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The Words and Music of Frank Zappa

by Kelly Fisher Lowe

3.57 · rating details · 7 ratings · 4 reviews

This is the first book to move beyond the details of Zappa's biography toward a focused treatment of his songs. Zappa worked in a musical realm unfamiliar to many radio listeners. Today, his music can be appreciated as a whole, emerging as a coherent, thoughtful, innovative--if somewhat daunting--body of work. Lowe has left no aspect of that work unexamined, from Zappa's r

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Hardcover, 259 pages

Published April 30th 2006 by Praeger Publishers (first published 2006)

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Dec 06, 2010

David Melbie rated it

Recommends it for: You!

Recommended to David by: I'm a long-time fan.

Very good. . . excellent, actually. Lowe seems to present a very concise investigation of Zappa's ability to monitor current cultural trends of Zappa's time (musically, the 50s through the 80s) and how most everyone else who has written about Zappa aren't getting it!

Kudos to Lowe for pointing that out. Lowe has such a reverence (like me) for Zappa as composer and arranger that he purposely stays away from even discussing [all the controversy] in this book. --From A Reader's Journal, by...more

· see review

Mar 06, 2008

Bruce rated it

Recommends it for: Zappa-philes

Frank Zappa is a tough subject. His lyrics are often profane or abrasive, sometimes funny, always satirical. In his own words, "I don't have nay pretensions about being a poet. My lyrics are there for entertainment purposes only... [s:]ome of them are truly stupid, some are slightly less stupid and few of them are sort of funny. Apart from the snide political stuff, which I enjoy writing, the rest of the lyrics wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for the fact that we live in a society w...moreFrank Zappa is a tough subject. His lyrics are often profane or abrasive, sometimes funny, always satirical. In his own words, "I don't have nay pretensions about being a poet. My lyrics are there for entertainment purposes only... [s:]ome of them are truly stupid, some are slightly less stupid and few of them are sort of funny. Apart from the snide political stuff, which I enjoy writing, the rest of the lyrics wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for the fact that we live in a society where instrumental music is irrelevant."[1:] "Fortunately, lyrics over the last five or six years have gotten to be less and less important.... People have stopped listening to the lyrics -- they are now only 'pitched mouth noises.' (Quotes from The Real Frank Zappa Book, page 185 [1:] and page 90 [2:], emphasis in the original in each case.)

That was certainly true of me, who was only too happy to avoid listening too closely to anything beyond foreground words not precisely enunciated so I could enjoy the complex harmonies, arrangements, often angular melodies, sudden shifts of pace, and ever-changing meter reflected in the lion's share of Zappa's catalogue. This was also my main source of interest in reading the Kelly Fisher Lowe book, namely, to acquaint myself more intimately with what the heck (if anything) Frank Zappa's lyrics had to convey.

Lowe confesses right off the bat to be a literary not a music critic, and although he fairly thoroughly considers much of Zappa's discography from the 60s through the 80s on a song-by-song basis (rewarding in itself for those new to Zappa who might be looking for places to start... I suggest trying "We're Only in it for the Money," "Roxy and Elsewhere," and "Joe's Garage" which I think cover the full range of Zappa's work, including much of his best) he largely skips over anything beyond lay consideration of the music. He'll write about the bluesiness, jazziness, heavy-metalness of a particular piece, possibly reference an obvious quote from other sources, and even opine on the quality of an arrangement ("This was a tight band," is a popular line), but there is little in the way of critical musical analysis and consideration of Zappa's solos and instrumentals are here consciously avoided. This book ought therefore to be titled, "The Words of Frank Zappa's Songs."

Not that this doesn't leave plenty to analyze, despite Zappa's published attitude about his own lyrical work. Lowe is also fairly thorough in summarizing and paraphrasing the comments of others who have considered his topic. Zappa is consistently critical of the right wing police state, lazy workers and thinkers (be they unnamed yuppies, union members, televangelists, or hippies), and either women in general (if taken at face value) or (as Lowe would have it, based on a critical reading and reinterpretation of a large body of work en masse) privileged white males, depraved rock stars, and female groupies who may complain about the ways in which they are sexually exploited.

I find Lowe therefore to be something of a Zappa apologist here. Consider the following discussion of lyrics (p. 91) from Zappa's popular Flo & Eddy period album Fillmore East, June 1971: "[Zappa:] is not, as it might appear, casting a cruel eye on the groupies... perhaps the most honest part of the song is where the female groupie describes the particular sexual fetishes that turn her on [including sadomasochistic practices that include bondage, beating, and being urinated upon:].... The condemnation comes from the Victorian ideas of sexuality that Zappa is fighting." (Lowe then proceeds to consider Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality to further his point.) Or this excerpt from a consideration of topics off Zappa in New York (part I of the Lather project, re-released on CD in 1991, songs of which were reissued in parts or rerecorded live/studio on many other albums): "The main narrative in the four humorous songs on the album is, in each song, about a man and his foolish (and at times illegal) quest for sex and the outlandish lengths he will go to in order to satisfy his urges. For instance, the song that follow "Punky's Whips" on the album... uses the song to continue his argument that women have free will and with that free will comes the opportunity to do stupid things.... [T:]here is no way, after the way she is treated when she will not put out on the first date -- 'He called her a slut a pig and a whore' -- that she should have sex with this man. Yet she does.... Zappa is essaying freedom...." (p. 133)

Really? Notwithstanding Zappa's frequent stance that he was just a sexual journalist "reporting from the road," it seems to me that where there's smoke, there's fire. Too many of Zappa's lyrics involve abasement of young women through explicit lists of sex acts (Jewish American Princess, Catholic Girls, feminists, glass-ceiling breakers, and groupies galore) for me to believe that Zappa didn't have contempt for women in general. Perhaps he himself believed that his ironic stance made this acceptable or virtuous, but my guess is that Zappa was titillated by opportunities to recount outlandish sexual exploits and really didn't care what anyone thought one way or the other. Lowe never really backs down from his apologist stance, concluding his Zappa survey as follows, "Indeed, [sexual mores:] is a subject many cannot seem to get past. But it is one they should. Zappa is an infinitely interesting, complex, and contradictory man. Which makes him just like everyone else." (p. 208)

I love the intricacy of Zappa's music, (most of) his politics, his willingness and glee to skewer the establishment and hypocrisy, and Zappa's cultural and political humor. Infinitely interesting and complex? Sure! But I have to take issue with the idea that Zappa's misogyny should be considered the norm. Fortunately, Zappa was so prolific that his meritorious work outshines and overwhelms the self-proclaimed vapidity of the fraction of his catalogue that contains audible and intelligible women-bashing lyrics. Lowe's fandom does at least convey this as well.(less)

· see review

Sep 11, 2008

Erik rated it

Recommends it for: FZ fans

This book follows the career of Frank Zappa by exploring each of his albums and discusses events in his life (both from the time the albums were made, as well as from his childhood).

I did not read the whole book, as I do not own any of his albums past Weasels Ripped My Flesh, and I felt that I should listen to them first before reading about them.

· see review

Sep 22, 2007

Steve rated it

RIP, my brother.

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