Apostrophe - Frank Zappa (1974)

While I’m listening to Zappa, I’m constantly aware that I could probably get caught in a riptide and get so far into his catalog that I’d never emerge.

Zappa didn’t seem to see genre at all. He took ideas from all over and strung them together, often in the same piece. The lyrical content isn’t exactly stream of consciousness, but it’s also nothing conventional. The subjects of the songs are often designed to be offputting, I think, so that you have to really lean into it to find a way into the music. It’s challenging on multiple levels. I’m not sure that his “let’s see how vulgar my lyrics can be before some square complains” aesthetic would fly in the 21st century, but it served him well.

Tracks I Liked

St Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast - unhinged fusion

Cosmik Debris - The most 60s-prog-sounding track seems to be taking the mickey out of 60s mysticism

Uncle Remus - Dead-on 70s rock. You’re never sure if he’s embracing a sound or making fun of it, and I’m sure that’s by design.