Zappa, Frank (1940-1993)

Few rock and roll icons can match the originality, innovation, and prolific output of Frank Zappa. His synthesis of blues, rock, jazz, doo-wop, classical, and avant-garde, combined with irreverent lyrics and politically-oriented stage theatrics expanded the range of popular music. From his work with seminal 1960s freak band the Mothers of Invention to his final, posthumously-released studio project called Civilization: Phaze III (1994), Zappa made music by his own rules, rewriting the rules of the music industry in the process.

Frank Vincent Zappa was born December 21, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland. The Zappa family moved often, his father following wartime civil service employment until 1956 when they settled in Lancaster, California, north of Los Angeles. Frank's main interests during his formative years were chemistry (specifically explosives), drums, and the dissonant music of Edgard Varèse, a modern composer who worked with sound effects, electronics, and large percussion sections. This was an important influence on young Zappa as it introduced him to unconventional musical forms before the advent of rock and roll.

Bored with high school, Frank taught himself to read and write 12-tone symphonic music, and began composing his own. After graduation he worked as a rhythm guitarist in various lounge cover bands, when it became clear that merely composing wouldn't pay the bills. In 1963, however, at age 22, he scored the soundtrack for a low-budget film, and acquired a homemade recording studio in downtown Cucamonga, California. Unfortunately, Studio Z had a brief life.Trouble with the locals culminating in a ten-day jail sentence and impending urban development forced Frank to move to Los Angeles where he found gigs for his proto-rock-and-roll band, The Mothers.

After "perfecting" their artsy, improvisational live show, the Mothers recorded Freak Out! (1966), the first rock double album. Out of necessity, though, the band became the Mothers of Invention, as record executives objected to the original name. Freak Out! was a landmark in musique concrète as pop music, and was a bracing satire on the hippie culture oozing into Southern California. The follow-up album Absolutely Free (1968) intensified these themes, laying the groundwork for much of Zappa's future lyrical and compositional endeavors. Later, he created the cult film 200 Motels (1971), named for the estimated number of dives the band had stayed in during its five-year life span. Dissonant and self-consciously weird, 200 Motels foreshadowed the music video even as it lampooned life inside a touring rock and roll band, incorporating ballet, opera, and Zappa's dizzying orchestrations to make its acidic point. As freaky as Zappa was, though, he was an adamant teetotaler which caused tension among fellow musicians. This, combined with low pay and bad reviews, ultimately led to the breakup of the Mothers of Invention. Zappa, however, was just getting started.

Throughout the 1970s, Zappa's reputation grew, especially in Eastern Europe where he provided the soundtrack for revolution. Frank also became known for his prowess with a guitar while his lyrics became more surreal and confrontational. His attempts at "serious" music, however, were thwarted, beginning with contractual disputes stemming from the 200 Motels sessions with the Royal Philharmonic, and continuing every time he tried to hire an orchestra. Frank still considered himself primarily a composer, though; an odd vocation for a subversive rock musician, but as he remarked, "Apart from the political stuff, which I enjoy writing, the rest of my lyrics wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for the fact that we live in a society where instrumental music is irrelevant."

In 1977 Frank became embroiled in lawsuits involving ownership of his early albums. During this litigious period (and in an effort to fulfill remaining contracts) he released as many as four albums a year and toured relentlessly, while another self-referential work called Joe's Garage (1979) achieved mainstream popularity with its Orwellian plot and scatological humor. Eventually Zappa became the owner of his entire back catalog and an eponymous record label, as well as a new recording studio in the basement of his Los Angeles home.

The establishment began to recognize Frank Zappa in the 1980s, and his first Billboard-charting single "Valley Girl" (1982) was a fluffy parody of Southern California teen pop culture featuring the voice of his daughter Moon. In 1985, Zappa testified before a Senate committee and denounced legislation calling for explicit-content warning labels on albums. He later became close friends with then president of Czechoslovakia, Vàclav Havel, and was nearly appointed ambassador of trade and culture to that country. Frank also received a Best Instrumental Album Grammy Award in 1986 for Jazz From Hell which was conceived on the Synclavier, an electronic device allowing him to play his most difficult compositions note for note.

In 1990 Frank Zappa was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Between debilitating treatments he produced a live program of his orchestral works called The Yellow Shark (1993), which was performed by ardent fans, the renowned German Ensemble Modern. He also set up the Zappa Family Trust, placing total creative and financial control of his successful niche-market mail-order business in the hands of his partner/wife Gail. He died on December 4, 1993, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

The legacy of Frank Zappa lives on in every outspoken, self-made rock star, in every do-it-yourself basement recording and autobiographical music video montage. He rescued the stodgy reputation of the serious orchestral composer by marrying it to the lifestyle of a hard-touring rock band, creating some of the most challenging and defiant music of the twentieth century. He also pioneered recording technologies, stretching the boundaries of what popular music could be. Frank Zappa is known worldwide for his irreverent attitude and masterful musicianship, proving that, as he often quoted Edgard Varèse, "The present day composer refuses to die!"

—Tony Brewer

Further Reading:

Walley, David. No Commercial Potential: The Sage of Frank Zappa, updated edition. New York, De Capo Press, 1996.

Watson, Ben. Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1995.

Zappa, Frank. Them or Us. Los Angeles, Barfko-Swill, 1984.

——, with Peter Occhiogrosso. The Real Frank Zappa Book. New York, Poseidon Press, 1989.