There is probably no figure of modern popular music who so deserves the sort of scholarly exercise undertaken by Ben Watson in this book, and I am ersonally convinced that Zappa will be regaled by 21st Century music historians as a "crux of the biscuit" of 20th Century music. And this 700 page tome will certainly be cited by our music historian descendants. In fairness, it may confound today's Zappa fans with it's copious references to Adorno, Freud, and Marx, but is likely to delight theerudite with its excerpts of the playfully situationist lyrics of Zappa, completely deconstructed by Watson. There is no doubt that Zappa was a genius--albeit a peculiarly American sort--and there is no doubt that no book has yet attempted such a thorough (albeit peculiar) analysis of his genius. Highly Recommended.

The indispensable consumers' guide to the music of Frank Zappa - the genius of the absurd, and one of the most prolific and unpredictable characters of 20th century music.A thorough analysis of Zappa's complete recorded output, from the early days of the Mothers Of Invention, through his more avant-garde compositions and classical projects to the most recent posthumous releases. The guide features:An album by album analysisA full Zappa bibliographyDetails of when and where the music was recorded, including all collaborating artistsA special section concerning compilation, archive and bootleg releasesSixteen pages of full-colour images

A guide to the music of Frank Zappa. It seeks to examine every recorded song in his catalogue to date, and acts as a consumer's critical guide. Shaped like a CD box, it is designed to sit alongside the reader's existing CD collection.

Music. THE BIG NOTE is the complete guide to the music of Frank Zappa--100 albums recorded over 35 years, the 80+ players on them, each one of 1,772 tracks described in detail, backed up by 1,424 citations. Based on hundreds of interviews, letters, and e-mail correspondences with scores of musicians, singers, engineers, artists, copyists, and others who worked with Zappa, THE BIG NOTE provides the liner notes that every album in the protean and prolific composer's oeuvre cries out for. It is the indispensible resource for any Zappa fan or scholar.

Recounts the career of the rock music performer.

This collection of essays, documented by an international and interdisciplinary array of scholars, represents the first academically focused volume exploring the creative idiolect of Frank Zappa. Several of the authors are known for contributing significantly to areas such as popular music, cultural, and translation studies, with expertise and interests ranging from musicology to poetics. The publication presents the reader with an understanding of the ontological depth of Zappa's legacy by relating the artist and his texts to a range of cultural, social, technological and musicological factors, as encapsulated in the book's title - Frank Zappa and the And. Zappa's interface with religion, horror, death, movies, modernism, satire, freaks, technology, resistance, censorship and the avant-garde are brought together analytically for the first time, and approached non chronologically, something that strongly complies with the non linear perspective of time Zappa highlights in both his autobiography and recordings. The book employs a variety of analytical approaches, ranging from literary and performance theory, 'horrality' and musicology, to post modern and textually determined readings, and serves as a unique and invaluable guide to Zappa's legacy and creative force.

Academic decorum is trashed as the glories, absurdities and obscenities of rock's greatest Dadaist are unveiled.