Frank Zappa!

[pure_mercury]

I always appreciated Zappa's masterful grasp of different musical genres, his general weirdness, and the corresponding weirder-ness that he was completely sober for all of creative period (his chemical vices were cigarettes and black coffee, apparently). He seemed like a bit of tough guy to get along with, but many creative types are.

 

[substitute]

I totally LOVE Zappa. Been into him since I was about 12 and seen him in concert once or twice. My kids' favourite song is the eskimo thing about the deadly yellow snow haha... they sometimes answer the intercom thing on our appartment when it rings by picking up the phone and saying real fast "watch out where the huskis go and don't you eat that yellow snow!"

 

[EJCC]

I totally LOVE Zappa. Been into him since I was about 12 and seen him in concert once or twice. My kids' favourite song is the eskimo thing about the deadly yellow snow haha... they sometimes answer the intercom thing on our appartment when it rings by picking up the phone and saying real fast "watch out where the huskis go and don't you eat that yellow snow!"

Sweet! You should play them "Motherly Love". That's pretty accessible. And it has kazoos! Can you go wrong?

Although I'm personally a fan of *belts* "A moon beam throooooooooough the pruuuuuuuune... IN JUUUUUUUUNE!" *does a little dance*

 

[EJCC]

I thought of you as I posted this.

A lot of his stuff isn't really dissonant ( or atonal ), despite his admiration for Schoenberg. I would agree that it's not "radio friendly" though.

Probably more because of the sophomoric humor than anything else. He actually went to trial for that, you know!

 

[Ivy]

I've been using Zappa to kindle my son's interest in composition- he's 5 and most likely an evil musical genius a la Zappa. Clearly this requires nurturing. He also likes video games so I'm playing these for him:

[youtube="4V2VZdzQK9k"]8-bit Zappa - Peaches en Regalia[/youtube]

[youtube="--78LmICQGo"]8-bit Zappa - Moggio[/youtube]

 

[r.a]

[youtube="ZTfKGaY9nTM"]GO TO SAN FRANCISCO[/youtube]

this.

 

[Such Irony]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfW_TWoEkU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfW_TWoEkU[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZ5isu23ow"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZ5isu23ow[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvW_2YyAiUc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvW_2YyAiUc[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Vamp]

I've been dipping my toes into the waters of Zappa for four years, now. There's just so much to learn.

 

[Ivy]

There really is, Vamp. I think I've got the basic idea of Zappa and then he surprises me.

I've been more into him lately because of my son's latent musical genius that I'm sure is in there. He's as inadevertently inaccessible and fascinating to me as Zappa is, and they seem to have similar off-kilter minds. I guess I feel like if I figure out how Zappa thought I might get some insight about my boy as well.