Frank Albert Zappa was the musical scourge of the establishment from the ‘60s onwards.
A sworn enemy of censorship, he waged war against self-appointed moral guardian Tipper Gore, censorious venue owners and repressed music industry bosses who made him add the “of Invention” bit to a band he simply wanted to call The Mothers. His record label insisted on playing some of the naughtier bits on his records backwards to protect us from, er, we don’t know really.
But Frank could insult Jews, Arabs, Catholics, the American way of life, hippies, politicians of all persuasions, nerds, posers, journalists, musicians, judges, and just about any other target, with equanimity.
As his son Dweezil tells me, “Were he still alive, he’d have a field-day with Bush.” That his children are called Ahmet Rodan, Dweezil and Moon Unit tells you that this was not a man to court convention.
But it wasn’t all good either. He was seriously injured when a “fan” pushed him off the stage at London’s Rainbow Theatre, a fire at one of his gigs in Switzerland inspired Deep Purple to write ‘Smoke On The Water’ and Ringo Starr played him on film.
But behind the anger and the outrage was a serious musician, a man who, contrary to his media image, eschewed the path of alcohol and drugs and was extraordinarily diverse and prolific in his musical output.
Contrary to expectations too, Dweezil is a polite, mildly spoken, gentle guy who speaks very fondly of his dad and truly appreciates the musical environment that nurtured him.
“I grew up hearing very dissonant music, like the classical composers Stravinski and Stockhausen. That was all normal to me. But it wasn’t until I heard Van Halen on the radio that I really came face to face with straight ahead rock music, and that really turned me on to rock guitar,” he explains.
Apart from Dad’s choice of background music, life chez Zappa seems to have been remarkably normal in most other ways.
“I enjoyed his sense of humour and his love of words. He invented this family game called Snigglets which was about creating words for things that didn’t already have a word. For example, we asked him for a word to describe the kind of person who only wears rock t-shirts with logos on them and he quickly came up with ‘insignoramus’, which I think really gets it.”
Dweezil is an inventive guitar player himself.
“I often play one of Frank’s guitars. It’s like entering a time-machine and reliving some really precious moments we had with him,” he says. “But most of all I want to keep his music alive by having it played by musicians who are prepared to pay attention to the detail in it. Frank used to use the rock band as an orchestra and with people on this tour like Terry Bozzio and Napoleon Murphy Brock who played with Dad, there’s a direct link back to him and his unique style. That’s what’s most important to me right now.”