Frank Zappa
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Christmas Stalkings: What to Buy for the Music Fan in Your Life
As the stockings get hung by the chiminea with care in hopes that Papa Noel soon will be there, you might be hard-pressed to find gifts that will bring true joy to the music-obsessive in your life. Especially if they seem to have every new album or box set that comes out. But fear not, dear consumer, as SPIN has spent these first days of the holiday season in search of the coolest gift ideas with the music fan in your life in mind. From action figures of your favorite rappers to choice box sets to quality cannabis to spirits made from spuds, the 2021 holiday season is a cornucopia overflowing with possibilities for the music fan who seems to have everything. For the Fabs fan on your list, it’s not a question of what to get them this year but how much are you willing to get them, as this se...
The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was A Thing
Three of the 100 are in this picture! The Rolling Stones, in 1964, from left to right: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones. The problem with lists like this is they are invariably bullshit. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a bullshit list. I’m not saying we did a scientific one either. Because that isn’t possible — actually, it is, if you wanted some compilation of who sold the most records/concert tickets/has the most fans/got the most death threats, etc., and someone could come up with a bunch of very empirical metrics and create a “heat index” or something, and could deliver an actual scientific ranking! But we, um, didn’t do that. In fact we didn’t even, technically, do the “we...
The 50 Best Live Albums of the 1970s
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, KISS and Cheap Trick exploded into the mainstream with live albums. The Band, The Stooges, and Velvet Underground put their final gigs on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (as his ongoing archive series shows), and Jackson Browne recorded entire sets of new songs onstage. The Grateful Dead released several official live albums (and continue to do so) that only made fans want to bootleg shows on their own more. With the 50th anniversary of a landmark live album, Th...
Alex Winter on His New Frank Zappa Doc, Why He Still Hasn’t ‘Cracked’ the Composer
In 2016, Alex Winter launched the grueling quest of his latest documentary with one clear question: “Who the fuck is Frank Zappa?” After four years, a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, numerous interviews and a mind-boggling “deep dive” into the late musician’s archives, he’s still no closer to an answer. And he’s satisfied with that result. “I’m gratified that I’ve gone through this insane [endeavor] but feel like I haven’t cracked Zappa,” he tells SPIN. “Because he elicits such a strong reaction from fans and detractors, I’ve met so many people who feel like they’ve got his number. I don’t have judgment against them — I just don’t feel like I’m one of those people.” If an...
Zappa Trailer Previews Eclectic Musician’s Upcoming Documentary
ZAPPA, the forthcoming documentary about eclectic musical legend Frank Zappa, released its first trailer today (Oct. 28), ahead of the film’s video-on-demand release date of Nov. 27. Directed by actor/filmmaker Alex Winter (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Lost Boys) the doc offers “unfettered access to the Zappa family trust and all archival footage,” according to a statement from Magnolia Pictures, which is releasing the film. “ZAPPA explores the private life behind the mammoth musical career that never shied away from the political turbulence of its time.” Zappa family members Ahmet Zappa is a producer, and footage includes Frank’s widow Gail Zappa and several of Frank’s musical collaborators including Mike Keneally, Ian Underwood, Steve Vai, Pamela Des Barr...
Robby Krieger Explores Jazz for His Upcoming Solo Project, But With ‘a Little Zappa, a Little Doors’
The album — the guitarist’s first in a decade — will arrive Aug. 14. One of Neil Young’s best-known lyrics — “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” — can be applied to numerous casualties of ’60s rock n’ roll. Yet despite the turmoil he has experienced over his career, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has neither burned out nor faded away. Krieger wrote some of The Doors’ best songs, including “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me” and “Love Her Madly.” And for the past 10 years, he has written jazz, blues and rock music from his home studio; guested on other people’s albums; formed the charity Art for a Cause to sell prints of his colorful paintings; and performed both Doors tunes and his solo material on tour. Now, a decade since his last album, ...
