Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507140037
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: J.D. CONSIDINE THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WAS ZAPPA BRILLIANT OR JUST A BULLY?

In the 27 years he spent making albums, the Baltimore-born Zappa indulged in everything from soundtracks and concept albums to orchestral works and concert recordings. There were nearly 60 titles overall - an astonishing figure, given that the average rock star these days rarely produces more than an album every other year.

Amazingly, almost all of Zappa's work remains in print. Thanks to the consolidation that began with the sale of Zappa's catalog to Rykodisc, some 53 Zappa albums are currently in print (virtually all of his albums except ``200 Motels''). Moreover, plans are in the works for new albums to be compiled from unreleased material in the Zappa archives.

To be honest, a fair amount of Zappa's reputation rests on the sheer bulk of his output. But is quantity really an indicator of quality?

Not in this case. There has always been a lot to dislike about Zappa's writing, especially if you start with the words. Zappa's lyrics were often snidely sexist, reflecting an attitude that was misanthropic at best and misogynous at worst. It's not just that efforts like ``Dinah-Moe Humm'' or ``Jewish Princess'' seem politically incorrect by current standards; all too often, Zappa's songs presented women not as individual beings but as a semibeguiling set of orifices.

Then there was his enduring interest in toilet humor, as typified by ``Don't Eat the Yellow Snow,'' and his tendency to treat average Joes as the punch line in some continuing moron jokes. Even his attacks on authority often seemed embarrassingly mean-spirited.

His music, on the other hand, generally earned the grudging admiration of his critics, if only because it was too complex for most of them to criticize intelligently. Where other songwriters would settle for a catchy chorus and a coherent verse, such Zappa tunes as ``Be-Bop Tango (of the Old Jazzmen's Church)'' from ``Roxy & Elsewhere'' proffered themes and variations of such complexity that you almost needed a music degree just to hum along.

Zappa had a musicianly disdain for music as bone-simple as basic rock and roll. This, remember, was a guy whose ``serious'' compositions was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and who was known to sprinkle allusions to 20th-century classical music through his work. In fact, the live album ``Make a Jazz Noise Here'' includes excerpts from Stravinsky's ``L'Histoire du Soldat'' and Bartok's Third Piano Concerto, both done Frank's way.

Zappa's music had more in common with modern jazz or Eastern European folk music than Chuck Berry's beloved backbeat.

He was inordinately fond of tricky time signatures and stutteringly complicated cadences. His taste in drummers was admirable, but it's no accident that most of Zappa's timekeepers wound up moving on to fusion jazz instead of mere rock and roll.

When Zappa did try to pay tribute to the rock tradition, whatever affection he felt for the genre was generally overwhelmed by his need to sneer at its simplicity. ``Cruising With Ruben & the Jets,'' his 1968 ``homage'' to doo-wop, is all too typical - purporting to be an act of veneration, but ultimately coming across as a sarcastic genre exercise, written by a snob and performed by bored jazzbos.

What made songs like ``Don't Eat the Yellow Snow,'' ``Dirty Love,'' ``Montana'' and ``My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama'' FM favorites was that they were funny, not catchy. Zappa's wonderfully developed sense of the absurd was one of his most likable features, and listeners couldn't help but laugh when confronted with aspiring dental floss tycoons and Eskimo moms warning to ``Watch out where the huskies go.''

But there was always a certain nastiness beneath Zappa's jibes, and as Zappa's popularity diminished, that mean streak became more pronounced. Titles like ``The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing'' and ``Dumb All Over'' - both from ``You Are What You Is'' - aren't funny. They're condescending and cruel, qualities that have never had much place in rock and roll.

Ultimately, that's what makes the long march through Zappa's catalog seem such a chore. Despite the impressive musicianship and regular flashes of brilliance in his work, much of Zappa's ``oeuvre'' is deliberately intimidating and elitist, the work of an artist who had no use for his inferiors and only limited patience for his peers.

Is there merit to Zappa's music? Sure there is - but not 53 albums' worth. Frank Zappa was extremely professional and astonishingly prolific, but he wasn't terribly consistent. So even though the Zappa catalog is often fascinating and occasionally stunning, it hardly ranks as essential listening.