Head To Head
Log In
Register
Unsung Forum »
Zappa "a jack-off of all trades, and master of none"
Log In to post a reply

Pages: 2 – [ Previous | 1 2 ]
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
mcshafty
mcshafty
86 posts

Re: Zappa "a jack-off of all trades, and master of none"
Aug 28, 2013, 11:28
I'm with you. I couldn't be bothered reading the whole article either!

The first Zappa albums I heard were You Are What You Is and Hot Rats. I still enjoy them both 26 years later.

I don't really understand why you would compare him to George Clinton, Miles Davis etc. FZ was and will remain the best FZ ever.

As for the humour, I always took it as ironic. But maybe that was just me hiding my own soft spot for schoolboy jokes.

The bits of the article that I read were well argued. I won't deny that. But given the choice of the complete writngs of the author or one Zappa track - I'd go for the Zappa. Then again, you'd need bog roll on a desert island.
mcshafty
mcshafty
86 posts

Re: Zappa "a jack-off of all trades, and master of none"
Aug 28, 2013, 13:02
I'm with you. I couldn't be bothered reading the whole article either!

The first Zappa albums I heard were You Are What You Is and Hot Rats. I still enjoy them both 26 years later.

I don't really understand why you would compare him to George Clinton, Miles Davis etc. FZ was and will remain the best FZ ever.

As for the humour, I always took it as ironic. But maybe that was just me hiding my own soft spot for schoolboy jokes.

The bits of the article that I read were well argued. I won't deny that. But given the choice of the complete writngs of the author or one Zappa track - I'd go for the Zappa. Then again, you'd need bog roll on a desert island.
IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Aug 28, 2013, 13:37
Re: Zappa "a jack-off of all trades, and master of none"
Aug 28, 2013, 13:10
caldervalium wrote:
I'm not a big fan of Wire magazine meself, as I believe I've said before, too often it reads like an 80 page edition of 'Pseuds' Corner'. As for Ian Penman, I can't claim to be too familiar with his scribblings beyond a hatchet job he performed reviewing an Eno album a couple of years back. I presume he was nasty about the Soft Boys at some point too, given the Robyn Hitchcock song 'The Lonesome Death Of Ian Penman'....!


I don't read Wire for pretty much the same reason. That and the fact that the bloody thing used to be ruinous for my bank balance.

Penman is someone who (along with Paul Morley) in the late 70s and 80s tried to bring some partially digested Barthes and Baudrillard to the analyis of the post Punk scene and not just Post Punk. Unlike most people writing about pop and rock at that time they could (along with the likes of Richard Cook and Max Bell) envisage a cutting edge of mainstream popular music that had little or nothing to do with rock n roll and Weller and The Clash and all that jazz. They definitely saw things coming down the cultural pipe at that time well before their colleagues latched on and they liked pure pop music before it was fashionable. It's a long time ago now but they were as important in their own way as they were annoyingly self-important. Of the two Penman was arguably the more original writer but significantly less marketable as a "personality journo".
Lawrence
9547 posts

Re: Zappa "a jack-off of all trades, and master of none"
Aug 28, 2013, 15:27
Oooo, nasty! Who could say anything bad about Robyn Hitchcock? Not that I was a huge fan of his or the Soft Boys, but it was fun stuff in the late 80s anyways and I don't view him in a negative light at all.
Pages: 2 – [ Previous | 1 2 ] Add a reply to this topic

Unsung Forum Index