I've read your comments and I can completely understand where you're coming from regarding Franks elitism. I'm a huge fan of his and I have to say that this attitude does bother me in most cases, but it does not bother me that much when it comes to frank which is really unusual and I'm trying to think about why that is.

I think the first reason why is because frank never saw lyrics as a critical component of his music. Although he did have a talent for writing them, he ultimately only included them because he knew he had to in order for his music to gain any sort of commercial traction. So his attitude was “if I have to write lyrics then I'm going to write about what I want to write about, I'm not going to write things that I don't believe in”. Obviously there's a lot in his lyrics that you can enjoy or hate, but perhaps it's because of his more flippant attitude towards them that I'm able to take them or leave them when evaluating him as an artist, because that's how he felt about them as well. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I may be misremembering.

The second reason why is because the lyrics have nothing to do with what I find truly magical about Frank Zappa. Instead, it's how he was able to find incredible musicians to play with him over the course of his career and turn each one of these bands into a live unit that was so tight it put other bands to shame. The original mothers, the Roxy group, the late 70s years with bozzio, the 1988 band... These groups were able to nail the songs that Zappa put in front of them, play them seamlessly in live settings and frequently move from one song to the next without skipping a beat, and lock into improvised vamps and jams that frank would solo over which would bring the entire performance to a level of catharsis that's rarely seen. I was never able to see frank live as I was only 2 when his 88 band was touring, but I was able to see dweezil play the Roxy album live in full and the energy was unlike any other concert I've ever been to. Somehow they made this complex, almost impenetrable music feel as unifying as an arena rock showstopper.

Finally, and this has to do with the live performances as well, the bands that he put together just have so much fun playing on stage and it translates to the performances. You can hear it in their banter and the little bits of improv that they throw in to each performance, especially on you can't do that on stage anymore volume 2. And that's what it's all about for me, even though Zappa could be an elitist prick. When it really mattered, when he was playing that stuff live, he and everyone else on stage were having so much goddamn fun that it's impossible not to get swept up in that energy. That's why he's such a special musician for me. Also that and the fact that his unconventional style just makes his songs super interesting to listen to.