Which Frank Zappa album should everyone listen to first?
Call him weird, call him a genius, but the one thing you can’t call a once-in-a-lifetime creative like Frank Zappa is lazy.
Chester Thompson had to learn the hard way just how much of an enthusiastic musician Zappa was. He was appointed to be Zappa’s drummer, and while Thompson felt pretty confident that he would be able to keep up with the pace, he found that the eccentric ran a very tight ship when it came to rehearsing, so much so that the drummer described it as one of the most intense runs of rehearsals he had ever experienced.
“People thought Zappa was some kind of freak-out hippy, but he was seriously dedicated,” he said. “That was my first introduction to practising for 40 hours each week. It was eight hours a day, and there was no time wasted. Every time we finished a rehearsal, I felt that my brain was sweating. It was really intense music, really difficult music, and I always say it was the best school I ever went to.”
This intense work ethic also shows up in the amount of music Zappa put in his relentless pursuit of art. Whether he was performing in a band or as a solo artist, or producing work for someone else, his creative output straddles the fine line between chaotic and exemplary, and perhaps the thing that remains most impressive is all these albums remain high in quality despite their abundance.
It’s great if you’re a Zappa fan. It doesn’t tend to be the case that you ever stop listening to him, and instead, you just go through different phases, spinning album to album and enjoying the vast musical mind that led to the creation of what some would describe as a sound-heavy universe. However, if you’re not a Zappa fan and want to start listening to him, it can be fucking daunting to find the jumping point into his oeuvre.
Authenticity takes pride of place in Zappa’s life and creative output, whereby he adored bands and artists who stayed true to themselves and their taste throughout their goddamn careers, unwavering in the face of potential commercial dips. This admiration trickles into his own work, as every album that Zappa ever put his name on was one that he felt a genuine connection with and was passionate about.
Subsequently, regardless of the album you decide to listen to, you can find comfort in the fact that you are going to be listening to what was once a true reflection of Zappa’s creative mind. However, while this is good to know, it doesn’t help you narrow down which album of his you should start your listening journey with. Sure, you might be hearing something authentic, but if that authenticity comes across as confusing and disconnected from reality, regardless of your willingness to listen, you probably won’t stay engaged for too long.
It’s this writer’s opinion that one of the greatest ways to ease yourself into the work of Zappa is by checking out his second solo album: Hot Rats. Released in 1969, if you listen to Hot Rats, you’re going to be exposed to plenty of the weird and wonderful prose that made up a lot of his music, but will also be eased into that weirdness with an album that is relatively accessible.
It’s a record that you should cancel plans and put on earphones for. A lot of it was recorded during jamming sessions, and therefore, it feels alive and energetic. It leans closer to jazz than it does rock, but both elements are clearly on show throughout the album. There are some records that go wholeheartedly towards jazz, and others that go towards rock; this LP that sits right in the middle feels like a good place to start. There are experimental elements, sure, but they’re not so left field that you will get lost in them, but important enough to have you absorbed.
Yes, amongst the 60+ albums Zappa was responsible for, one of the best that you can start with is Hot Rats.
