Frank Zappa
“”Frank governs with Elmore James on his left and Stravinsky on his right.
|
| —Tom Waits, 2005[1] |
Frank Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an outspoken advocate of freedom of expression, and a disgusted responder to the PMRC (headed by Tipper Gore).
He also played some tunes.
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[edit] Music
Frank Zappa was a jazz, rock and avant-garde classical composer. Some people see his first album Freak Out! (1966) with the Mothers of Invention as the first rock music album that you actually sat down and listened to as opposed to stood up and danced to.
He released 72 albums during his lifetime, with new music still being released after his death in 1993. He is one of the few musicians to have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hame of Fame (1995) and the Jazz Hall of Fame (1994). He was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. His orchestral works are played by orchestras worldwide, and his 200 Motels Suite was performed by both the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2013.[2] [3]
His lyrics were controversial, even by today's standards. Starting with the anti-establishment/anti-war zeitgeist of the 60s, the message of his music changed over time, criticizing the United States government, religious conservatism, televangelists, and homophobia. While some of lyrics superficially appeared to be blatantly anti-Semitic, sexist, racist, and/or homophobic, the keen ear will detect the ultimately satirical nature of the songs. Zappa was usually trying to ridicule narrow-mindedness in all its forms.
Zappa was no fan of politicians of any stripe; Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were favorite targets. Two live albums, Broadway the Hard Way and Frank Zappa in New York are good showcases of his politically-informed songs. His snark was not restricted to Republicans, democrats like Jesse Jackson were also targets. That most of his political music criticized Republicans is more evident of the party's political dominance of the 1960s, 70s and 80s than any personal political convictions (he considered running for president in the 1980s)--the cause he championed was democracy.
Zappa was an outspoken opponent of the Christian Right from the outset, and in songs such as "Heavenly Bank Account" Zappa advocated removing the tax-exempt status from religious organizations. He was contemptuous of the hypocrisy of fundamentalists, as demonstrated in the song "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk":
“”
With a Ku-Klux mumu in the back of the truck If you ain't born again they're going to mess you up |
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Frank Zappa - Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk (1988) |
Apart from the controversial nature of the lyrics, his compositions are extremely cerebral; many using alternate, changing or overlapping time signatures, strange chord progressions and unorthodox musical techniques. A throng of musicians toured and recorded with Zappa over his career, many of them making big names for themselves for having been "schooled" in Zappa's style of musical adeptness; these include Steve Vai and many of the musicians who performed in the excellent house band that appeared on Saturday Night Live band during the first few years of the program's run.
[edit] Politics
Zappa testified before the U.S. Senate in 1985 about the dangers of a mandatory "explicit lyrics" warning label on records and tapes, as it would establish a dangerous precedent in violation of the First Amendment. As such, he was an outspoken critic of any legislation or groups such as the PMRC.[4][5] Eventually the RIAA agreed to voluntarily place the warning labels on records, thus preventing the need for any government regulations, but Zappa was not a fan of this either, believing it to be just as bad. For a while in the 1980s and 90s, tapes and CDs featuring Zappa's music lacked the warning label. Interestingly enough, Zappa's 1986 album 'Jazz From Hell' is the only instrumental album since the hearings to carry the RIAA Parental Advisory sticker, due to some stores (allegedly Fred Meyer) objecting to some of the song titles.
"The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation ... The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?"[6]
[edit] Legacy
Zappa's 1970 concert at Casino de Montreaux in Switzerland was stopped short when "some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground", as immortalized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water".
Zappa owned a label, Straight Records, with business manager Herb Cohen; it was the first label to sign Alice Cooper.
In 1989, Zappa formulated a plan to move from vinyl recordings to a direct "digital-to-digital" music delivery service where music was sold over the phone or through cable television. Ultimately he decided the idea was a failure (perhaps he should have consulted with Al Gore about using his invention, but one could imagine they couldn't get along very well after that whole PMRC thing). He ended up selling the rights to his entire catalogue to Rykodisc, a fledgling label that repudiated vinyl and cassette offerings in favor of CD-only releases.
Bootleg recordings of Frank Zappa's concerts were very popular on Napster (when it was a P2P file sharing service) and there is a substantial grey market for the work. Gail Zappa, Frank's widow, has since become notoriously litigious regarding anything related to her late husband's work, so care should be taken that Gail don't find out if you are involved in said grey market.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
- Zappa Wiki Jawaka, a wiki dedicated to Zappa.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Waits, Tom (March 22, 2005). "It's perfect madness". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/mar/20/popandrock1.
- ↑ [http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1549891/frank-zappas-200-motels-gets-orchestral-world-premiere Billboard: Frank Zappa's '200 Motels' Gets Orchestral World Premiere (25 Feb 2013)
- ↑ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21061287 BBC News: Frank Zappa score joins The Rest is Noise classical festival (18 Jan 2013)
- ↑ Frank argues against censorship by self-appointed defenders of The American Way on Larry King Live in 1985.
- ↑ Again, Zappa argues about lyric rating with a clueless host on CNN.
- ↑ "Record Labeling. Hearing before the committee on commerce, science and transportation". U.S. Government printing office. September 19, 1985. http://www.joesapt.net/superlink/shrg99-529/p51.html..