Aybe Sea wrote:
Raoul Duke wrote:
Aybe Sea wrote:
there's an exceedingly thin line between satire against the right, deserving targets and the gratuitous mockery of absolutely everything and i don't think the distinction is clear for everyone.
the right, deserving targets? who are you to say what the right and deserving targets are?
So your answer is to make fun of absolutely anyone or anything you dislike? Forget making a valid social statement and instead satisfy your puerile urges, is that what your idea is?
There's really only a few things Zappa ever really made fun of, it's just that they appear in various guises.
1. The settling for comfortable 'truths' rather than thinking for yourself, which can only result in you exposing your week point ('Oh No', 'The Meek/Heavenly Bank Account', 'Dumb All Over', (All of YAWYI is applicable, here), 'We're Turning Again', 'Greggary Peccary', etc.)
2. The exposition of any fad of any kind for it's ridiculousness. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Zappa actually HATED everything- he could just see how it had a humour in it. Which is why he actually frequently makes fun of himself and things he was apart of- ('Greggary Peccary', 'Dancin' Fool', 'Mudd Club', 'I'm The Slime', The entirety of Thing-Fish, 'You Didn't Try To Call Me', 'Uncle Bernie's Farm', etc.)
3. A lyric defending a certain type of person simply by imitating the attacker and revealing what they say to be ridiculous. These probably make up Zappa's worse, most misunderstood lyrics. Simply because they overlying irony is usually very very subtle, and his English is too normal for people to want to spend time probing through it for all the little hints. ("Bobby Brown', 'He's So Gay', 'Dancin' Fool' (Let's not forget, the guy who's the lead singer there is sort of admirable), 'Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station', 'Titties and Beer', etc.)
I could elaborate farther, but I'm not good with long things. The hardest thing to defend is those of the third type, so I'll give some examples of how he's in fact, defending-
Titties And Beer- Regardless of the fact that the man and the devil are arguing over the lady, and are both being idiots, the lady just says 'Screw you!' and walks off.
Dancin' Fool- Dancer guy comes in, dressed up and ready to get goin' on the dance floor. He's aware he's not very good at it, but he still goes out front and dances. Even if it's not in a very original context, he doesn't really care how other people feel about him, which is of course a trait Zappa advocates. (He even aligns himself with Dancin' Fool- 'One of my legs' is shorter than the other')
etc.