I'd Like To Thank All The Little Questions...

I've been meaning to ask, can anybody here explain to me, in a sort of father-knows-best way, what the text to Excentrifugal Forz is all about? And barring that, just tell me what you think is going on in there? It seems pretty damn biographical ("Since I never cared for sports") and seems to say, "Fuck it if I look like a lonely geek from the outside, I got my own little world and my little imaginary friends who play music with me". Ben Watson says it's all sexual imagery...
Any thoughts?
effzee

My vague view of this is that he (whether the person speaking in the song, or FZ personally, I don't know) is referring to retreating his "eccentric fort," meaning essentially his own world, a stronghold as defined by his personal eccentricities. This is then being punned due to a perhaps chance similarity to "centrifugal force" as "excentrifugal forz," whether meaningfully or whimsically, I don't know.
It may also refer to an eccentric being flung away from the center (the norm) with some force, which force can also then be used to ones benefit in the form of a defense against the "normal" world. Essentially this agrees with your "biographical" reading of the song and your view that it seems to say "Fuck it if I look like a lonely geek from the outside, I got my own little world and my little imaginary friends who play music with me".
That's pretty much how I've always interpreted it in the general sense, and I haven't bothered to (as Dylan said) "shovel each line into the ditch of what it means." In a way it's somewhat reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock," but with a more positive view of that philosophy.
Regarding Ben Watson's view, he's probably full of shit, if there's any room left over from being full of himself. Freud would loved that guy!
Poodle

Ben Watson says it's all sexual imagery... Any thoughts?
Ben Watson thinks the Talmud is all sexual imagery - with some Marxist undercurrents (but just enough to keep it fresh and vital).
SOFA

:::

I found an interesting write-up about Lather while searching for other things, and then back-tracked to the source, which is a book by Chris Federico, entitled "Zappology." Anyone seen this before?
The only problem I found with it so far is the spelling of the title, which Norbert Obermanns established as "Zappalogy" way back in 1981.
Poodle

Do ya think that had Federico used the "established" Zappalogy, that Mr. Obermanns might have taken umbrage?
Or, at the very least, an aspirin?
SOFA

I don't think Mr. Obermanns would have had a problem with it, as it was not the title of his book (ZAPPALOG), but rather the term he coined for the study of Zappa - calling his book "the first step of Zappalogy," clearly implying that there would be other steps to be taken by other individuals.
Also, one must consider the small possibility of "Zappology" being construed as the study of the - admittedly not very well known - group, Zapp (I discovered this group when my mother well-meaningly picked up a used CD for me). If, however, Federico had indeed used "Zappalogy," and if indeed Norbert Obermanns had taken umbrage, he (Norbert) would probably have said what he shows Frank "saying" on the cover of his book, "Get Zapped!."
Poodle

Who is Norbert Obermanns? Did he write a Zappa biography back then?
I think Zappology sounds better. I've come across this book before, it really is a riveting read, the painstaking detail makes you just want to listen to the music again, even more carefully than before. But sometimes I'm irked by how he makes even the tiniest bits of music out to hold a wealth of significance. For example, a snork noise - it's sometimes just there to be there, man!
Mr. Pugh

Norbert Obermanns - "Nobbi" - published the Zappalog (the first comprehensive list of FZ releases, legit and boot, ever published), which soon became the "bible" for the Zappa collector. I'm not sure when the last edition appeared (I have the second), but the book has since been "replaced" by the Zappa Patio website.
I prefer the term Zappology too, but that's just me.
SOFA