As I mentioned in an earlier post back a month or two ago when I upgraded my online muzix jukebox, I was planning on diversifying my music genre to reflect my past musical tastes. Although I currently favor Country music, I still love to listen to the sounds that carried me through my formative years. I started off listening to Sabbath, Floyd, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Tull, Van Halen, Motor Head, Kiss, Alice Cooper, etc. in the early to mid 70s, but just before the 80s, most of Rock was turning into the pretty boy - poser scene and I needed an alternative.
Heavy Metal was migrating into Death Metal and Punk and at the time - up until the late 80s - that would be the genre to which I found myself most aligned. Yup, I donned a leather jacket, combat boots, suspenders, my hair looked like I French kissed an electrified light socket, and I lived for skanking around in the mosh pit. It's a wonder I made it through those years! Ramones, Pistols, Buzzcocks, Kennedys, Misfits, Black Flag, C.O.C., D.R.I., etc. on one end and Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Motörhead, Megadeth, etc. on the other. IMHO, the Metal scene was just getting too obsessed with death and Satan worship. It didn't take me long to realize that I found absolutely no association or amusement in music so focused on killing myself, killing my girlfriend, killing my family, killing my dog, annihilating the world with nuclear weapons... you get the point. Punk was more like the poetry of being pissed off at real world bullshit. It was more about attitude than dogma.
By the mid 80s, the Punk/Metal scene peaked with the release of Suicidal Tendencies first album, "Speak English or Die" by Stormtroopers of Death - which was a pairing of Anthrax and Billy Milano from M.O.D., and the Circle Jerks. From that point on, the scene just slid right down into the sewer which doesn't say much as most of it was in the sewer to begin with. By the early 90s, the scene was completely dead. Most of the surviving bands became overly commercialized, extreme leftists, or overrated has-bens. Hardcore Punk became nothing more than Hardcore Hate and the softer side of the Punk scene became the mainstream Alternative genre we hear every day on commercial Rock radio.
Throughout the 90s, I found myself moving back to musical roots - for the lack of a better term. I was starting to listen to many other genres including Blues, Jazz, and even Classical. I even took a special interest in Chopin! Anyway, there was one artist that stood out among the rest as an absolute favorite who seemed to bring all of these musical styles together with a sort of creative mastery. I remember listening to his music back in the 70s and never learned to appreciate the complexity and genius of his creations. I always considered him one of the greatest guitarists that ever lived and after collecting over 40 of his albums and reading his autobiography, I can honestly say he is my favorite.
After posting about the mystery musician last Friday, I realized that I may have given out a few too many good hints. My most frequent commenter here at the site, Iteki, guessed it right away.
1940 - 1993
Yes, he was pretty much anti-establishment and anti-religion, but he was also very pro-democracy, pro-capitalism, and pro-American! He was a true libertarian at heart and man could he play guitar!
So, in honor of my favorite artist, I have assembled a compilation of some of his best music and loaded it into the MoFiZiX MuZiX Jukebox. Please take some time, click on the jukebox icon in the upper left corner, listen for yourself and you'll understand what I'm talking about. If you think Zappa is all about Yellow Snow and Joe's Garage, then you are truly in for a surprise. I also encourage you pick up a copy of his autobiography "The Real Frank Zappa" and get yourself an in-depth look on one of the greatest musicians of all time.
H/T to 
