Frank Zappa may well be one of the greatest American musicians of the modern era — maybe ever. In a career that spanned three decades, he wrote, composed, and performed everything from pop, rock 'n roll, and jazz to classical music. He was a magnificent technical guitarist and toured with huge bands. He composed classical music, most notably the two-album set conducted by Kent Nagano with the London Symphony Orchestra in his premiere piece of classical work, "London Symphony Orchestra - Zappa."
And perhaps best of all, outside of his musical work, he took on the odious Tipper Gore in her attempts to force record companies to adopt language-warning labels.
Zappa's career and works spanned not only decades but also genres, but these six are some of my favorites. And yes, it's six this week for reasons that will become apparent.
Montana. From the 1973 album "Over-Nite Sensation," "Montana" chronicles the adventures of a cowboy and his pygmy, who plan to go to Montana to raise dental floss. Becoming a dental-floss tycoon isn't on everyone's to-do list, but leave it to Zappa to come up with it; the song features some great guitar work and vocals from Kin Vassy but also uncredited backup vocals from Tina Turner and the Ikettes. Also: Before listening to this song, most people probably never gave much thought to the origins of dental floss, but when I first bought this album at a record store in Waterloo, Iowa, it sent the 13-year-old me to the library (the internet in those days was contained in paper things we called "books") and looked into it for myself. Dental floss doesn't grow on bushes. That doesn't make this song any less fun.
Muffin Man. This song comes to us from the 1975 album "Bongo Fury" and was, for years, Zappa's traditional concert-closer. With vocals from Zappa and backup from the amazing Captain Beefheart, this song shows off some of Frank's best guitar work, with a long mid-tune guitar solo that spins out complicated, perfectly-timed notes to go along with the main character, a research baker in the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.
Sam With the Showing Scalp Flat Top. This tune also comes from 1975's "Bongo Fury," and may well be one of Zappa's most lurid works. Featuring the enormous vocal range of Captain Beefheart, this narration and the accompanying jarring instrumentals live up to one of the lyrics: "The music was thud-like. I usually played such things as roughneck and thug. Opaque melodies that would bug most people." This piece presents a vivid, dystopian vision of a dark, rotting urban environment that you can see very plainly, described so colorfully in the lyrics and the thudding notes — and you can likewise picture the main character Sam, who had a showing-scalp flat-top haircut and was particular about the point it made.
Be in My Video. From the 1984 album "Them or Us," this song was not only Zappa's tribute to the age of doo-wop, but also took a veiled shot at the 1980s and the emergence of music videos as a major cultural phenomenon; we might remember that this was when MTV actually showed music videos, and they were riding pretty tall in the shadow. But as the song progresses, you realize that the lyrics, delivered in part by the amazing Napoleon Murphy Brock, are joyously describing a major nuclear war and its aftermath.
Purple Haze/Sunshine of Your Love. In 1991, Zappa released a two-disc album recorded during the 1988 concert tour, and that album, "The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life," was a typical Zappa performance, and as was Zappa's practice, included some covers of other songs, all given Zappa's unique touch. In the album, Frank describes running into Johnny Cash in a hotel lobby just before the show and inviting Johnny to come play with them; he claimed that the Man in Black accepted but later called Frank's room and explained that June wasn't feeling well, and so he had to decline. Frank then did a cover of "Ring of Fire" in Johnny's honor.
But the best covers from that album are the paired covers of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love." The songs, with Napoleon Murphy Brock again nailing the vocals, have to be taken together to be fully appreciated. And while Johnny Cash doesn't appear in this show, he nevertheless receives an homage in the second song in this pairing.
Artists like Frank Zappa don't come along every day. He was a true genius; gifted, creative, willing not only to bend boundaries but to shatter them beyond repair. A great technical guitar player, accomplished vocalist, composer, and conductor — Ravel's "Bolero" was a concert staple — and a determined advocate for free speech in the arts. We won't see one like him again any time soon.
Have you any Zappa favorites of your own? The comments, as always, are yours!
