Frank Vincent Zappa[nb 1] (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, songwriter, electric guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker and activist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composedrock,pop,jazz,jazz fusion,orchestral andmusique concrète works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his bandthe Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.[2] His work, which predominantly featureselectric guitar work, is characterized bynonconformity,improvisation[3] sound experimentation,musical virtuosity andsatire of American culture.[4] Zappa also directed feature-length films andmusic 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 classicalmodernism, African-Americanrhythm and blues, anddoo-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 but seemingly conventionalrock-and-roll songs with extended sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach throughout his career.
Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas and characters reappearing throughout 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" ofcomedy rock.[8]
Zappa was a highly productive and prolific musician with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth.[11] He had greater commercial success outside the U.S., particularly in Europe. Though he worked as anindependent artist, Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the majorrecord labels. He remains a major influence on musicians. His many honors include his posthumous 1995 induction into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, inBaltimore, Maryland, to Rose Marie (née Colimore) and Francis Vincent Zappa. He was predominantly of Sicilian descent but also had Greek, Arab and French ancestors.[nb 2]
The eldest of four children, he was raised in an Italian-American household where Italian was often spoken by his grandparents.[1]: 6 [12] The family moved often because his father, achemist and mathematician, worked in the defense industry. After a time inFlorida in the 1940s, the family returned toMaryland, where Zappa's father worked at theEdgewood Arsenalchemical warfare facility of theAberdeen Proving Ground run by theU.S. Army. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which storedmustard 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.[13]: 8–9
Zappa's father often broughtmercury-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.[14]
Zappa was often sick as a child, suffering fromasthma,earaches andsinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet ofradium 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.[13]: 10
Nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaboratorCal 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 [13]: 10 In 1952, his family relocated for reasons of health toMonterey, California, where his father taughtmetallurgy at theNaval Postgraduate School.[1]: 22 They soon moved to theSan Diego neighborhood ofClairemont,[15]: 46 and then to the nearby city ofEl Cajon, before finally returning to San Diego.[16]
Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening toLightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ..., orWebern, orVarèse, orStravinsky. To me it was all good music.
At the age of 12, Zappa started learningdrum 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 atMission Bay High School in San Diego as a drummer.[1]: 29 At about the same time, his parents bought aphonograph, which allowed him to develop his interest in music, and to begin building his record collection.[13]: 22 According toThe 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 asIgor Stravinsky,Anton Webern andEdgard Varèse."[7]
R&B singles were early purchases for Zappa, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life.[13]: 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[17] when he read aLOOK magazine article about theSam Goody record store chain that lauded its ability to sell an LP as obscure asThe Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One.[1]: 30–33 The article described Varèse's percussion compositionIonisation, produced byEMS 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, especiallyPuccini's opera arias.
Zappa's senior yearbook photo, 1958
By 1956, the Zappa family had moved toLancaster, a smallaerospace and farming town in theAntelope Valley of theMojave Desert close toEdwards Air Force Base; he would later refer to Sun Village (a town close to Lancaster) in the 1973 track "Village of the Sun".[18] 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 thecomposer'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.[17][nb 3]
AtAntelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Glen Vliet (who later changed his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage nameCaptain Beefheart). Zappa and Vliet became close friends, sharing an interest in R&B records and influencing each other musically throughout their careers.[15]: 29–30 Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, the Blackouts.[20]: 13 The band was racially diverse and includedEuclid 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 wereJohnny "Guitar" Watson,Howlin' Wolf andClarence "Gatemouth" Brown. In the 1970s/1980s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums. Zappa considered soloing the equivalent of forming "air sculptures",[21] and developed an eclectic, innovative and highly personal style.[22] He was also influenced by Egyptian composerHalim El-Dabh.[23]
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.[13]: 40 He graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1958, and later acknowledged two of his music teachers on the sleeve of the 1966 albumFreak Out![24]: 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.[13]: 48 In 1959, he attendedChaffey 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.[13]: 345 While in college, Zappa metTerry Kirkman and played gigs at localcoffee houses with him.[25]
Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment inEcho Park, Los Angeles. After he met Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman during his short period of private composition study with Prof.Karl Kohn ofPomona College, they moved in together inOntario,[26][27] and were married December 28, 1960.[13]: 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 [28] 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.
Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of the Blackouts.[13]: 59 Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget filmsThe World's Greatest Sinner (1962) andRun Home, Slow (1965) were more financially rewarding. The former score was commissioned by actor-producerTimothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records.[13]: 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.[13]: 55 Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous albumThe Lost Episodes (1996).
During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriterRay Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their "Memories of El Monte" was recorded bythe Penguins, although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured.[29] Buff owned the smallPal Recording Studio inCucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios hadmulti-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.[13]: 74 In March of that same year Zappa appeared onSteve Allen's syndicated late night show playing a bicycle as a musicalinstrument[30][31]: 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 byDot Records. Later, the Mothers were also rejected byColumbia Records for having "no commercial potential", a verdict Zappa subsequently quoted on the sleeve ofFreak Out![20]: 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 withoverdubbing andaudio 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 withArt Laboe atOriginal Sound. It was renamed Studio Z.[13]: 80–81 Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood.[13]: 82–83 Zappa started performing in local bars as a guitarist with apower trio, the Muthers, to support himself.[20]: 26
An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was makingpornographic films.[13]: 85 In March 1965, Zappa was approached by avice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 (equivalent to $1,000 in 2024) to produce a suggestive audio tape for an allegedbachelor 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.[13]: 85 The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day'sThe 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".[32] Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography".[1]: 57 Thisfelony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on amisdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended.[13]: 86–87 His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was central to the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance.[13]: xv Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police returned only 30 of 80 hours of tape seized.[13]: 87 Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted.[31]: 40 Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.[13]: 90–91
By April 1965,Ray Collins, one of Zappa's friends during the early Studio Z days, was the singer of an R&B band called the Soul Giants, based inPomona, California. That month, he asked Zappa to take over as guitarist in the Soul Giants, following a fight between Collins and the group's original guitarist.[12] Zappa accepted, and soon assumed leadership and the role as co-lead singer (even though he never considered himself a singer, then or later[33]). 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 - comprising Zappa, Collins,Roy Estrada, andJimmy Carl Black - debuted at the Broadside Club and was renamed the Mothers since this gig took place on May 10, 1965 – Mother's Day.[15]: 42 They increased their bookings after beginning an association with managerHerb Cohen, and gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angelesunderground music scene.[24]: 58 In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producerTom Wilson when playing "Trouble Every Day", a song about theWatts riots.[13]: 103 Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer forBob Dylan andSimon & 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 theVerve division ofMGM, 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 themselvesthe Mothers of Invention asMother was short formotherfucker—a term that, apart from its profane meanings, can denote a skilled musician.[34] Under Zappa's leadership, the Mothers' lineup would be ever-changing during their time together, with members including Collins, Estrada, Black,Elliot Ingber, brothersBunk andBuzz Gardner,Don Preston,Billy Mundi,Jim Fielder,Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood,Ian Underwood,Art Tripp, andLowell George.
With Wilson credited as producer, the Mothers of Invention, augmented by a studio orchestra, recorded the groundbreakingFreak Out! (1966), which, after Bob Dylan'sBlonde on Blonde, was the second rockdouble album ever released. It mixed R&B,doo-wop,musique concrète,[35]: 25 and experimentalsound collages that captured the "freak" subculture of Los Angeles at that time.[24]: 60–61 Although he was dissatisfied with the final product,Freak Out immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to the "relentless consumer culture of America".[13]: 115 The sound was raw, but the arrangements were sophisticated. While recording in the studio, some of the additionalsession musicians were shocked that they were expected to read the notes on sheet music fromcharts with Zappa conducting them, since it was not standard when recording rock music.[13]: 112 The lyrics praised non-conformity, disparaged authorities, and haddadaist elements. Yet, there was a place for seemingly conventional love songs.[36]: 10–11 Most compositions are Zappa's, which set a precedent for the rest of his recording career. He had full control over the arrangements and musical decisions and did mostoverdubs. Wilson provided the industry clout and connections and was able to provide the group with the financial resources needed.[13]: 123 Although Wilson was able to provide Zappa and the Mothers with an extraordinary degree of artistic freedom for the time, the recording did not go entirely as planned. In a 1967 radio interview, Zappa explained that the album's outlandish 11-minute closing track, "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" was not finished. The track as it appears on the album was only a backing track for a much more complex piece, but MGM refused to allow the additional recording time needed for completion. Much to Zappa's chagrin, it was issued in its unfinished state.[37]
During the recording ofFreak Out!, Zappa moved into a house inLaurel Canyon with friend Pamela Zarubica, who appeared on the album.[13]: 112 The house became a meeting (and living) place for many LA musicians andgroupies of the time, despite Zappa's disapproval of their illicit drug use.[13]: 122 After a short promotional tour following the release ofFreak Out!, Zappa metAdelaide Gail Sloatman. He fell in love within "a couple of minutes", and she moved into the house over the summer.[1]: 65–66 They married in 1967, had four children and remained together until Zappa's death.
Wilson nominally produced the Mothers' second albumAbsolutely Free (1967), which was recorded in November 1966, and latermixed in New York, although by this time Zappa was inde facto control of most facets of the production. It featured extended playing by the Mothers of Invention and focused on songs that defined Zappa's compositional style of introducing abrupt rhythm changes into songs that were built from diverse elements.[35]: 5 Examples are "Plastic People" and "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", which contained lyrics that lampooned the hypocrisy and conformity of American society, but also of thecounterculture of the 1960s.[35]: 38–43 As Zappa put it, "[W]e're satirists, and we are out to satirize everything."[13]: 135–138 At this time, Zappa had also recorded material for an album of orchestral works to be released under his own name,Lumpy Gravy, to be released byCapitol Records in 1967. Due to contractual problems, the album was held back. Zappa took the opportunity to radically restructure the material, adding newly recorded improvised dialogue. After the contractual problems were resolved,a new album of the same name was issued by Verve in 1968.[13]: 140–141 It is an "incredible ambitious musical project",[35]: 56 a "monument toJohn Cage",[24]: 86 which intertwines orchestral themes, spoken words and electronic noises through radicalaudio editing techniques.[35]: 56 [38][nb 4]
The Mothers of Invention played in New York in late 1966 and were offered a contract at theGarrick Theater (at 152Bleecker Street, above theCafe au Go Go) during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year.[39]: 62–69 As a result, Zappa and his wife Gail, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York.[13]: 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.[13]: 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, filmmakerEd Seeman paid Zappa $2,000 to produce music for aLuden's cough drops television commercial.[40] Zappa's music was matched with Seeman's animation and the advertisement won aClio Award for "Best Use of Sound".[41][42] An alternate version of the soundtrack, called "The Big Squeeze", later appeared on Zappa's posthumous 1996 albumThe 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).[43] 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 thehippie andflower power phenomena.[24]: 90 [36]: 15 He sampled surf music from his Studio Z days in the audio collageNasal Retentive Caliope Music. The cover photo parodied that ofthe Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[nb 5] The cover art was provided byCal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a lifelong collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.[20]: 88
Zappa (back) with the Mothers, 1968
Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album,Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection ofdoo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute.[35]: 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'sThe Rite of Spring is sung in "Fountain of Love".
In 1967 and 1968, Zappa made two appearances withthe Monkees. The first appearance was on an episode oftheir TV series, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds", where Zappa, dressed up asMike 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' movieHead where, leading a cow, he tellsDavy Jones "the youth of America depends on you to show them the way." Zappa respected the Monkees and attempted to recruitMicky Dolenz to the Mothers but RCA/Columbia/Colgems would not release Dolenz from his contract.[13]: 158–159
During the late 1960s, Zappa continued to develop the business side of his career. He and Herb Cohen formed theBizarre andStraight labels to increase creative control and produce recordings by other artists. These labels were distributed in the US byWarner Bros. Records. Zappa/Mothers recordings appeared on Bizarre along withWild Man Fischer andLenny Bruce.[13]: 173–175 Straight released the double albumTrout Mask Replica forCaptain Beefheart, and releases byAlice Cooper,The Persuasions, andthe GTOs. The Mothers' first album on Bizarre was 1969'sUncle 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 theUncle 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.[44]
Zappa and the Mothers on stage in Hamburg, October 1968
During the Mothers' second European tour in September/October 1968, they performed for the Internationale Essener Songtage at theGrugahalle inEssen, Germany; at theTivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark; for TV programs in Germany (Beat-Club), France, and England; at theConcertgebouw in Amsterdam; at theRoyal Festival Hall in London; and at theOlympia in Paris.[45]
Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in mid-1968; the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to Woodrow Wilson Drive.[13]: 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.[24]: 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".[13]: 185–187 [15]: 119–120
In 1969, there were nine band members and Zappa was supporting the group from his publishingroyalties whether they played or not.[24]: 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.[15]: 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.[13]: 185–187 Others were irritated by 'hisautocratic ways',[13]: 123 exemplified by Zappa's never staying at the same hotel as the band members.[13]: 116 Several members would play with Zappa again in subsequent years, while Lowell George and Roy Estrada went on to form the bandLittle Feat. Zappa assembled remaining unreleased recordings of the band on the albumsBurnt Weeny Sandwich andWeasels Ripped My Flesh, both released in 1970.
After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo albumHot Rats (1969).[13]: 194 [47] 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.[35]: 74 He was backed by jazz, blues and R&B session players including violinistDon "Sugarcane" Harris, drummersJohn Guerin andPaul Humphrey, multi-instrumentalist and former Mothers of Invention member Ian Underwood, and multi-instrumentalistShuggie Otis on bass, along with a guest appearance byCaptain 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 ofjazz-rock fusion.[13]: 194 [35]: 74
In 1970, Zappa met conductorZubin Mehta. They arranged a May 1970 concert where Mehta conducted theLos 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 movie200 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"). Along with Ian Underwood, the new band also included British drummerAynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardistGeorge Duke, bassistJeff Simmons, and the two lead singers ofthe Turtles,Mark Volman andHoward Kaylan, who, due to persistent legal and contractual problems, adopted the stage name "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie" or "Flo & Eddie" for short.[13]: 201 Another member of the Turtles,Jim Pons, would join on bass in February 1971, following Simmons' departure the previous month and his brief replacement by Martin Lickert.
This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo albumChunga's Revenge (1970),[13]: 205 which was followed bythe double-album soundtrack to the movie200 Motels (1971), featuring the Mothers, theRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra,Ringo Starr,Theodore Bikel, andKeith Moon. Co-directed by Zappa andTony Palmer, it was filmed in a week atPinewood Studios outside London.[20]: 183 Tensions between Zappa and several cast and crew members arose before and during shooting.[20]: 183 The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician.[13]: 207 It was the first feature film photographed onvideotape and transferred to35 mm film, a process that allowed for novel visual effects.[48] It was released to mixed reviews.[35]: 94 The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at theRoyal 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
After200 Motels, the band went on tour, which resulted in two live albums,Fillmore East – June 1971 andJust 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 on200 Motels scenes, as well as new situations that often portrayed the band members' sexual encounters on the road.[13]: 203–204 [nb 6]
On December 4, 1971, Zappa suffered his first of two serious setbacks. While performing atCasino 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 Deep Purple were booked to record in the casino after Zappa's performance, and wrote about the incident in their 1972 song "Smoke on the Water". A recording of the incident and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg albumSwiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa'sBeat the Boots II box set. After losing $50,000 (equivalent to $388,000 in 2024) worth of equipment and a week's break, the Mothers played at theRainbow 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.[49] 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 crushedlarynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop athird after healing.[1]: 112–115 A recording of the whole concert, including the attack, was released on the posthumous albumThe Mothers 1971 in 2022.
Zappa on Stage in Hamburg, December 1971
After the attack, Zappa needed to use a wheelchair for an extended period; this made 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 1972, Zappa released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs,Waka/Jawaka andThe Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the forced layoff from concert touring, using floating line-ups of session players and Mothers alumni.[35]: 101 Musically, the albums were akin toHot Rats, in that they featured extended instrumental tracks with extended soloing.[13]: 225–226 Zappa began touring again in late 1972.[13]: 225–226 His first effort was a series of concerts in September 1972 with a 20-piecebig 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.[50]
In December 1972,[51] David Walley published the first biography of Zappa, titledNo 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".[52] Despite Zappa's complaints, the book was later published in an updated edition in 1980[24] and again in 1996 after Zappa's death.
By 1973, the Bizarre and Straight labels were discontinued. Zappa and Cohen then createdDiscReet, also distributed by Warner.[13]: 231 Zappa continued a high rate of production through the first half of the 1970s, including the albumApostrophe (') (1974), which reached a career-high No. 10 on theBillboard pop album charts[53] helped by the No. 86 chart hit "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow".[54] Other albums from the period areOver-Nite Sensation (1973), which contained several future concert favourites such as "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana", as well asRoxy & Elsewhere (1974) andOne Size Fits All (1975), which are notable for the tight renditions of highly difficultjazz fusion songs in such pieces as "Inca Roads", "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)".[35]: 114–122 A live recording from 1974,You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988), captures "the full spirit and excellence of the 1973–1975 band".[35]: 114–122
In April 1975 Zappa complained about ongoing contractual problems between DiscReet and Warner.[55] He releasedBongo Fury (1975), which featured a live recording at theArmadillo World Headquarters in Austin from a tour the same year that reunited him withCaptain Beefheart for a brief period.[13]: 248 They later became estranged for a period of years, but were in contact at the end of Zappa's life.[13]: 372
In 1976, Zappa produced the albumGood Singin', Good Playin' forGrand Funk Railroad. His relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in May 1976.[56] After Cohen cashed one of Zappa's royalty checks from Warner and kept the money for himself, Zappa sued Cohen.[57] Zappa was also upset with Cohen for signing acts he did not approve.[13]: 250 [58] Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money the pair were expecting to receive from an out-of-court settlement withMGM/Verve over the rights to Zappa's earlyMothers of Invention recordings. The MGM settlement was finalized in mid-1977 after two years of negotiations.[59] 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 albumZoot Allures (1976) directly to Warner, while bypassing DiscReet.[13]: 253, 258–259 Following the split with Cohen, Zappa hired Bennett Glotzer as new manager.[60]
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.[61] 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 andOrchestral Favorites.[58] 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.[62] 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 guitaristPunky Meadows. Following the split with Warner, Zappa reconfigured the four disputed albums, along with some other material, into a quadruple album calledLäther (pronounced "leather") and negotiated distribution withPhonogram Inc. for release on the newZappa Records label.Läther was scheduled for release onHalloween 1977, but legal action from Warner forced Zappa to shelve this project.[13]: 261
In December 1977, Zappa appeared on thePasadena, California radio stationKROQ-FM and played the entireLäther album, while encouraging listeners to make tape recordings of the broadcast.[15]: 248 The album integrates 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 posthumously 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.[13]: 267 [nb 7] Gail Zappa claimed in 1996 thatLäther was Zappa's original intention.[63][64] 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."[65]
Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner contracts,[36]: 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.[13]: 261 DrummerTerry Bozzio became a regular band member, Napoleon Murphy Brock stayed on for a while, and original Mothers of Invention bassistRoy Estrada joined. Among other musicians were bassistPatrick O'Hearn, singer-guitaristRay White and formerRoxy Music keyboardist/violinistEddie Jobson. In December 1976, Zappa appeared as a featured musical guest on theNBC television showSaturday Night Live.[13]: 262 Zappa's song "I'm the Slime" was performed with a voice-over bySNL booth announcerDon 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 memberJohn Belushi during the instrumental piece "The Purple Lagoon". Belushi appeared as hisSamurai Futaba character playing the tenor sax with Zappa conducting.[66] 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).[67]
Zappa in Toronto, 1977
Zappa's band had a series of Christmas shows in New York City in 1976, recordings of which appear onZappa in New York andLäther. The band included Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuringMichael andRandy Brecker). It mixes complex instrumentals such as "The Black Page" and humorous songs like "Titties and Beer".[35]: 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.[68][69]
Zappa in New York also featured a song about sex criminalMichael 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,[35]: 132 leading to many critics objecting and being offended by the content.[35]: 134 [35]: 261–262 Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was acting as a "journalist" reporting on life as he saw it.[13]: 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?"[33] The remaining albums released by Warner without Zappa's approval wereStudio Tan in 1978 andSleep Dirt andOrchestral Favorites in 1979. These releases were not promoted and were largely overlooked in the midst of the press about Zappa's legal problems.[35]: 138 The 1991 CD releases of these albums marked the first time they were issued with Zappa's full approval.[70]
Zappa released two of his most important projects in 1979. The double LPSheik Yerbouti appeared in March and was the first release on Zappa Records. It became the best-selling album of his career.[71] The album contained theGrammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached No. 45 on theBillboard charts.[72] It also contained "Jewish Princess", which received attention when theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its allegedantisemitic lyrics.[13]: 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."[73] The album's commercial success was attributable in part to "Bobby Brown". Due to its explicit lyrics, 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.[20]: 351
Joe's Garage has been described as a "bona fide masterpiece".[35]: 140 The project initially had to be released in two parts due to economic conditions.[74] The first was a single LPJoe's Garage Act I in September 1979, followed by a double LPJoe's Garage Acts II and III in November 1979. The story features singerIke Willis as the lead character in arock opera about the danger ofpolitical systems,[35]: 140 the suppression offreedom of speech and music—inspired in part by the 1979IslamicIranian revolution that had made music illegal[13]: 277 —and about the "strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness".[35]: 140 TheAct I album reached number 27 on theBillboard 200 chart. It contains the song "Catholic Girls" (ariposte to the controversies of "Jewish Princess")[36]: 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 asxenochrony. The band included drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly strong musical rapport)[1]: 180 Included is one of Zappa's guitar "signature pieces", "Watermelon in Easter Hay".[36]: 61 [75] In 1987, all three acts were reissued together as a 3-LP and 2-CD set.
Zappa had been known for his long hair since the mid-1960s, but he had Gail cut it short around August 1979.[74] That autumn he cancelled tour plans to stay home with newborn daughter Diva, and celebrate the birthdays of children Moon and Dweezil in September.[76] At this time Zappa also completed theUtility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house,[77] thereby giving him complete freedom in his work.[13]: 269
On December 21, 1979, Zappa's movieBaby Snakes premiered in New York City. He described it as "A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal".[78] The 2 hour and 40 minute movie has footage from concerts in New York around Halloween 1977, with a band featuring keyboardistTommy Mars and percussionistEd Mann (who would both return on later tours) as well as guitaristAdrian Belew. It also contained several extraordinary sequences ofclay animation byBruce Bickford who had earlier provided animation sequences to Zappa for a 1974 TV special (which became available on the 1982 videoThe Dub Room Special).[13]: 282 The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution,[79] but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981.[13]: 282
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.[80] The single was released independently by Zappa in the United States and was picked up by CBS Records internationally.[81]
After spending much of 1980 on the road, Zappa releasedTinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his ownBarking Pumpkin Records,[35]: 161 and featured live recordings from 1979 and 1980, as well as a new studio track, "Fine Girl". The album is a mixture of complicated instrumentals and Zappa's use ofsprechstimme (speaking song or voice)—a compositional technique utilized by such composers asArnold Schoenberg andAlban Berg—showcasing some of the most accomplished bands Zappa ever had (mostly featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta).[35]: 161 While some lyrics still raised controversy among critics, some of whom found them sexist,[13]: 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".[35]: 165 The album is also notable for the presence of guitaristSteve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in late 1980.[13]: 283
In 1981, Zappa also released three instrumental albums,Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar,Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, andThe Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, which were initially sold viamail order, but later released as one 3-LP set through CBS Records (nowSony Music Entertainment) due to popular demand.[82]
The albums consist entirely of tracks in which Zappa is featured as a guitar soloist, and they are predominantly live recordings from 1979 to 1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with "beautiful performances from the backing group as well".[83] 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.[84]
The same year, the double albumYou Are What You Is was released. The album mainly consisted of rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics directed at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy.[85] "Dumb All Over" is a tirade against religion, as is "Heavenly Bank Account", wherein Zappa rails againstTV evangelists such asJerry Falwell andPat Robertson for their purported influence on the U.S. administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money.[35]: 169–175 Songs like "Society Pages" and "I'm a Beautiful Guy" show Zappa's dismay with theReagan era and its "obscene pursuit of wealth and happiness".[35]: 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 fromMTV, though was later featured byMike Judge in theBeavis & Butthead episode "Canoe".[86] Also included is the guitar instrumental, "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear" which he adapted from a ballet performed with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in 1984.
In May 1982, Zappa releasedShip Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which featured his biggest selling single ever, theGrammy Award-nominated song "Valley Girl" (topping out at No. 32 on theBillboard charts).[72] In her improvised lyrics to the song, Zappa's daughterMoon satirized thepatois of teenage girls from theSan 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".[90]
A 1983 albumThe 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 onTinseltown 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 byKent Nagano and performed by theLondon 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. He drew particular attention to the performance of "Strictly Genteel", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track needed 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".[13]: 315 Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far.[91] In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra[92] for a live performance ofA 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 organizerThomas Wells to be the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers at theOhio State University. It was there Zappa delivered an address entitled "Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure",[93] and had two of his orchestra pieces, "Dupree's Paradise" and "Naval Aviation in Art?" performed by theColumbus Symphony Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus.[13]: 323 [94] Zappa's management relationship with Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984.[95] 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.[96]
In 1983, Zappa began using theSynclavier, an early digital synthesizer which over time became his primary 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 ... withone-millisecond accuracy—every time".[1]: 172–173 Even though it essentially did away with the need for musicians,[13]: 319 Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate.[1]: 172–173
In late 1984, he released four albums.The Perfect Stranger contains orchestral works commissioned and conducted by celebrated conductor, composer and pianistPierre Boulez (who was listed as an influence onFreak Out!), and performed by hisEnsemble 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.[36]: 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.
Them or Us is a two LP set of studio and live rock recordings. It includes a version of theAllman Brothers Band song "Whipping Post", and "Be in My Video", Zappa's satirical take on perceived visual clichés of theMTV channel.Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th-century composerFrancesco Zappa, was also released in 1984.[97]
The albumThing-Fish was an ambitious three-record set in the style of a Broadway play dealing with adystopian "what-if" scenario involving feminism, homosexuality, manufacturing and distribution of the AIDS virus, and aeugenics program conducted by the United States government.[98] New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; "the work is an extraordinary example ofbricolage".[99]
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.[100] 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."[101]
From 1983 to 1993, Barfko-Swill was run byGerry Fialka;[102] Fialka also worked for Zappa as archivist, production assistant, tour assistant, andfactotum,[103][104][105][106] and answered the phone for Zappa'sBarking Pumpkin Records hotline.[107][108] The 1987VHS release of Zappa's filmBaby Snakes includes, as an extra feature, Fialka giving a tour of Barfko-Swill. He is credited on-screen as "Gerald Fialka Cool Guy Who Wraps Stuff So It Doesn't Break".[109] A short clip of this tour is also included in the 2020 documentary filmZappa.
Starting in the mid-1980s, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings.[13]: 340 He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s albums for the new digital compact disc (CD) 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 toWe're Only in It for the Money,Cruising with Ruben & the Jets,Uncle Meat, andSleep Dirt being the most strongly criticized.[110] 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 albumJazz from Hell, released in 1986, earned Zappa his firstGrammy Award in 1988 forBest 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.[13]: 346–350 The tour was documented on the albumsBroadway 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 fromMaurice Ravel'sBoléro toLed Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"); andMake a Jazz Noise Here (a selection of Zappa's more instrumentally complex and jazz orientated material). An album of guitar solos from this tour also appeared as the posthumous 2006 albumTrance-Fusion, a follow-up to theShut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar andGuitar albums.
More recordings from the 1988 tour would appear as part ofYou Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, a series of six double CDs compiled by Zappa from unreleased live recordings, dating back to the earliest Mothers recordings from 1965. The six volumes were released between 1988 and 1992.
The Real Frank Zappa Book, co-written with Peter Occhiogrosso, was published byPoseidon Press in 1989. Zappa appeared on the TV interview showLarry King Live to promote it. He explained the title by saying he wrote it in response to previous unauthorized books, which he considered to be stupid and exploitative.[111]
In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with terminalprostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for years and was considered inoperable.[112][113] After the diagnosis, Zappa devoted most of his energy to modern orchestral andSynclavier works. Shortly before his death in 1993 he completedCivilization Phaze III, a major Synclavier work that he had begun in the 1980s.[13]: 374–375 [nb 9]
In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others wereJohn Cage,Karlheinz Stockhausen, andAlexander Knaifel).[114] Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensembleEnsemble 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.[13]: 369 Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for later in the year.[13]: 369 Zappa also performed in 1991 inPrague, 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".[115][116]
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 conductorPeter Rundel). Zappa received a 20-minute ovation.[13]: 371 "G-Spot Tornado" was performed with Canadian dancerLouise 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".[13]: 371 Recordings from the concerts appeared onThe Yellow Shark (1993), Zappa's last release during his lifetime, and some material from studio rehearsals appeared on the posthumousEverything Is Healing Nicely (1999).
On December 4, 1993, Zappa died fromprostate cancer at his home with his wife and children by his side. On December 6, his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 P.M. on Saturday".[15]: 320 He was buried at a private ceremony in a grave at theWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in Los Angeles. The grave remains unmarked and located just to the right of actorLew Ayres' grave. Zappa was 52 years old.[13]: 379–380 [36]: 552
Zappa grew up influenced byavant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern; 1950sblues artistsClarence "Gatemouth" Brown,Guitar Slim,Howlin' Wolf,Johnny "Guitar" Watson, andB.B. King;[124] Egyptian composerHalim El-Dabh;[23] R&B anddoo-wop groups (particularly localpachuco 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 ofunderground music and of his later distrustful and openly critical attitude towards "mainstream" social, political and musical movements. He frequently lampooned musical fads likepsychedelia,rock opera anddisco.[20]: 13 [nb 10] Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.[126]
In his bookThe Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa credited composerSpike 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."[127]
Zappa's albums make extensive use ofsegued tracks, breaklessly joining the elements of his albums.[128] 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.[13]: 160 [126]
Zappa is widely recognized as one of the most significant electric guitar soloists. In a 1983 issue ofGuitar 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."[129] 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 ofGuitar 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 smoothlegato technique, while Zappa's right was "one of the fastest pick hands in the business."[130] 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.[3]
His song "Outside Now" fromJoe'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.[131] 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."[132]
Zappa's guitar style was not without its critics. English guitarist and bandleaderJohn McLaughlin, whose bandMahavishnu 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."[133]
During recording sessions in New York in 1967, Zappa increasingly usedtape editing as a compositional tool.[13]: 160 A prime example is found on the double albumUncle Meat (1969),[39]: 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 precisetuning and timing, he was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and vice versa.[77] Later, he combined recordings of different compositions into new pieces, irrespective of thetempo ormeter of the sources. He dubbed this process "xenochrony" (strange synchronizations[137])—reffrom the Greek "xeno" (alien or strange) and "chronos" (time).[77]
Left to right: Simon Prentis (Zappa's "Semantic Scrutinizer"), Zappa, Zappa's production assistantGerry Fialka, and Zappa's second wife Gail outside Zappa's home recording studioUtility Muffin Research Kitchen in 1986. Prentis holds a preview cassette of the albumJazz From Hell that Fialka had just delivered for Zappa's approval.[138]
Zappa's parents were Francis Vincent Zappa and Rose Marie Zappa (née Colimore). Frank was the second of five children, preceded by his half-sister Ann and followed by his brothers Bobby and Carl and sister Patrice (also known as Candy).
Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1963. In 1967, he marriedAdelaide Gail Sloatman.[139][140] He and his second wife had four children:Moon (born 1967),Dweezil (born 1969),Ahmet (born 1974), andDiva (born 1979).[141] Moon and Ahmet sang on Frank's 1981 albumYou Are What You Is, while Moon also provided the "Valley girl" voice onthe song of the same name on 1982'sShip Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. The song became Frank's only US Top 40 hit single and is credited with popularizingvalspeak and valley girl culture, despite being intended by Frank and Moon as a parody and criticism of it.[142][143][144] An accomplished guitarist in his own right, Dweezil made several guest appearances on stage with Frank during the 1982, 1984, and 1988 tours, and Frank produced Dweezil's first albumHavin' a Bad Day in 1986.
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: 62 albums released during Zappa's lifetime and 70 posthumously as of October 2025. 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.[145] The original trust, signed by Frank and Gail in 1990, assured the four children would receive equal shares, but this was altered by Gail sometime after Frank's death.[146]
In the mid-1980s, Zappa learned of an obscure 18th century Italian composer and cellist namedFrancesco Zappa. Initially assuming him to be an ancestor, Frank recorded and released an album of Francesco's music,Francesco Zappa, in 1984. It was subsequently found that Frank and Francesco were not actually related, which Frank confirmed inThe Real Frank Zappa Book in 1989.
Zappa andDon Van Vliet met when they were both teenagers and shared an interest inrhythm and blues andChicago blues.[147] They collaborated from this early stage with Zappa's scripts for "teenage operettas", such as "Captain Beefheart & the Grunt People", with Vliet eventually adopting the Captain Beefheart name. The earliest known recording of either Zappa or Beefheart is a collaboration between them, "Lost in a Whirlpool", recorded around 1958/1959 and included on the posthumous Zappa albumThe Lost Episodes in 1996. In 1963, the pair recorded a demo at thePal Recording Studio in Cucamonga as the Soots, seeking support from a major label. Their efforts were unsuccessful, as Vliet'sHowlin' Wolf-influenced vocal style and Zappa's distorted guitar were "not on the agenda" at the time.[147] In 1965, while Zappa formed the Mothers of Invention, Beefheart assembled Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Their third album, 1969's critically acclaimedTrout Mask Replica, was produced by Zappa. That same year, Beefheart provided the vocal on "Willie the Pimp" on theHot Rats album. Beefheart also played the harmonica on "San Ber'dino" (credited as "Bloodshot Rollin' Red") onOne Size Fits All (1975) and "Find Her Finer" onZoot Allures (1976).[148]
Over the years, Zappa and Beefheart's friendship was sometimes complicated by rivalry, as musicians drifted back and forth between their groups. Beefheart joined Zappa's band on the early 1975 tour, documented on theBongo Fury album,[149] mainly because conflicting contractual obligations made Beefheart unable to tour or record independently at the time. Their relationship grew acrimonious on the tour to the point that they refused to talk to one another. Zappa became irritated by Beefheart, who drew constantly, including while on stage, filling one of his large sketch books with rapidly executed portraits and warped caricatures of Zappa. Musically, Beefheart's primitive style contrasted sharply with Zappa's compositional discipline and abundant technique. Mothers of Invention drummerJimmy Carl Black described the situation as "two geniuses" on "ego trips".[150] Estranged for years afterwards, they reconciled by the end of Zappa's life.
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."[151] Zappa was a heavytobacco smoker for most of his life, and critical of anti-tobacco campaigns.[nb 12]
While he disapproved of drug use, he criticized thewar on drugs, comparing it toalcohol prohibition; he stated that theUnited 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
In a 1991 interview, Zappa reported that he was a registeredDemocrat but added "that might not last long—I'm going to shred that."[153] Describing his political views, Zappa categorized himself as a "practical conservative."[nb 13] He favoredlimited government and lowtaxes; he also stated that he approved of national defense,social security, and other federal programs, but only if citizens 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.[154] He favored capitalism,entrepreneurship, and independent business, stating that musicians could make more from owning their own businesses than from collecting royalties.[9] Heopposed 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 had placed messages on his album covers to encourage his fans toregister to vote; further, throughout 1988, Zappa had registration booths at his concerts.[13]: 348 He even considered running for president of the United States as an independent.[13]: 365 [155]
Zappa was anatheist.[156][157] He recalled his parents being "pretty religious" and trying to make him go to Catholic school despite his resentment. He felt disgust towardsorganized religion (Christianity in particular) because he believed that it promoted ignorance andanti-intellectualism. He held the view that the Garden of Eden story shows that the essence of Christianity is to oppose gaining knowledge.[158] Some of his songs, concert performances, interviews and public debates in the 1980s criticized and derided Republicans and their policies—PresidentRonald Reagan, theStrategic Defense Initiative (SDI),televangelism, and theChristian Right—and warned that the United States government was in danger of becoming a "fascist theocracy."[159][160]
In early 1990, Zappa visitedCzechoslovakia at the request ofPresidentVáclav Havel. The meeting had been arranged by keyboardistMichael 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."[161] 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, aCzechoslovakian jazz rock group associated withPrague underground culture, took its name from Zappa's 1967 song "Plastic People".[162] Under pressure from Secretary of State,James Baker, Zappa's posting (as Czech 'Special Ambassador') was withdrawn.[163] Havel made Zappa an unofficialcultural attaché instead.[13]: 357–361 Zappa planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses.[113]
Zappa expressed opinions oncensorship when he appeared onCNN'sCrossfire TV series and debated issues withWashington Times commentatorJohn Lofton in 1986.[160] On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before theUnited States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking theParents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization co-founded byTipper Gore, wife of then-senatorAl Gore.[164] 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.[165] 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 SenatorStrom 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.[166][167]
Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship[1]: 267 and called their proposal for voluntarylabelling 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 treatingdandruff bydecapitation. ... 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 alarge yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?[166][167][168]
Zappa was a controversial figure. AsGeoffrey Himes noted in 1993 after the artist's death, Zappa was hailed as a genius by conductorKent Nagano and nominated by Czechoslovakian PresidentVáclav Havel to the country's cultural ambassadorship; however, in his lifetime, Zappa was rejected twice for admission into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. InChristgau'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."[11] 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.[11]
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 fromStravinsky's "Petroushka" intoThe Dovells' "Bristol Stomp" before breaking down into saxophone squeals inspired byAlbert 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."[170] 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".[24]: 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'."[13]: 383
Zappa in 1977
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".[171] Among those contributing to the issue was composer andmusicologistNicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works ofIves and Varèse in the 1930s.[172] He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s,[173] 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."[174] ConductorKent 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."[175]Pierre Boulez toldMusician 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."[176] In 1994, jazz magazineDownBeat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame.[177] Zappa was posthumously inducted into theRock 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".[178] He was ranked number 36 onVH1's100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock[134] in 2000. In 2005, the U.S.National Recording Preservation Board includedWe're Only in It for the Money in theNational 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".[179] The same year,Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[180] In 2011, he was ranked at No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the same magazine.[181] In 2016,Guitar World magazine placed Zappa atop its list of "15 of the best progressive rock guitarists through the years."[182] The street ofPartinico where his father lived at number 13, Via Zammatà, has been renamed to Via Frank Zappa.[183] 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, includingDevin Townsend,[184][185][186][187]Mike Patton[188][189][190] andOmar Rodríguez-López.[191][192]
Frank Zappa bust by Vaclav Cesak inBad Doberan, Germany
Scientists from various fields have honored Zappa by naming new discoveries after him. In 1967, paleontologist Leo P. Plas Jr., identified an extinctmollusc in Nevada and named itAmaurotoma zappa with the motivation that, "The specific name,zappa, honors Frank Zappa".[247]
In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named agenus ofgobiid fishes of New GuineaZappa, with aspecies namedZappa confluentus.[248] Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a CalifornianjellyfishPhialella zappai (1987), noting that he had "pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer".[249]
Belgian biologists Bosmans and Bosselaers discovered in the early 1980s a Cameroonese spider, which they in 1994 namedPachygnatha zappa because "the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache".[250]
A gene of the bacteriumProteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infections was in 1995 namedzapA by three biologists from Maryland. In their scientific article, they "especially thank the late Frank Zappa for inspiration and assistance with genetic nomenclature".[251] Repeating regions of the genome of the human tumor virusKSHV were namedfrnk,vnct andzppa in 1996 byYuan Chang andPatrick S. Moore who discovered the virus. Also, a 143 base pair repeat sequence occurring at two positions was namedwaka/jwka.[252]In the late 1990s, American paleontologists Marc Salak and Halard L. Lescinsky discovered ametazoan fossil, and named itSpygori 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".[253]
In 1994, lobbying efforts initiated by psychiatrist John Scialli led theInternational Astronomical Union'sMinor Planet Center to name anasteroid in Zappa's honor:3834 Zappafrank.[254] The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomerLadislav 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".[255]In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed inVilnius,Lithuania. 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."[161] 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.[256][257]
Frank-Zappa-Straße in Berlin
In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German cityBad Doberan, location of theZappanale since 1990, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa.[258] At the initiative of musicians communityORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in theMarzahn district "Frank-Zappa-Straße" in 2007.[259] The same year, Baltimore mayorSheila Dixon proclaimed August 9 as the city's official "Frank Zappa Day" citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution.[260]
The biographical documentaryZappa, directed byAlex 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.[261][262]
During his lifetime, Zappa released 62 albums. Since 1994, the Zappa Family Trust has released 70 posthumous albums, making a total of 132 albums.[263] The distributor of Zappa's recorded output isUniversal Music Enterprises.[264] 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.[265]
^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. However, the name on his birth certificate is "Frank".[1]: 15
^"My ancestry is Sicilian, Greek,Arbëresh, 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."[19]
^As the legal aspects of using theSgt. 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.[13]: 151
^During the June 1971 Fillmore concerts Zappa was joined on stage byJohn Lennon andYoko Ono. This performance was recorded, and Lennon released excerpts on his albumSome Time in New York City in 1972. Zappa later released his version of excerpts from the concert onPlayground 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.[36]: 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."
^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 thehippie phenomenon.[125]
^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 setYou Can't Do That on Stage Anymore.
^He considered such campaigns asyuppie 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."[152]
^"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.ISBN978-0-09-952211-9..
^Groening, Matt; Menn, Don (1992). "The Mother of All Interviews. Act II: Matt Groening joins in on the scrutiny of the central decentralizer". In Menn, Don (ed.).Zappa! Guitar Player Presents. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman. p. 61.ISSN1063-4533.
^Zappa, Frank (November 1982). "Absolutely Frank. First Steps in Odd Meters".Guitar Player Magazine: 116.
^Swenson, John (November 1981). "Frank Zappa: Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar".Guitar World.
^Watson, Ben (2005). "Houston... Fort... Marcuse: Sin versus Archetype in Zappa's Oeuvre". In Watson, Ben; Leslie, Esther (eds.).Academy Zappa: Proceedings of the First International Conference of Esemplastic Zappology. Dundrennan, UK: SAF Publishing. p. 72.ISBN978-0946719792.
^Gamma (2005). "Poodles: a Zappological reading of Ulysses". In Watson, Ben; Leslie, Esther (eds.).Academy Zappa: Proceedings of the First International Conference of Esemplastic Zappology. Dundrennan, UK: SAF Publishing. p. 208.ISBN978-0946719792.
^"gerry fialka".United Mutations.Archived from the original on 2004-01-05. Retrieved2021-07-08.
^Menn, Don, ed. (1992). "Andreas Mölich-Zebhauser – Preparing the Ensemble Modern for the Frankfurt Festival".Zappa! Guitar Player Presents. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman. pp. 12–13.ISSN1063-4533.
^Semley, John (2020-11-26)."How Weird Was Frank Zappa?".The New Republic. Retrieved2023-06-26.It was also the year Zappa and his band, a blues-rock outfit called the Mothers of Invention
^abFor a comprehensive list of the appearance of parts of "old" compositions or quotes from others' music in Zappa's catalogue, seeAlbertos, Román García."FZ Musical Quotes". Information is Not Knowledge. globia.net/donlope. Retrieved2008-01-21.
^Donald; Kikisawa; Gaul; Holton (2004)."Language". In Goggans, DiFranco (ed.).The Pacific Region (Series: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures).Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 281.ISBN978-0-313-33043-8. Retrieved2011-11-14.
^Stephen Bullivant; Michael Ruse, eds. (2013).The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press. p. 722.ISBN978-0-19-964465-0.Of numerous atheist rock musicians, Frank Zappa ranks among the most outspoken.
^Mitchell, Tony (May 1992). "Mixing Pop and Politics: Rock Music in Czechoslovakia before and after the Velvet Revolution".Popular Music. A Changing Europe.11 (2):187–203.doi:10.1017/s0261143000004992.S2CID154964927.
^In December 1981, the then 87-year-old Slonimsky made a guest appearance on piano at a Zappa concert. Miles, 2004,Frank Zappa, pp. 295–296.
^Menn, Don, ed. (1992). "Nicolas Slonimsky – The Century's Preeminent Lexicographer Nails Zappa Down".Zappa! Guitar Player Presents. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman. pp. 6–7.ISSN1063-4533.
^Menn, Don, ed. (1992). "Kent Nagano – Premiering Zappa with the London Symphony Orchestra".Zappa! Guitar Player Presents. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman. pp. 8–11.ISSN1063-4533.
^Andy Wilson (2006).Faust – Stretch Out Time 1970–1975. Andy Wilson. p. 171.ISBN978-0955066450.Along with The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa is the most obvious influence at work on Faust. Members of the group studied and admired his music. If Faust had any kind of leader or centre in the early days, other than Uwe, it was Rudolf Sosna, and Sosna was seriously interested in Zappa, forever trying to finally work out and unpick his musical 'system' so as to put it to work himself.
^Pete Feenstra (June 2007)."Interview: Gerald Casale (Devo)".Get Ready to Rock. hotdigitsnewmedia.GC: We didn't know the Tubes at the time, probably not until we were on song number twenty or so, but we got to realise they were deep into what we were doing, while both Zappa and Captain Beefheart were an inspiration to us.
^Menn, Don, ed. (1992). "Warren De Martini – Ratt Guitarist Turns Zappa Stylist".Zappa! Guitar Player Presents. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman. p. 14.ISSN1063-4533.
^Charlie Jane Anders (2011-08-22)."Doctor Demento pays tribute to Frank Zappa, his musical inspiration".Gizmodo. Gizmodo Media Group.Demento called Zappa "the most major musical inspiration for me when I began the Dr. Demento Show, and he remains one of our half dozen most requested artists to this day."
^Murdy, E.O. (1989).A Taxonomic Revision and Cladistic Analysis of the Oxudercine Gobies (Gobiidae: Oxudercinae). Records of the Australian Museum.ISBN978-0-7305-6374-7.
^Boero, Ferdinando (April 1987). "Life cycles of Phialella zappai n. sp., Phialella fragilis and Phialella sp. (Cnidaria, Leptomedusae, Phialellidae) from central California".Journal of Natural History.21 (2):465–480.Bibcode:1987JNatH..21..465B.doi:10.1080/00222938700771131.
^Bosmans, Robert; Bosselaers, Jan (October 1995). "Spiders of the generaPachygnatha,Dyschiriognatha andGlenognatha (Araneae, Tetragnathidae), with a revision of the Afrotropical species".Zoologica Scripta.23 (4):325–352.doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1994.tb00392.x.S2CID83546554.
Delville, Michel; Norris, Andrew (2005).Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism. Oxford: Salt Publishing.ISBN978-1-84471-059-1.
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.ISBN978-0-679-73728-5.
Gray, Michael (1984).Mother! Is the Story of Frank Zappa. London: Proteus Books.ISBN978-0-86276-146-2.
James, Billy (2000).Necessity Is ...: The Early Years of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. London: SAF Publishing Ltd.ISBN978-0-946719-51-8.
Lowe, Kelly Fisher (2006).The Words and Music of Frank Zappa. Westport: Praeger Publishers.ISBN978-0-275-98779-4.
Schröder, Daniel (2017).Frank Zappa: The Composer. Darmstadt: Büchner-Verlag.ISBN978-3-941310-85-8.
Slaven, Neil (2003).Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa. London: Omnibus Press.ISBN978-0-7119-9436-2.
Sparks, Michael (1982).Cocaine Fiends and Reefer Madness: An Illustrated History of Drugs in the Movies. New York: Cornwall Books.ISBN978-0-8453-4504-7.
Walley, David (1980).No Commercial Potential. The Saga of Frank Zappa. Then and Now. New York: E. P. Dutton.ISBN978-0-525-93153-9.
Watson, Ben (1996).Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.ISBN978-0-312-14124-0.
Watson, Ben (2005).Frank Zappa. The Complete Guide to His Music. London: Omnibus Press.ISBN978-1-84449-865-9.
Zappa, Frank; Occhiogrosso, Peter (1989).The Real Frank Zappa Book. New York: Poseidon Press.ISBN978-0-671-63870-2.
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