{"id":326,"date":"2007-03-01T09:52:51","date_gmt":"2007-03-01T13:52:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-18T13:02:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T17:02:11","slug":"does-frank-zappa-s-humor-belong-in-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/does-frank-zappa-s-humor-belong-in-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Frank Zappa\u2019s Humor Belong in Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Townsman Scott checks in on the elephant in the room.<\/strong><\/em><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZGpaMQxBWaA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nBefore anybody gets upset, let me reassure you: <strong>I have no problem with humor in music<\/strong>. My problem is when the humor isn\u2019t funny and\/or when it detracts from the overall appeal of the music.<\/p>\n<p>Zappa comes to mind primarily because, more than anyone else, he always made a big deal about the humor he used. And, more often than not, his humor doesn\u2019t do much for me. Let\u2019s face it \u2013 <strong>the guy was a dork<\/strong>. That doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t make some good music \u2013 dorks often do \u2013 but his insistence that he was somehow better and smarter than his audience wears on me.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RFjZOeL10MA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nLet me start with his <strong>doo-wop fixation<\/strong>. Granted, the lyrics in doo-wop are not epic poetry, but isn\u2019t that obvious to anyone with half a brain? Do we really need some smug bastard to \u201cschool\u201d us, over and over and over again? The stuff was made for and marketed to teenagers; it was never supposed to be Shakespeare. For a guy who swore up and down that he loved doo-wop and early rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, he sure put a lot of energy into putting it down. It\u2019s no different than, say, <strong>Steve Allen<\/strong>\u2019s un-funny bit where he would read rock lyrics out loud.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ufgn__85q9E?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nThat\u2019s not to say his humor couldn\u2019t be used to good effect, at least on his &#8217;60s albums. He took some funny swipes at hippies on <em>We\u2019re Only In It For The Money<\/em>; songs like \u201cWho Needs The Peace Corps?\u201d and \u201cFlower Punk\u201d worked. But once he fired <strong>The Mothers<\/strong>, his silliness was allowed to go unchecked. As much as I like <strong>The Turtles<\/strong>, the Flo-and-Eddie Zappa records don\u2019t work at all; it\u2019s too much banter and not enough playing. And things went even further downhill after that. Are endless cracks about poodles, dental floss, yellow snow, and blowjobs really amusing?<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fF6j-koR_hc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI\u2019ll make the case that his best albums were mostly instrumental, like <em>Uncle Meat<\/em>, <em>Burnt Weeny Sandwich<\/em>, and <em>Hot Rats<\/em>. There\u2019s some interesting, complex music here, and you get to hear him play some tasty guitar. (Not too long after, his guitar playing declined as well; it became endless wanking over pseudo-fusion chord changes played by the best hacks money could buy.)<\/p>\n<p>So, RTH: <em>Can you really make a case that this guy\u2019s smug put-downs changed his music for the better?<\/em> I look forward to hearing from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Townsman Scott checks in on the elephant in the room. Before anybody gets upset, let me reassure you: I have no problem with humor in music. My problem is when the humor isn\u2019t funny and\/or when it detracts from the overall appeal of the music. Zappa comes to mind primarily because, more than anyone else, <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/does-frank-zappa-s-humor-belong-in-music\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[377,204,378],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}