Frank Zappa
Biography
Composer, guitarist, singer, and bandleader Frank Zappa was a singular musical figure during a performing and recording career that lasted from the 1960s to the '90s. His disparate influences included doo wop music and avant-garde classical music; although he led groups that could be called rock & roll bands for much of his career, he used them to create a hybrid style that bordered on jazz and complicated, modern serious music, sometimes inducing orchestras to play along. As if his music were not challenging enough, he overlay it with highly satirical and sometimes abstractly humorous lyrics and song titles that marked him as coming out of a provocative literary tradition that included Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and edgy comedians like Lenny Bruce. Nominally, he was a popular musician, but his recordings rarely earned significant airplay or sales, yet he was able to gain control of his recorded work and issue it successfully through his own labels while also touring internationally, in part because of the respect he earned from a dedicated cult of fans and many serious musicians, and also because he was an articulate spokesman who promoted himself into a media star through extensive interviews he considered to be a part of his creative effort just like his music. The Mothers of Invention, the '60s group he led, often seemed to offer a parody of popular music and the counterculture (although he affected long hair and jeans, Zappa was openly scornful of hippies and drug use). By the '80s, he was testifying before Congress in opposition to censorship (and editing his testimony into one of his albums). But these comic and serious sides were complementary, not contradictory. In statement and in practice, Zappa was an iconoclastic defender of the freest possible expression of ideas. And most of all, he was a composer far more ambitious than any other rock musician of his time and most classical musicians, as well.. Zappa was born Frank Vincent Zappa in Baltimore, MD, on December 21, 1940. For most of his life, he was under the mistaken impression that he had been named exactly after his father, a Sicilian immigrant who was a high school teacher at the time of his son's birth, that he was "Francis Vincent Zappa, Jr." That was what he told interviewers, and it was extensively reported. It was only many years later that Zappa examined his birth certificate and discovered that, in fact, his first name was Frank, not Francis. The real Francis Zappa took a job with the Navy during World War II, and he spent the rest of his career working in one capacity or another for the government or in the defense industry, resulting in many family moves. Zappa's mother, Rose Marie (Colimore) Zappa, was a former librarian and typist. During his early childhood, the family lived in Baltimore, Opa-Locka, FL, and Edgewood, MD. In December 1951, they moved to California when Zappa's father took a job teaching metallurgy at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey. The same year, Zappa had first shown an interest in becoming a musician, joining the school band and playing the snare drum.
Top Albums |
1. One Shot Dea..
| 2. Apostrophe (..
| 3. Joe's Garage..
| 4. Over-Nite Se..
| 5. Hot Rats
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6. Sheik Yerbou..
| 7. One Size Fit..
| 8. Shut Up 'n P..
| 9. Roxy & E..
| 10. Freak Out!
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11. Zoot Allures
| 12. The Frank Za..
| 13. We're Only I..
| 14. Beat the Boo..
| 15. Fillmore Eas..
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16. Absolutely F..
| 17. The Grand Wa..
| 18. Bongo Fury
| 19. Penguin In B..
| 20. Just Another..
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Top Songs |
| Name | Album | Time | Price | |
1. | Joe's Garage | Joe's Garage: Acts I, I.. | 6:09 | $1.29 | |
2. | Montana | Over-Nite Sensation | 6:36 | $1.29 | |
3. | I'm the Slime | Over-Nite Sensation | 3:34 | $1.29 | |
4. | Don't Eat the Yellow Snow | Apostrophe (') | 2:04 | $1.29 | |
5. | Illinois Enema Bandit | One Shot Deal | 9:26 | $1.29 | |
6. | Occam's Razor (On the Bus- Origi.. | One Shot Deal | 9:11 | $1.29 | |
7. | Bathtub Man | One Shot Deal | 5:43 | $1.29 | |
8. | Wedding Dress Song / Handsome Cabin .. | Son of Rogues Gallery: Pira.. | 2:36 | $1.29 | |
9. | Big Swifty | Paris Short Stories (Saison.. | 4:54 | $0.99 | |
10. | Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution | Läther (Booklet Version) | 8:32 | $1.29 | |
11. | Titties 'n Beer | Läther (Booklet Version) | 5:23 | $1.29 | |
12. | Filthy Habits | Läther (Booklet Version) | 7:12 | $1.29 | |
13. | Duke of Orchestral Prunes | Läther (Booklet Version) | 4:21 | $1.29 | |
14. | Läther | Läther (Booklet Version) | 3:50 | $1.29 | |
15. | Flambe | Läther (Booklet Version) | 2:05 | $1.29 | |
16. | Big Leg Emma | Läther (Booklet Version) | 2:18 | $1.29 | |
17. | Black Page #1 | Läther (Booklet Version) | 1:57 | $1.29 | |
18. | Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like.. | Läther (Booklet Version) | 4:57 | $1.29 | |
19. | Rdnzl | Läther (Booklet Version) | 8:14 | $1.29 | |
20. | Revised Music For Guitar & Low B.. | Läther (Booklet Version) | 7:36 | $1.29 | |
21. | Lemme Take You To the Beach | Läther (Booklet Version) | 2:47 | $1.29 | |
22. | Broken Hearts Are For Assholes | Läther (Booklet Version) | 4:40 | $1.29 | |
23. | Tryin' To Grow a Chin | Läther (Booklet Version) | 3:26 | $1.29 | |
24. | For the Young Sophisticate | Läther (Booklet Version) | 3:14 | $1.29 | |
25. | Down In De Dew | Läther (Booklet Version) | 2:57 | $1.29 | |