Frank Zappa would have turned a round 80 today, had fate not had other plans. An unforgettable artistic genius, a great visionary and thinker, a brilliant creative mind, he opened up new musical horizons and new dimensions of rock’s (r)evolution with his persona and work many years ago. Above all by fusing guitar phrasing with practically every musical genre out there. From classical to free jazz and everything in between, out to dimensions driven, elusively and with boundless color, by the core of free-spirited, truth-loving artistic expression. No limits and head-on! By tearing down every taboo in sight. Real art doesn’t tolerate limits and won’t put up with them. That’s exactly why Frank Zappa was a dangerous thorn in the side of the social system, again and again. Simply because his heartfelt mind moved the masses and touched them so deeply that people started turning inward and… what? Yes. Using their own heads. Exactly what the “soul-minding preachers” are trying to rob us of, relentlessly, and the reason today’s world is on the brink of great danger, where we’ll need to show real unity if we want to survive, and if we want that unity to keep alive the principles, morals, values and backbone that generations upon generations of our ancestors fought for. For generations to come. Frank lived fully and freely, and in his convictions he never compromised with those who wanted to force control and oversight on art and people. Out of the great respect the RockLine crew has for this one-of-a-kind artist, we’ve put together a condensed biographical cross-section of his life’s path. Hail Frank!
Frank Vincent Zappa ( December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer, film director and satirist. Over a 33-year musical career, Zappa proved himself one of the most prolific musicians/composers of the 20th century. Among other things, he released more than 60 studio albums (all during his lifetime), nearly all of them made up of original compositions. On top of that, he was a superb electric guitarist and a gifted producer and sound engineer, who produced almost every one of his albums himself from the very start, in 1966.
His work took in almost every musical genre you can name (including avant-garde, big band, blues, classical, doo-wop, electronic music, funk, hard rock, jazz, jazz fusion, musique concrète, pop, progressive rock, proto-rap, reggae, rock, ska and ethnic music). Most of it was soaked in an original blend of high art, rock opera, absurdity, irrational humor and social satire. Zappa was also known as a great connoisseur and discoverer of musical talent. Over the years, his many lineups featured musicians like Adrian Belew, Terry Bozzio, Aynsley Dunbar, Lowell George, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Vinnie Colaiuta, Mike Keneally and Steve Vai.
Throughout his career, Zappa had an extremely loyal following around the world, especially in the USA, the UK, Italy, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. His early albums had a major influence on countless bands. The albums that critics warmed to also brought him notable commercial success, especially in the late 70s and early 80s, with hit singles like “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow”, “Dancin’ Fool”, “Bobby Brown Goes Down” and “Valley Girl”. Judging by his many biting comments on the music industry, though, Zappa never cared much about commercial success and approval.
Frank Vincent Zappa was born in Baltimore on December 21, 1940. When he was 10, he moved to California with his parents. The first instrument he played was drums. Back then, what Frank loved most in music was R&B and blues. But when Zappa discovered the record “The Complete Works Of Edgar Varèse, Vol. One” in 1954, the album’s strange, avant-garde compositions totally blew him away. That was probably Frank’s first encounter with abstract musical compositions; with musical forms that would later turn up in his own music too. During high school he played in various garage bands. But he didn’t start writing his own rock ‘n’ roll until his early 20s. Classical music, on the other hand, he started writing at 18. Some of his earliest compositions were written for all sorts of B-movies, such as »The World’s Greatest Sinner« and »Run Home Slow« (the latter with a script written by his high school teacher). The main theme from »Run Home Slow« can be heard today on the compilations »The Lost Episodes« (1996) and »The Mystery Disc« (1998). From 1962 to 1964, Zappa wrote music for several different bands (you can find those tracks on the compilations »Cucamonga« (1998) and »For Collectors Only« (2003)). In 1964, Zappa founded his own band, The Soul Giants. He later renamed it The Mothers (a kind of compromise shortening of ‘motherfuckers’). Soon after, the band caught the attention of producer Tom Wilson. The Mothers signed with Verve, a subsidiary of MGM Records, and then changed their name to The Mothers Of Invention (to keep most of the higher-ups at MGM Records happy, who felt the old name was too provocative). In 1966 they released their first album »Freak Out!«, the second double album ever (after Bob Dylan’s »Blonde On Blonde«) and, by most accounts, the first concept album in rock history, one that had a major impact on the development of progressive rock. This revolutionary record threw together an unusual mix of R&B, satirical lyrics and avant-garde. With the first version of The Mothers of Invention, Zappa created numerous prog rock masterpieces. All of his 60s albums are fantastic, with the exception of »Cruising With Ruben & The Jets« (1968), his satirical tribute to doo-wop. Of his early albums, »We’re Only In It For The Money« (1968) deserves a special mention, where Zappa pokes fun at the hippie culture of the day and at the Beatles classic »Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band« (1967). The whole cover of »We’re Only In It For The Money« is a parody of that album. On August 20, 1969, Zappa disbanded The Mothers of Invention. The most important members of the early Mothers of Invention lineup were Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals, everything under the sun), Ray Collins (vocals), Jimmy Carl Black (drums and percussion, the band’s “mascot”), Roy Estrada (bass, vocals), Don Preston (keyboards), Billy Mundi (drums), Bunk Gardner (woodwinds), Jim ‘Motorhead’ Sherwood (woodwinds), Ian Underwood (woodwinds, piano) and Ruth Underwood (percussion). Some of these musicians later showed up in other versions of Zappa’s band and made a name for themselves as solo artists. From the early years, we also have to mention his second solo album »Hot Rats« (1969), where he started experimenting with jazz rock fusion and which is considered one of his best and most beloved.
In the 70s, Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers of Invention that included Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, formerly of The Turtles, also known as Flo & Eddie. That lineup was short-lived, because during a show at London’s Rainbow Theatre some crazed “fan” shoved Zappa off the stage. The result was a serious injury. After recovering, he revived The Mothers of Invention once again. At that point the band included, among others: Ian and Ruth Underwood, Tom Fowler (bass), Bruce Fowler (trombone), George Duke (keyboards), Jean-Luc Ponty (violin) and Napoleon Murphy Brock (saxophone). Zappa was the lead vocalist and guitarist most of the time. With this legendary lineup, Zappa recorded some of his more accessible and fun blues rock albums. While some fans of the early Mothers of Invention weren’t thrilled with his albums from this period, others count »Over-Nite Sensation« (1973), »Apostrophe (‘)« (1974) and »One Size Fits All« (1975) among his best work. My opinion is that both periods (the late 60s and the first half of the 70s) of his career are fantastic. In the mid-70s, Zappa also started experimenting with overdubbing and recorded an album with his high school friend Don Van Vliet (better known by the stage name Captain Beefheart). The 1975 and 1976 tour (with Terry Bozzio on drums) was his last with a band under the name The Mothers Of Invention.
That’s when Zappa officially put his focus on a solo career. From the late seventies to the early eighties he worked with musicians like Terry Bozzio (drums), Adrian Belew (guitar, vocals), Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals), Patrick O’Hearn (bass), Eddie Jobson (violin, keyboards), Ray White (guitar, vocals) and Ike Willis (guitar, vocals). In 1979 Zappa recorded »Joe’s Garage« (1979, RockLine review), a rock opera in three acts about what might happen if music became illegal. In the 80s Zappa was incredibly busy. He recorded the »Shut Up ’N Play Yer Guitar« (1981) series and the album »Guitar« (1988), where he showed what a superb guitarist he’d become over the years. On top of that, he recorded a few albums with a brand-new lineup that included Ray White, Ike Willis, Tommy Mars, Bobby Martin (keyboards, vocals), Scott Thunes (bass), Chad Wackerman (drums), Ed Mann (percussion) and (now and then) his big discovery Steve Vai (guitar). Around that time Zappa also headed to Capitol Hill to fight censorship (the American association of public morality watchdogs, united under the name “Parents Music Resource Center”, kept attacking him and demanding bans on the release of every album containing “explicit lyrics”; among other things, they flagged as explicit even »Jazz From Hell« (1986), an album that won Zappa a Grammy and is entirely instrumental, which says plenty about that organization’s credibility). Parts of those hearings can be heard on the album »Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention« (1985). It was then that Zappa began experimenting with the Synclavier (a special digital system for synthesizing and recording music, basically the first digital synthesizer), which was also used to record »Jazz From Hell«. After a big blowup in 1988, Zappa decided to let almost the entire band go. By then he’d gotten tired of working with a band, so he spent the rest of his days mostly playing guitar on his own and using the Synclavier, putting out live compilations »You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore« and “classical” music projects like »The Yellow Shark« (1993). When doctors found he had prostate cancer, it didn’t shake him, and he kept making music nonstop even after that. When Frank Vincent Zappa died on December 4, 1993, at the age of 52, the world lost one of its greatest innovators, critics and composers. His final album »Civilisation Phase III« (1994), which he started working on back in the 80s, came out posthumously. In 1995 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1997 he posthumously received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His best-known monuments stand in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and in Bad Doberan, a small town in northern Germany. In recent years Zappa’s legacy has been carried on by his sons Dweezil and Ahmet, who in 2006 also organized the »Zappa Plays Zappa« festival, aimed mainly at younger listeners who had never known Frank’s music, and which featured some former members of Zappa’s bands, including Steve Vai, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Terry Bozzio.
Here’s a quick rundown of his best work. Every record mentioned is a must for music connoisseurs, and some of them could make good starting points for anyone new to his stuff. First off, all of his albums with the early version of The Mothers (except »Cruising With Ruben & The Jets«) are very good. The best are »We’re Only In It For The Money« (1968), »Uncle Meat« (1969) and »Weasels Ripped My Flesh« (1969). The debut »Freak Out!« (1966) is less interesting, but it has special historical significance and for some people it’s even the first prog rock album. His second solo album »Hot Rats« (1969) has some excellent instrumental (apart from Captain Beefheart’s vocals on »Willie The Pimp«) jazz rock fusion. »Hot Rats« is definitely one of his best albums and, alongside »WakaJawaka (1972) and »The Grand Wazoo« (1973), it marks the peak of his experiments with jazz fusion. But for most laypeople who don’t know his albums with The Mothers of Invention and his solo albums from the 60s, those records can be seriously scary and put them off exploring further. If you want something more accessible, you can start with »Over-Nite Sensation« (1973), »Apostrophe (‘) (1974)« or »One Size Fits All« (1975). These are all great jazz blues rock albums. Zappa’s most pop-leaning album was the controversial »Sheik Yerbouti« (1979). It’s got plenty of accessible Zappa classics with very funny lyrics. You can also kick things off with one of the compilations: »Strictly Commercial« (1995), »Have I Offended Someone? (1997)«, »Cheap Thrills« (1998) and »Son Of Cheep Thrills« (1999) are all good compilations that give you a quick look at just how varied the music this musical genius made really was.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
(intro: Aleš Podbrežnik)
