Product Description

There is probably no figure of modern popular music who so deserves the sort of scholarly exercise undertaken by Ben Watson in this book, and I am ersonally convinced that Zappa will be regaled by 21st Century music historians as a "crux of the biscuit" of 20th Century music. And this 700 page tome will certainly be cited by our music historian descendants. In fairness, it may confound today's Zappa fans with it's copious references to Adorno, Freud, and Marx, but is likely to delight theerudite with its excerpts of the playfully situationist lyrics of Zappa, completely deconstructed by Watson. There is no doubt that Zappa was a genius--albeit a peculiarly American sort--and there is no doubt that no book has yet attempted such a thorough (albeit peculiar) analysis of his genius. Highly Recommended.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #770380 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Amazon.com
There is probably no figure of modern popular music who so deserves the sort of scholarly exercise undertaken by Ben Watson in this book, and I am personally convinced that Zappa will be regaled by 21st Century music historians as a "crux of the biscuit" of 20th Century music.

And this 700 page tome will certainly be cited by our music historian descendants. In fairness, it may confound today's Zappa fans with it's copious references to Adorno, Freud, and Marx, but is likely to delight the erudite with its excerpts of the playfully situationist lyrics of Zappa, completely deconstructed by Watson. There is no doubt that Zappa was a genius--albeit a peculiarly American sort--and there is no doubt that no book has yet attempted such a thorough (albeit peculiar) analysis of his genius. Highly Recommended.

From Publishers Weekly
Frank Zappa's manic energy and weird lyrics may make him seem like a rock-cult eccentric, but to British journalist Watson, Zappa (1940-1993), founder of the Mothers of Invention (which disbanded in 1969), was a pioneering composer who forged a third stream between classical and rock music, a radical visionary whose works attack class oppression, the conformity of mass culture and the hypocrisy of conventional morality. Fusing musical analysis, cultural criticism and biography, this overblown, provocative study discusses Zappa's music in the context of avant-garde art, William Blake, Wyndham Lewis's Vorticist prose, punk rock and the Marxist politics of the French leftist group Situationist International. Watson unravels Zappa's formative influences as he discusses the ex-Mother's film 200 Motels, Broadway-musical parody Thing-Fish, sonic experiments conducted by Pierre Boulez, freewheeling orchestral scores, electronic synthesizer compositions and recent iconoclastic songs. Including a 1993 interview with Zappa and a discography, this is the ultimate book for serious Zappa fans.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this critical appraisal of the musician, Zappa fanatic and poet Watson briefly sketches Zappa's early life, then uses a Marxist framework to analyze chronologically the importance of songs on the 57 albums that Zappa released until his untimely death in December 1993. Throughout, the author uncovers the classical, avant-garde, and rhythm and blues roots of Zappa's music, deservedly placing the composer/musician within the radical postmodern tradition. Watson includes a discography and a description of his brief encounter with Zappa at the end of the book. Though obviously knowledgeable about Zappa and his music, Watson provides an overly academic, pedantic account that seems antithetical to the rebellious, adventurous spirit of Zappa. Recommended for Zappa fans.
David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.