Whether the term was deserved or not, Frank Zappa was often
\nclassified as a comedic musician due to the biting, often
\noffensive, satire that permeated much of his work. His songs have
\neven been played on that bastion of musical humor, the Dr. Demento
\nradio program, cementing his place in history with the fans of the
\ngood doctor.<\/p>\n
Yet when put together as their own package,
\nHave I Offended Someone?<\/i>, the songs that made Zappa infamous
\nsometimes come off as mean-spirited, shocking just for the sake of
\nshock and – worst of all – losing any humor that was meant to be
\ndelivered with the tracks. While some of the versions on this disc
\nmay be new to long-time Zappa fans due to some audio clean-up or
\nnew editing, the disc ends up sounding like an off-color joke told
\nat a party at exactly the wrong time.<\/p>\n
Some of the inclusions on this disc are no surprise – “Jewish
\nPrincess,” “He’s So Gay,” “Dinah-Moe Humm,” “Disco Boy” and
\n“Titties And Beer” top that list. Sometimes, it’s the exclusions
\nthat surprise me – where is “Shove It Right In”? “Ms. Pinky”?
\n“Broken Hearts Are For Assholes”? I mean,
\nany<\/i> of those songs could have easily bumped “Valley Girl,”
\neasily the tamest of the bunch here.<\/p>\n
Other songs, taken out of their original album environments,
\njust don’t have the same punch they once did. “Catholic Girls,” for
\nexample, isn’t quite as scathing as it sounded on
\nJoe’s Garage<\/i> (and I freely admit I’ve never warmed up to
\nthis song, which has nothing to do with the fact I’m a recovering
\nCatholic myself). Likewise, “Goblin Girl” and “In France” just seem
\nlike harmless little asides, not nearly as offensive as some of
\nZappa’s other works.<\/p>\n
In fact, Zappa was sometimes at his best when he
\nwas<\/i> offending someone, such as the money-grabbing
\ntelevangelists – who, for some reason, get a total pass on
\nHave I Offended Someone?<\/i> I mean, a weak cut like “Sex” (from<\/p>\n
The Man From Utopia<\/i>) makes the grade, but Jimmy Swaggart is
\nleft alone? For shame.<\/p>\n
The end result of
\nHave I Offended Someone?<\/i> is nothing more than a collection
\nof off-color jokes that, when put together, lose a lot of their
\nindividual power. While I’ve been a critic of the level of Zappa’s
\nhumor at times, I will admit that Zappa’s satiric wit was often at
\nits best when it hit the listener at the least expected time.
\n(“Bobby Brown Goes Down” is a prime example of that, though
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> has many moments that would have fit on this
\ndisc.) Putting them all together in one disc seems almost
\nanticlimatic, and is a letdown in the field of posthumous Zappa
\nreleases.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38564","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38564"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38564"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}