Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Zappadan 2023

It's Zappadan 2023. It might not be the biggest deal it has ever been, but there are quite a few acknowledgements of the festival.

I've reassessed my love of Frank's music this year, and have found that I have less tolerance for his juvenile, misogynistic, let's-push-the-envelope humor, and that reduces my love of at least some of his music. I also feel that his eighties xenochrony method of building songs around isolated guitar solos is evidence of his remarkable editing skills, but not evidence of his best songs in many cases.

But that still leaves a lot to love. If you are new to Zappa and want to know the best place to start, I'd say it's One Size Fits All from 1975. It is one of Frank's best bands playing some of his most accessible material. After that, you could explore any of these:

Freak Out! 1968
We're Only In It For The Money 1968
Hot Rats 1969
Burnt Weenie Sandwich 1970 
Weasels Ripped My Flesh 1970
The Grand Wazoo 1972
Apostrophe(') 1974
Orchestral Favorites 1979
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life 1991
The Yellow Shark 1993
 
Some of my favorite Zappadan material comes from the wonderful piano player Fred Handl: 
 
Here's some other recent Zappadan posts on the intertubes:
 
And you can also check out my own past Zappadan efforts: 
 

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