“Zappa,” (Documentary), September 9, 2023 (2020), Hulu. This excellent, thoughtful, non-narrative documentary looks at the life and work of Frank Zappa. Interviews with amazing musicians abound. Zappa left an remarkable archive of his life and, seemingly, everything he ever did with film, music, and politics. His son Ahmet produced the film, and it utilizes much of this trove.
The film took me back to my first contact with his music. Over the Christmas-New Year Holiday season, 1967-68, my family was visiting with friends near Philadelphia. We were new to the region, having moved from Cleveland, Ohio that summer. I was an incredibly shy, straight (as per the term in 1967) 16-year-old. I’d never been to a rock concert. Hell, I’d never been to any concerts. I was not entirely culturally out of it, but my interests then, as they often do now, leaned towards political music of many genres, but especially folk. I would branch off into counter-cultural rock and roll and the like when I got my own stereo (with the magic protective shield of headphones) early in 1969.
Our host’s poor 16-year-old daughter was charged with the task of setting up a companion who I would accompany, along with her and her boyfriend, to a concert. I’d only had one date before this.
She performed her assigned task and the 4 of us went into town and ventured into a club that, I believe, was named “The Trauma.” The three of them, dressed in culturally appropriate garb, ‘disappeared,’ and I was left to wander on my own and make sense of this bizarre scene. Hours later, they found me, and we returned home. I’m quite sure I was the only person not high on something at the concert. It was only years later that I learned that Zappa abhorred drugs.
What I remember of this adventure, was watching a scene I’d only heard of and, more powerfully, watching and listening to the band. This was my introduction to “Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.”
Talk about jumping into the deep end to learn how to swim. It was breathtaking. Memorable doesn’t even begin to capture my response. I remember wandering and watching and listening in awe. This was pure musical theater of the mind.
The music of Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, The Beatles, and Joan Baez were already a part of my tiny record collection. Most were in mono. Then I bought my own stereo with monies earned ushering in a movie theater during the summer of 1968 (I saw Gone with the Wind over 100 times). I immediately went out and bought We’re Only in It for the Money, the latest album by The Mothers, at E.J. Korvette’s on Rt. 22 in Mountainside, New Jersey. I took it home, put on my headphones (that magical shield I mentioned earlier), and listened to it twice while I perused the amazing album cover and lyrics. I then took off my headphones and went back and bought Freak Out and Absolutely Free. My life was forever changed.
I’ve bought many later Zappa albums, including works like Yellow Shark. I purchased such albums as Hot Rats, Chunga’s Revenge, Apostrophe, and many other of his iterative works with a changing cast of musicians. Joe’s Garage is still on regular rotation in our house. I played “The Central Scrutinizer” on my radio show this morning. I even acquired Zapped!, a loss-leader collection of Warner Brother artists Zappa produced and/or curated for the collection including: Lord Buckley, Tim Buckley, Wild Man Fisher, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper, The GTOs, The Mothers, and something from Hot Rats. At school in England (1971-72), I must have listened to a cassette of “Live at the Filmore East” 50 times. My friends had very few albums.
I saw him many times over the years. Some concerts, like his show at SUNY-Stony Brook in December 1973, really sucked. Some were amazing. The last time I saw him was in Cleveland, Ohio during his 1988 tour when he was made Honorary Assistant Attorney General of Ohio by the Attorney General and received a special award for voter registration work from Ohio’s League of Women Voters for his efforts. It was a great show.
I truly disliked his views on some issues of the day. I found some of his songs smug, offensive, and bigoted. Feminism was not a part of his makeup. He could be arrogant and cruel.
But he was also fearless in his expression from the very beginning. If you don’t know them, please check out his first three albums. They are astounding. He was a heroic advocate for free speech. Again, please listen to Joe’s Garage (1979); that precedes his battles with the mothers of prevention and his defense of musical freedom before Congress by roughly six years.. He was also an amazing musician whose work changed modern American musical thinking for many people. He was, as one member of Kronos Quartet noted in this movie, one of a rare breed of autodidact musicians, composers, and artists who led and challenged with their music, be it mass or classically oriented. Well, he didn’t really hit ‘mass’ except for “Valley Girl,” and his daughter Moon Unit forced him into that. He was a true voice for individualist freedom, both cultural and, sometimes, political. There’s a reason he fought censorship by Susan Baker, Tipper Gore, and their ilk, folks he dubbed The Mothers of Prevention. Tipper and Al Gore became his friends for the rest of Zappa’s life. Respect. There’s a reason he was so beloved in post-Soviet Czechoslovakia that the Czechs made him their Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism.
His death in 1993 at the age of 52 was a heartbreak. I still play his music on my radio show. Check out The Specials cover of “Trouble Every Day.”
And now the movie, folks. We both really enjoyed and appreciated this non-narrative look at Zappa’s life and music. Interviews with amazing musicians abound. Zappa left an amazing archive of his life and, seemingly, everything he ever did with film, music, and politics. His son Ahmet produced the film, and it utilizes much of this trove.
Zappa follows its subject from early life as the son of a chemist who was involved in military gas production and moved from Maryland to California. He thought to blow up his high school in Southern California. He was not, to say the least, one of the cool kids. His life changed when he discovered the work of the French experimentalist composer, Edgard Varese and R&B.
Although he played drums in the school band, Zappa was essentially a self-taught composer and musician. He was incredibly demanding and often distant. He was difficult and totally focused on his work. He went through many band members depending on his musical needs and desires. He was held in awe by many of them and by a wide range of classical, orchestral musicians. He left the Warner Bros. label and established his own Zappa Music label that he and his wife, Gail, ran.
He was one of the most creative forces in American music of the second half of the 20th century. His music ranged from comic satire and slapstick to the most challenging experimental sounds of his day. At its best, it was electric, challenging, exciting and exhilarating.
This film is really worth seeing, and if you’ve not revisited his works recently, I strongly suggest it.