Frank Zappa
Zappa performing at Ekeberghallen in Oslo, Norway, in 1977
Born	Frank Vincent Zappa (1940-12-21)December 21, 1940 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	December 4, 1993(1993-12-04) (aged 52) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary
Occupations	Composer guitarist bandleader
Years active	1955–1993
Spouses	Kay Sherman (m. 1960; div. 1963) Gail Sloatman (m. 1967)
Children	Moon Dweezil Ahmet Diva
Musical career
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Rock progressive rock blues experimental jazz fusion classical pop avant-garde doo-wop comedy music musique concrète
Instruments	Guitar vocals Synclavier percussion
Discography	Frank Zappa discography
Labels	Verve Bizarre Straight DiscReet Zappa Barking Pumpkin Rykodisc
Formerly of	The Mothers of Invention
Musical artist
Website	zappa.com

Frank Vincent Zappa^{[nb 1]} (/ˈzæpə/ ZAP-ə; December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.^[2] His work is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation^[3] sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture.^[4] Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.^[5]^[6]

As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music.^[7] He began writing classical music in high school, while simultaneously playing drums in rhythm and blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined satirical songs in seemingly conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz, or classical.

Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums.^[4] His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes, structures and movements, often humorously so, and he has been described as the "godfather" of comedy rock.^[8] He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation.

Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth.^[9] He had greater commercial success outside the US, particularly in Europe. Though he worked as an independent artist, Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. His many honors include his posthumous 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1940–1965: Early life and career

Childhood

Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother, Rose Marie (née Colimore), was of Italian (Neapolitan and Sicilian) and French ancestry; his father, whose name was anglicized to Francis Vincent Zappa, was an immigrant from Partinico, near Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, and was of Greek and Arab descent.^{[nb 2]}

Frank, the eldest of four children, was raised in an Italian-American household where Italian was often spoken by his grandparents.^[1]^: 6^[10] The family moved often because his father, a chemist and mathematician, worked in the defense industry. After a time in Florida in the 1940s, the family returned to Maryland, where Zappa's father worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility of the Aberdeen Proving Ground run by the U.S. Army. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored mustard gas, gas masks were kept in the home in case of an accident.^[1]^: 20–23 This living arrangement had a profound effect on Zappa, and references to germs, germ warfare, ailments and the defense industry occur frequently throughout his work.^[11]^: 8–9

Zappa's father often brought mercury-filled lab equipment home from his workplace and gave it to Zappa to play with.^[1]^: 19 Zappa said that as a child he "used to play with it all the time", often by putting liquid mercury on the floor and using a hammer to spray out mercury droplets in a circular pattern, eventually covering the entire floor of his bedroom with them.^[12]

Zappa was often sick as a child, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils. At the time, little was known about the potential dangers of even small amounts of therapeutic radiation and mercury exposure.^[11]^: 10

Nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaborator Cal Schenkel. Zappa believed his childhood diseases might have been due to exposure to mustard gas, released by the nearby chemical warfare facility, and his health worsened when he lived in Baltimore.^[1]^: 20–23^[11]^: 10 In 1952, his family relocated for reasons of health to Monterey, California, where his father taught metallurgy at the Naval Postgraduate School.^[1]^: 22 They soon moved to the San Diego neighborhood of Clairemont,^[13]^: 46 and then to the nearby city of El Cajon, before finally returning to San Diego.^[14]

First musical interests

Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ..., or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.

— Frank Zappa, 1989^[1]^: 34

Zappa started at the age of 12, learning drum rudiments at a summer-school group course in Monterey, California with a teacher named Keith McKillop. Frank said "Instead of drums, he had us practicing on wooden planks."^[1]^: 13 Zappa joined his first band at Mission Bay High School in San Diego as a drummer.^[1]^: 29 At 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.^[11]^: 22 According to The Rough Guide to Rock (2003), "as a teenager Zappa was simultaneously enthralled by black R&B (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Guitar Slim), doo-wop (The Channels, The Velvets), and modern composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern and Edgard Varèse."^[7]

R&B singles were early purchases for Zappa, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life.^[11]^: 36 He was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. By age twelve, he had obtained a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion.^[1]^: 29 Zappa's deep interest in modern classical music began^[15] when he read a LOOK magazine article about the Sam Goody record store chain that lauded its ability to sell an LP as obscure as The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One.^[1]^: 30–33 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.^[1]^: 30–33 Thus began his lifelong passion for Varèse's music and that of other modern classical composers. He also liked the Italian classical music listened to by his grandparents, especially Puccini's opera arias.

By 1956, the Zappa family had moved to Lancaster, a small aerospace and farming town in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert close to Edwards Air Force Base; he would later refer to Sun Village (a town close to Lancaster) in the 1973 track "Village of the Sun".^[16] Zappa's mother encouraged him in his musical interests. Although she disliked Varèse's music, she was indulgent enough to give her son a long-distance call to the New York composer as a fifteenth birthday present.^[1]^: 30–33 Unfortunately, Varèse was in Europe at the time, so Zappa spoke to the composer's wife and she suggested he call back later. In a letter, Varèse thanked him for his interest, and told him about a composition he was working on called "Déserts". Living in the desert town of Lancaster, Zappa found this very exciting. Varèse invited him to visit if he ever came to New York. The meeting never took place (Varèse died in 1965), but Zappa framed the letter and kept it on display for the rest of his life.^[15]^{[nb 3]}

At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Glen Vliet (who later changed 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.^[13]^: 29–30 Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, the Blackouts.^[18]^: 13 The band was racially diverse and included Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood who later became a member of the Mothers of Invention. Zappa's interest in the guitar grew, and in 1957 he was given his first instrument. Among his early influences were Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Howlin' Wolf and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. In the 1970s/1980s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums. Zappa considered soloing the equivalent of forming "air sculptures",^[19] and developed an eclectic, innovative and highly personal style.^[20] He was also influenced by Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh.^[21]

Zappa's interest in composing and arranging flourished in his last high-school years. By his final year, he was writing, arranging and conducting avant-garde performance pieces for the school orchestra.^[11]^: 40 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!^[22]^: 23 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.^[11]^: 48 In 1959, he attended Chaffey College but left 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.^[11]^: 345 While in college, Zappa met Terry Kirkman and played gigs at local coffee houses with him.^[23]

Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. After he met Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman during his short period of private composition study with Prof. Karl Kohn of Pomona College, they moved in together in Ontario, and were married December 28, 1960.^[11]^: 58 Zappa worked for a short period in advertising as a copywriter. His sojourn in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into its workings.^[1]^: 40 ^[24] 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.

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.^[11]^: 59 Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965) were more financially rewarding. The former score was commissioned by actor-producer Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records.^[11]^: 63 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.^[11]^: 55 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.^[25] 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.^[1]^: 42 Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him in 1963 to stage a concert of his orchestral music and to broadcast and record it.^[11]^: 74 In March of that same year Zappa appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show playing a bicycle as a musical instrument^[26]^[27]^: 35–36— using drum sticks and a bow borrowed from the band's bass player he proceeded to pluck, bang, and bow the spokes of the bike, producing strange, comical sounds from his newfound instrument. With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of the Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records. Later, the Mothers were also rejected by Columbia Records for having "no commercial potential", a verdict Zappa subsequently quoted on the sleeve of Freak Out!^[18]^: 27

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 established a work pattern that endured for most of his life.^[1]^: 43 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.^[11]^: 80–81 Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood.^[11]^: 82–83 Zappa started performing in local bars as a guitarist with a power trio, the Muthers, to support himself.^[18]^: 26

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.^[11]^: 85 In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 (equivalent to $970 in 2023) 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.^[11]^: 85 The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day's The Daily Report wrote that "Vice Squad investigators stilled the tape recorders of a free-swinging, a-go-go film and recording studio here Friday and arrested a self-styled movie producer".^[28] Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography".^[1]^: 57 This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended.^[11]^: 86–87 His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was central to the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance.^[11]^: xv Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police returned only 30 of 80 hours of tape seized.^[11]^: 87 Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted.^[27]^: 40 Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.^[11]^: 90–91

1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention

Formation

In April 1965, Ray Collins asked Zappa to take over as guitarist in local R&B band the Soul Giants, following a fight between Collins and the group's original guitarist.^[10] Zappa accepted, and soon assumed leadership and the role as co-lead singer (even though he never considered himself a singer, then or later^[29]). He convinced the other members that they should play his music to increase the chances of getting a record contract.^[1]^: 65–66 The band debuted at the Broadside Club in Pomona, California and was renamed the Mothers since this gig took place on May 10, 1965 – Mother's Day.^[13]^: 42 They increased their bookings after beginning an association with manager Herb Cohen, and gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground music scene.^[22]^: 58 In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson when playing "Trouble Every Day", a song about the Watts riots.^[11]^: 103 Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer for Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, and was one of the few African-Americans working as a major label pop music producer at this time. Wilson signed the Mothers to the Verve division of MGM, which had built up a strong reputation 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 rename themselves the Mothers of Invention as Mother was short for motherfucker—a term that, apart from its profane meanings, can denote a skilled musician.^[30]

Debut album: Freak Out!

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 (at 152 Bleecker Street, above the Cafe au Go Go) during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year.^[35]^: 62–69 As a result, Zappa and his wife Gail, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York.^[11]^{: 140–141} Their shows became a combination of improvised acts showcasing individual talents of the band as well as tight performances of Zappa's music. Everything was directed by Zappa using hand signals.^[11]^: 147 Guest performers and audience participation became a regular part of the Garrick Theater shows. One evening, Zappa managed to entice some U.S. 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".^[1]^: 94

In 1967, filmmaker Ed Seeman paid Zappa $2,000 to produce music for a Luden's cough drops television commercial.^[36] Zappa's music was matched with Seeman's animation and the advertisement won a Clio Award for "Best Use of Sound".^[37]^[38] An alternate version of the soundtrack, called "The Big Squeeze", later appeared on Zappa's posthumous 1996 album "The Lost Episodes". This version lacks Seeman's narration.

While living in New York City, and 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).^[39] 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.^[22]^: 90^[32]^: 15 He sampled surf music from his Studio Z days in the audio collage Nasal Retentive Caliope Music. The cover photo parodied that of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.^{[nb 5]} The cover art was provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a lifelong collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.^[18]^: 88

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.^[31]^: 58 Zappa later remarked that the album was conceived like Stravinsky's compositions 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?"^[1]^: 88 The opening theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is sung in "Fountain of Love".

In 1967 and 1968, Zappa made two appearances with the Monkees. The first appearance was on an episode of their TV series, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds", where Zappa, dressed up as Mike Nesmith, interviews Nesmith who is dressed up as Zappa. After the interview, Zappa destroys a car with a sledgehammer as the song "Mother People" plays. He later provided a cameo in the Monkees' movie Head where, leading a cow, he tells Davy Jones "the youth of America depends on you to show them the way." Zappa respected the Monkees and recruited Micky Dolenz to the Mothers but RCA/Columbia/Colgems would not release Dolenz from his contract.^[11]^{: 158–159}

During the late 1960s, Zappa continued to develop the business side of his career. He and Herb Cohen formed the Bizarre and Straight labels to increase creative control and produce recordings by other artists. These labels were distributed in the US by Warner Bros. Records. Zappa/Mothers recordings appeared on Bizarre along with Wild Man Fischer and Lenny Bruce.^[11]^{: 173–175} Straight released the double album Trout Mask Replica for Captain Beefheart, and releases by Alice Cooper, The Persuasions, and the GTOs. The Mothers' first album on Bizarre was 1969's Uncle Meat, which Zappa described as "most of the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet". A version of the Uncle Meat film was released direct-to-video in 1987. Principal photography having never been completed, the VHS videocassette is a "making of" documentary showing rehearsals and background footage from 1968 and interviews with people involved with the uncompleted production.^[40]

In the Mothers' second European tour in September/October 1968 they performed for the Internationale Essener Songtage [de] at the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany; at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark; for TV programs in Germany (Beat-Club), France, and England; at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; at the Royal Festival Hall in London; and at the Olympia in Paris.^[41]

Disbandment

Peaches En Regalia

The opening track on Hot Rats is considered one of Zappa's most enduring compositions.^[31]^: 74^[42]

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Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in mid-1968, and the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to Woodrow Wilson Drive.^[11]^: 178 This was Zappa's home for the rest of his life. Despite being successful in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not doing well financially.^[22]^: 116 Their first records were vocally oriented, but as Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical style music for the band's concerts, audiences were confused. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his "electrical chamber music".^[11]^{: 185–187}^[13]^{: 119–120}

In 1969, there were nine band members and Zappa was supporting the group from his publishing royalties whether they played or not.^[22]^: 116 In late 1969, Zappa broke up the band. He often cited the financial strain as the main reason,^[1]^: 107 but also commented on the band members' lack of diligence.^[13]^: 120 Many band members were bitter about Zappa's decision, and some took it as a sign of Zappa's perfectionism at the expense of human feeling.^[11]^{: 185–187} Others were irritated by 'his autocratic ways',^[11]^: 123 exemplified by Zappa's never staying at the same hotel as the band members.^[11]^: 116 Several members would play with Zappa again in subsequent years, while guitarist/vocalist Lowell George and bassist Roy Estrada went on to form the band Little Feat. Zappa assembled remaining unreleased recordings of the band on the albums Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, both released in 1970.

After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo album Hot Rats (1969).^[11]^: 194^[43] 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.^[31]^: 74 He was backed by jazz, blues and R&B session players including violinist Don "Sugarcane" Harris, drummers John Guerin and Paul Humphrey, multi-instrumentalist and former Mothers of Invention member Ian Underwood, and multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis on bass, along with a guest appearance by Captain Beefheart on the only vocal track, "Willie the Pimp". It became a popular album in England,^[1]^: 109 and had a major influence on the development of jazz-rock fusion.^[11]^: 194^[31]^: 74

1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows

Rebirth of the Mothers and filmmaking

In 1970, Zappa met conductor Zubin Mehta. They arranged a May 1970 concert where Mehta conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic augmented by a rock band. According to Zappa, the music was mostly written in motel rooms while on tour with the Mothers of Invention. Some of it was later featured in the movie 200 Motels.^[1]^: 109 Although the concert was a success, Zappa's experience working with a symphony orchestra was not a happy one.^[1]^: 88 His dissatisfaction became a recurring theme throughout his career; he often felt that the quality of performance of his material delivered by orchestras was not commensurate with the money he spent on orchestral concerts and recordings.^[1]^{: 142–156}

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".^[11]^: 201

This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo album Chunga's Revenge (1970),^[11]^: 205 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.^[18]^: 183 Tensions between Zappa and several cast and crew members arose before and during shooting.^[18]^: 183 The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician.^[11]^: 207 It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film, a process that allowed for novel visual effects.^[44] It was released to mixed reviews.^[31]^: 94 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.^[1]^{: 119–137}

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—which used songs to build sketches based on 200 Motels scenes, as well as new situations that often portrayed the band members' sexual encounters on the road.^[11]^{: 203–204}^{[nb 6]}

Accident, attack, and aftermath

"Waka/Jawaka" (1971)

The closing track on Waka/Jawaka, one of Zappa's jazz-oriented albums.

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On December 4, 1971, Zappa suffered his first of 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.^[1]^{: 112–115} Rock band Deep Purple were in the audience that night, and would immortalize the event on their classic 1972 song "Smoke on the Water". A recording of the incident and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg album Swiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa's Beat the Boots II box set. After losing $50,000 (equivalent to $376,000 in 2023) worth of equipment and a week's break, the Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore, an audience member, jealous because of his girlfriend's infatuation with Zappa, pushed him off the stage and into the concrete-floored orchestra pit.^[45] 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.^[1]^{: 112–115}

After the attack Zappa needed to use a wheelchair for an extended period, making touring impossible for over half a year. Upon return to the stage in September 1972, Zappa was still wearing a leg brace, had a noticeable limp and could not stand for very long while on stage. Zappa noted that one leg healed "shorter than the other" (a reference later found in the lyrics of songs "Zomby Woof" and "Dancin' Fool"), resulting in chronic back pain.^[1]^{: 112–115} Meanwhile, the Mothers were left in limbo and eventually formed the core of Flo and Eddie's band as they set out on their own.

In December 1972,^[46] David Walley published the first biography of Zappa, titled No Commercial Potential. Zappa was severely critical, calling it "a quickie, paperback, sensational book". He said that it contained "gross inaccuracies", described the writing as "not quality workmanship" and claimed that Walley had "just slung together a bunch of quotes".^[47] Despite Zappa's complaints, the book was later published in an updated edition in 1980^[22] and again in 1996 after Zappa's death.

Solo albums: Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo

See also: Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo

During 1971–1972, Zappa released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the forced layoff from concert touring, using floating line-ups of session players and Mothers alumni.^[31]^: 101 Musically, the albums were akin to Hot Rats, in that they featured extended instrumental tracks with extended soloing.^[11]^{: 225–226} Zappa began touring again in late 1972.^[11]^{: 225–226} His first effort was a series of concerts in September 1972 with a 20-piece big band referred to as the Grand Wazoo. This was followed by a scaled-down version known as the Petit Wazoo that toured the U.S. for five weeks from October to December 1972.^[48]

Top 10 album: Apostrophe (')

Business breakups and touring

In 1976, Zappa produced the album Good Singin', Good Playin' for Grand Funk Railroad. Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in May 1976.^[52] After Cohen cashed one of Zappa's royalty checks from Warner and kept the money for himself, Zappa sued Cohen.^[53] Zappa was also upset with Cohen for signing acts he did not approve.^[11]^: 250^[54] Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money the pair were expecting to receive from an out-of-court settlement with MGM/Verve over the rights to Zappa's early Mothers of Invention recordings. The MGM settlement was finalized in mid-1977 after two years of negotiations.^[55] Litigation with Cohen also prevented Zappa having access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials. Zappa therefore took his personal master copies of the album Zoot Allures (1976) directly to Warner, while bypassing DiscReet.^[11]^{: 253, 258–259} Following the split with Cohen, Zappa hired Bennett Glotzer as new manager.^[56]

By late 1976, Zappa was upset with Warner over inadequate promotion of his recordings and he was eager to move on as soon as possible.^[57] In March 1977, Zappa delivered four albums (five full-length LPs) to Warner to complete his contract: Zappa in New York (a 2-LP set), Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites.^[54] These albums contained recordings mostly made between 1972 and 1976. Warner failed to meet contractual obligations to Zappa, and in response he filed a multi-million dollar breach of contract lawsuit.^[58] During a lengthy legal debate, Warner eventually released the four disputed albums during 1978 and 1979, Zappa in New York having been censored to remove references to guitarist Punky Meadows. Also, in 1977 Zappa prepared a four-LP box set called Läther (pronounced "leather") and negotiated distribution with Phonogram Inc. for release on the Zappa Records label. The Läther box set was scheduled for release on Halloween 1977, but legal action from Warner forced Zappa to shelve this project.^[11]^: 261

In December 1977, Zappa appeared on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ-FM and played the entire Läther album, while encouraging listeners to make tape recordings of the broadcast.^[13]^: 248 Both sets of recordings (five-LP and four-LP) have much of the same material, but each also has unique content. The albums integrate many aspects of Zappa's 1970s work: heavy rock, orchestral works, and complex jazz instrumentals, along with Zappa's distinctive guitar solos. Läther was officially released in 1996. It has been debated as to whether Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP set from the beginning, or only later when working with Phonogram.^[11]^: 267^{[nb 7]} Gail Zappa postumously claimed in 1996 that "Läther" was Frank's original intention.^[59] However, Zappa himself stated in an October 1978 radio interview that "Läther was made out of four albums. Warners has released two of them already and they have two more that they're probably gonna release."^[60]

Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner contracts,^[32]^: 49 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.^[11]^: 261 Drummer Terry Bozzio became a regular band member, Napoleon Murphy Brock stayed on for a while, and original Mothers of Invention bassist Roy Estrada joined. Among other musicians were bassist Patrick O'Hearn, singer-guitarist Ray White and keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson. In December 1976, Zappa appeared as a featured musical guest on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live.^[11]^: 262 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. In 1978, Zappa served both as host and musical act on the show, and as an actor in various sketches. 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.^[61] However, he earned a ban from the show after the latter episode because he had done what producers called "a disastrous job of hosting" (Zappa reportedly did not get along with cast and crew in the lead-up to recording, then told the audience he was simply reading from cue cards).^[62]

Zappa's band had a series of Christmas shows in New York City in 1976, recordings of which appear on Zappa in New York (1978) and also on the four-LP Läther project. The band included Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuring Michael and Randy Brecker). It mixes complex instrumentals such as "The Black Page" and humorous songs like "Titties and Beer".^[31]^: 132 The former composition, written originally for drum kit but later developed for larger bands, is notorious for its complexity in rhythmic structure and short, densely arranged passages.^[63]^[64]

The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1

One of Zappa's complex, percussion-based compositions featured on Zappa in New York.

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Zappa in New York also featured a song about sex criminal Michael H. Kenyon, "The Illinois Enema Bandit", in which Don Pardo provides the opening narrative. Like many songs on the album, it contained numerous sexual references,^[31]^: 132 leading to many critics objecting and being offended by the content.^[31]^: 134^[31]^{: 261–262} Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was a journalist reporting on life as he saw it.^[11]^: 234 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?"^[29] The remaining albums released by Warner without Zappa's approval were Studio Tan in 1978 and Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites in 1979. These releases were not promoted and were largely overlooked in midst of the press about Zappa's legal problems.^[31]^: 138

Zappa Records label

"Bobby Brown" (1979)

The single became a hit in non-English speaking countries and helped Sheik Yerbouti become a best-seller.^[18]^: 351

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Zappa released two of his most important projects in 1979. These were the best-selling albums of his career, Sheik Yerbouti,^[65] and what author Kelley Lowe called the "bona fide masterpiece",^[31]^: 140 Joe's Garage.^[66]

The double album Sheik Yerbouti appeared in March 1979 and was the first release to appear on Zappa Records. It contained the Grammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached No. 45 on the Billboard charts.^[67] It also contained "Jewish Princess", which received attention when a Jewish group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its alleged antisemitic lyrics.^[11]^: 234 Zappa vehemently denied any antisemitic sentiments, and dismissed the ADL as a "noisemaking organization that tries to apply pressure on people in order to manufacture a stereotype image of Jews that suits their idea of a good time."^[68] 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 U.S., but it topped the charts in several European countries where English is not the primary language.^[18]^: 351

Joe's Garage initially had to be released in two parts due to economic conditions.^[69] The first was a single LP Joe's Garage Act I in September 1979, followed by a double LP Joe's Garage Acts II and III in November 1979. The albums feature singer Ike Willis as lead character "Joe" in a rock opera about the danger of political systems,^[31]^: 140 the suppression of freedom of speech and music—inspired in part by the 1979 Islamic Iranian revolution that had made music illegal^[11]^: 277—and about the "strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness".^[31]^: 140 The first act contains the song "Catholic Girls" (a riposte to the controversies of "Jewish Princess"),^[32]^: 59 and the title track, which was also released as a single. The second and third acts have extended guitar improvisations, which were recorded live, then combined with studio backing tracks. Zappa described this process as xenochrony. In this period the band included drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly strong musical rapport)^[1]^: 180 Joe's Garage contains one of Zappa's most famous guitar "signature pieces", "Watermelon in Easter Hay".^[32]^: 61^[70] This work later appeared as a three-LP, or two-CD set.

Zappa had been known for his long hair since the mid-1960s, but he had Gail cut it short around August 1979.^[69] That autumn he cancelled tour plans and stayed home with newborn daughter Diva, and to celebrate the birthdays of his children Moon and Dweezil in September.^[71] At this time Zappa also completed the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house,^[72] thereby giving him complete freedom in his work.^[11]^: 269

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".^[73] 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 became available on the 1982 video The Dub Room Special).^[11]^: 282 The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution,^[74] but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981.^[11]^: 282

1980–1993: Later years

Zappa performing at the Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York, 1980. The concert was released in 2007 as *Buffalo*.

Zappa cut ties with Phonogram after the distributor refused to release his song "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted", which was recorded in February 1980.^[75] The single was released independently by Zappa in the United States and was picked up by CBS Records internationally.^[76]

After spending much of 1980 on the road, Zappa released Tinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his own Barking Pumpkin Records,^[31]^: 161 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).^[31]^: 161 While some lyrics still raised controversy among critics, some of whom found them sexist,^[11]^: 284 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".^[31]^: 165 The album is also notable for the presence of guitarist Steve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in late 1980.^[11]^: 283

The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released. The album included one complex instrumental, "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear", but mainly consisted of rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics directed at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy.^[77] "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 U.S. administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money.^[31]^{: 169–175} Songs like "Society Pages" and "I'm a Beautiful Guy" show Zappa's dismay with the Reagan era and its "obscene pursuit of wealth and happiness".^[31]^{: 169–175} Zappa made his only music video for a song from this album – "You Are What You Is" – directed by Jerry Watson, produced by Paul Flattery. The video was banned from MTV, though was later featured by Mike Judge in the Beavis & Butthead episode "Canoe".^[78]

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More

The title track on Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar features Zappa's guitar improvisations.

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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 CBS Records (now Sony Music Entertainment) due to popular demand.^[79]

The albums focus exclusively on Frank Zappa as a guitar soloist, and the tracks are predominantly live recordings from 1979 to 1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with "beautiful performances from the backing group as well".^[80] 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.^[81]

Zappa later expanded on his television appearances in a non-musical role. He was an actor or voice artist in episodes of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre,^[82] Miami Vice^[11]^: 343 and The Ren & Stimpy Show.^[82] A voice part in The Simpsons never materialized, to creator Matt Groening's disappointment (Groening was a neighbor of Zappa and a lifelong fan).^[83]

"Valley Girl" and 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 No. 32 on the Billboard charts).^[67] In her improvised lyrics to the song, Zappa's daughter Moon satirized the patois of teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley, which popularized many "Valleyspeak" expressions such as "gag me with a spoon", "fer sure, fer sure", "grody to the max", and "barf out".^[84]

A 1983 album The Man from Utopia, featured an anti-drug single Cocaine Decisions. "The Dangerous Kitchen" and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" are continuations of the sprechstimme vocal excursions on Tinseltown Rebellion, and the album also has jazzy rock instrumentals "Mōggio" and "We Are Not Alone". A second 1983 album, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, includes orchestral Zappa compositions conducted by Kent Nagano and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). A second record of these sessions, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II was released in 1987. The material was recorded under a tight schedule with Zappa providing all funding, helped by the commercial success of "Valley Girl".^[1]^{: 146–156} 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.^[1]^{: 146–156}

Conductor Nagano, who was pleased with the experience, noted that "in fairness to the orchestra, the music is humanly very, very difficult".^[11]^: 315 Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far.^[85] In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra^[86] 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. Zappa was invited by conference organizer Thomas Wells to be the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers at the Ohio State University. It was there Zappa delivered his famous "Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure" address,^[87] and had two of his orchestra pieces, "Dupree's Paradise" and "Naval Aviation in Art?" performed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus.^[11]^: 323^[88] Zappa's management relationship with Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984.^[89] Starting in 1985 Gail began managing much of the Zappa business empire, which included a record label, a mail-order company, a video company and a music publishing firm.^[90]

Synclavier works

"Naval Aviation in Art?"

A Zappa composition for classical ensemble from Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984)

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For the remainder of his career, much of Zappa's work was influenced by his use of the Synclavier, an early digital synthesizer, as a compositional and performance tool.^[1]^{: 172–173} According to Zappa, "With the Synclavier, any group of imaginary instruments can be invited to play the most difficult passages ... with one-millisecond accuracy—every time".^[1]^{: 172–173} Even though it essentially did away with the need for musicians,^[11]^: 319 Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate.^[1]^{: 172–173}

In 1984, he released four albums. Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger contains orchestral works commissioned and conducted by celebrated conductor, composer and pianist Pierre Boulez (who was listed as an influence on Freak Out!), and performed by his Ensemble intercontemporain. These were juxtaposed with premiere Synclavier pieces. Again, Zappa was not satisfied with the performances of his orchestral works, regarding them as under-rehearsed, but in the album liner notes he respectfully thanks Boulez's demands for precision.^[32]^: 73 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.^[91] New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; "the work is an extraordinary example of bricolage".^[92]

Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th-century composer Francesco Zappa, was also released in 1984.^[93]

Merchandising

Zappa's mail-order merchandise business, Barfko-Swill, established during the 1980s by Zappa's wife Gail, offers t-shirts, videos, posters, sheet music, and collector's recordings, most of them unavailable through other media.^[94] Gail has explained why Barfko-Swill was founded: "Just piles and piles of fan mail sitting around unanswered or with no response. The first thing that we did was put a list together from the fan mail and made a Barking Pumpkin t-shirt available which we still have – same old shirt, same old logo, same old price – just to see what would happen. Everybody would write to us and ask us if there was something they could get besides records. ... That was really the primary reason for getting into the business – for setting up Barfko-Swill – in those days was to be independent. To not have to rely on a major record company's interest and ability to promote your product. And that was what the challenge was for me. I prefer the autonomy."^[95]

From 1983 to 1993, Barfko-Swill was run by Gerry Fialka,^[96] who also worked for Zappa as archivist, production assistant, tour assistant, and factotum,^[97]^[98]^[99]^[100] and answered the phone for Zappa's Barking Pumpkin Records hotline.^[101]^[102] Fialka appears giving a tour of Barfko-Swill in the 1987 VHS release (but not the original 1979 film release) of Zappa's film Baby Snakes. He is credited on-screen as "GERALD FIALKA Cool Guy Who Wraps Stuff So It Doesn't Break".^[103] A short clip of this tour is also included in the 2020 documentary film Zappa.

Digital medium and last tour

Around 1986, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings.^[11]^: 340 He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s albums for the new digital compact disc medium.^{[nb 8]} Certain aspects of these re-issues have been criticized by some fans as being unfaithful to the original recordings, with changes made to We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, Uncle Meat and Sleep Dirt being the most strongly criticized.^[104] 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).^[1]^{: 337–339} In 1989, Zappa considered his idea a "miserable flop".^[1]^{: 337–339}

The album Jazz from Hell, released in 1986, earned Zappa his first Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Except for one live guitar solo ("St. Etienne"), the album exclusively featured compositions brought to life by the Synclavier.

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.^[11]^{: 346–350} 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 (Zappa's more instrumentally complex and jazz orientated material). An album of guitar solos from this tour also appeared as the posthumous 2006 album Trance-Fusion, a follow-up to the Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar and Guitar albums.

More recordings from the 1988 tour would appear as part of You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, a series of six double CDs complied by Zappa from unreleased live recordings dating back to the earliest Mothers recordings from 1965. The six volumes were released between 1988 and 1992. Two further archival live albums, Playground Psychotics and Ahead of Their Time, were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The former collected recordings by the early 1970s "Flo and Eddie" era Mothers, while the latter was a complete concert by the original Mothers at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968 (footage from which has been used in the Uncle Meat movie).

Health deterioration

"N-Lite" (1994)

One of Zappa's works for Synclavier on Civilization Phaze III, cited as his "last great work".^[32]^: 100

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In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for years and was considered inoperable.^[105]^[106] After the diagnosis, Zappa devoted most of his energy to modern orchestral and Synclavier works. Shortly before his death in 1993 he completed Civilization Phaze III, a major Synclavier work which he had begun in the 1980s.^[11]^{: 374–375}^{[nb 9]}

In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Alexander Knaifel).^[107] Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensemble Ensemble Modern which was interested in playing his music for the event. Although ill, he invited them to Los Angeles for rehearsals of new compositions and new arrangements of older material.^[11]^: 369 Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for later in the year.^[11]^: 369 Zappa also performed in 1991 in Prague, claiming that "was the first time that he had a reason to play his guitar in 3 years", and that that moment was just "the beginning of a new country", and asked the public to "try to keep your country unique, do not change it into something else".^[108]^[109]

In September 1992, the concerts went ahead as scheduled but Zappa could only appear at two in Frankfurt due to illness. At the first concert, he conducted the opening "Overture", and the final "G-Spot Tornado" as well as the theatrical "Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992" and "Welcome to the United States" (the remainder of the program was conducted by the ensemble's regular conductor Peter Rundel). Zappa received a 20-minute ovation.^[11]^: 371 G-Spot Tornado was performed with Canadian dancer Louise Lecavalier. It was Zappa's 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".^[11]^: 371 Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark (1993), Zappa's last release during his lifetime, and some material from studio rehearsals appeared on the posthumous Everything Is Healing Nicely (1999).

Death

Zappa died from prostate cancer on December 4, 1993, 17 days shy of his 53rd birthday, at his home with his wife and children by his side. At a private ceremony the following day, his body was buried in a grave at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in Los Angeles. The grave has since been unmarked.^[11]^{: 379–380}^[32]^: 552 On December 6, his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday".^[13]^: 320

Musical style and development

Genres

The general phases of Zappa's music have been variously categorized under blues rock,^[110] experimental rock,^[111] jazz,^[111] classical,^[111] avant-pop,^[112] experimental pop,^[113] comedy rock,^[8] doo-wop,^[6]^[114] jazz fusion,^[4] progressive rock,^[4] proto-prog,^[115] avant-jazz,^[4] and psychedelic rock.^[4]

Influences

Zappa grew up influenced by avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern; 1950s blues artists Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Guitar Slim, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and B.B. King;^[116] Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh;^[21] R&B and doo-wop groups (particularly local pachuco groups); and modern jazz. His own heterogeneous ethnic background, and the diverse social and cultural mix in and around greater Los Angeles, were crucial in the formation of Zappa as a practitioner of underground music and of his later distrustful and openly critical attitude towards "mainstream" social, political and musical movements. He frequently lampooned musical fads like psychedelia, rock opera and disco.^[18]^: 13^{[nb 10]} Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.^[118]

In his book The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa credited composer Spike Jones for his frequent use of funny sound effects, mouth noises, and humorous percussion interjections. After explaining his ideas on this, he said "I owe this part of my musical existence to Spike Jones."^[119]

Project/Object

Zappa's albums make extensive use of segued tracks, breaklessly joining the elements of his albums.^[120] His total output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums.^[4] He also called it a "conceptual continuity", meaning that any project or album was part of a larger project. Everything was connected, and musical themes and lyrics reappeared in different form on later albums. Conceptual continuity clues are found throughout Zappa's entire œuvre.^[11]^: 160^[118]

Techniques

Guitar playing

Zappa is widely recognized as one of the most significant electric guitar soloists. In a 1983 issue of Guitar World, John Swenson declared: "the fact of the matter is that [Zappa] is one of the greatest guitarists we have and is sorely unappreciated as such."^[121] His idiosyncratic style developed gradually and was mature by the early 1980s, by which time his live performances featured lengthy improvised solos during many songs. A November 2016 feature by the editors of Guitar Player magazine wrote: "Brimming with sophisticated motifs and convoluted rhythms, Zappa's extended excursions are more akin to symphonies than they are to guitar solos." The symphonic comparison stems from his habit of introducing melodic themes that, like a symphony's main melodies, were repeated with variations throughout his solos. He was further described as using a wide variety of scales and modes, enlivened by "unusual rhythmic combinations". His left hand was capable of smooth legato technique, while Zappa's right was "one of the fastest pick hands in the business."^[122] In 2016, Dweezil Zappa explained a distinctive element of his father's guitar improvisation technique was relying heavily on upstrokes much more than many other guitarists, who are more likely to use downstrokes with their picking.^[123]

His song "Outside Now" from Joe's Garage poked fun at the negative reception of Zappa's guitar technique by those more commercially minded, as the song's narrator lives in a world where music is outlawed and he imagines "imaginary guitar notes that would irritate/An executive kind of guy", lyrics that are followed by one of Zappa's characteristically quirky solos in 11/8 time.^[124] Zappa transcriptionist Kasper Sloots wrote, "Zappa's guitar solos aren't meant to show off technically (Zappa hasn't claimed to be a big virtuoso on the instrument), but for the pleasure it gives trying to build a composition right in front of an audience without knowing what the outcome will be."^[125]

Zappa's guitar style was not without its critics. English guitarist and bandleader John McLaughlin, whose band Mahavishnu Orchestra toured with the Mothers of Invention in 1973, opined that Zappa was "very interesting as a human being and a very interesting composer" and that he "was a very good musician but he was a dictator in his band," and that he "was taking very long guitar solos [when performing live]—10–15 minute guitar solos and really he should have taken two or three minute guitar solos, because they were a little bit boring."^[126]

In 2000, he was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.^[127] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 71 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time",^[128] and in 2011 at number 22 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".^[129]

Tape manipulation

In New York, Zappa increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool.^[11]^: 160 A prime example is found on the double album Uncle Meat (1969),^[35]^: 104 where the track "King Kong" is edited from various studio and live performances. Zappa had begun regularly recording concerts,^{[nb 11]} 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.^[72] 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^[130])—reflecting the Greek "xeno" (alien or strange) and "chronos" (time).^[72]

Personal life

Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1963. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman.^[132]^[133] He and his second wife had four children: Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva.^[134]

Following Zappa's death, his widow Gail created the Zappa Family Trust, which owns the rights to Zappa's music and some other creative output: more than 60 albums were released during Zappa's lifetime^[135] and 65 posthumously as of November 2023. Upon Gail's death in October 2015, the Zappa children received shares of the trust; Ahmet and Diva received 30% each, Moon and Dweezil received 20% each.^[136]

Beliefs and politics

Drugs

Zappa stated, "Drugs do not become a problem until the person who uses the drugs does something to you, or does something that would affect your life that you don't want to have happen to you, like an airline pilot who crashes because he was full of drugs."^[137] Zappa was a heavy tobacco smoker for most of his life, and critical of anti-tobacco campaigns.^{[nb 12]}

While he disapproved of drug use, he criticized the War on Drugs, comparing it to alcohol prohibition, and stated that the United States Treasury would benefit from the decriminalization and regulation of drugs.^[1]^: 329 Describing his philosophical views, Zappa stated, "I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you."^[1]^{: 315–316, 323–324, 329–330}

Government and religion

In a 1991 interview, Zappa reported that he was a registered Democrat but added "that might not last long—I'm going to shred that."^[139] Describing his political views, Zappa categorized himself as a "practical conservative."^{[nb 13]} He favored limited government and low taxes; he also stated that he approved of national defense, social security, and other federal programs, but only if recipients of such programs are willing and able to pay for them.^[1]^{: 315–316, 323–324, 329–330} He opposed military drafts, saying that military service should be voluntary.^[140] He favored capitalism, entrepreneurship, and independent business, stating that musicians could make more from owning their own businesses than from collecting royalties.^[141] He opposed communism, stating, "A system that doesn't allow ownership... has—to put it mildly—a fatal design flaw."^[1]^{: 315–316, 323–324, 329–330} He always encouraged his fans to register to vote on album covers, and throughout 1988, he had registration booths at his concerts.^[11]^: 348 He even considered running for president of the United States as an independent.^[11]^: 365^[142]

Zappa was an atheist.^[143]^[144] He recalled his parents being "pretty religious" and trying to make him go to Catholic school despite his resentment. He felt disgust towards organized religion (Christianity in particular) because he believed that it promoted ignorance and anti-intellectualism. He held the view that the Garden of Eden story shows that the essence of Christianity is to oppose gaining knowledge.^[145] Some of his songs, concert performances, interviews and public debates in the 1980s criticized and derided Republicans and their policies—President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), televangelism, and the Christian Right—and warned that the United States government was in danger of becoming a "fascist theocracy."^[146]^[147]

In early 1990, Zappa visited Czechoslovakia at the request of President Václav Havel. The meeting had been arranged by keyboardist Michael Kocáb. A longtime admirer of Zappa's commitment to individualism, Havel designated him as Czechoslovakia's "Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism."^[148] Havel was a lifelong fan of Zappa, who had great influence in the avant-garde and underground scene in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. The Plastic People of the Universe, a Czechoslovakian jazz rock group associated with Prague underground culture, took its name from Zappa's 1968 song "Plastic People").^[149] Under pressure from Secretary of State, James Baker, Zappa's posting (as Czech 'Special Ambassador') was withdrawn.^[150] Havel made Zappa an unofficial cultural attaché instead.^[11]^{: 357–361} Zappa planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses.^[106]

Anti-censorship

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.^[147] 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.^[151] 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.^[152] During Zappa's testimony, he stated that there was a clear conflict of interest between the PMRC due to the relations of its founders to the politicians who were then trying to pass what he referred to as the "Blank Tape Tax." Kandy Stroud, a spokeswoman for the PMRC, announced that Senator Gore (who co-founded the committee) was a co-sponsor of that legislation. Zappa suggested that record labels were trying to get the bill passed quickly through committees, one of which was chaired by Senator Strom Thurmond, who was also affiliated with the PMRC. Zappa further said that this committee was being used as a distraction from that bill being passed, which would lead only to the benefit of a select few in the music industry.^[153]^[154]

Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship^[1]^: 267 and called their proposal for voluntary labelling of records with explicit content "extortion" of the music industry.^[1]^: 262

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?^[153]^[154]^[155]

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, and the full recording was released in 2010 as Congress Shall Make No Law... Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton and Al Gore.^[156]

Legacy

Main article: Frank Zappa in popular culture

Zappa was a controversial figure. As Geoffrey Himes noted in 1993 after the artist's death, Zappa was hailed as a genius by conductor Kent Nagano and nominated by Czechoslovakian President Václav Havel to the country's cultural ambassadorship, but he was in his lifetime rejected twice for admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau dismissed Zappa's music as "sexist adolescent drivel ... with meters and voicings and key changes that are as hard to play as they are easy to forget."^[9] According to Himes:

Admirers and detractors agree that Zappa's music—with its odd time signatures, unorthodox harmonies and fiendishly difficult lines—boasts a rare cerebral complexity. But that's where the agreement ends. Some fans find his sophomoric jokes ("Don't Eat the Yellow Snow") and pop music parodies ("Sheik Yerbouti") a crucial counterbalance to the rarefied density of the music; other devotees find the jokes an irrelevant sideshow to music best appreciated in a chamber or orchestral setting. The critics find the humor's smug iconoclasm a symptom of the essential emptiness of Zappa's intellectual exercises.^[9]

Acclaim and honors

Frank Zappa was one of the first to try tearing down the barriers between rock, jazz, and classical music. In the late Sixties his Mothers of Invention would slip from Stravinsky's "Petroushka" into The Dovells' "Bristol Stomp" before breaking down into saxophone squeals inspired by Albert Ayler

— The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, p. 497

The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) 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."^[157] Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen as establishing a coherent and personal expression.

In 1980, 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".^[22]^: 3

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'."^[11]^: 383

Guitar Player 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".^[158]

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.^[159] He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s,^[160] 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."^[161]

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."^[162] Pierre Boulez told 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."^[163]

In 1994, jazz magazine DownBeat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame.^[164] 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".^[165] He was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock^[127] in 2000.

In 2005, the U.S. 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".^[166] The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[167]

In 2011, he was ranked at No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the same magazine.^[168] In 2016, Guitar World magazine placed Zappa atop its list of "15 of the best progressive rock guitarists through the years."^[169]

The street of Partinico where his father lived at number 13, Via Zammatà, has been renamed to Via Frank Zappa.^[170]

Since his death, several musicians have been considered by critics as filling the artistic niche left behind by Zappa, in view of their prolific output, eclecticism and other qualities, including Devin Townsend,^[171]^[172]^[173]^[174] Mike Patton^[175]^[176]^[177] and Omar Rodríguez-López.^[178]^[179]

Grammy Awards

In the course of his career, Zappa was nominated for nine competitive Grammy Awards, which resulted in two wins (one posthumous). In 1998, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[180]


Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1980	"Rat Tomago"	Best Rock Instrumental Performance	Nominated
1980	"Dancin' Fool"	Best Male Rock Vocal Performance	Nominated
1983	"Valley Girl"	Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal	Nominated
1985	The Perfect Stranger	Best New Classical Composition	Nominated
1988	"Jazz from Hell"	Best Instrumental Composition	Nominated
1988	Jazz from Hell	Best Rock Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist)	Won
1989	Guitar		Nominated
1990	Broadway the Hard Way	Best Musical Cast Show Album	Nominated
1996	Civilization Phaze III	Best Recording Package – Boxed	Won
1997	Frank Zappa	Lifetime Achievement Award	Honored

Artists influenced by Zappa

Many musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Zappa's music. Rock artists such as The Plastic People of the Universe,^[181] Alice Cooper,^[182] Larry LaLonde of Primus,^[183] Fee Waybill of the Tubes^[184] all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive, alternative, electronic and avant-garde/experimental rock artists like Can,^{[nb 14]} Pere Ubu,^{[nb 15]} Yes,^[185]^[186] Soft Machine,^[187]^[188] Henry Cow,^[189] Faust,^[190] Devo,^[191] Kraftwerk,^[192] Trey Anastasio and Jon Fishman of Phish,^[167] Jeff Buckley,^[193] John Frusciante,^[194] Steven Wilson,^[195] and The Aristocrats.^[196]

Paul McCartney regarded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the Beatles' Freak Out!.^[197] Jimi Hendrix^[198] and heavy rock and metal acts like Black Sabbath,^[199] Living Colour,^[200] Simon Phillips,^[201] Mike Portnoy,^[202] Warren DeMartini,^[203] Alex Skolnick,^[204] Steve Vai,^[205] Strapping Young Lad,^[206] System of a Down,^[207] and Clawfinger^[208] have acknowledged Zappa as inspiration. On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich,^[209] Meridian Arts Ensemble,^[210] Ensemble Ambrosius^[211] and the Fireworks Ensemble^[212] regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence. Contemporary jazz musicians and composers Bobby Sanabria, Bill Frisell^[213] and John Zorn^[214] are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend George Clinton.^[215]

Other artists affected by Zappa include ambient composer Brian Eno,^[216]^[217] new age pianist George Winston,^[218] electronic composer Bob Gluck,^[219] parodist artist and disk jockey Dr. Demento,^[220] parodist and novelty composer "Weird Al" Yankovic,^[221] industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge,^[222] singer Cree Summer,^[223]^[224] noise music artist Masami Akita of Merzbow,^[225] the Italian pianist Stefano Bollani,^[226]^[227] the Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese^[228]^[229]^[230] and Chilean composer Cristián Crisosto from Fulano and Mediabanda.^[231]^[232]^[233]

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".^[234]

In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named a genus of gobiid fishes of New Guinea Zappa, with a species named Zappa confluentus.^[235] Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a Californian jellyfish Phialella zappai (1987), noting that he had "pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer".^[236]

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".^[237]

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".^[238] Repeating regions of the genome of the human tumor virus KSHV were named frnk, vnct and zppa in 1996 by Yuan Chang and Patrick S. Moore who discovered the virus. Also, a 143 base pair repeat sequence occurring at two positions was named waka/jwka.^[239] 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".^[240]

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.^[241] The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ladislav Brožek, 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".^[242] In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital 54°40′59″N 25°16′33″E / 54.683°N 25.2759°E / 54.683; 25.2759. The choice of Zappa was explained as "a symbol that would mark the end of communism, but at the same time express that it wasn't always doom and gloom."^[148] 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 U.S. Senate—a ceremony dedicating the replica was held, and the bust was unveiled at a library in the city.^[243]^[244]

In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German city Bad Doberan, location of the Zappanale since 1990, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa.^[245] At the initiative of musicians community ORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in the Marzahn district "Frank-Zappa-Straße" in 2007.^[246] The same year, Baltimore 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.^[247]

Zappa documentary

The biographical documentary Zappa, directed by Alex Winter and released on November 27, 2020, includes previously unreleased footage from Zappa's personal vault, to which he was granted access by the Zappa Family Trust.^[248]^[249]

Discography

Main article: Frank Zappa discography

During his lifetime, Zappa released 62 albums. Since 1994, the Zappa Family Trust has released 64 posthumous albums, making a total of 126 albums.^[250] The distributor of Zappa's recorded output is Universal Music Enterprises.^[251] In June 2022, the Zappa Trust announced that it had sold Zappa's entire catalog to Universal Music, including master tapes, song copyrights and trademarks.^[252]

Tour

Tour and the relative video:

1971 – The Mothers Of Invention (January 28, 1971, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels)
1972 – "Grand Wazoo"
1973 – The Mothers Of Invention
1974 – 10th Anniversary Tour (August 27, 1974, Hollywood – A Token Of His Extreme)
1975 – "Bongo Fury"
1976 – World Tour
1977 – "Sheik Yerbouti" (October 31, 1977, New York – The Palladium – Baby Snakes)
1978 – World Tour
1979 – European Tour
1980 – Spring-Summer Tour
1981 – US-Canada Tour (October 31, 1981, New York – The Palladium – The Torture Never Stops)
1982 – Europe Tour
1984 – 20th Anniversary World Tour (August 25, 1984, New York – The Pier – Does Humor Belong In Music?)
1988 – The Last Tour

Timeline of videos with tour:

Notes

^ Until discovering his birth certificate as an adult, Zappa believed he had been christened "Francis Vincent Zappa" after his father, and he is credited as Francis on some of his early albums. The name on his birth certificate however is "Frank", not "Francis".^[1]^: 15
^ "My ancestry is Sicilian, Greek, Arab and French. My mother's mother was French and Sicilian, and her Dad was Italian (from Naples). She was first generation. The Greek-Arab side is from my Dad. He was born in a Sicilian village called Partinico ..."^[1]^: 15
^ On several of his earlier albums, Zappa paid tribute to Varèse by quoting his: "The present-day composer refuses to die."^[17]
^ The initial orchestra-only recordings were released posthumously on the box set Lumpy Money (2009). See Dolan, Casey (2008-12-08). "The Resurrection of Frank Zappa's Soul". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
^ As the legal aspects of using the Sgt. Pepper concept were unsettled, the album was released with the cover and back on the inside of the gatefold, while the actual cover and back were a picture of the group in a pose parodying the inside of the Beatles album.^[11]^: 151
^ During the June 1971 Fillmore concerts Zappa was joined on stage by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This performance was recorded, and Lennon released excerpts on his album Some Time in New York City in 1972. Zappa later released his version of excerpts from the concert on Playground Psychotics in 1992, including the jam track "Scumbag" and an extended avant-garde vocal piece by Ono (originally called "Au"), which Zappa renamed "A Small Eternity with Yoko Ono.
^ When the music was first released on CD in 1991, Zappa chose to re-release the four individual albums.^[32]^: 49 In the liner notes to the 1996 release, Gail Zappa states that "As originally conceived by Frank, Läther was always a 4-record box set."
^ For a comprehensive comparison of vinyl and CD releases, see "The Frank Zappa Album Versions Guide – Index". The Zappa Patio. lukpac.org/~handmade/patio. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ It brought him a posthumous Grammy Award (with Gail Zappa) for Best Recording Package – Boxed in 1994. "Grammy Winners". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
^ Among his many musical satires are the 1967 songs "Flower Punk" (which parodies the song "Hey Joe") and "Who Needs the Peace Corps?", which are critiques of the late-Sixties commercialization of the hippie phenomenon.^[117]
^ In the process, he built up a vast archive of live recordings. In the late 1980s some of these recordings were collected for the 12-CD set You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore.
^ He considered such campaigns as yuppie inventions and noted that "Some people like garlic. ... I like pepper, tobacco and coffee. That's my metabolism."^[1]^{: 234–235} and once described tobacco as his "favorite vegetable."^[138]
^ "Politically, I consider myself to be a (don't laugh) 'Practical Conservative'. I want a smaller, less intrusive government, and lower taxes. What? You too?"^[1]^: 315
^ "CAN was formed by ex-student of Stockhausen Irmin Schmidt, who, fired by the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa abandoned his career in classic music to form a group which could utilise and transcend all boundaries of ethnic, electronic experimental and modern classical music." "CAN – The Lost Tapes". Spoon Records..
^ "The group is very influenced by Capt. Beefheart and Frank Zappa. The roots of Pere Ubu lie in a comedy cover band called Rocket from the Tombs ..."George Gimarc (1994). Punk Diary: 1970–1979. Vintage. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-09-952211-9..

References

Bibliography

Day, Nancy (2001). Censorship: Or Freedom of Expression?. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, Lerner Publications. ISBN 978-0-8225-2628-5.
Delville, Michel; Norris, Andrew (2005). Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism. Oxford: Salt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84471-059-1.
DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James with Holly George-Warren, eds. (1992). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. Jim Miller (Original Editor) (3rd ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-73728-5.
Gray, Michael (1984). Mother! Is the Story of Frank Zappa. London: Proteus Books. ISBN 978-0-86276-146-2.
James, Billy (2000). Necessity Is ...: The Early Years of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. London: SAF Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-946719-51-8.
Lowe, Kelly Fisher (2006). The Words and Music of Frank Zappa. Westport: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-275-98779-4.
Martin, Bill (2002). Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Björk. Peru, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8126-9500-7.
MacDonald, Ian (1994). Revolution in the head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Fourth Estate Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85702-099-1.
Miles, Barry (2004). Frank Zappa. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-84354-092-2.
Schröder, Daniel (2017). Frank Zappa: The Composer. Darmstadt: Büchner-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-941310-85-8.
Slaven, Neil (2003). Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-9436-2.
Sparks, Michael (1982). Cocaine Fiends and Reefer Madness: An Illustrated History of Drugs in the Movies. New York: Cornwall Books. ISBN 978-0-8453-4504-7.
Walley, David (1980). No Commercial Potential. The Saga of Frank Zappa. Then and Now. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-93153-9.
Watson, Ben (1996). Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-14124-0.
Watson, Ben (2005). Frank Zappa. The Complete Guide to His Music. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84449-865-9.
Zappa, Frank; Occhiogrosso, Peter (1989). The Real Frank Zappa Book. New York: Poseidon Press. ISBN 978-0-671-63870-2.
"Frank Zappa". The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. 1993. ISBN 978-0-684-81044-7.

External links

More

Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention

Official releases
(1966–1993)

1960s	Freak Out! Absolutely Free We're Only in It for the Money Lumpy Gravy Cruising with Ruben & the Jets Mothermania Uncle Meat Hot Rats
1970s	Burnt Weeny Sandwich Weasels Ripped My Flesh Chunga's Revenge Fillmore East – June 1971 200 Motels Just Another Band from L.A. Waka/Jawaka The Grand Wazoo Over-Nite Sensation Apostrophe (') Roxy & Elsewhere One Size Fits All Bongo Fury Zoot Allures Zappa in New York Studio Tan Sleep Dirt Sheik Yerbouti Orchestral Favorites Joe's Garage Act I Joe's Garage Acts II & III
1980s	Tinsel Town Rebellion Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar You Are What You Is Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch The Man from Utopia Baby Snakes London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger Them or Us Francesco Zappa Thing-Fish The Old Masters, Box I Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention Does Humor Belong in Music? The Old Masters, Box II Jazz from Hell London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II The Old Masters, Box III Guitar You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 Broadway the Hard Way You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3
1990s	The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life Make a Jazz Noise Here You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 Playground Psychotics Ahead of Their Time The Yellow Shark

Posthumous
official releases

1990s	Civilization Phaze III The Lost Episodes Läther Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute Have I Offended Someone? Mystery Disc Everything Is Healing Nicely
2000s	FZ:OZ Halloween Joe's Corsage QuAUDIOPHILIAc Joe's Domage Joe's XMASage Imaginary Diseases Trance-Fusion The MOFO Project/Object (Fazedooh) The MOFO Project/Object Buffalo The Dub Room Special! Wazoo One Shot Deal Joe's Menage The Lumpy Money Project/Object Philly '76
2010s	Greasy Love Songs "Congress Shall Make No Law..." Hammersmith Odeon Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison Carnegie Hall Understanding America Road Tapes, Venue #1 Finer Moments AAAFNRAA: Baby Snakes – The Compleat Soundtrack Road Tapes, Venue #2 A Token of His Extreme Soundtrack Joe's Camouflage Roxy by Proxy Dance Me This 200 Motels: The Suites Roxy the Soundtrack Road Tapes, Venue #3 The Crux of the Biscuit Frank Zappa for President ZAPPAtite: Frank Zappa's Tastiest Tracks Meat Light: The Uncle Meat Project/Object Audio Documentary Chicago '78 Little Dots Halloween 77 The Roxy Performances Zappa in New York 40th Anniversary Orchestral Favorites 40th Anniversary Halloween 73 The Hot Rats Sessions
2020s	The Mothers 1970 Halloween 81 Halloween 81 Highlights Zappa - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition The Mothers 1971 Zappa/Erie Zappa '75: Zagreb/Ljubljana Waka/Wazoo Zappa '80: Mudd Club/Munich Funky Nothingness Over-Nite Sensation 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition

Miscellaneous

Compilations	The *** of the Mothers* Strictly Commercial: The Best of Frank Zappa Strictly Genteel: A "Classical" Introduction to Frank Zappa Cucamonga Cheap Thrills Son of Cheep Thrills

Birthday Bundle series	2006 2008 2010 2011

Singles

Other
compositions

"Absolutely Free"
"Advance Romance"
"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary"
"America Drinks & Goes Home"
"Are You Hung Up?"
"Billy the Mountain"
"The Black Page"
"Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
"Camarillo Brillo"
"Cheepnis"
"Duodenum"
"Father O'Blivion"
"Help, I'm a Rock"
"G-Spot Tornado"
"I Have Been in You"
"Inca Roads"
"Jewish Princess"
"Let's Make the Water Turn Black"
"A Little Green Rosetta"
"Memories of El Monte"
"Montana"
"Muffin Man"
"Nanook Rubs It"
"Plastic People"
"The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"
"Rollo"
"Sleep Dirt"
"St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast"
"Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance"
"A Token of My Extreme"
"The Torture Never Stops"
"Uncle Remus"
"Watermelon in Easter Hay"
"Who Needs the Peace Corps?"
"Willie the Pimp"
"Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station"

Filmography

200 Motels
Baby Snakes
The Dub Room Special
Does Humor Belong in Music?
Video from Hell
Uncle Meat
The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels
The Amazing Mr. Bickford

Relatives

Influence

Ruben and the Jets
Rubén Guevara Tony Duran Robert "Frog" Camarena John Martinez Robert "Buffalo" Roberts Bill Wild Bob Zamora Jim Sherwood Ray Collins Frank Zappa Roy Estrada Jimmy Carl Black Arthur Dyer Tripp III Ian Underwood Don Preston Bunk Gardner
Studio albums	Cruising with Ruben & the Jets For Real! Con Safos
Related articles	Frank Zappa The Mothers of Invention
Category

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Class of 1995
Performers	The Allman Brothers Band Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks Al Green Janis Joplin Led Zeppelin John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Martha and the Vandellas Rosalind Ashford, Annette Beard, Betty Kelly, Lois Reeves, Martha Reeves, Sandra Tilley Neil Young Frank Zappa
Early influences	The Orioles Tommy Gaither, George Nelson, Johnny Reed, Alexander Sharp, Sonny Til
Non-performers (Ahmet Ertegun Award)	Paul Ackerman

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