Dying in 1993 at only 52 of prostate cancer, Frank Vincent Zappa crammed a lot of activity into a short life. His first career was as a recording studio owner in Cucamunga, California in the early 1960's. He also worked as a studio musician and was a guest artist on the Steve Allen show in 1963. He produced several regional singles for various Southern CA acts but didn't break out nationally until the album "Freak Out!", backed by his band "The Mothers Of Invention" (the last two words in that name being added by the nervous record company). He referred to his compositions as 'sonic mutiliations' while others called them everything from "modern compositions" to "comedy music". Inventing titles for wordless tunes came to be an opportunity for wild inventiveness, as witness "Zolar Czakl" and "Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution" from the album "Uncle Meat". Later album efforts yielded singles like "Don't Eat Yellow Snow" from the album "Apostrophe" (a Dr. Demento Show fave) and "Valley Girl" with his daughter Moon. His son Dweezil has also released rock albums, at one point covering his dad's tune "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama". Later projects found Zappa working with composer Edgar Varese and almost exclusively switching his guitar emphasis to keyboards. Among his most accessable works would be the 1976 album "Zappa In New York", which featured a narrator appearance by Don Pardo of the original Saturday Night Live cast; he introduced the plot to the song/performance piece "The Illinois Enema Bandit". Check out "The Real Frank Zappa Book", still in print and co-authored by Zappa.
Bio written by: Pete_Jamison |
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