| Name | Frank Zappa |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | Frank Vincent Zappa |
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| Born | December 21, 1940Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
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| Died | December 04, 1993Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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| Instrument | Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, drums, synclavier |
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| Genre | Rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde |
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| Occupation | Composer, musician, conductor, producer |
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| Years active | 1950s–1993 |
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| Label | Verve, Bizarre/Straight/DiscReet/Barking Pumpkin |
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| Associated acts | The Mothers of InventionCaptain BeefheartSteve Vai |
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| Url | Zappa.com |
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| Notable instruments | Hagström VikingGibson ES-5 SwitchmasterGibson SGGibson Les PaulFender StratocasterSynclavier }} |
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Frank Vincent Zappa (; December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.
While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands—he later switched to electric guitar. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education and the abolition of censorship.
Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock and jazz history. He is regarded as one of the most original guitarists and composers of his time. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. Gail Zappa manages the businesses of her late husband under the name the Zappa Family Trust.
Early life
Frank Zappa was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, on December 21, 1940. His mother, Rose Marie (née Colimore), was of
Italian and
French descent, and his father, Francis Vincent Zappa, was a native of
Partinico,
Sicily and had
Greek and
Arab ancestry. Zappa was the eldest of four children, and had two brothers and a sister. The family moved often during Zappa's childhood because his father, a
chemist and
mathematician, had various jobs in the US defense industry. After a brief time in
Florida in the mid-1940s, the family returned to
Maryland, where Zappa's father worked at the
Edgewood Arsenal
chemical warfare facility at the
Aberdeen Proving Ground. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored
mustard gas, gas masks were kept in the house in case of an accident. This had a profound effect on the young Zappa: references to germs, germ warfare and other aspects of the defense industry occur throughout his work.
During his childhood, Zappa was often sick, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated the latter by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils; little was known at the time about the potential dangers of being subjected to even small amounts of therapeutic radiation. Nasal imagery and references appear both in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time visual collaborator, Cal Schenkel.
Many of Zappa's childhood diseases may have arisen from exposure to mustard gas. Furthermore, his health worsened when he lived in the Baltimore area. They next moved to Monterey, California, where Zappa's father taught metallurgy at the Naval Postgraduate School. Shortly afterward, they moved to Claremont, then to El Cajon before finally moving to San Diego.
Musical influences
Zappa joined his first band, The Ramblers, at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. He was the band's drummer. About the same time his parents bought a phonograph, which allowed him to develop his interest in music, and to begin building his record collection.
R&B; singles were early purchases, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life. He was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. By age 12, he had obtained a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion. The article described Varèse's percussion composition Ionisation, produced by EMS Recordings, as "a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds". Zappa decided to seek out Varèse's music. After searching for over a year, Zappa found a copy (he noticed the LP because of the "mad scientist" looking photo of Varèse on the cover). Not having enough money with him, he persuaded the salesman to sell him the record at a discount. Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.
At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Vliet (who later expanded his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage name Captain Beefheart). Zappa and Vliet became close friends, sharing an interest in R&B; records and influencing each other musically throughout their careers. Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, The Blackouts. (In the 1970s and '80s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums.) Zappa considered soloing as the equivalent of forming "air sculptures", He graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1958, and later acknowledged two of his music teachers on the sleeve of the 1966 album Freak Out! Due to his family's frequent moves, Zappa attended at least six different high schools, and as a student he was often bored and given to distracting the rest of the class with juvenile antics. He left community college after one semester, and maintained thereafter a disdain for formal education, taking his children out of school at age 15 and refusing to pay for their college.
Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. After meeting Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman during his short stay at Pomona College, they moved in together in Ontario, and were married December 28, 1960. Zappa worked for a short period in advertising. His sojourn in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into how it works. Throughout his career, he took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, designing some of his album covers and directing his own films and videos.
Early 1960s: Studio Z
Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of The Blackouts. Financially more rewarding were Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films
The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and
Run Home Slow (1965). The former score was commissioned by actor-producer
Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records. The latter soundtrack was recorded in 1963 after the film was completed, but it was commissioned by one of Zappa's former high school teachers in 1959 and Zappa may have worked on it before the film was shot. Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous album
The Lost Episodes (1996).
During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriter Ray Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by The Penguins (although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured). Buff owned the small Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios had multi-track facilities; the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track. Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him to stage a concert of his orchestral music in 1963 and to broadcast and record it. He appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show the same year, in which he played a bicycle as a musical instrument. With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of The Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records for having no "commercial potential"; a quote Zappa later used on the sleeve of Freak Out!
In 1964, after his marriage started to break up, he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. This set a work pattern that endured for most of his life. Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, who was now working with Art Laboe at Original Sound. It was renamed Studio Z. Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood. Zappa started performing as guitarist with a power trio, The Muthers, in local bars in order to support himself.
An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films. In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material. Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography". This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended. His entrapment and brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was key in the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police only returned 30 out of 80 hours of tape seized. Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted. Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.
Late 1960s: The Mothers of Invention
In 1965, Zappa was approached by
Ray Collins who asked him to join a local R&B; band, The Soul Giants, as a guitarist. The band was renamed The Mothers, coincidentally on
Mother's Day. The group increased their bookings after beginning an association with manager
Herb Cohen, while they gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles
underground music scene. In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producer
Tom Wilson when playing "Trouble Every Day", a song about the
Watts Riots. Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer for singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan and the folk-rock act
Simon & Garfunkel, and was notable as one of the few blacks working as a major label pop music producer at this time.
Wilson signed The Mothers to the Verve Records division of MGM Records, which had built up a strong reputation in the music industry for its releases of modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was attempting to diversify into pop and rock audiences. Verve insisted that the band officially re-title themselves "The Mothers of Invention" because "Mother", in slang terminology, was short for "motherfucker"—a term that apart from its profane meanings can denote a skilled musician.
Debut album: Freak Out! (1966)
With Wilson credited as producer, The Mothers of Invention and a studio orchestra recorded the groundbreaking double album
Freak Out! (1966). It mixed R&B;,
doo-wop, musique concrète, and experimental
sound collages that captured the "freak" subculture of Los Angeles at that time. The album immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to the "relentless consumer culture of America". The sound was raw, but the
arrangements were sophisticated. (while recording in the studio, some of the additional
session musicians were shocked that they were expected to read the notes on sheet music from
charts with Zappa conducting them, since it was not standard when recording rock music.) The lyrics praised non-conformity, disparaged authorities, and had
dadaist elements. Yet, there was a place for seemingly conventional love songs. Most compositions are Zappa's, which set a precedent for the rest of his recording career. He had full control over the arrangements and musical decisions and did most
overdubs. Wilson provided the industry clout and connections to get the group the financial resources needed.
During the recording of Freak Out!, Zappa moved into a house in Laurel Canyon with friend Pamela Zarubica, who appeared on the album. He labeled people on drugs "assholes in action", and he only tried cannabis a few times without any pleasure. He was a regular tobacco smoker for most of his life, and strongly critical of anti-tobacco campaigns. After a short promotional tour following the release of Freak Out!, Zappa met Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He fell in love within "a couple of minutes", and she moved into the house over the summer. Examples are "Plastic People" and "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", which contained lyrics critical of the hypocrisy and conformity of American society, but also of the counterculture of the 1960s. As Zappa put it, "[W]e're satirists, and we are out to satirize everything." At the same time, Zappa had recorded material for a self-produced album based on orchestral works to be released under his own name. Due to contractual problems, the recordings were shelved and only made ready for release late in 1967. Zappa took the opportunity to radically restructure the contents, adding newly recorded, improvised dialogue to finalize what became his first solo album (under the name Francis Vincent Zappa It is an "incredible ambitious musical project", a "monument to John Cage", which intertwines orchestral themes, spoken words and electronic noises through radical audio editing techniques.
New York period (1966–1968)
The Mothers of Invention played in New York in late 1966 and were offered a contract at the Garrick Theater during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year. As a result, Zappa and his wife, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York. Guest performers and audience participation became a regular part of the Garrick Theater shows. One evening, Zappa managed to entice some US Marines from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a big baby doll, having been told by Zappa to pretend that it was a "
gook baby".
Situated in New York, and only interrupted by the band's first European tour, the Mothers of Invention recorded the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late 1960s work, We're Only in It for the Money (released 1968). It was produced by Zappa, with Wilson credited as executive producer. From then on, Zappa produced all albums released by the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. We're Only in It for the Money featured some of the most creative audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and the songs ruthlessly satirized the hippie and flower power phenomena. The cover photo parodied that of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover art was provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a life-long collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.
Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection of doo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute. Zappa has noted that the album was conceived in the way Stravinsky's compositions were in his neo-classical period: "If he could take the forms and clichés of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same ... to doo-wop in the fifties?" A theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is heard during one song.
In New York, Zappa increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool. A prime example is found on the double album Uncle Meat (1969), where the track "King Kong" is edited from various studio and live performances. Zappa had begun regularly recording concerts, and because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing, he was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and vice versa. Later, he combined recordings of different compositions into new pieces, irrespective of the tempo or meter of the sources. He dubbed this process "xenochrony" (strange synchronizations)—reflecting the Greek "xeno" (alien or strange) and "chrono" (time).
Disbanding the original Mothers of Invention (1969)
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Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in the summer of 1968, and the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to one on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the autumn. This was to be Zappa's home for the rest of his life. Despite being a success with fans in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not faring well financially. Their first records were vocally oriented, but Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical oriented music for the band's concerts, which confused audiences. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his "electrical chamber music". but also commented on the band members' lack of sufficient effort. Many band members were bitter about Zappa's decision, and some took it as a sign of Zappa's preference for perfection over feelings. Others were irritated by "his autocratic ways", Several members would, however, play for Zappa in years to come. Remaining recordings with the band from this period were collected on Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Burnt Weeny Sandwich (both released in 1970).
After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo album Hot Rats (1969). It features, for the first time on record, Zappa playing extended guitar solos and contains one of his most enduring compositions, "Peaches en Regalia", which reappeared several times on future recordings. and had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre.
Rebirth of the Mothers and film making (1970)
Later in 1970, Zappa formed a new version of The Mothers (from then on, he mostly dropped the "of Invention"). It included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, Ian Underwood, Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar), and three members of The Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who, due to persistent legal and contractual problems, adopted the stage name "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie", or "Flo & Eddie".
This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo album Chunga's Revenge (1970), which was followed by the double-album soundtrack to the movie 200 Motels (1971), featuring The Mothers, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon. Co-directed by Zappa and Tony Palmer, it was filmed in a week at Pinewood Studios outside London. co-director Palmer tried afterwards to have his name removed from the film. The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician. It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film, a process which allowed for novel visual effects. It was released to mixed reviews. The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall after filming, was canceled because a representative of the venue found some of the lyrics obscene. In 1975, he lost a lawsuit against the Royal Albert Hall for breach of contract.
After 200 Motels, the band went on tour, which resulted in two live albums, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From L.A.; the latter included the 20-minute track "Billy the Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera set in Southern California. This track was representative of the band's theatrical performances in which songs were used to build up sketches based on 200 Motels scenes as well as new situations often portraying the band members' sexual encounters on the road.
Accident, attack and their aftermath (1971–1972)
, Germany in 1971]]
In December 1971, there were two serious setbacks. While performing at Casino de Montreux in Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a fire that burned down the casino. Immortalized in Deep Purple's song "Smoke on the Water", the event and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg album Swiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa's Beat the Boots II compilation. After a week's break, The Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore, an audience member pushed Zappa off the stage and into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. The band thought Zappa had been killed—he had suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing. Musically, the albums were close to that of Hot Rats. Zappa began touring again in late 1972.
Top 10 album (1973–1975)
Zappa then formed and toured with smaller groups that variously included
Ian Underwood (reeds, keyboards),
Ruth Underwood (vibes, marimba), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals),
Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, flute and vocals),
Bruce Fowler (trombone),
Tom Fowler (bass),
Chester Thompson (drums),
Ralph Humphrey (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), and
Jean-Luc Ponty (violin).
,
Sydney, Australia, May 1973]]
By 1973 the Bizarre and Straight labels were discontinued. In their place, Zappa and Cohen created
DiscReet Records, also distributed by Warner Bros. Zappa continued a high rate of production through the first half of the 1970s, including the solo album
Apostrophe (') (1974), which reached a career-high #10 on the
Billboard pop album charts helped by the chart single "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Other albums from the period are
Over-Nite Sensation (1973), which contained several future concert favorites, such as "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "
Montana", and the albums
Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and
One Size Fits All (1975) which feature ever-changing versions of a band still called the Mothers, and are notable for the tight renditions of highly difficult
jazz fusion songs in such pieces as "
Inca Roads", "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)". A live recording from 1974,
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988), captures "the full spirit and excellence of the 1973–75 band". They later became estranged for a period of years, but were in contact at the end of Zappa's life.
Business breakups and touring (1976–1979)
, seated left, during a 1975 concert]]
Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in 1976. Zappa sued Cohen for skimming more than he was allocated from DiscReet Records, as well as for signing acts of which Zappa did not approve. Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money Zappa and Cohen had gained from an out-of-court settlement with MGM over the rights of the early Mothers of Invention recordings. It also prevented Zappa access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials. Zappa therefore took his personal master copies of the rock-oriented
Zoot Allures (1976) directly to
Warner Bros., thereby bypassing DiscReet.
In the mid-1970s Zappa prepared material for Läther (pronounced "leather"), a four-LP project. Läther encapsulated all the aspects of Zappa's musical styles—rock tunes, orchestral works, complex instrumentals, and Zappa's own trademark distortion-drenched guitar solos. Wary of a quadruple-LP, Warner Bros. Records refused to release it. Zappa managed to get an agreement with Mercury-Phonogram, and test pressings were made targeted at a Halloween 1977 release, but Warner Bros. prevented the release by claiming rights over the material. Zappa responded by appearing on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ, allowing them to broadcast Läther and encouraging listeners to make their own tape recordings. A lawsuit between Zappa and Warner Bros. followed, during which no Zappa material was released for more than a year. Eventually, Warner Bros. issued major parts of Läther against Zappa's will as four individual albums with limited promotion. Läther was released posthumously in 1996.
Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner Bros. contracts, the various lawsuits meant that for a period Zappa's only income came from touring, which he therefore did extensively in 1975–1977 with relatively small, mainly rock-oriented, bands. The performances included an impromptu musical collaboration with cast member John Belushi during the instrumental piece "The Purple Lagoon". Belushi appeared as his Samurai Futaba character playing the tenor sax with Zappa conducting. Zappa's song, "I'm the Slime", was performed with a voice-over by SNL booth announcer Don Pardo, who also introduced "Peaches En Regalia" on the same airing.
Zappa's band at the time, with the additions of Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuring Michael and Randy Brecker), performed during Christmas in New York, recordings of which appear on one of the albums released by Warner Bros., Zappa in New York (1978). It mixes intense instrumentals such as "The Black Page" and humorous songs like "Titties and Beer". The former composition, written originally for drum kit but later developed for larger bands, is notorious for its complexity in rhythmic structure, radical changes of tempo and meter, and short, densely arranged passages.
Zappa in New York featured a song about sex criminal Michael H. Kenyon, "The Illinois Enema Bandit", which featured Don Pardo providing the opening narrative in the song. Like many songs on the album, it contained numerous sexual references, Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was a journalist reporting on life as he saw it. Predating his later fight against censorship, he remarked: "What do you make of a society that is so primitive that it clings to the belief that certain words in its language are so powerful that they could corrupt you the moment you hear them?" The remaining albums released by Warner Bros. Records without Zappa's consent were Studio Tan in 1978 and Sleep Dirt in 1979, which contained complex suites of instrumentally-based tunes recorded between 1973 and 1976, and which was overlooked in the midst of the legal problems. Also released by the label without the artist's consent was Orchestral Favorites in 1979, which featured recordings of a concert with orchestral music from 1975.
Zappa as an independent artist (1979)
Resolving the lawsuits successfully, Zappa ended the 1970s "stronger than ever", by releasing two of his most successful albums in 1979: the best selling album of his career,
Sheik Yerbouti, and the "bona fide masterpiece", The double album
Sheik Yerbouti was the first release on
Zappa Records, and contained the
Grammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached #45 on the
Billboard charts, and "Jewish Princess", which received attention when a Jewish lobby group, the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its alleged
anti-Semitic lyrics. The album's commercial success was attributable in part to "
Bobby Brown". Due to its explicit lyrics about a young man's encounter with a "dyke by the name of Freddie", the song did not get airplay in the US, but it topped the charts in several European countries where English is not the primary language. The triple LP
Joe's Garage featured lead singer
Ike Willis as the voice of the character "Joe" in a
rock opera about the danger of
political systems,—and about the "strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness". "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up", and the title track, as well as extended live-recorded guitar improvisations combined with a studio backup band dominated by drummer
Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly good musical rapport) adopting the
xenochrony process. The album contains one of Zappa's most famous guitar "signature pieces", "Watermelon in Easter Hay".
On December 21, 1979, Zappa's movie Baby Snakes premiered in New York. The movie's tagline was "A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal". The 2 hour and 40 minutes movie was based on footage from concerts in New York around Halloween 1977, with a band featuring keyboardist Tommy Mars and percussionist Ed Mann (who would both return on later tours) as well as guitarist Adrian Belew. It also contained several extraordinary sequences of clay animation by Bruce Bickford who had earlier provided animation sequences to Zappa for a 1974 TV special (which later become available on the video The Dub Room Special (1982)). The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution, but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981. The Zappa Family Trust released it on DVD, and it has been available since 2003. Miami Vice and The Ren and Stimpy Show.
1980s: Productive as ever
,
Buffalo, New York, 1980. The concert was released in 2007 as
Buffalo.]]
After spending most of 1980 on the road, Zappa released Tinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his own Barking Pumpkin Records, and it contains songs taken from a 1979 tour, one studio track and material from the 1980 tours. The album is a mixture of complicated instrumentals and Zappa's use of sprechstimme (speaking song or voice)—a compositional technique utilized by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg—showcasing some of the most accomplished bands Zappa ever had (mostly featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta). the political and sociological satire in songs like the title track and "The Blue Light" have been described as a "hilarious critique of the willingness of the American people to believe anything". The album is also notable for the presence of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in the fall of 1980.
The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released. Most of it was recorded in Zappa's brand new Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house, The album included one complex instrumental, "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear", but focused mainly on rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics targeted at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy. "Dumb All Over" is a tirade on religion, as is "Heavenly Bank Account", wherein Zappa rails against TV evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their purported influence on the US administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money.
In 1981, Zappa also released three instrumental albums, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, which were initially sold via mail order, but later released through the CBS label due to popular demand. The albums focus exclusively on Frank Zappa as a guitar soloist, and the tracks are predominantly live recordings from 1979–1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with "beautiful performances from the backing group as well". Another guitar-only album, Guitar, was released in 1988, and a third, Trance-Fusion, which Zappa completed shortly before his death, was released in 2006.
From hit single to classical performances
In May 1982, Zappa released
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which featured his biggest selling single ever, the
Grammy Award-
nominated song "
Valley Girl" (topping out at #32 on the
Billboard charts). Most Americans who only knew Zappa from his few singles successes now thought of him as a person writing "
novelty songs", even though the rest of the album contained highly challenging music. Zappa was irritated by this and never played the song live. Zappa was not satisfied with the LSO recordings. One reason is "Strictly Genteel", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track took 40 edits to hide out-of-tune notes. Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far. In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for a live performance of
A Zappa Affair with augmented orchestra, life-size puppets, and moving stage sets. Although critically acclaimed the work was a financial failure, and only performed twice.
Synclavier
For the remainder of his career, much of Zappa's work was influenced by his use of the Synclavier as a compositional and performance tool. Even considering the complexity of the music he wrote, the Synclavier could realize anything he could dream up. The Synclavier could be programmed to play almost anything conceivable, to perfection: "With the Synclavier, any group of imaginary instruments can be invited to play the most difficult passages ... with one-millisecond accuracy—every time". Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate. The Synclavier pieces stood in contrast to the orchestral works, as the sounds were electronically generated and not, as became possible shortly thereafter, sampled.
The album Thing-Fish was an ambitious three-record set in the style of a Broadway play dealing with a dystopian "what-if" scenario involving feminism, homosexuality, manufacturing and distribution of the AIDS virus, and a eugenics program conducted by the United States government. New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; "the work is an extraordinary example of bricolage". Finally, in 1984, Zappa released Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th century composer Francesco Zappa (no known relation), and Them or Us, a two-record set of heavily edited live and session pieces.
Senate testimony
, 1985]]
On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the
United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or
PMRC, a music organization, co-founded by
Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator
Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards
censorship, and called their proposal for voluntary
labelling of records with explicit content "extortion" of the music industry. In his prepared statement, he said:
The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation ... The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?
Zappa set excerpts from the PMRC hearings to Synclavier music in his composition "Porn Wars" on the 1985 album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention. Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton, Al Gore (who claimed, at the hearing, to be a Zappa fan), and in an exchange with Florida Senator Paula Hawkins over what toys Zappa's children played with. Zappa expressed opinions on censorship when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire TV series and debated issues with Washington Times commentator John Lofton in 1986. Zappa's passion for American politics was becoming a bigger part of his life. He had always encouraged his fans to register to vote on album covers, and throughout 1988 he had registration booths at his concerts. He even considered running for President of the United States.
Digital medium and last tour
Around 1986, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings. He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s albums for the new digital
compact disc medium. Certain aspects of these re-issues were, however, criticized by some fans as being unfaithful to the original recordings. Nearly twenty years before the advent of online music stores, Zappa had proposed to replace "phonographic record merchandising" of music by "direct digital-to-digital transfer" through phone or cable TV (with royalty payments and consumer billing automatically built into the accompanying software). In 1989, Zappa considered his idea a "miserable flop".
Zappa's last tour in a rock and jazz band format took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which had a repertoire of over 100 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split under acrimonious circumstances before the tour was completed. The tour was documented on the albums Broadway the Hard Way (new material featuring songs with strong political emphasis), The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (Zappa "standards" and an eclectic collection of cover tunes, ranging from Maurice Ravel's Boléro to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"), and Make a Jazz Noise Here (mostly instrumental and avant-garde music). Parts are also found on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, volumes 4 and 6.
1990s: Classical music and death
In early 1990, Zappa visited
Czechoslovakia at the request of President
Václav Havel, and was asked to serve as consultant for the government on trade, cultural matters and tourism. Havel was a lifelong fan of Zappa who had large influence in the avant-garde and underground scene in
Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s (a
Czech rock group that was imprisoned in 1976 took its name from Zappa's 1968 song "
Plastic People"). Zappa enthusiastically agreed and began meeting with corporate officials interested in investing in Czechoslovakia. Within a few weeks, however, the US administration put pressure on the Czech government to withdraw the appointment. Havel made Zappa an unofficial
cultural attaché instead. Zappa also planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses.
Most of Zappa's projects came to a halt in 1990, when he was diagnosed with terminal
prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for ten years and was considered inoperable.
In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the world-acclaimed Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Alexander Knaifel). Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensemble, Ensemble Modern, which was interested in playing his music for the event. Although ill, Zappa invited them to Los Angeles for rehearsals of new compositions and new arrangements of older material. In addition to being satisfied with the ensemble's performances of his music, Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for the fall. It would become his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found "exhilarating". On Monday, December 6 his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday".
Legacy
Acclaim and honors
Zappa earned widespread critical acclaim in his lifetime and after his death. The 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide writes: "Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music—and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable". Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen establishing a coherent and personal expression. In 1971, biographer David Walley noted that "The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite". On commenting on Zappa's music, politics and philosophy, Barry Miles noted in 2004 that they cannot be separated: "It was all one; all part of his 'conceptual continuity.
Guitar Player Magazine devoted a special issue to Zappa in 1992, and asked on the cover "Is FZ America's Best Kept Musical Secret?" Editor Don Menn remarked that the issue was about "The most important composer to come out of modern popular music". Among those contributing to the issue was composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works of Ives and Varèse in the 1930s. He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s, and said "I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium. He does beautiful, beautiful work ... It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music." Conductor Kent Nagano remarked in the same issue that "Frank is a genius. That's a word I don't use often ... In Frank's case it is not too strong ... He is extremely literate musically. I'm not sure if the general public knows that". Pierre Boulez stated in Musician Magazine's posthumous Zappa tribute article that Zappa "was an exceptional figure because he was part of the worlds of rock and classical music and that both types of his work would survive." Many music scholars acknowledge Zappa as one of the most influential composers of his generation. As an electric guitarist, he has become highly regarded.
In 1994, jazz magazine Down Beat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. There, it was written that "Frank Zappa was rock and roll's sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres—rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music—with masterful ease". He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In 2005, the US National Recording Preservation Board included We're Only in It for the Money in the National Recording Registry as "Frank Zappa's inventive and iconoclastic album presents a unique political stance, both anti-conservative and anti-counterculture, and features a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it". The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Artists influenced by Zappa
A number of notable musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Frank Zappa's music. Rock artists like
Alice Cooper,
Primus,
Fee Waybill of
The Tubes all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive rock artists like
Henry Cow,
Trey Anastasio of
Phish,
Paul McCartney regarded
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as
The Beatles'
Freak Out! Heavy rock and metal acts like
Black Sabbath,
Mike Portnoy,
Warren DeMartini,
Steve Vai,
System of a Down,
Clawfinger, and
Devin Townsend acknowledge Zappa's inspiration. On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich,
Meridian Arts Ensemble,,
Ensemble Ambrosius and the
Fireworks Ensemble regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence. Contemporary jazz musicians and composers
Bill Frisell and
John Zorn are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend
George Clinton. Other artists whose work is affected by Zappa include new age pianist
George Winston, electronic composer
Bob Gluck, parody singer
"Weird Al" Yankovic, and
noise music artist Masami Akita of
Merzbow.
References in arts and sciences
Scientists from various fields have honored Zappa by naming new discoveries after him. In 1967, paleontologist Leo P. Plas, Jr. identified an extinct
mollusc in Nevada and named it
Amaurotoma zappa with the motivation that, "The specific name,
zappa, honors Frank Zappa". In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named a
genus of
gobiid fishes of New Guinea
Zappa, with a
species named
Zappa confluentus. Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a Californian
jellyfish Phialella zappai (1987), noting that he had "pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer". Belgian biologists Bosmans and Bosselaers discovered in the early 1980s a Cameroonese spider, which they in 1994 named
Pachygnatha zappa because "the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache". A gene of the bacterium
Proteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infections was in 1995 named
zapA by three biologists from Maryland. In their scientific article, they "especially thank the late Frank Zappa for inspiration and assistance with genetic nomenclature". In the late 1990s, American paleontologists Marc Salak and Halard L. Lescinsky discovered a
metazoan fossil, and named it
Spygori zappania to honor "the late Frank Zappa ... whose mission paralleled that of the earliest paleontologists: to challenge conventional and traditional beliefs when such beliefs lacked roots in logic and reason".
In 1994, lobbying efforts initiated by psychiatrist John Scialli led the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center to name an asteroid in Zappa's honor: 3834 Zappafrank. The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ladislav Brozek, and the citation for its naming says that "Zappa was an eclectic, self-trained artist and composer ... Before 1989 he was regarded as a symbol of democracy and freedom by many people in Czechoslovakia".
In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. A replica was offered to the city of Baltimore in 2008, and on September 19, 2010—the twenty-fifth anniversary of Zappa's testimony to the US senate—a ceremony dedicating the replica was held. Speakers at the event included Gail Zappa and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German city Bad Doberan, since 1990 location of the Zappanale, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa. At the initiative of musicians community ORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in the Marzahn district "Frank-Zappa-Straße" in 2007. The same year, Baltimore's mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed August 9 as the city's official "Frank Zappa Day" citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Discography
;Studio Albums
Freak Out! (1966)
Absolutely Free (1967)
Lumpy Gravy (1977)
We're Only in It for the Money (1968)
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968)
Uncle Meat (1969)
Hot Rats (1969)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)
Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)
Chunga's Revenge (1970)
200 Motels (1971)
Waka/Jawaka(1972)
The Grand Wazoo (1972)
Over-Nite Sensation (1973)
Apostrophe (') (1974)
One Size Fits All (1975)
Zoot Allures (1976)
Studio Tan (1978)
Sleep Dirt (1979)
Sheik Yerbouti (1979)
Orchestral Favorites (1979)
Joe's Garage (1979)
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981)
You Are What You Is (1981)
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (1982)
The Man from Utopia (1983)
London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1 (1983)
(1984)
Them or Us (1984)
Thing-Fish(1984)
Francesco Zappa (1984)
Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention (1985)
Jazz from Hell (1986)
London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 2 (1987)
Guitar (1988)
; Posthumous Studio Releases
Civilization, Phaze III (1994)
The Lost Episodes (1996)
Läther (1996)
Have I Offended Someone? (1997)
Mystery Disc (1997)
Everything Is Healing Nicely (1998)
Joe's Corsage (2004)
QuAUDIOPHILIAc (2004)
Joe's Domage (2004)
Joe's XMASage (2005)
The Making Of Freak Out! Project/Object (2006)
The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle (2006)
The Dub Room Special (2007)
The Lumpy Money Project/Object (2009)
Greasy Love Songs (2010)
;Live Albums
Fillmore East – June 1971 (1971)
Just Another Band From L.A. (1972)
Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)
Bongo Fury (1975)
Zappa in New York (1978)
Tinseltown Rebellion (1981)
Baby Snakes (1983)
Does Humor Belong in Music? (1986)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (1988)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988)
Broadway the Hard Way (1988)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (1989)
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (1991)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 (1991)
Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991)
Beat the Boots (1991)
Beat the Boots II (1992)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 (1992)
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (1992)
Playground Psychotics (1992)
Ahead of Their Time (1993)
The Yellow Shark (1993)
;Posthumous Live Releases
(1996)
(2002)
Halloween (2003)
Imaginary Diseases (2006)
Trance-Fusion (2006)
Buffalo (2007)
Wazoo (2007)
One Shot Deal (2008)
Joe's Menage (2008)
Beat the Boots III (2009)
Philly '76 (2009)
Hammersmith Odeon (2010)
References
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Notes
External links
The official Frank Zappa website
Category:1940 births
Category:1993 deaths
Category:1960s music groups
Category:20th-century classical composers
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Category:American comedy musicians
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Category:American experimental filmmakers
Category:American humanists
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Category:American jazz guitarists
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Category:American people of Arab descent
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![Swan River Long Island Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul, Brooklyn Bridge, Ashanti, Dee Snider, LL Cool J, Lindsay Lohan,](http://web.archive.org./web/20110514223327im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/cc/a1/d855c0529b0b319a81a1edac3473_grande.jpg "Swan River Long Island Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul, Brooklyn Bridge, Ashanti, Dee Snider, LL Cool J, Lindsay Lohan,")
![Mascot Dock- Village of Patchogue. Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul,](http://web.archive.org./web/20110514223327im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/28/a6/6b66f2a52fc906bd3b8171b280af_thumb.jpg "Mascot Dock- Village of Patchogue. Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul,")
![Swan River Long Island Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul, Brooklyn Bridge, Ashanti, Dee Snider, LL Cool J, Lindsay Lohan,](http://web.archive.org./web/20110514223327im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/cc/a1/d855c0529b0b319a81a1edac3473_thumb.jpg "Swan River Long Island Notable musicians of the Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk County) music scene include; Billy Joel, Pat Benatar, godfather of punk rock[22] Lou Reed, Acestar, Paul Simon,Johnny Ramone, Dream Theater, Debbie Gibson, Eddie Money, new-age musician John Tesh, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes, Shaggy, folk singer Oscar Brand, Harry Chapin, De La Soul, Brooklyn Bridge, Ashanti, Dee Snider, LL Cool J, Lindsay Lohan,")
