were you a fan?

Been listening to 2 of his albums lately: Freak Out and Were Only in it For the Money.

I AM A BIG FAN...I DIDN'T REALLY DISCOVER HIS TUNES UNTIL HE WAS DEAD THOUGH...I WAS 12 WHEN HE DIED.

He really blossomed as an artist in the early to mid 70s.

Albums I paid attention to :

Hot Rats
Over-Nite Sensation
Apostrophe
Zoot Allures
Studio Tan

Greatly respected his compositional skill, thought his lyrics were somewhere between absurdly funny to sophomoric. He didn't really have anything to say much beyond cynicism & snide humor, a superficial anti-materialism - its almost like he wanted to express asceticism, but was too cool to come out and say it. He did stand for civil rights, one thing he was clear enough about.

Kind of a smug, self-righteous bore, on the personal front. But he left a mark.

Never heard of him.

But seriously, my username is Zappa-inspired. My older brother turned me on to him in 1988, the year he stopped touring, alas, but I've had the pleasure of seeing his music played live and meeting musicians who had all played with him in intimate venues as Banned from Utopia as well as his son Dweezil's band Zappa Plays Zappa a few times over the years.

I like a handful of his tracks.

But I found him rather tiresome overall. And his superfans even more so.

Yeah, I like most of his stuff. He can be pretty funny. His first album, Freak Out, might be my favorite.