Product Description

The Words and Music of Frank Zappa is the first book to move beyond the details of Zappa's biography toward a focused treatment of the rock and pop songs of this great American composer. Frank Zappa worked in a musical realm that is unfamiliar to many radio listeners, but today his music can be appreciated as a whole, allowing it to emerge as a coherent, thoughtful, innovative--if somewhat daunting--body of work. Author Kelly Lowe has left no aspect of that work unexamined, from Zappa's role as a satirist of the highest order, to his place in the genre of "progressive rock," and his importance as one of the foremost critics of American culture and society. Like those of many satirists, Frank Zappa's messages--musical and lyrical--may not always be clear, but they are well worth considering. Kelly Lowe has provided an excellent guide to aid readers in that endeavor. The volume begins with a discussion of Zappa's role as a satirist and a discussion of his musical style, and then proceeds to a prolonged examination of his albums. Through this extended engagement with Zappa's music, a surprisingly clear perspective on his personal views is also provided, shedding light on his treatment of such topics as the falsified notion of love in popular culture, the compromising influence of money on popular music, and the concept of freedom in a systematized society, among other things. The book also features an official discography and a bibliographic essay that discusses the current state of Zappa scholarship.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #595997 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 280 pages

Review
“In examining the songs of American composer Frank Zappa, Lowe offers introductory essays that examine Zappa's unique place in American music; his compositions in relation to other forms of popular music, most notably progressive rock; and his special brand of caustic social criticism in the tradition of satirists like Jonathan Swift and Lenny Bruce. The author then examines Zappa's songs by looking at his albums in four groups/chapters: "The Mothers of Invention"; "Hot Rats, the Last Two Mothers Albums, Flo & Eddie, and The 'Jazz-Rock' Albums"; "The Duke-Brock/Progressive Rock Bands, Lather (Lather), and the Terry Bozzio Albums"; and "Politics: 1979-88." One of the strengths of Lowe's treatment is his contextualization of pop-culture references in the lyrics, explications that result in a clearer reading of Zappa's texts. Also useful are the discography of Zappa recordings and a critical bibliographic essay on the major contributions on the life and works of Frank Zappa. Students of popular or American music will appreciate this title. Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers.”–Choice

“The book is organized chronologically and divided by the artistic periods, beginning with The Mothers Of Invention (Zappa's first influential group) and ending with the Terry Bozzio albums an era identified by the presence of Zappa's greatest percussionist. Each of Zappa's albums is analyzed within these larger divisions, often scrutinized for entities as detailed as specific phrases, both musical and verbal. Sections on satire and politics bookend the sequential chapters, creating an excellent in-and-out to the chronological sections. To be sure, Lowe knows his Zappa, and he writes with an obvious affection for the subject, the artist, and the man. Frank Zappa is already important and respected part of music history. His reputation, influence, and contributions will continue to be more widely recognized, and The Words and Music of Frank Zappa is a publication sure to foster that growth.”–Maximum Ink

“Ever wonder about the significance of the kazoo in Freak Out!'s "Hungry Freaks, Daddy?" Kelly Fisher Lowe will tell you his theory. In examining Frank Zappa, the author does everything short of having his subject turn to the side and cough, addressing album after album and song after song in Da Vinci Code detail. Sure, the readings are occasionally questionable, but this is exactly what makes the book--and Zappa himself--so interesting.”–chart

“As part of a series on the work of singer-songwriters, this volume studies the music of Frank Zappa, looking at his songs as well as how he was a satirist. Lowe offers a reading of his rock and classical music from the 1960s to the 1980s, explores how Zappa was a satirist through his critique of pop culture, and analyzes his albums with the Mothers of Invention, as well as his jazz-rock and solo music, and political statements in the music on Joe's Garage.”–Reference & Research Book News

“Author Kelly Lowe has left no aspect of Zappa's work unexamined, from his role as a satirist of the highest order, to his place within the genre of "progressive rock" and his importance as one of the foremost critics of American culture and society....[a] surprisingly clear perspective of his personal views is also provided, shedding light on his treatment of such topics as the falsified notion of love in popular culture, the compromising influence of money on popular music, and the concept of freedom in a systematized society.”–Free Bird Times

“[T]he first book to move beyond the details of Zappa's biography toward a focused treatment of his rock and pop songs. Author Kelly Lowe has left no aspect of Zappa's work unexamined, from his role as a satarist, to his place within the genre of "progressive rock" and his importance as one of the foremost critics of American culture and society. This title also features a bibliographic essay that discusses the current state of Zappa scholarship.”–Library Media Collection

“Kelly Lowe's The Words and Music of Frank Zappa is a smart and engaging examination of one of America's most original and confounding composers. Lowe bravely enters the labyrinth of Zappa's world with a clear head and a breezy conversational style that brings all the rich paradoxes of Zappa's work to life.”–Kevin Courrier author of Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa

About the Author
KELLY FISHER LOWE is the Director of the Learning Resource Networks at The University of Wyoming. He was previously Associate Professor of English and Director of the American Studies program at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He is the author of 100 Years of Caring: The Centennial History of Alliance Community Hospital, as well as numerous articles and papers on rhetorical theory, writing program administration, and American cultural studies.

Customer Reviews

Creative Presentation
Based on the holdings at Amazon, did you know that there are more biographies (and autobiographies) of Frank Zappa than there are biographies (and autobiographies) of Chester A. Arthur, the Twenty-First President of the United States?

In WORDS AND MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA, Lowe offers a chronological presentation of the historical content surrounding Zappa's albums and CDs. Such an approach is a creative platform for composing a biography. I have seen this approach employed once before in Greenblatt's WILL IN THE WORLD. I think it is a creative departure from the mechanical writing found in most biographies. Like Greenblatt's work, Lowe used this approach with expert skill. In addition, he offers a critical analysis of each work.

Lowe chronologically reviews each album/CD. At the beginning of each discussion, Lowe offers some general information. Most interesting is his report of the highest BILLBOARD ranking. I don't understand why, but I was fascinated by these rankings. I found myself contrasting each album/CD with the others and discovered that many of Zappa's works that I felt to be his best were, in fact, given low rankings in BILLBOARD. Either good sales don't suggest quality, or I have very bad taste in music! Some had such bad sales, they were never ranked! These include: BROADWAY THE HARD WAY, THE FISH THING and THEM OR US. I very much like BROADWAY THE HARD WAY and THEM OR US. I can't believe they didn't get a BILLBOARD rank.

Sadly, Lowe's work is not comprehensive. He failed to include the following: ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES, LONDON SYMPHONEY ORCHESTRA 1 & 2, THE PERFECT STRANGER, THE YELLOW SHARK, CIVILIZATION PHASE III, JAZZ FROM HELL, AHEAD OF THEIR TIME, BABY SNAKES, THE BEST BAND YOU'VE HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, DOES HUMOR BELONG IN MUSIC?, MAKE A JAZZ NOISE HERE, the 6 volume set YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, SHUT UP AND PLAY `YER GUITAR, JOE'S CORAGE, JOE'S DOMAGE and ZAPPED. However, if he included these additions, I am sure the book would be over 600 pages long. Although most people wouldn't want a book that long, I would! I particularly enjoyed ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES, LONDON SYMPHONEY ORCHESTRA 1 & 2, THE PERFECT STRANGER, JAZZ FROM HELL, and SHUT UP AND PLAY `YER GUITAR and would have enjoyed reading about them.

Below is a list of books written by or about Frank Zappa. These titles are ranked in terms my perception of quality. What makes Lowe's book interesting is that he cites most of these within the pages of his book. He contrasts his critique of Zappa's work with the other authors.

1. THE REAL FRANK ZAPPA BOOK by Frank Zappa and Peter Occhioigrosso
2. THE WORDS AND MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA by Kelly Fisher Lowe
3. MOTHER! THE FRANK ZAPPA STORY by Michael Gray
4. FRANK ZAPPA: THE NEGATIVE DIALECTICS OF POODLE PLAY by Ben Watson
5. THE ACADEMY ZAPPA: PROCEEDINGS OF ESEMPLASTIC ZAPPA edited by Ben Watson and Esther Leslie
6. ELECTRIC DON QUIXOTE: THE DEFINITIVE STORY OF FRANK ZAPPA by Neil Slaven
7. NECESSITY IS... THE EARLY YEARS OF FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION by Billy James
8. COSMIK DEBRIS: THE COLLECTIVE HISTORY AND IMPROVISATIONS OF FRANK ZAPPA by Greg Russo
9. NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: THE SAGA OF FRANK ZAPPA by David Walley
10. FRANK ZAPPA: THE COMPLETE CUIDE TO HIS MUSIC by Ben Watcon
11. MY BROTHER WAS A MOTHER: AZAAPA FAMILY ALBUM by Patrice "Candy" Zappa
12. THEM OR US by Frank Zappa
13. UNDER THE SAME MOON by Suzannah Thana Harris
14. BEING FRANK: MY TIME WITH FRANK ZAPPA by Nigery Lennon

In addition to citing the some of the above, Lowe also cites reviews he read on Amazon. Thus, if YOU send a commentary to Amazon on any of Zappa's LPs or CDs, you might be cited in Lowe's book!

Lowe makes a very important and well written contribution to the understanding of this most complex writer/composer. I strongly recommend WORDS AND MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA to every Zappa fan.

poor writing and poor scholarship
Despite its highbrow appearance and air of scholarship, this book is a failure. The writing is banal (the overuse of the words 'hilarious' and 'interesting' is particularly annoying), and worse, Lowe's arguments, when he attempts them, are unsupported. This would be less troublesome if Lowe knew something about Zappa's music. His descriptions of the music are amatuerish ('Who Needs The Peace Corps' is not a 'shuffle'!) and he misquotes and edits lyrics. Poor handling of music and misuse of the lyrics adds up to a book that abuses its title. This is partially a survey of other extant material on Zappa's work, and he relies a lot on Ben Watson's 'Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play' (which he seems to dislike) and other recent books; if you've read them, you don't need this. In fact, if you've read Ben Watson's book, and understood even a portion of it, whether you liked it or not, you probably understand Zappa better than this author. He also quotes many internet sources, including [...] and the All Music Guide.
This book probably wouldn't work as a doctoral dissertation, or even a master's thesis. I was disappointed.

Poor analysis of words, no analysis of music
I really wanted to like Kelly Fisher Lowe's ambitious book. Unfortunately, it seems as if he tried to bite off more than he could chew. He attempts to say something about nearly every song on the 40 or so albums he's chosen to write about. In trying to cover so much ground, he has no choice but to maintain a rather brisk pace throughout, which makes for some fairly shallow readings of Zappa's songs.

For example, Lowe describes the lyrics to Pygmy Twylyte as "absurdist" and "inscrutable" when, in fact, there are some pretty obvious references to drugs and their side effects. The "green hocker" is a drug abuser, one of the regular objects of Zappa's scorn. Since the hocker is "Crankin' and a-cokin" and "hurtin' for sleep in the Quaalude moonlight" we can presume he's trying to balance himself out via an equal distribution of stimulants and depressants in his system. However, the combination of all those drugs has made him sick and he's "'fraid to die." He has a "crystal eye" and a "crystal kidney" -- methamphetamine is a crystal, and kidney damage is a long-term side effect of amphetamine abuse.

The term "pygmy twylyte" is similar to City of Tiny Lites, another song about drug abuse. The City is visible after the use of downers and wine; similarly, the green hocker is "smokin' in the pygmy twylyte" after doing Quaaludes and amphetamines (and/or cocaine). Maybe Frank saw or heard about someone like this. Many of his songs are "true stories" or derived from "folklore".

Anyway, if you can't get any of this out of his lyrics and are willing to dismiss them as "absurd," why bother writing a book that purports to concern itself with an analysis of Zappa's lyrics?

The book is also riddled with the usual factual errors and typos Zappa fans have come to expect by now. Getting the facts wrong is a continual problem that seems to plague everyone who writes about Zappa and/or his music. Apparently, it is impossible to publish a Zappa book that someone actually fact-checks and proofreads.

In Lowe's book, the VERY FIRST PAGE has a glaring typo: he refers to a "Stratocaster and a Fender Camp" from the song Joe's Garage. Excuse me?? Fender f@#$% Camp?!? Even Google knows better than that (seriously, try Googling "fender camp" and you'll see what I mean).

Then there are the factual errors that any hardcore Zappa fan could easily correct (for example, the album Does Humor Belong In Music? actually documents Zappa's touring unit in 1984, NOT 1982 -- two VERY different bands).

Another annoying thing is that Lowe, admittedly not a musicologist (and presumably not a musician), nevertheless bandies about technical music terms that have very specific meanings and, not surprisingly, uses them incorrectly a number of times. He refers to the song Mr. Green Genes as a "half-time waltz" for example, which it is clearly not (at the bare minimum a waltz has to be in 3/4). Similarly, he asserts that Who Needs the Peace Corps? starts off as "a basic shuffle," which it does not. There is not a single second of shuffle rhythm in that song. It is much more akin to a march, an attribute that is accentuated on the 1988 live arrangement as heard on The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life.

In fact, almost every time Lowe writes about the music rather than the lyrics, he either gets it wrong or writes a description so generic as to be interchangeable. For example, here is the rest of his description of Peace Corps: "As the song develops, you find Zappa working in his usual vein of odd and varying time signatures [Reviewer note: actually the entire song is in 4/4!]. The song starts and stops and segues quite unexpectedly. It finally ends up with a marvelous light jazz outro with Zappa speaking over it."

What purpose do these kind of descriptions serve? For those of us who know the songs as well (or better than) Lowe, it doesn't advance our understanding of the music. For those who don't know the song, it certainly isn't specific enough to give one much of an idea of what it sounds like -- and the parts that are specific are either misleading or downright inaccurate.

In all there is very little in this book to recommend it, but I have to give Lowe some credit for at least trying to do something other than yet another biography (thus the 2 stars).