Frank Zappa, conservative

[buffcoat]

Why was he so vehemently anti-music?

A very strong 13th post!

[Stupornaut]

I have the suspicion that if he'd lived, Zappa's politics wound end up overlapping at least 95% with the South Park guys.

(This is not an endorsement.)

[Christina]

I always hated his anti-drug stance, since he smoked like a fish. You'd think he'd exert a bit of latitude in his thinking there.

Also, that "rock critics are people who can't write" etc etc quote of his ... whenever I see it I wanna reach for my revolver.

[Christina]

Why was he so vehemently anti-music?

A very strong 13th post!

agreed!

[Austin From Chicago]

Rare FOT Zappa fan here. In fact, I'm listening to a bootleg from Columbus, Ohio, 9-19-78, as I type this.

I'm also one of those rare types of Zappa fans who refuses to subject others to his private and shameful obsession.

[danner]

Rare FOT Zappa fan here. In fact, I'm listening to a bootleg from Columbus, Ohio, 9-19-78, as I type this.

I'm also one of those rare types of Zappa fans who refuses to subject others to his private and shameful obsession.

Ditto. I learned my lesson in high school. I'm just now listening to Tuesday's show, and Tom has trashed Zappa and defended the Dark Shadows movie all in the first half hour. It's as if Tom is trying to upset me.

[paul]

i heart zappa. i don't care about politics.

[cavorting with nudists]

I'm genuinely confused as to how anybody can like that guy. Pompous, pretentious, self-infatuated, contemptuous of everything, and his "humor" is ridiculously sophomoric when not just scatological and gross.

[Smelodies]

I'm genuinely confused as to how anybody can like that guy. Pompous, pretentious, self-infatuated, contemptuous of everything, and his "humor" is ridiculously sophomoric when not just scatological and gross.

Much of this could be said about Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, and some other rock "intellectuals" that come to mind.

[cavorting with nudists]

Much of this could be said about Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, and some other rock "intellectuals" that come to mind.

True, it could be said of them. But of Zappa, there's nothing else to say. 

(Except that yeah, he's a very good guitarist, but so is the fusion-y yob you never heard of on the cover of this month's Guitar Player magazine)

(Full disclosure: Zappa was my hero, when I was 13.)

[danner]

True, it could be said of them. But of Zappa, there's nothing else to say. 

(Except that yeah, he's a very good guitarist, but so is the fusion-y yob you never heard of on the cover of this month's Guitar Player magazine)

(Full disclosure: Zappa was my hero, when I was 13.)

If you were once a fan, why do you find it impossible to believe that people could just be fans of his music? I mean, it's fairly well known that Lou Reed is one of the least likeable humans alive, but it doesn't stop me from liking his music.

[nec13]

True, it could be said of them. But of Zappa, there's nothing else to say. 

(Except that yeah, he's a very good guitarist, but so is the fusion-y yob you never heard of on the cover of this month's Guitar Player magazine)

(Full disclosure: Zappa was my hero, when I was 13.)

If you were once a fan, why do you find it impossible to believe that people could just be fans of his music? I mean, it's fairly well known that Lou Reed is one of the least likeable humans alive, but it doesn't stop me from liking his music.

You hit the nail on the head. When it comes to music, I try to separate the artist from his/her art. James Brown, Miles Davis, Captain Beefheart, The Rolling Stones, these gentleman were, by many accounts, not nice people. Yet, it doesn't preclude me from enjoying their work. The music supersedes everything else.

Personally, I'm neither a fan of Zappa nor Lou Reed. Not because of their personalities, but because I don't find their musical output compelling in the least.

[cavorting with nudists]

Well, based on my experience I find it completely conceivable that 13-year-olds could be Zappa fans, but that's not what I was talking about.

As a 13-year old, sure I liked the music, but 13-year-olds aren't very discriminating.  I liked lots of junk.  What specially appealed to me then was the whole package: Zappa's snot-mustached contempt for everything filled a need for my burgeoning little rebellious brain; "subtlety" wasn't something I'd have learned to value in satire; the sexy parts obviously intrigued me; and I probably appreciated toilet humor more then than I do now.

At 13, I revered Zappa (even wrote him a fan letter) and would have hated the Velvet Underground if I'd heard them.  Now the poles are reversed, a living illustration of how adults are wiser than 13-year-olds.

Would it be possible for me now as an adult to discount Zappa's personality and thematic preoccupations and just enjoy the music? Well, actually, I do still kinda like Hot Rats (too bad about that title, yuck) and "Watermelon in Easter Hay." Instrumentals, that is, and ones that groove a bit and could have been made by someone who didn't hate rock music. If I had Shut Up and Play Your Guitar, I might listen to it.  But he sure doesn't make it easy to just isolate the music; even on my iPod copy of "Watermelon in Easter Hay" I had to edit out the obnoxious spoken intro.  He was pretty determined to make us take the whole package, as even the ironic title of the guitar album demonstrates.

[cavorting with nudists]

James Brown, Miles Davis, Captain Beefheart, The Rolling Stones, these gentleman were, by many accounts, not nice people. Yet, it doesn't preclude me from enjoying their work. The music supersedes everything else.

This is true, but none of these people wrote songs about eating yellow snow or guys who save their bowel movements in jars.

It's one thing to have a bad personality and to make music; it's another to write your bad personality into your music.

[masterofsparks]

The intolerance happening in this thread is a special kind of awesome.