I saw the documentary Eat That Question :Frank Zappa in his Own Words the
day before yesterday and I thought it was a
generally good representation of Zappa the social critic and Zappa the
serious musician. The interview segments, which are abundant, span his career ,
as does the generous inclusion of live performances with The Mothers of
Invention. He was extremely intelligent, actually iconoclastic and gifted as a
composer, but like many others with vast talents that prefer no constraint and
mouths that prefer no editing, you get he feeling he indulged his worst habits
as often as he did his best talents. There is a repetition of ideas in his
asides, rants and excoriations, a set of notions that he honed and delivered
continuously over the years, libertarian-genius bromides that wear you down
toward the end of the film. Still, despite the repetition, you do marvel at the
way in which he cuts away the fat and gets to the crude, stupid heart that is
pulse of consumerist culture.
But as a fan of
Zappa's music, I was very happy, as the film includes generous portions from
live performances that make us realize that above all else, Zappa was an
artist, a genius of some sort. Even die
hard fans and scholars of his work have complained that Zappa didn’t challenge
himself nearly enough and often times released albums that were sub-par, highlighting musical ideas from
bygone decades that no longer seemed fresh, riveting, or daring. His satire, as
well, ceased being funny or witty in large measure and was, for a good number
of records released through the
Seventies and even through much of the Eighties, merely mean spirited. His cynicism had conquered his inspiration ,
likely because he realized that he
could make money being this cartoon character “Frank Zappa”, becoming
the man his fans wanted him to be. It
was about making money in order to finance his larger orchestral projects, and
the irony that he needed to
compromise his principles and act the way new fans with disposable income expected to behave was likely not lost on him.T
Orson Wells had a similar
situation, the story goes, as he took a good many demeaning roles in
whatever variety of Hollywood schlock
came his way so he could finance his own projects. It's an odd curse, I
suppose, a problem the working working world would have considering a bother at
all.How would one have challenged Zappa, though? His comfort zone was a strange
amalgamation of influences --Lenny Bruce, Stravinsky, Sun Ra, Edgar Varese,
Lord Buckley, Musique Concrete-- that it's probable that few would know what to
suggest as a way for him to diverge from his rut. He created his niche, proud
that he wasn't dependent on grant money, gifts from government agencies and the
like. He was something like a home- schooler, nearly irrational in his belief
that government couldn't do anything good for the population. There are times when I have to filter the rants I agree with in principle-and turn up the on this music, a body of work that's confused, amused, confounded , entertained and thrilled me to the marrow since I came across in the 60s.
Zappa's work as a serious composer already has a fairly full
catalog; one could, I suspect, produce a week or two of special concerts
featuring Zappa's "serious " work. But I agree that there was much in
the seventies I disliked from the man in the 70s. "One Size Fits All"
was actually a solid album, firing on all cylinders, but commencing with
"Apostrophe", featuring the egregious "Yellow Snow" and
onward, his satire degenerated into a a species of juvenile smut. What would
have been interesting would have been if he had collaborated with artists of
similar stature, on smaller projects, in different musical areas. Not the Elvis
Costello grandstanding collaborations, but rather real efforts to work toward
the best virtues of another artist. That would have been something had he
wanted to make the effort, but his personality was controlling, ironically, despite his diatribes about freedom. There was something of Howard Roark in him
that his work would be presented to the world on his terms solely,
uncontaminated by meddlers, sycophants and their like.
The downside of Zappa's
libertarian attitude about his music--my art, my way, at the price I said, or
nothing at all--is that much of his output is a remarkably eccentric selection
of self-invented cliches. As much as he deserves to be praised for
resourcefulness and achieving a crazy amalgam of jazz, classical, comedy and
rock , there are go-to moves he never strayed from , bits of business that seemed
more treading water than an expansion of established themes. I do wish he'd
found time and interest in collaborating with other musicians on equal
footing--singers, lyricists, musicians, other composers.. The results might
have been interesting and gotten the late FZ out of his comfort zone and
lightened the lid on that vacuum packed cynicism that ceased to be amusing long
before he passed on.
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