Adam Pugen posted, about 11 hours ago, on his FB page, FAKE EXPLORATIONS, this simple post:
“The question of the 20th century: Beefheart or Zappa?”
I responded:
I’ve done a lot of investigation on this question over the last 50 years, including talking to both of them about it… and I say Zappa.
PLUS, I say that nobody is qualified to comment on this question unless one has listened to at least 20 of the 50 bootleg Zappa concerts that I’ve broadcast on my shows over the past 14 months or so. Just ask the people who listened to my programs. All of them are stunned and wondering how they missed knowing what Zappa’s bands were capable of.
One has not heard what Zappa does musically – becoming the greatest band leader of the 20th Century – unless one checks out in full the power of his concerts now made available in the last 5 years or so by Zappa collectors who released these artifacts with outstanding fine-tuned quality.
No major rock critics paid enough attention to these “live” performances between 1968 (it took a few years before 1968 for Zappa to get roaring) and 1988.
The albums are OK but the concerts are something else entirely – as Zappa pointed out once or twice.
