The first songs most people hear as children are nursery rhymes and lullabies. The first songs Ahmet Zappa heard as a child were the shock-treatment tracks on Hot Rats, a groundbreaking 1969 set by his father Frank. “This is the stuff I was drinking my milk bottles to,” Zappa said with a giggle. “It’s magical.”
He isn’t the only one who thinks so. Though Frank Zappa released no fewer than 62 albums in his too-short life – and though nearly as many sets have appeared since his death from prostate cancer at age 53 in 1993 – none sound quite like Hot Rats. It’s a work of such imagination, humor and freedom, it could appeal to a child as easily as it could a stoner, a rocker, or a fan of the avant garde.
