Critics At Large

Frank Zappa. (Photo: Roelof Kiers/Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures) I have been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa's music of late, everyth...

Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart). “Musical structure? I think it’s really a laugh. Frankly, I don’t see what you...

Frank Zappa in 1969. (Photo: Ron Case) Two years ago I wrote a review of Bob Zappa’s first self-published book, Frankie & Bobby: ...

While much of the pop music world today is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, a few months befor...

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable  –  the art of the next best thing.”  –  Otto Von Bismarck  “Politics is the ente...

Now that the 2016 American election is over, pending a recount in Wisconsin, we turn our thoughts to the political pundits of days gon...

I can't think of any other film director whose work continually captivated me but has drawn such violent reactions from various frie...

Frank Zappa and George Duke, backstage, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid 1970s. (Photo by Herb Nolan) In 1973 Frank Zappa delivere...

Bob Zappa (right), with his brother Frank (left) and his son Jason (centre). (Photo courtesy of Bob Zappa.) Memoirs can be trick...

Marking the 20th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death, I continue to be inspired and entertained by his work and the rich musical lega...

Lou Reed and Frank Zappa (illustration by Chris Grayson)  It's curious how we recall certain moments only when death intervenes a...

“It's all one album,” Frank Zappa once told journalist Jerry Hopkins in characterizing his work during an interview for Rolling Ston...

Last summer, I wrote in Critics at Large about how The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, a lovely, masterful avant-garde pop confection,...

This summer is the 10th Anniversary of the publication of my book Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa , a work that (looking...

Until recent years, most of the books about the late American composer Frank Zappa, including my own ( Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive ...

In the mid-nineties, when American composer Frank Zappa's full catalogue finally became available on CD, it was a mixed blessing. On ...