Frank Zappa

London, 1971. A Royal Albert Hall employee named Marion Herrod cancels a sold-out Frank Zappa gig, after hearing that his material is obscene. Zappa sues for breach of contract, and ends up in the Old Bailey, being questioned at length about several lyrics, including the line “I’ll buy you a taste and you can sit on my face.”

Judge: [Is that] a sensual reference?

Zappa: Not necessarily. It could indicate a piggyback ride in an unusual position.

Judge: Are you being serious?

Zappa: Certainly

Zappa’s lyrics were often filthy, and his songs can be very funny. His song titles are often better. For example: Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?; Help, I’m a Rock; and Evelyn, a Modified Dog.

However, Zappa was a serious musician, and even his joke songs are musically interesting. His work touches on the many genres which inspired him, from RnB and doo wop to avant-garde classical music. When he was 15, he used his birthday money to phone the 72-year-old experimental composer Edgard Varese. What they talked about will remain a mystery.

Zappa’s first few albums, with the Mothers of Invention, were trippy pop records which quickly became a hit among hippies. They may not have realised, but Zappa’s albums were actually mocking hippy culture, particularly their drug-taking, which he hated.

Because his music was so unusual, many assumed Zappa was high most of the time, but in fact he had only smoked weed a few times. He said it gave him a sore throat and made him sleepy. He never tried harder drugs, and banned his backing musicians from using drugs while on tour. In Zappa’s view, “when Americans consume drugs they are instantly transformed from regular, normal human beings into raging assholes.”

Zappa was born in Baltimore, 1940, but moved to California aged 10. He played in his school marching band and composed for the school orchestra. After school, he wrote scores for B movies. During this period, a policeman entrapped him into making an audio recording of fake sex noises, and he served ten days in prison for ‘conspiracy to commit pornography’.

Perhaps it was this experience which made Zappa a passionate opponent of censorship. In 1985, he vigorously opposed the campaign to put age certificates on music with explicit lyrics. Zappa called the idea “an ill-conceived piece of nonsense [which is] the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation.”

Zappa was a keen political commentator, who encouraged people to take an interest in politics. On his 1988 tour, he brought electoral paperwork to shows, and told people to register to vote during the interval.

The following year, he was almost able to take on a more active political role. Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution put a Zappa fan in power. Vaclav Havel wanted to appoint Zappa as a special ambassador, but was unable to, allegedly because of pressure by the US government.

Zappa died in 1993 of prostate cancer. His final album was a bold move into purely classical music. Here he is conducting:

What to hear... We’re Only in it for the Money, Hot Rats, Joe’s Garage, One Size Fits All

Why... Zappa’s music is some of the most creative and unusual of the 20^th century. You’ll laugh, and be impressed