OPX: Frank Zappa!

my OP10 list:

peaches en regalia
let's make the water turn black
rdnzl
inca roads
flakes
for the young sophisticate
billy the mountain
packard goose
brown shoes don't make it
jesus thinks you're a jerk

No, really. If some of you can create of 10 Zappa songs that absolutely should be heard, I'd be willing to give them a listen in an effort to squash my disdain for the man's music.

Black Napkins
Peaches En Regalia
Ship Ahoy
Regyptian Strut
Rat Tomago
Sofa #1
Sleep Dirt
The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution
Rubber Shirt
Beat It With Your Fist

Heavy on the solos, but I'm probably forgetting something fantastic.

(that's about it, really)

Black Napkins -- The solo where I realized a solo could be piece itself, a unique composition

Peaches En Regalia -- great synthesis of classical+rock

Ship Ahoy -- like FZ never ever stepped on a wah-wah pedal before

Regyptian Strut -- slinky rhythm section kills me, has a march-like quality to it

Rat Tomago -- fantastically raw solo

Sofa #1 -- piano-driven and majestic; #2 has the lyrics (in faux-German and English)

Sleep Dirt -- acoustic soloing! (have not heard the added-back-in-to-reflect-original-intention vocals of the reissue)

The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution -- because it's, uh, cononical

Rubber Shirt -- drums from one song + bass from another song in a different time signature = classic

Beat It With Your Fist -- fer Christ's sake

in an attempt to shift this away from its POX status [the only kind of thread ive contributed to so far-theyre just so easy. sorry] what is it with some people and mr. zappa? in the early stages of my musical development, he was the be all and end all as far as i was concerned-now i listen to him much less, but still dig the bloke. yes the adolesent side of his humour appealed to me-at 12 i dare you to find a boy who doesnt find smut funny- but mainly it was the music-both hard to listen to, yet also containing sublime moments of beauty; from my list g spot, nine types & lucy's fall into that category.
such a broad cannon of work. i simply cannot understand why some are against his whole back catalogue.
mind you, i cant understand those who dont dig every aspect of it.

1. peaches en regalia -- for the typical reasons i like any song, the hook. pretty classic opening.
2. let's make the water turn black -- at first, i wasn't too keen on the original sixties stuff; too dated, bad production (by eighties/nineties standards). so i didn't really like this one (or the rest of woiiftm when i first heard it). then, i heard a live version of this song (on one of the you can't do that on stage cds), and was better able to appreciate how catchy and melodious a song this really was. it was what opened my appreciation to those sixties Zappa recordings.
3-4. rdnzl and inca roads -- both from his baroque mid-seventies period. i like the sound, the putting together of disparate musical elements and the guitar playing. "inca roads" lyrics make no real sense (maybe he's making fun of the mystical gobbledygook of the prog musicians of this period?) "rdnzl" doesn't have any lyrics.
5. flakes -- i went to a large public undergrad and l-school. a major portion of my working life involves dealing with bureaucrats and bureaucracies. the lyrical content of "flakes" is about the sort of incompetent, nasty and whiny morons who work at such places. as FZ said in relation to another sheikh yerbouti song, "unlike the unicorn, such creatures really do exist!" and laughing at them prevents me from getting a gun and exterminating them (or voting Republican, same difference). the busy musical arrangement and adrian belew's impersonation of bob dylan don't hurt, either.
6. for the young sophisticate -- because it's a nice love song with likeable characters, (non-snarky) funny lyrics, and a happy ending. which means that FZ could do any of the foregoing if he felt like it.
7. billy the mountain -- because i like musical/lyrical shaggy-dog stories. more musical ideas packed into this 20-min. tristram shandy of a song than some musicians manage to pull off during their whole lives. and flo and eddie's vocals here show that FZ was right to bring them on (their smutty fillmore east antics notwithstanding).
8-10. brown shoes don't make it, packard goose, jesus thinks you're a jerk -- much is made about the smuttiness and/or smugness of zappa's lyrics. not much smut in these three songs (though in "packard goose" FZ does tell music journos to go sit and spin on it) and while i like cheap toilet humor at times it can get a bit tiresome. on the other hand, while i understand the "smugness" charge i think that it's a little overstated and not entirely accurate. that's where being a zappa-completist comes in handy -- if he was just being a nag, or slogging off folks and looking down on them without having some sort of vision of something better then the charge of "smug" would be more accurate. to some extent, zappa lets his smart-ass guard down a bit in these songs -- the disappointment that folks would settle for a boring, mundane and uncreative life in "brown shoes," the carping and trend-hopping of critics in "packard goose," or that people fall for the cheap demagoguery of tv preachers and their political allies in "jesus thinks you're a jerk." musically and lyrically, there's disgust and despair, but also hope -- while he was no ray davies, bob dylan or john lennon re lyrics, FZ (and his detractors) do themselves a disservice when they indiscriminately fob them off.

1) Wowie Zowie - "I don't even care if you shave your legs". I wish all Bubblegum was this honest...
2) Duke of Prunes/Amnesia Vivace/Duke Regains His Chops - Actually a very beautiful melody, but The Supremes climax is what it's all about...
3) Who Needs the Peace Corps? - The "Oh my hair is getting good in the back" break.
4) Oh No - preferably instrumental, the lyrics are unnecessary. It took me quite a while to figure out it was one long passage of notes played twice, but with completely different rhythms.
5) Little Umbrellas - Love the way the melody glides along. I keep wishing Michelle Kwan will use it in her next skate routine.
6) Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me? - Exceptionally good lyrics.
7) Truck Driver Divorce - Up to the interminable guitar solo. Also like the way the lyrics curiously appear in "No Not Now" (an otherwise shit song).
8) Inca Roads - The version on Best Band You Never Heard is my personal favorite, though George Duke tears up this one on YCDToSAII
9) Andy - Again, the version on Best Band You Never Heard is my fave.
10) Alien Orifice - Bad title, but compositionally I think this is my favorite piece of his. Incredible stuff here, with both available versions (Mothers of Prevention and Make a Jazz Noise) having their merits.