Frank Zappa - Strictly Commercial: The Best Of Frank Zappa

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• Frank Zappa
• Ryko Records

Music reviews of Strictly Commercial: The Best Of Frank Zappa

Music Review: An easy way to get all 70+ albums in one
Rating: 5 Stars

Frank Zappa is probably the best composer i know of. He could write for any instrument, any kind of music, any rhythm, any topic, you get the idea. And anything he wrote sounded incredible. Strictly Commercial gives everything. From Don't Eat The Yellow Snow to Muffin Man to Valley Girl to Peaches en Regalia.

The first track, (Peaches en Regalia) immediately shows his genius. It is an intrumental, with a distinct style all Frank's own. I'm not really into brass and horn instrumentals, but I really like this one. The next is Don't Eat The Yellow Snow. A long, rambling, song with a myriad of topics based around a theme, it brings Frank's twisted and amused sense of humor to light. One thing common in almost all of FZ's work; an immense sense of humor and very well written music.

His song Trouble Every Day (#8) is one exception to that rule. He lays down a rolling beat with accompanying guitar, and proceeds with the lyrics. They're about the turmoil of the mid-sixties (the song is of his first album; '67 or thereabouts), and explain about everything that's going wrong with the whole situation. He talks about the riots, of course, but he is very savage with the news reports. He goes over how sleazy they were getting (and still are) in a raking, point-by-point dissection. Then he discusses the fact that there was nowhere to go for a lot of people, and other problems. From there, the CD goes back to being silly. Disco Boy touches on the plastic self-absorbtion of the seventies, while Fine Girl is a return to the morals of the early 1900's.

Let's Make The Water Turn Black is again a commentary on the crazy sixties, except from a lighter point of view. Joe's Garage is the title track to one of his biggest albums. It's about a pop-garage band that half made it, and then broke up. The guitar here rivals some of the best in the buisness; it is comparable to Ten Years After(here I'm thinking of their Woodstock performance) or even Hendrix - very different styles, but an extemely well-done piece. Montana has a catchy lilt, and is one of Frank's best comedy songs. Rasing dental floss on a ranch is a very good topic for a song; especially if you are trying to be non-conformist.

Valley Girl was Frank's best-selling single, and his daughter Moon Unit Zappa does a very good job getting the air-headed Val sound. It has very good guitar, a good beat, and lyrics to rival anything on the CD. However, it is fairly simple compared with, for example, San Berdino. Muffin Man rounds out the collection; it was taken from a live performance from Austin (that's what I think, anyway; at the end, he says, "Thank You and goodnight Austin Texas wherever you are...!"). Frank does a long, rambling, guitar piece which is magnificent. If nothing else, he could play the guitar. It's a perfect finishing piece.

I haven't mentioned some songs because they are yours to find out; I've heard them enough to know that none could be called poor, and all are good enough to propell any band now to the top. I'll leave you to listen to them to discover their majesty; maybe not the first time you hear them, maybe not the second, but very quickly you'll realize that they are some of the best songs you can hear. It's too bad Frank Zappa isn't here today. I'm sure he had lots more to share.

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