Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In this critical appraisal of the musician, Zappa fanatic and poet Watson briefly sketches Zappa's early life, then uses a Marxist framework to analyze chronologically the importance of songs on the 57 albums that Zappa released until his untimely death in December 1993. Throughout, the author uncovers the classical, avant-garde, and rhythm and blues roots of Zappa's music, deservedly placing the composer/musician within the radical postmodern tradition. Watson includes a discography and a description of his brief encounter with Zappa at the end of the book. Though obviously knowledgeable about Zappa and his music, Watson provides an overly academic, pedantic account that seems antithetical to the rebellious, adventurous spirit of Zappa. Recommended for Zappa fans.-David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Frank Zappa's manic energy and weird lyrics may make him seem like a rock-cult eccentric, but to British journalist Watson, Zappa (1940-1993), founder of the Mothers of Invention (which disbanded in 1969), was a pioneering composer who forged a third stream between classical and rock music, a radical visionary whose works attack class oppression, the conformity of mass culture and the hypocrisy of conventional morality. Fusing musical analysis, cultural criticism and biography, this overblown, provocative study discusses Zappa's music in the context of avant-garde art, William Blake, Wyndham Lewis's Vorticist prose, punk rock and the Marxist politics of the French leftist group Situationist International. Watson unravels Zappa's formative influences as he discusses the ex-Mother's film 200 Motels, Broadway-musical parody Thing-Fish, sonic experiments conducted by Pierre Boulez, freewheeling orchestral scores, electronic synthesizer compositions and recent iconoclastic songs. Including a 1993 interview with Zappa and a discography, this is the ultimate book for serious Zappa fans. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

There is an identifiable community, similar to that of the heads who devote significant parts of their lives to the (Grateful) Dead, that is dedicated to the music, pronouncements, and performances of the late Frank Zappa. Its members, knowledgeable and sometimes militant about their passion, are as eclectic and diverse as was Zappa. Many share his interests in technology, music theory, and social issues. Others just like the sneaky bits in what Zappa called his "comedy music": mention "Dinah-Moe Humm," and Zappaphiles are likely to discuss the satire of the song's lyrics, the piece's place in the evolution-devolution of Zappa's "serious" music, or which is the best live version of it. Watson addresses all these concerns and interests and more in a magnificently detailed, painstakingly researched and annotated book on Zappa, his world, and his music that must be reckoned the best resource for the serious aficionado and suitable for the novice fan or the merely curious, too. Enough good cannot be said about this important contribution to the library of American popular music. ~--Mike Tribby

Kirkus Book Review

A self-proclaimed ``Zappographer'' overanalyzes the work of one of modern music's most outrageous iconoclasts. Frank Zappa (194093) began his career as the guiding force behind the Mothers of Invention, a rock band that specialized in social parody and scatological lyrics, using tape collage, noise, and other nonmusical effects. Zappa continued as a solo artist and bandleader through the rest of his life, prolifically composing a body of work in rock, jazz, modern, and several noncategorizable forms. He also became a spokesperson for artistic freedom, testifying before Congress in the mid-1980s, when conservative groups were attacking rap and other pop music forms as pornographic. Watson, the ultimate Zappa freak, has spent his career writing under the nom de plume ``Out to Lunch'' for a variety of underground fanzines dedicated to Zappa's work. He argues that Zappa represents the ``materialist'' trend in modern art, basing his work on ``what is actually there,'' even when reality is unattractive or offensive. He links Zappa with other avant-garde figures in a variety of fields, from Edgar Varèse and Charles Ives to James Joyce, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Much of the book's language reads like Roland Barthes put through a Cuisinart, and it's hard to wade through the dense linguistic undergrowth. Watson inflates Zappa's importance as musician and philosopher (``every Zappa guitar solo denigrates the Platonic philosophical ideal'' is hyperbole, for sure, whatever it means) and finds excuses for Zappa's most blatant sexist, racist, and anti-Semitic remarks. The book ends with an ecstatic description of Watson's final meeting with the master, weeks before Zappa's death from prostate cancer. Awed by the presence of his icon, Watson is reduced to burbling ``The humility of the man is hard to credit'' after realizing that even Zappa didn't admire his own work as much as Watson does. Not one of the new rock criticism's brightest moments.