this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa

Ok Computer by Radiohead

I’m still not sure if I liked Tommy by The Who or not.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Joe’s Garage, damn. One of my favorites. What didn’t you like about it? Does any other Zappa resonate with you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I actually haven’t listened to any other Zappa albums, but probably will at some point.

I love the titular track, so I was excited to listen to the whole thing, but I think I found it 30 years too late. I get he was trying to go Reefer Madness style with his Central Scrutinizer telling a parable of how rock music leads to self-destruction, but the jokes just fell flat for me.

Obviously the nice girl who ended up having to do wet t-shirt contests to get home, the gay prison sex, the robot sex, saying Africans don’t have record players, etc. were all supposed to be absurd, but it’s very 70s humor that nowadays feels more denigrating than biting satire. I also didn’t really get him corpsing in the voiceovers: I’m guessing it was supposed to be a reminder not to take the story seriously, but I personally found it distracting.

I did find it cool that he mixed solos from his live shows into his songs, but it wasn’t enough to save it for me. It’s like when you go back and watch older movies or tv shows, and suddenly something just blatantly racist or sexist just pops up and immediately dates it way more than the technical aspects do.

In short, it feels like Zappa is trying way too hard to be edgy, and it sucked the life out of the album for me. The opening song still slaps, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

I did find it cool that he mixed solos from his live shows into his songs

IIRC all songs on Joe’s Garage except one have the solos recorded separately (xenochrony). You gotta give Watermelon in Easter Hay a second chance, that’s possibly my favorite Zappa song ever.

Apostrophe is a good one to check out next.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago

Is that the instrumental? If so, yeah, it was good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 minutes ago

Sy borg. Favorite song on that album for me.

St Alfonzo's pancake breakfast is my fav on Apostrophe, also I posted Uncle Remus not to long ago to '70s music. First George Dukes piano intro and then my wife and me start singing along. Great track.

He lost me after 'You are what you is' really.