“Easy to listen to”: the song Frank Zappa called 100 years ahead of its time
To be labelled a true musical experimentalist in the 1960s, you had to be truly operating on a higher psychedelic level.
The bar for esoterica was astonishingly high, in a decade that was all about kaleidoscopic artistry and social liberation, yet somehow, Frank Zappa had a canny knack of delivering music that sat way above it.
Despite famously abstaining from the drug culture that was rife in the 1960s, Zappa was a pioneer of both psychedelic and prog rock. A virtuosic guitar player and a compelling songwriter, he had the ability to lay down bona fide rock anthems, but could similarly thrust you into a place of sonic discomfort.
Albums like Uncle Meat challenged music fans to enter avant-garde realms and really question their true understanding of sonic structures: can vocals still be discernible when they transcend into primal screams? Can heavy rock and free-flowing jazz actually intersect? Is tape speed something that can be tampered with in popular music? These were questions Zappa was hellbent on answering, as he took a legion of fearless fans with him.
For many, he set the blueprint for experimental music. But such was the dense nature of esoterica in the 1960s and ’70s, that he was taking his cues from artists who were astonishingly more daring than him. And when he was asked to label them, it inspired a maniacal response, truly depicting an artist who thrives best when in the murky waters of audacious experimentation.
“Songs like ‘Rubber Biscuit’ by The Chips, which was like a hundred years ahead of its time, man!” he boldly claimed, explaining that the majority of the piece had chanting instead of actual words, which adds to its simplicity. “One guy says: ‘Woody woody, pecker pecker,’ and the rest of it is all just this bizarre mumbling and grumbling, but all major and minor chords, and it’s easy to listen to. It’s happy, and it’s very surrealistic.”
Referencing another song called ‘The Girl Around The Corner’ – the other side of ‘Teardrops’ by Lee Andrews & The Heart – Zappa elaborated how the lyrics in that track are also almost impossible to understand with a strange narrative – “Butchy Stover makes love like Casanova, she fucked him five times in the eye, three times in the knee, Buddha McCrey, She’s crazy that way.”
He explained, “And then there’s a sax solo in the middle of it, and he’s honking away sort of inanely, and then this one guy starts to sing too soon, and then he stops, and then it’s time to come back in. It’s a great record. Really far out!”
What was frightening and dangerous for many artists was, in fact, inspiring for the experimental artist that was Zappa. In simply listing these tracks, we’re offered a clear insight into the inner workings of his ambitious mind.
There were simply no rules when it came to making a great rock track, and Zappa was continuously looking out towards the edge, in the hopes of finding his next source of inspiration.
