You see right through me.

"Don't wanna be an american idiot -
one nation controlled by the media"
Green Day - American Idiot



In class we watched a commercial Zappa made for Luden's Cough Drops.

Throughout the weeks so far, I've found out that Zappa was very into marketing himself. From getting himself on the Steve Allen Show (for playing the bicycle, which was basically just a gimmick to get himself on the show) to working on a porn movie (which later got him put into jail for a brief amount of time), he was always looking for new opportunities to put his name out there.

This is rather surprising for me, as he was very against the mainstream, from what I can get from his songs. However, the proof is in the video up there.

In a way, that's very smart of him, though. While the things he was doing may not have always been credible, he certainly did a good job of getting into the industry and acquiring a fan base, albeit small at the time.

Supermodel Documentary Hour!

"Stone age love and strange sounds too,
Come on baby let me get to you
Bad nights causin' teenage blues,
Get down ladies you've got nothing to lose"
The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

This week, I watched a documentary on Zappa and the Mothers of Invention with my dad. While at first, it wasn't really anything I hadn't already seen in class (him playing the bicycle, for instance, was in the movie), I ended up learning a few things from this.

1: I hate Kim Fowley, a lot. I first encountered him in the movie The Runaways and the book Neon Angel by Cherie Currie, and immediately disliked him. He's described as being a pig and just generally a bad person. I shouldn't judge a person based on just someone else's account of who he is and what he's done (I obviously don't know him in person). However, everything I've been taught about this man was bad, so finally putting a face to the name didn't help matters.

2: Wild Man Fisher is awesome. There was a clip of him on Laugh In (I think, anyways) just... making weird noises and moving his hands around a lot. It was really interesting to watch. He really does have a lot of talent, in my opinion - it's just not the kind of talent you would hear in the mainstream. I'll definitely be looking up more of his music and performances.

3) The way Zappa broke up the Mothers wasn't very nice. He took the whole band by surprise, from what they say, and just let them go. I understand he wanted to move on as a musician, and make different music with different people, but the way he actually did it just seemed so... brutal.

The documentary as a whole was pretty interesting. I did learn more about Zappa's beginnings than I did in the class, and saw the history of the first incarnation of the Mothers, which we haven't covered in class yet.

I'm somewhat wiser now...

"Go cry on somebody else's shoulder
I'm somewhat wiser now, and one whole year older."
Mothers of Invention - Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder

We've been listening through Zappa's first album with the Mothers of Invention in class. Freak Out! is... well... interesting.

I didn't really know what to expect from this CD. It was written with what sounds like something me and my friends call "music ADD" - inability to stick to one type of music, or one song for too long. One song on this CD will be rock, the next is doo-wop, the next avant-garde experimental, the kind of stuff you would expect someone like Pink Floyd to do (except obviously written years before they began doing this).

I didn't like every song I heard, that's for sure. While the subject matter was easy enough to understand with both the lyrics and commentary from the teacher, it was just not the kind of music I would normally listen to. There were a few tracks I thoroughly enjoyed, just from a musical point of view - Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder, Who Are The Brain Police, and Wowie Zowie, among others.

This first album has some recurring themes; American values and society (and how he doesn't like them), relationships (mostly making fun of them, though), and authority issues. The latter stems from the group he hung out with at the time, affectionately known as the Freaks. These people were not your typical crowd of the day, and many had long hair (*gasp*). Because of this, they were constantly getting in trouble with the law, for no good reason. This hit home with me - in every generation, there's at least one or two groups that get picked on by authority for the way they look. In Zappa's day, it was the Freaks - in mine, some of them are the goths and emo kids. Even in my father's youth (he was in high school in the 70s), he was watched carefully by store managers and cops for having long hair.

Zappa also used the album art of the Freak Out! album to further illustrate his views and ideas. From liner notes explaining who songs were written for and why, to lists of people he found influential, Zappa used the sleeve as a blank canvas, and also as a marketing tool.

I think I'll have to listen to this album over again. I can't fully appreciate something with just one listen.

Introducing Me.

"I'll try to do my best to impress
But it's easier to let you take a guess at the rest
But you wanna hear what lives in my brain
My heart, will you ask for it, for your perusing?
At times confusing, slightly amusing
Introducing me"
Nick Jonas - Introducing Me (Camp Rock 2)

I figured that there's probably nothing better than an introductory blog post to start this off. After all, you probably know just as much about me as I know about Zappa (nothing, if you weren't aware). So, a little introduction about me:

My name's Meghan, and I'm a 22 year old music fan. I'm currently in my first semester at university, and reeeeeally want to be a music journalist/editor in the future.

My music taste is very eclectic, though if you ask my father he'll say I'm not musically diverse yet. If you want proof, though, I'll grab my iPod and list the first 10 songs that come on shuffle:

1. Something Corporate - Fall
2. David Bowie/Queen - Under Pressure
3. Glee Cast - Thong Song
4. Dir En Grey - Cage
5. Ke$ha - Dirty Picture [pt 2] feat. Taio Cruz
6. We Came As Romans - Conditions
7. All Time Low - Poppin' Champagne
8. Jonas Brothers - Inseparable
9. Hyper Crush - She's a Freak
10. Drake - Houstalantavegas

Okay, so it may not be the most accurate representation of my musical taste. Two of my favourite artists are not represented on there (Paramore, and Jack's Mannequin). However, the styles of music are clearly diverse: there's pop on there, classic rock, visual kei, dance, screamo, and rap. My friends hate listening to my music on trips because they never know what to expect - they could be listening to metal, and find themselves suddenly listening to a song from a Disney soundtrack.

Regardless of how weird I think my taste in music is, I will agree with my dad on one thing: it needs more breadth, and depth.

This is what led me to joining a class on Frank Zappa.

While, at this point, I know little about him - from what I've heard, he's eccentric, talented, and named his kids really weird things - I'm open to learning more about him. Both my dad and uncle consider themselves Zappa fans, and while not obsessive like some of his other fans, they do enjoy his music and know a lot about him.

Anyways, that's probably all you're going to get out of me for now ;) I don't really think I'm in much of a position to say anything about Zappa yet, as I've only attended one class. Expect something with more substance later on!