Product Description

The indispensible consumers' guide to the music of Frank Zappa. A thorough analysis of every officially released album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, from the groundbreaking albums of the Sixties through Zappa's experimental, avant-garde work to the most recent posthumous releases. Information on where the music was recorded, a Zappa bibliography, a special section of compilation, archive and posthumous releases.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #478690 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
Ben Watson has written extensively on Frank Zappa. In 1993 he read his work - his 'demented scholarship' to his dying hero.

Customer Reviews

An Essential Companion
What's with all the reviewers on this page? Ben Watson's guide to the music of Frank Zappa is, like its subject, highly engaging and, yes, provocative. It is also thoroughly researched (and has some great photos!). Some might think that Watson is reading far too much into Zappa's music and lyrics, and indeed the author himself hints at as much, but anyone with a genuine love for Zappa's music, and even the faintest interest in exploring ideas as to where exactly FZ fits in the context of 20th Century music and culture, should find this a hugely enjoyable read. It's erudite, informative, enlightening and often thoroughly absurd - and a definite 'must-have'!

A unique analysis
Watson's book, to my mind at least is a welcome antidote to the work of the supposedly "great" serious rock journalists of the last 30 years - marcus, christgau et al. if he is guilty of making too much of his many connections between zappa's conceptual continuities and high/low culture of the 20th century, so what. all of what he writes is passionate, provocative and stunningly erudite. Watson may infuriate at times with his petty and unfortunately typical left wing put-downs of his peers but this is a very minor quibble within a book that covers such a vast swathe of cultural and political ideas.

Music is not made in a vacuum and it is not just notes on a page. if you are a zappa fan who wants a biography or a technical musical analysis - look elsewhere. but if you have any interest in the media, modern art/literature, non conformity and the music of rebellion - check this out. one of a kind

Good.....but not that good.
This book does act as a very useful guide for any collecter of Zappa's work, it contains interesting notes on the production and recording of his many albums as well as notes on the 'conceptual continuity'. However, as in Watson's other book, 'The Negative Dialects of Poodle Play', he seems to have been preoccupied with, as he put it, "Putting Zappa up there with Shakespeare". Zappa's reputation doesn't need to be toyed with, he was a genius in his own right and the last thing he needs now is Pseudo intellectuals like Watson making him appear to be something he was not. This book can also add a certain pretention to not only the author but also to his subject, if you buy this book I urge you not to pay any attention to the re-writing of Zappa's personality which Watson seems to have devoted his career to.