by atomsmasher Flagstaff, AZ Reviewed on January 8th, 2005
I'd like to state for the record that you are definitely entitled to your opinion...However, (I gotta stick up for Frank here) note for note it is possible that Frank Zappa composed, produced, and performed more music than any human being whoever walked the face of the earth. His catalog is staggering. Now, if he had written 800 songs in 4/4 time that would have been a tremendous undertaking, but he didn't. He wrote complex, beautiful, candid and yeah, sometimes offensive music using nearly all elements of nearly all types of music, sometimes symultaneously. I admit, its alot to chew on.
He also very much represented a "cross section" of rock music, much like Miles Davis with jazz musicians. He played with hundreds of musicians and vocalists learning from them just as they were learning from him. Many successful musical careers began with frank and the mothers. Frank Zappa was also a staunch advocate for educating and empowering oneself and regulary did battle so to speak with political America. One things for sure, if you listed to the Zappa, you definitely knew who was president at the time. I find this a very positive element along with the prodigious energy with which he approached his music.
Having said that, I admit I could see how Sheik yerbouti might turn you off a little if it was your first experience with his music. If your not used to listening to his music, it can be difficult to put together what he'd doing musically but Sheik yerbouti has some really fabulous musicianship (listen to Terry Bozzio's drumming, really tight, frenetic) I picked Sheik up having herd 20 or so albums and I "got it" so to speak. I understand what he was doing. He's held up a mirror to the ugliest society has to offer and sometimes its not that pleasant to look at, but for me it comes off almost as a kind of burlesque (i.e. baby snakes DVD). My point, if I have one is, Frank Zappas music is important. It is worth taking the time listen to it and learning from it. The rewards are fantastic and even if you started listening voraciously today, you would be hard pressed to experience his entire body of work before you died.
If you didn't like Sheik Yerbouti but might take a chance on another Zappa album, try Burnt Weeny Sandwhich which is a mostly instrumental album with much more subtle guitar work, even wonderful percussion and woodwinds, or maybe Overnite Sensation which features a really fun lineup of musicians.
I wouldn't have bothered to write this review, but i hate to think that someone would read a crappy zappa review and get turned off. He rules, dude.
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