Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
Gotta go with Zappa here too .. The man was a genius. On popular albums like Over-nite Sensation, every song is a wealth of musical ideas and Zappa was that rare kind of person who was not only amazingly creative, funny and charming, but he could write all those ideas down on paper and find people supremely skilled enough to play his compositions. His music is engaging (much more so than Beefheart's for me) and the guy was hilarious.
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^ While a lot of this is true, imo Zappa`s personality isn`t always hilarious or charming. For me a lot of his albums are spoiled by attempts at humour that are only funny first time around. Elsewhere, Zappa`s comments, musical whimsey, even his tone of voice often come across as superior and patronising. We get it, Frank, you`re an inventive musician and you`ve heard of Stravinski, but why do we have suffer for that ?
Hot Rats , though, is a fabulous album, where for once Zappa`s not playing games or trying to shock us with his sexually explicit lyrics. Chronologically and stylistically,
Burnt Weeny Sandwich comes pretty close, but even so, it`s still marred by the musical pranks that Zappa somehow can`t resist.
At the other extreme of sincerity, Beefheart has a passionate delivery that sounds like he`s trying to placate some inner demons by wailing out about his crazy vision of the world. Despite that, what Skaligojura says is true too :-
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra
Beefheart was a true original, and a genius in many ways, but basically hit his limitations early on.
Essentially, Beefheart had his thing that he perfected for Trout Mask Replica, and polished with Lick My Decals Off, but I think he really failed to go anywhere from there. As ingenious as a lot of the subtle values of his work, once you get past those it's all just basically all just off timed blues with abstract lyrics.
Zappa consistently changed his sound from year to year to year and seemed to have a pretty good grip on what he was doing. He has his great albums, and his stinkers, but he continued to evolve his sound throughout. Beefheart's only attempt at evolution after "Lick My Decals Off" was a failed attempt at a commercial sound for years ended in just a reversion to the Trout Mask Replica sound. (Bat Chain Puller I believe was actually all material written between Trout Mask Replica and Lick my Decals off, Baby.")
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So, two musicians, both brilliant, both flawed, but for me Beefheart wins, if only because he has so many good albums that I can`t choose a favourite: one day it`s Strictly Personal, then it`s TMR, and then I go for Spotlight Kid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
If you don't vote for Beefheart in the poll you should feel embarrassed.
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^ No, what`s really embarrassing is that I`m voting the same way that this guy did !
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