, that is) hoping it is actually interesting even if one doesn't care about Zappa. Thanks.