Frank Zappa « A Progressive on the Prairie

Midweek Music Moment: Waka/Jawaka, Frank Zappa

With the Fourth of July upon us, it seems an appropriate time to celebrate a unique American music: jazz. So, you wonder, why is this post about Frank Zappa? The vast majority of the uninitiated think Zappa was just a weird rock musician. In point of fact, he was a too often unheralded explorer of [...]

Midweek Music Moment: Frank Zappa and “Smoke on the Water”

Despite his extraordinary talent and lengthy career, Frank Zappa doesn’t have a song on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. He does, however, deserve some credit, so to speak, for the song that came in at No. 426, “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple.

Propelled by a rudimentary guitar [...]

A Zappa interlude and homage

I’ve never been much of a YouTube user. I’ve found some interesting, usually humorous, stuff there but there’s just so much I find it hard to locate very intriguing material.

That said, a HUGE hat tip to the Godoggone blog for the Frank Zappa post that led me to video of a 1973 performance by [...]