Frank Zappa and the -Cringe-

1968 into the 70’s is arguably the best time we have had for music all over the world. It was a time of globalism, for example the “British invasion”. Occasionally, however, I come across a song released around that time that for whatever reason hasn’t aged well or has become ridiculous with age. Frank Zappa’s album “Apostrophe’” represents the kind of music that I find has value but for whatever reason aged terribly.

His song “Cosmic Debris” invokes an incredible sense of curiosity. The lyrics from start to finish needs to be digested and listened to at least a few times before you realize what is actually happening. He begins his story with the “mystery man”, who we know is some strange figure promising him great things if he pays a fee for a fortune telling.

“The mystery man came over

And he said I’m outta sight
He said for a nominal service charge
I could reach nirvana tonight
If I was ready, willing and able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of his pressing affairs
And devote his attention to me”

This chunk of lyrics is about Frank himself going to a psychic and realizing that the man in front of him has no psychic ability whatsoever. The rest of the song is about Frank Zappa almost making fun of the fact that the psychic thought he could scam him, which explains the main lyric: “Look here brother who you jiving with that cosmic debris?”.

I think that the song itself is objectively cool and fun to listen to. However, throughout the entire song he keeps the same creepy grumbly tone with no inflection in his voice. It makes the song seem claustrophobic and it builds tension. In the same way that putting many people into a small room during a tense situation in a novel makes the reader expect something to combust, the lack of inflection in Frank’s voice makes the listener expect that any moment he might run out of breath or something in his tone will change.

These qualities are very uncommon in songs today, which is why “Cosmic Debris” is especially difficult to get used to. Listening to this album is like immersing yourself in another culture, and it takes time to start to enjoy it.

The value in this song today is that if someone takes the time to listen to it, they will find that it is a very cool song about being genuine. I think it is worth putting the song on repeat to get that message.