Zappa’s Not Rock ‘n Roll

Michael says:

I have some friends that say “Zappa’s not rock and roll”. Now that is mostly true as we all know there was much more to Frank, but he did produce some of the most smoking rock and roll out there. I want to put together a playlist to prove it to my buddies. So I need help in naming the all time best pure rock and roll songs that FZ or the MOI did.

Troops? Rally!

28 thoughts on “Zappa’s Not Rock ‘n Roll”

  4. Magic Fingers
    I’m The Slime
    Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?
    Willie The Pimp
    My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
    Tell Me You Love Me
    Road Ladies
    Dirty Love
    Fifty-Fifty
    Zomby Woof
    Cosmik Debris
    Po-Jama People
    Florentine Pogen
    San Berdino
    Andy
    Advance Romance
    Muffin Man
    The Illinois Enema Bandit
    Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
    Bamboozled By Love
    .
    .
    .

  7. If the question had been where to start with Zappa I may have said Overnight Sensation & Apostrophe (‘)Apastrophe but since your friend seems a bit lost on what defines Rock & Roll may I suggest attempting to get your friend to actually listen closely to every Official CD & DVD starting with Freak Out.

    If after the first note of Hungry Freaks, Daddy your friend still insists Zappa is not Rock & Roll I can only say your friend is nothing more than an unedgumacated shit head. you can educate him by spending time with him by not only listening but by also using reviewing much of the documented song analysis created over at the Information Is Not Knowledge website http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/songs/index.html

    If somehow he actually makes it past that first note he actually has a chance. He needs to be willing to dilate his eyes and ears past Commercialism.

  8. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
    Pygmy Tylyte
    Village Of The Sun
    (More) Trouble Everyday
    Wind Up Working In A Gas Station

    I remember think when I first heard Yellow Snow that it was one if the funkiest lil’ things I’d ever heard.

    Do Whipping Post, Purple Haze & Stairway count?

  9. Rat Tomago

    Beat It With Your Fist

    For The Young Sophisticate (LÄTHER)

    On The Bus

    Filthy Habits…

    …

    .

  10. Chunga’s Revenge (CR album)
    Plastic People, Torture, Oh No from YCDTOSA 1 :)
    The Gumbo Variations!!!!
    Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin!!!!
    Who Are The Brain Police?
    I Don’t Even Care
    The Mammy Anthem
    . . .
    wait there’s more

  11. Dog Breath
    My Guitar
    Tell Me You Love Me
    WPLJ
    Jelly Roll Gum Drop
    Son of Suzy Creamcheese
    Junior Mintz Boogie
    Sharleena

    …if Zappa’s not rock ‘n roll then I’m a vegetable (preferably a prune)

    oh, yeah!

    Duke of Prunes

  14. “a special type of entertainment for a specialized audience,
    most other rock and roll has no information content in it.”
    –FZ

  15. you’re wondering now

    Is everybody happy?
    knock, knock, knock, knock
    You can’t come in
    knock, knock, knock
    You can’t come in

    You’re wondering now,
    What to do, now you know this is the end
    You’re wondering how,
    You will pay, for the way you did behave

    Curtain has fallen,
    Now you’re on your own
    I won’t return,
    Forever you will wait

    You’re wondering now,
    What to do, now you know this is the end

    Curtain has fallen, now you’re on your own
    I won’t return, forever you will wait

    You’re wondering now, what to do,
    Now you know this is the end
    You’re wondering how, you will pay,
    For the way you did behave

    You’re wondering now, what to do,
    Now you know this is the end
    You’re wondering now, what to do,
    Now you know this is the end.

  16. To rip off Gertrude Stein, Frank Zappa is Frank Zappa is Frank Zappa is Frank Zappa. One of the first meta-rockers (or possibly the first), introducing meta-rock as an element into the rock lexicon, thus creating an infinitely recursive structure. Zappa wasn’t rock; rock was merely food for his all-devouring musical pseudopodia. Blah blah blah Adorno quote blah blah blah Foucault Plato blah blah Sex Pistols blah blah bourgeoisie.

  18. When most of the group considered to be “rock groups” started
    such as the beatles and rolling stones etc, they were considered “Pop”
    as in Popular.
    Janet: “How woulld you like to strap on a Pop Star and he wants to stick a penis in you?”
    It took a while for it to be called Rock music.
    Rock and Roll referred to groups like Bill Haley and the Comets.

  20. One rocker I tend to forget is I Don’t Wanna Be Drafted. Probably because it’s not on an album before Buffalo, an awsome version.

  21. If youth knew, if age could. ( OK, this is the title.)

    Back to basics. Elementary, dr. Watson.

    1. ZPZ = son D pays the music of his father, F. . You get what you hear and the other way around. That’s the sel limiting thought.

    2. FZ positioned himself as a present day composer, currently active in rock & pop business.

    Two starting points.

    Makes a judgment all the more easy.

  24. Uh…
    “Why Doncha Do Me Right?”
    “Easy Meat”
    “Wino Man”
    “Sharleena”
    “Well” (Playground Psychotics)
    “Mystery Roach”
    “Dead Girls Of London”
    “Disco Boy” (Zoot Allures or Baby Snakes versions)
    “Trouble Every Day”
    “St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast”
    “City Of Tiny Lites”
    “I’m So Cute”
    “Flakes”
    “The Underground Talent Scout”
    “Baked Bean Boogie”
    “SEX”
    “The Mammy Nuns”
    “In France”
    “Teenage Prostitute”
    “Stuff Up The Cracks”
    “Flower Punk”
    “Tell Me You Love Me”
    “Transylvania Boogie”
    “Road Ladies”

    I’m not sure if you could really call this person a friend if they’re not convinced after hearing ANY of this.

  25. All the early albums (Freak Out, Absolutely Free, Uncle Meat, Chunga’s Revenge, Cruising With Reuben and the Jets, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, We’re Only In It For The Money — the vinyl version at least) were loaded with pure rock and roll comedy music. The best rock and roll has always been comedy music: Little Darlin’, Stairway to Heaven, anything by The Grateful Dead.

    Among my favorites from those early days:

    How Could I Be Such A Fool
    The Orange County Lumber Truck
    Trouble Coming Everyday
    Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
    Dog Breath
    My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
    Peaches en Regalia
    Willie the Pimp
    I’m Not Satisfied
    King Kong
    Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin (for Gail, I believe)
    How Could I Be Such A Fool

    The older I get, I find myself growing increasingly affectionate for the most obnoxious versions of his music. I find Frank’s complete commitment to unmitigated audacity the best thing that happened to this planet since the cave paintings. Their creation, not the discovery by recent idiots.

  26. The older I get, I find myself growing increasingly affectionate for the most obnoxious versions of his music. I find Frank’s complete commitment to unmitigated audacity the best thing that happened to this planet since the cave paintings. Their creation, not the discovery by recent idiots.

    I couldn’t agree more, Sargeant Barry Pepper.

  27. Frank is Rock.. and Classical, and Jazz-Rock, and Jazz, and Blues.. and Hard Rock, Soul, kinda Punk and sometimes even FUNK! (And even that’s not enough to describe his music!)

    “Not Rock ‘n’ Roll” ?! How’s about:

    ‘Stevie’s Spanking’
    ‘Ya Hozna’
    ‘Tell Me You Love Me’
    ‘Willie the Pimp’
    ‘The Mammy Anthem’
    ‘Easy Meat’
    ‘Magic Fingers’
    ‘My Guitar..@
    ‘ZombyWoof’ (’82 band live version)

    etc, etc, friggin’ etc!!

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