DVD Review: Frank Zappa: 'The Torture Never Stops'
ZapRatz
http://newsok.com/dvd-review-frank-zappa-the-torture-never-stops/article/3289869/?dt=1219957617
DVD Review: Frank Zappa: 'The Torture Never Stops'
Frank Zappa: "The Torture Never Stops”
http://static.newsok.biz/article/20080829/3289869/a29dvdzappa.jpg_08-29-2008_I98PALN.jpg
From out of the Zappa Family Vaults steps the king mother of rock 'n'
roll invention once again to remind us how much his mad musical genius
is missed on "An Evening With Frank Zappa During Which ... The Torture
Never Stops.”
Recorded (fittingly) on Halloween night 1981 at the Palladium in New
York and later aired on the fledgling MTV, the concert film features
Zappa at the peak of his comedic, experimental and virtuosic powers,
clad in a red jumpsuit and alternating between a conductor's baton and
a Gibson Les Paul Cherry Sunburst guitar, leading an eight-piece band
from his "Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar” — "You Are What You Is” period.
Zappa may be best remembered for such absurdist jazz-rock fusion larks
as "Montana” (about becoming a dental-floss farmer) and the bawdy
prog-rock antics of "Easy Meat,” and his satirization of the largely
humorless rock star pose in general, but even his fans tend to forget
that he was a gifted arranger and composer who blurred the lines
between high and pop art, influenced as he was by such contemporary
classical artists as Stravinsky and Stockhausen.
And when he unleashed his fingers on the fretboard — as he does here
on the powerful "Black Napkins” and a string-shredding duel with Steve
Vai called "Stevie's Spanking” — his lofty ranking in the guitar-hero
hierarchy was, and still is, irrefutable. The proof is right here.
— Gene Triplett
--
As of the day this message is being posted there are,
lacking an unexpected alternate outcome, 143 days
remaining in the imperial presidency of George W. Bush
Mower B. Yard
> http://newsok.com/dvd-review-frank-zappa-the-torture-never-stops/article/3289869/?dt=1219957617
>
> DVD Review: Frank Zappa: 'The Torture Never Stops'
(snip)
> Zappa may be best remembered for such absurdist jazz-rock fusion larks
> as "Montana” (about becoming a dental-floss farmer) and the bawdy
> prog-rock antics of "Easy Meat,”
See, I just can't understand that. Is that what 20 and 30 somethings
"best" remember about Zappa? I would think Valley Girl, Yellow Snow,
Dynamo Hum they heard once at a stoner party. Montana *maybe*, for real
aficionados, but Easy Meat? Come on.
- BAM
p.s. I dig both of those tunes he mentions a lot. I best remember Frank
however for One Size Fits All, SUNPYG, and Roxy.
ZapRatz
wrote:
>> Zappa may be best remembered for such absurdist jazz-rock fusion larks
>> as "Montana” (about becoming a dental-floss farmer) and the bawdy
>> prog-rock antics of "Easy Meat,”
>See, I just can't understand that. Is that what 20 and 30 somethings
>"best" remember about Zappa?
40 to 60 somethings might be a better age bracket in which folks
remember FZ.
The comment made where you left off seems questionable, in my opinion:
>but even his fans tend to forget
>that he was a gifted arranger and composer who blurred the lines
>between high and pop art, influenced as he was by such contemporary
>classical artists as Stravinsky and Stockhausen.
--