Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play - Hardcover

Watson, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312119186 ISBN 13: 9780312119188

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

Synopsis

An in-depth study on the achievements of Frank Zappa explores his rock, classical, jazz, and ethnic techniques, interpreting his ideas as an extension of a western radical tradition and comparing him to such figures as John Cage and Pierre Boulez.

About this title

Review:

There is probably no figure of modern popular music who so deserves the sort of scholarly exercise undertaken by Ben Watson in this book, and I am personally convinced that Zappa will be regaled by 21st Century music historians as a "crux of the biscuit" of 20th Century music.

And this 700 page tome will certainly be cited by our music historian descendants. In fairness, it may confound today's Zappa fans with it's copious references to Adorno, Freud, and Marx, but is likely to delight the erudite with its excerpts of the playfully situationist lyrics of Zappa, completely deconstructed by Watson. There is no doubt that Zappa was a genius--albeit a peculiarly American sort--and there is no doubt that no book has yet attempted such a thorough (albeit peculiar) analysis of his genius. Highly Recommended.

About the Author:

Ben Watson has written extensively on Frank Zappa. In 1993 he read his work - his 'demented scholarship' to his dying hero.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0312119186
• ISBN 13: 9780312119188
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 597