10 Influential Albums #5: Lumpy Gravy by Frank Zappa

When I was 15, I went to the Mothers’ Christmas show at Town Hall and my life changed. My friends and I sat in the front row, dead center. This was the original Mothers, with Billy Mundi and Jimmy Carl Black on drums, Motorhead Sherwood, Ian Underwood, the Gardners, and a truly deranged-looking Don Preston. Zappa was an overwhelming presence and I still remember him announcing a medley that included My Boyrfriend’s Back and Petrouchka. Soon afterwards — this was also the period I heard In C for the first time, and a lot of other records in this list — we formed our mulit-media ensemble and I started composing tape pieces.

I think the only albums out at the time of the show were Freak Out! and Absolutely Free but I chose this one as it gave all of us the first glimpse of how truly wide-ranging a composer Zappa was. He could write anything — and he did. He could also play anything he wanted on guitar — and he did that, too (listen to the outtakes on the Hot Rats Sessions compilation; the jams he didn’t release literally stopped me in my tracks and took my breath away when I first heard them).

I believe that Frank Zappa was one of the greatest 20th Century composers and musicians, up there with — just to limit it to Americans — Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and a tiny handful of other great masters.

He described himself on his first record as “repellent.” I wouldn’t know because I never met him and I never listen to lyrics so they never bothered me. But just listen to the music — and not just from this period. Listen to the last few recordings before his death and the first posthumous ones. And of course, listen to Lumpy Gravy. The level of musicality is absolutely breathtaking.