So on the weekend I watched Zappa, the 2020 documentary by Alex Winter (whom you may remember as Bill S. Preston, Esq from the Wyld Stallions) . I wasn’t a huge fan: the first half seemed a bit dis-jointed for me, cribbing together footage from other documentaries, and interviews strung together in what struck me as a kind of haphazard fashion. I mean, it’s great to hear from ______________, Ruth Underwood and Steve Vai, but they pop up without a whole lot of context – did they actually perform in the songs we just heard, or appear in the footage we just saw? An newcomer might be forgiven for missing who these people were or where they fit into things.
That could go for most of the imagery and sounds from the
first half of the film. What is all this? All these backstage antics, this
decadent rock-pig excess, this random stock-footage, these crazy sounds – what
are we watching? What are we listening to? Where was this filmed and is this
even Zappa’s music? The intention seems to be creating a mood rather than
informing an audience. And, in the spirit of the Lemmy[i]
film, the focus is definitely the man rather than the music: at no point is
a piece identified and allowed to run for more than a few seconds. From a crass
commercial perspective, this is understandable - audiences prefer character to
plot, as do judges at prestigious film festivals. They did the same thing with Last
Days Here about Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling, and Anvil! The Story of
Anvil. Leave the music out (especially if it’s niche music), concentrate on
the personalities, and then maybe people who don’t like the music might still
like the documentary. On one level it makes sense, but it does seem kind of
perverse when the subjects are people who dedicated their lives to music.
Doubly so with Zappa, as single-minded a musician as ever there was.
I suppose it’s a matter of personal taste. As
documentaries go, I preferred the Classic Albums installment for Over-Nite
Sensation, which covered a lot of the same ground, but was firmly focussed
on music. [ii]
This could also
be because that era and that line-up remain by far my favourite of the Zappa
oeuvre. For my money, One Size Fits All is the cream of the crop, the
jewel in the crown. It’s here where all the elements really gel, the absurdist
humour, the subversive politics, the experimentation, and most all, the
brilliant musicianship. Like a Swiss clock, filled with innumerable,
interdependent bits, it all just fits. Every moment is fascinating, leading
irresistibly to the next one, and over all too soon. Like a really good movie
you just can’t tear your eyes away from.
The legendary early period, really doesn’t do it for me. The early Mothers were indeed subversive, unpredictable, experimental, shocking etc, insert what adjective you will. But I can’t listen to much of it with any amount of pleasure. A lot of it feels like a prank rather than any coherent musical statement. I can’t help feeling we’re not really meant to enjoy it; after all, we are all the targets of the satire.
“Go home and check yourself.
You think we’re singin’ about someone else.”
Yes indeed: look yourself in the mirror and question
everything. You are not apart or above society after all. An important message,
an important reminder, no question. But at the end of the day, it’s well-crafted
songs and music one wants to hear.
For all of Zappa’s silliness, there was unshakable
sincerity at his core. This mostly came out in the instrumentals.
“Watermelon”’s just about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. And I defy anyone
to miss the serious intent of “Strictly Genteel”, his long evolving classical
piece.
Some did of course. Hipster godfather Robert Christgau
proved once again his uncanny ability to Absolutely Wrong about Absolutely
Everything when he wrote that Zappa’s songs were “as hard to play as they easy
to forget”. He must have had amnesia or dementia or both, for, love it or hate
it, no one with a fully functional frontal lobe can forget a Zappa tune.
It's the music that made the man, more so than most when it came to Zappa. And yet, kinda like Lemmy, folks want to hear about the lifestyle. If it keeps the spotlight on the man, then this may yet be a necessary evil.
[i] On
a semi-related note, we learn here that Zappa did very nearly give his fist
child the same name as a certain English Rock-band emerging at the time, who
would begin to make waves right around the time of this child’s adolescence.
Moon-Unit dodged a bullet.
[ii]
Not to be confused with the aforementioned English Rock band’s album of the
same name. Ah, the unintentional connections continue. . .
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