THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501140046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
FRANK ZAPPA had to die to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The prolific guitarist/composer/cultural insurrectionist had been nominated several times before his name appeared among 1995's inductees. Zappa's inclusion alongside seven other acts Thursday night reflects a general reassessment of his work since his December 1993 death.
Zappa often bemoaned the fact that critics who revered his early albums often had little or no use for the broader humor and artier musicality of his post-``Hot Rats'' (1970) records. At the same time, satirical hit singles such as ``Valley Girl'' and ``Dancin' Fool'' ensured that he was perceived by a large part of the mass audience as little more than a sort of Weird Al Yankovic.
The Hall of Fame nod, along with some kind words in Dave Marsh and James Bernard's recent ``New Book of Rock Lists,'' makes way for a turning of the tide. Zappa's technically adept eclecticism deserves a reappraisal, even if a sizable portion of his later output is still found wanting.
It's hard not to point to '60s masterpieces like ``Freak Out!'' and ``We're Only in It for the Money,'' or the guitar tour de force of ``Hot Rats,'' as the best ways to start a Zappa collection. All available on Rykodisc, these albums run the gamut from absurdist garage R&B (``Wowie Zowie'' on ``Freak Out!'') to bruising social comment (``Flower Punk,'' a scathing dismissal of the psychedelic scene on ``Money'') and tributes to Zappa heroes like avant-garde composer Edgar Varese. With 50-odd titles in print, though, there's plenty worth hearing.
Zappa was fond of paying tribute to ``Whipping Post,'' the Allman Brothers Band's blues-rocker of legendary length. It's too bad that two great axmen, Zappa and Duane Allman, didn't live to jam together on the number at the Hall's dinner/concert.
The Duane period was probably the Allmans' best. Most fully represented on the two-CD ``Fillmore Concerts'' (Polydor), their 1971 stints at New York's Fillmore East remain exemplary records of rock's improvisatory impulse. ``Eat a Peach'' and ``Brothers and Sisters'' (both Polydor) found them searching for succor in more bucolic strains, and finding it.
Al Green is one of soul music's great romancers, as well as one of its most famous eccentrics. The strain between his secular and religious sides became evident in songs like ``Take Me to the River'' (1976, later covered by Talking Heads) and in the 1977 ``Belle Album,'' where Green sang, ``It's you that I want, but Him that I need.'' In the late '70s, he became the Rev. Al Green.
Since then, he's enjoyed success in the gospel field, and even scored R&B and pop hits. His distaste for singing his Hi Records classics (also including ``Let's Stay Together'' and ``Call Me'') has eased in the past few years, and an album of new soul material is due from MCA in 1995. Green's Hi catalog is currently in disarray, but anything on CEMA's The Right Stuff label is worth picking up.
Janis Joplin's status as a proto-feminist icon was bumped up a notch or two with the release of her 1993 boxed set ``Janis'' (Columbia/ Legacy), which featured essays by critics Ellen Willis and Ann Powers. The three CDs are a little long on dated, garish arrangements, but make a strong case for the late singer's articulate busted-heartedness. Still, ``Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits,'' ``Pearl'' and ``Cheap Thrills'' (all Columbia) say it even more strongly, and economically.
Led Zeppelin began as a powerful (if somewhat inadvertently hilarious) blues-rock outfit, and ended as one of the music's most successfully eclectic, sensual bands. Each of Zeppelin's eight solo albums is essential in its way, and recent remasterings improve the quality. The records' various strengths make picking two or three ``musts'' difficult, but the untitled fourth album (often called ``Zoso,'' on Atlantic) puts together some of their best folk-infused songs with crunchers like ``Rock and Roll,'' and is many people's favorite. It also contains ``Stairway to Heaven,'' a pretty good song. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's 1994 ``Unledded'' (Atlantic) offered some decent new material with adventurous reworkings of ``Kashmir'' and the like.
Martha and the Vandellas scored early and often as an integral part of the Motown hit machine: ``Dancing in the Street,'' ``Heat Wave'' and ``Nowhere to Run'' were among their successes. Martha Reeves' high-pressure approach was shunted aside in favor of the girlish coos of Diana Ross, and a bout with mental illness further damaged her career. She remains on the concert circuit in the '90s. Her group's output is collected on ``Come and Get These Memories'' (Motown).
The Orioles, inducted under the heading of ``early influence,'' changed black group harmony singing with their deceptively quiet 1948 single, ``It's Too Soon to Know.'' Introducing a freer, more overtly emotive style, the record also paved the way for a string of hits, compiled on ``Greatest Hits'' (Collectables), that included ``Crying in the Chapel,'' one of the first R&B-to-pop crossovers. Sonny Til and his fellows are fondly remembered each holiday season for their gorgeous ``What Are You Doing New Year's Eve'' and ``Lonely Christmas,'' best heard on ``Doo Wop Christmas'' (Rhino).
Much has been made of Neil Young's continued relevance in the face of onslaughts from punk, New Wave, grunge and, last year, punk again. Walking his highly individual path no matter what the current trend - even when he had a hand in establishing it - Young has earned universal respect.
Even better, though, is the music that follows from Young's fearlessness. While ``Harvest Moon'' (1992) and last year's ``Sleeps With Angels'' were overpraised, Young has also reached greatness in the past decade with ``Freedom'' and the noisefest ``Ragged Glory.'' ``Everybody Knows This is Nowhere'' and ``Rust Never Sleeps'' (both Reprise) remain his best, and are among the most perfect rock albums. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Joining Zappa, left, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Robert
Plant, Janis Jopline and Al Green.
by CNB