Zappa doc looks back at a lifetime of lousy music

New York Post ^ | 6/23/2016 | Kyle Smith

[dfwgator]

I hear the sound of marching feet...
Down Sunset boulevard to Crescent Heights
...and there...at pandora’s box...
We are confronted with...a vast
Quantity of...plastic people...
Take a day and walk around
Watch the Nazi’s run your town
Then go home and check yourself
You think we’re singing
‘bout someone else

[Mr. K]

Kiss my aura, Dora

[rhoda_penmark]

“Waiting for Columbus” is my favorite live album of all time. “

That has always been my favorite car road trip music. “Weed, whites and wine”. :-)

[gunsequalfreedom]

Incredible talent he was. Is someone suggesting otherwise? I did not take time to click the link and read. Thanks.

[dfwgator]

[Eric in the Ozarks]

‘zackly !

[x]

If his opinion of Zappa is so low, then why even bother making this documentary?

That's the reviewer's opinion, not the filmmaker's.

I don't know much about Zappa's music, but I would be surprised if anybody called him "underrated."

P.S. The reviewer does find something nice to say about Frank:

Nevertheless, Zappa made for a good celebrity if a rotten musician, and his takes on language and fame keep this doc sprightly and engaging. Nor was he always wrong: Asked to perform for a French political group, he said, “F - - k the communists. I don’t like those people.”

[cuban leaf]

Poor Dahrma was always being upstaged by the cowbell.

[JusPasenThru]

Good point.

Good point.

[dfwgator]

Some of Zappa's biggest fans, like Vaclav Havel, were behind the Iron Curtain, and saw him as a supporter of freedom.

A statue of Zappa in Vilnius, Lithuania.

[notdownwidems]

Zappa produced crap by the buckets-load but he also put out some very good stuff. Sheik Yerbouti was a good album, as was Uncle Meat, as was Weasels Ripped My Flesh, as was...

As was Over-Night Sensation, as was Apostrophe, as was 200 Motels, as was...

[Col Frank Slade]

“Don’t you boys know any nice songs” ?

[lefty-lie-spy]

Frank Zappa is one of my music heroes. Bump for later. (Watching Blazing Saddles right now) ;).

[Joe Boucher]

Pretty funny story:

Zappa had an office for a while in his hey day either on Sunset or Hollywood Blvd. (long time ago).
Anyway the front facing the road was a huge southern plantation type home with large white collums.
You go through the front door and you entered about a 40 foot long trailer
If you looked from the side there was a great facade in front of this crappy trailer

[lefty-lie-spy]

Yes. Yes, and YES. Zappa was amazing in his early days of improv blues and rock before he hired other talent so he could focus on composition. I’m shocked at what I just read from this Kyle Smith nitwit, but I haven’t seen the film yet, so I may be in for a snow job piece. I just can’t believe what I just read.

[Red Badger]

[lefty-lie-spy]

Kyle work for Yudda!

[Red Badger]

To them, crap is filler to complete an album and shouldn’t be looked upon as anything more.

That's true. The music industry powers that be just want ONE maybe TWO 'good songs' to sell the rest to teenagers...................

[my4kidsdad]

This article is crap, written by a douche bag!! My wife and I saw the documentary Tuesday evening in a little theater in Chicago. It was very well done and it was made up mostly of Zappa interviews.

[lee martell]

Dead at 52 from prostate cancer. Maybe Frank was one of those guys who didn’t like going to the doctor. Or he may have been a fatalist, who thought; whatever is supposed to happen will happen anyway. I’ll just keep living my life.