Francis the Talking Mule

I've heard about The Mars Volta but never listened to any of their stuff. So I was browsing the CDs at the library the other day, and they had Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, except the library had cataloged it as "Francis the Mule"! Ha ha ha ha ha! Does anybody else remember those old "Francis the Talking Mule" movies?

So I did a google search for "Francis the Mule", and discovered that The Mars Volta had evidently used that as inspiration for the CD title "Frances the Mute". So the library was not so far off after all.

Anyway, right now I'm listening to the CD, which I alternately like and find annoying. The music is a crazy mash-up of all different kinds of styles. I tend to like the idea of far-out music better than the execution. "Songs in the Key of Z", anyone? There is no denying that the musicians in The Mars Volta are very talented, I just don't know if I like their stuff.

I was watching a documentary the other night about some crazy (as in, mentally ill) guy out in LA who has been making music his whole life. At one point, he was collaborating with Frank Zappa, and some other music people helped him put out an album of his songs. He was hailed as a genius, etc., but I thought his music pretty much sucked, and I couldn't help but thinking that those music people might be better off getting him some mental health help instead of encouraging his "genius". I wasn't watching that closely, to be honest, so maybe they did try to help and I missed it. But at the end of the documentary, he had to go into assisted living, and he started taking medication for his mental problems, and they presented it as sad that the medication made him lose his "pep", or his musical genius. I know that lots of artists kind of tend to be on the fringes of sanity - is that a prerequisite? And if you can only create good stuff when you're nuts, is it "you" doing the creating, or the "nuts" part? I don't know where I'm going with this - just thought I'd throw it out there.