Zappa

Frank Zappa died in 1993 from prostate cancer at the age of 52. His music spanned rock & roll, blues and classical through to atonal and musique concrète. He was outspoken on subjects such censorship, free speech, copyright and American values. Le document watched the new Zappa documentary by Alex Winter and found it revealed a complex and sometimes contradictory artist whose relentless search for his sound/music made for compelling viewing. Text & Illustration by Chris Tosic.

Firstly, if you are already a Frank Zappa fan, stop now, skip to the end of the article, watch the trailer or better still, head over to altitude.film or apple’s iTunes in the UK, pay a tenner, and sit back and watch the film, it’s great!

If, on the other hand, you are new to Zappa and have never quite had enough time or patience to explore his life, music or work, this could be the film for you. It’s a great overview of his career with plenty contextualisation to guide you without getting too nerdy or sycophantic. Alex Winter, the director, has done a great job without becoming distracted by extended guitar solos or too much jazz fusion.

The first thing to understand with this film is that Winter seems to have been guided by the book written by Zappa (with Peter Occhiogrosso) called The Real Frank Zappa Book. The reason I think this has worked, is because like the book, it’s quite informal and doesn’t get too dry or academic. Winter isn’t trying to over sell Zappa, it’s like he’s been allowed to take off his guitar and just talk about what actually happened and there is a heck of a lot that was crammed into Zappa’s all too short life.

Interestingly, there are a few moments in the film where we do get to see a side to Zappa that is a little unappealing. His comments about his wife while on tour seem unfair considering she raised his four children and pretty much ran the commercial side of his music after he struggled to resolve legal battles with giant record companies. I also think Winter has done a great job in showing how Zappa was a master of self promotion but also yearned for privacy to just work. He comes across as a complex character and hard to pin down.

The other thing that stuck out for me was when the track Valley Girl, possibly the one song that seems to be his biggest commercial hit during his lifetime, was literally dismissed by Zappa himself. I got the feeling that Zappa was somewhat uninterested in its success possibly because his daughter, Moon Zappa, was getting all the attention. Zappa seemed more interested in a string quartet playing some of his more obscure classical scores. And here also I think is a stark truth about Zappa. I believe he yearned for more classical recognition above his rock and roll achievements, yet never quite managed to go beyond the concept of a rock and roll guitarist making classical music. It’s a real shame, but more of a problem with the industry rather than Zappa himself.

The film manages to touch upon all the regular Zappa factoids that most fans are aware of. These range from his collaborations with Captain Beefheart, his run-ins with the law over simulated sex sound tracks through to all his successful (and not so successful) attempts at getting his classical scores performed by some of the biggest international orchestras and conductors.

For someone who sites Edgard Varese and Guitar Slim as their key musical influences, goes onto become an outspoken defender of free speech and then starts to make plans to run for president of the United States of America, just shows the kind of obsessive person he was. Zappa the film, shows us warts and all the real Zappa just like his book. Sit back and watch how he blends everything from musique concrète, to rock and roll, to political agitator in the space of about 40 years; it’s a big journey that only someone like Zappa could achieve.

If you’re still not interested in Zappa after watching this film, I can’t help you! But you’ve got to admire all his achievements even if they don’t appeal to your politics or aesthetics. I can only ponder on what type of musical catalogue he would have created had he lived longer.

My two favourite LPs by Zappa are Lumpy Gravy and Civilisation: Phase lll. Why? If you can write music that includes a narrative about living inside a drum and a piano at the start of your career and then conclude that same theme almost 30 years later I can only but salute you. And I salute Zappa with both hands!

Chris Tosic