Any Other Friday

I look at my life right now; I'm self employed, working upwards of 50 hours/week, running a renovations company with 6 full-time employees, I'm in my last semester (if all goes well) of University with a full course load (5 courses), my 11 year old dog has been really sick since January, my mother just spent 6 days in the hospital due to liver failure, and I'm presently sick. To most people, this would be extremely overwhelming and in all honesty, I'm having trouble keeping my head above water and keeping my wits about me. To Frank Zappa, this would have been any other Friday.

After being diagnosed with cancer in 1990, FZ, for the last 3 years of his life, continued to put out records, composed pieces for a chamber orchestra, recorded and produced musicians he respected, became involved in a lawsuit, and considered a presidential candidacy.

He won a Grammy for a record he that was considered mechanical and cold, admitting that even though he enjoyed his synclavier, he missed the human element that his music was known for. Always a shrewd "enthusiastic capitalist," in the mid to late 80's, FZ took his new band on the road and had them learn over 100 songs so he could record it and not have to pay for session musicians. Although it ended badly and cost upwards of 400,000$, FZ lost much less than that as he 3+ albums worth of music to release. He then became an Eastern European business tycoon and ambassador (all short lived) and was considered a demi-god in Czechoslovakia. They "got it."

All of this is to say that after a semester of listening and getting to know Frank Zappa, I still don't really like his music, but I can appreciate where it comes from. As for the man, I found that the more I read about him, the more I could see similarities with myself, which allowed me to delve deeper into the meanings and reasons for why he made the decisions that he made, functioned in the specific way he did, and create what he created.

The man was ahead of his time and misunderstood by a large percentage of the general population, but to those who "got" it, he meant more to them than almost anything else in the world.

Frank Zappa, American Composer. 1940-1993

Although the title seems like this is the end of the road for our Frank Zappa reflections, it's far from it. The title just seemed like a good way to sum up how Frank Zappa the person saw Frank Zappa the 'legend,' and how he wanted his legacy to be remembered. Frank Zappa will be remembered for far more than his musical compositions, he will be remembered for his lifestyle, replete with brash attitude and outbursts, outrageous costumes and get ups, crazy interviews and film making, and of course his love of music.

Even though there are only five criteria that we’re to be looking at for the purpose of this blog, in theory, one entry per criteria, at this point doesn’t seem like the best of ideas. His personality, musicianship, entrepreneurial spirit, as well as his perspective on society are all part of what make up Frank Zappa, the man.

Hidden within the humorous aspects of his music, lied a relentless assault on mainstream society and its perceived norms. FZ wasn’t afraid to take on any subject, no matter what the consequences of his actions might be. He vilified his audiences live, alienated many listeners with his boundary pushing blocks of sound on record, and enraged record companies and the whole recording industry to the point where they stopped putting out his records they way he wanted them to or stopped putting them out at all and never helping him get any radio airply. In the realm of live entertainment, the example, given in the Miles text, of the show at the Berkeley Community Center in 1968 where Zappa had all of the concertgoers doing jumping jacks in the aisles, telling them that they were being told what to do by the Government the same way that he was telling them to do the jumping jacks, is the perfect example of how Zappa treated his fans. Even though he believed oin giving the concertgoer a performance that was entertaining and had good value for the money paid to enter, he looked down on them, regardless of whether or not they were enjoying the show (too stoned or rowdy) or just sitting in their seats (England). To Uncle Frank, as he was known, they were beneath him and he had the air of an elder trying to enlighten them, to help them see through their drab existence. As a musician with hit songs, Zappa found playing songs repeatedly to be a bore, so live, even fan favorite numbers such as “Dinah More Humm,” were played at faster tempos so they wouldn’t last as long.

In the beginning of his career, FZ used the Byrds as a business model, co-opting their style to appeal to their fan base. He did this as a marketing ploy, infiltrating their scene and putting forth an image of what he wanted the scene to think he was in order to create an allure around him. He took this image making into every aspect of his career, from clothing worn by his band members to album jackets.

This type of control also led to Freak Out! being released as a double album, a compromise being agreed upon between Frank and MGM that created the first rock double-album. Among other things such as album pricing and publishing royalties, to get his first album out, Zappa agreed to alter the name of his band from The Mothers, which the record executives took to be a short form of “motherfucker” to The Mothers Of invention.

Regardless of the name change, radio refused to play Frank Zappa’s music. The refusal of radio to play his music, allowed Zappa the opportunity to create continuous composing on record, allowing for musical pieces to be linked without having to separate the songs by inserting a noiseless break, like in traditional top 40 music. This type of creative composing forced Zappa to recruit talented musicians, a hiring trend he continued for the rest of his career. In the mid to late 70’s, playing with FZ became a stepping-stone for many young musicians. He would pluck these musicians from relative obscurity; picking Adrian Belew up from Nashville after seeing him perform in a Roy Orbison cover band to getting keyboardist Tommy Mars from a Kodiak, Alaska lounge bar, then stretch their musical abilities to their fullest potential. One of Zappa’s prominent talents was getting the most out of his musicians.

As much as his musicians were replaceable, FZ was hesitant to lose them. Often times, he would pay his musicians out if his own pocket, waiting on a future payment (that sometimes never showed up). Unfortunately for Zappa, in 1971, when he was attacked on stage and spent months in recovery, his band members jumped ship and joined other bands, leaving Zappa feeling slighted and creating a strict employee-employer relationship between Frank and his musicians that continued for a long time. (edotors note– karma (see below)

Prior to his accident in 1971, this type of employer attitude had Zappa firing the original incarnation of the Mother, the reasons being hotly contested, as well as the creation of Bizarre, a record label run by Frank and his partner/manager Herb Cohen.

Although there is much more to the story of Frank Zappa; his social criticisms, as well as what made him the man he was will be dealt with in the next instalment. Until then, please click HERE to listen to "Dinah-More-Humm." Enjoy.

The PMRC’s demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation.

For a man who is mostly known for sitting on a toilet, FZ wasn't crazy, he wasn't stupid, he was justs a very particular person with a very focused vision of how his life and those around him should be lived. For someone like myself who having only really listened to FZ

for the first time in this class, the music can be a little overwhelming and downright baffling at times. Obviously, almost everyone has heard of Frank Zappa, I was mostly familiar with him for his work against the PMRC and never really a fan of his music. I'm still not a fan of his music, but I have a much clearer vision of what kind of man he was.

He was never one to shy away from any question in an interview, no topic was taboo. He was very honest and forthcoming with his philosophies and opinions. As a band leader, he maintained a hierarchy among his bands, setting himself up at the top. He was charismatic enough to be able to get some of the best musicians of his time to play his way out compositions, while at the same time, completely at ease working them to their wits ends and firing them when he deemed necessary. FZ always looked upon music as an avenue to make money, playing in cover bands to pay his bills, always trying to sneak in his own compositions.

As a perfectionist and workaholic, when the opportunities presented themselves to make grand records, he took every inch and dollar he was able to get to create the vision that he saw and heard in his mind. In Lumpy Gravy, we can see the level of his control, when, "Most of the spoken word blocks were recorded in the same manner: 2 microphones were set up under a grand piano, over which a heavy drape was hung. Various people hanging around the studio were asked to go under the piano and have conversations that were directed by Zappa through headphones." I find this to be at odds with what he fought so hard against with the PMRC. Granted, it's not exactly the same thing, but it's still about control, which Zappa had to have absolute dominance of in his own life.

Zappa as an entrepeneur, had a vision of a product. Whether it was his own music, or the music and artistic direction and aesthetic of The GTO's or Alice Cooper,

FZ always put his spin on whatever he was involved with.

His personality alienated him from a lot of people, while at the same time he was wholeheartedly embraced by large numbers of people. The 'weirdness' of Zappa, appealed to many people who regarded him as a leader of a counter culture movement that he actually abhorred, namely, the drugs and the laisser-faire attitude of revolution in the sixties. His legacy lives on it people like Saulius Paukstys

PMRC can suck on this!!

The title is taken from a NOFX ep by the same name. I'm jumping the gun on this, but Zappa's involvement against the PMRC is a very valuable aspect of his personality and drive. The pumpkin is just a photo to show Zappa's impact on people and how he pervades everyday culture.