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The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (Disc 2
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"Didja Get Any Onya?" mp3
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Zappa, Frank - "Strictly Genteel"
"Strictly Genteel" album
Zappa, Frank
Frank Zappa
"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." - Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 21, 1940 to Francis Zappa (born in Partinico, Sicily, of Greek and Lebanese descent) and Rose Marie Colimore (who was of three quarters Italian including Sicilian and one quarter French descent). He was the oldest of four children (two brothers and a sister). In January of 1951, his family relocated to the West Coast because of Frank's asthma. They settled in Monterey, California, about 100 miles south of San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Pomona, then to El Cajon before moving a short distance, once again, to San Diego in the early 1950s.
1960s
After a short career as a professional songwriter — his elegiac "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by Doo-Wop group The Penguins — in 1964 Zappa joined a local R&B band, The Soul Giants, as a guitarist. Soon he assumed leadership, renaming the band "The Mothers."
1970s
Around 1970, Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, previous Mothers member Ian Underwood, and no fewer than three members of The Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, who before joining The Turtles had been the lead singer of The Leaves (of "Hey Joe" fame); and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who due to persisting legal/contractual problems adopted the stage-monikers "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie," or "Flo & Eddie" for short.
1980s
You Are What You Is, 1981
In 1980, Zappa helped former band members Warren Cuccurullo, Terry Bozzio and Patrick O'Hearn launch their new band, Missing Persons, by letting them record their 4-song demo EP in his brand new UMRK (Utility Muffin Research Kitchen) studios. In 1981, the double album You Are What You Is was released, featuring 19 songs, which included such complex instrumentals as "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear", but mainly focused on rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary. "Dumb All Over", is an example of this, being a devastating tirade on religion, as is "Heavenly Bank Account", wherein Zappa rails against people such as Jerry Falwell for relying upon the US administration to finance the religious organization, the "Moral Majority," while simultaneously embezzling the funds. The album is also notable for the presence of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai who joined Zappa's touring band in the Fall of 1980.
One of Frank's idols was comedian Lenny Bruce, and the original Mothers of Invention opened for him at his final performance. Before the show, Frank asked Lenny to sign his draft card. Apprehensive, Lenny declined.
Jimi Hendrix gave Zappa the burnt and broken parts of the Fender Stratocaster guitar that he destroyed onstage at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. After Hendrix's death in 1970, Zappa rebuilt the instrument and played it extensively during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2002, Zappa's son Dweezil put the guitar up for auction in the U.S., hoping it would fetch $1 million, but it failed to sell. Dweezil also used this guitar on his albums "Having a Bad Day" and "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama."
An old rumor states that at some point in the 1960s, Zappa once won a gross-out contest by eating his own excrement on stage. Zappa denied the claim, stating, "For the record, folks; I never took a shit on stage and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973." (Zappa and Occhiogrosso (1989:14)).
In the 70s, Ann Landers listed the ten most obscene rock songs. Three of Frank's songs made the list ("Jewish Princess," "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Dirty Love.")
On December 6, 1976, Zappa introduced Black Sabbath at their Madison Square Garden concert. This announcement is featured on a Black Sabbath bootleg album. He once declared Sabbath's "Iron Man" (Paranoid, 1970) the greatest ever rock track, he would later change his choice of track to "Supernaut" from the group's Vol.4 Album (1972) A jam was once organised featuring Sabbath and Zappa, but Sabbath pulled out of the project.
Frank used a Wah-wah pedal but did not always use it in the conventional way of rocking it back and forth. Frank often left it set in different positions to get different tones, using it as a filter. In some recordings, he used the pedal in a conventional manner (as in "I'm the Slime"). Zappa is widely considered to be a master of and major innovator in the use of this effect.
The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening is a fan and participated in what is dubbed "the Mother of all Frank Zappa interviews" and created a Life In Hell strip which honoured Zappa having a main character pledge allegiance to the United Mutations, with various references to Zappa lyrics.
Samples
Download sample of "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" from Freak Out!
Download sample of "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" from We're Only in It for the Money.
Download sample of "Bobby Brown Goes Down" from Sheik Yerbouti.
Discography
Main article: Frank Zappa discography
Notes
^ ab As noted by Zappa and Occhiogrosso (1989), his real name was "Frank", never "Francis". Until rediscovering his birth certificate as an adult, Zappa himself believed he had been christened Francis, and he is credited as Francis on some of his early albums. Some encyclopedias still incorrectly claim that his real name was "Francis".
^ As a guest on "The Tonight Show," chatting with guest-host Jay Leno, Zappa was asked why he had given his children such unusual names. Zappa answered, in a casual tone of voice, "Because I wanted to!" When asked the same question by Joan Rivers, he urged her to "consider for a moment any beauty in the name Ralph." In an interview with Arsenio Hall Zappa said that if their names ever gave them problems, it would be because of the last name.
^ Edgard Varese: The Idol of My Youth, by Frank Zappa. Originally published in Stereo Review, June 1971. pp 61-62.
^ On several of his earlier albums, Zappa paid tribute to Varèse by quoting his: "The present-day composer refuses to die."
^ Classically trained percussionist and drummer Terry Bozzio, who played for Zappa in the late 1970s (along with many recordings of well-known classical and avant-garde works), is on record as saying that Zappa's writing for percussion is as difficult and complex as anything else he has played.
^ Zappa interviewed by Finnish television, 1974. Video on YouTube.
^ To avoid a lawsuit, however, 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.
^ Official recordings of this band would not emerge until more than 30 years later on Imaginary Diseases (2006)
^ Additionally, all of the albums except for Zappa in New York, were issued with the wrong equalization settings. Although Warners had the master tapes, Zappa had the Dolby line-up tones. He liked to be present during disc mastering. See link.
^ "The Mother Of All Interviews", Guitar Player Presents: Zappa!, p.61
^ See full transcript of Zappa's Senate Testimony.
^ See excerpts from 1986 Crossfire interview with Frank Zappa and John Lofton.
^ See excerpts from the 1992 Ensemble Modern concert in Frankfurt.
^ See Zappanale website.
References
Zappa, Frank, Occhiogrosso, Peter (1989). The Real Frank Zappa Book. Poseidon Press. ISBN 0-671-70572-5.
Miles, Barry (2004). Zappa: A Biography. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1783-X.
Courrier, Kevin (2002). Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-447-6.
Rausch, Andreas (2005). Zappaesk. Köln: Egmont EHAPA. ISBN 3-7704-2888-9.
Further reading
No Commercial Potential—The Saga of Frank Zappa, by David Walley
Kenardaki Milyonerler—Zappa by Metin Solmaz, Istanbul 1992, Turkish book, contains a large biography and some lyrics
Frank Zappa; The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, by Ben Watson, St. Martin's Press (March 1996) contains extensive notes on history, tours and releases.
In Cold Sweat-Interviews With Really Scary Musicians, by Thomas Wictor, contains an extensive interview with Scott Thunes, Zappa's bassist in the 1980s.
Lunar Notes-Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience, by Bill Harkleroad, contains several references about Zappa's collaboration with Don Van Vliet.
Mother! the Frank Zappa Story, by Michael Gray
Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa, by Neil Slaven
Necessity Is... The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, by Billy James
Cosmik Debris: The Collective History and Improvisations of Frank Zappa, by Greg Russo, Crossfire Pubns; 2nd Rev edition (January 9, 2003), ISBN 0-9648157-0-2
My Brother was a Mother, by Patrice "Candy" Zappa
Them or Us, by Frank Zappa
Under the Same Moon, by Suzannah Thana Harris
Being Frank: My Time with Frank Zappa, by Nigey Lennon
Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Secret History of Maximalism, by Michel Delville and Andrew Norris. Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2005.
Academy Zappa: Proceedings of the First International Conference of Esemplastic Zappology, edited by Ben Watson and Esther Leslie, (London: SAF, 2005), ISBN 0-946719-79-9
artists
Zappa, Frank DISCOGRAPHY
