Frank Zappa. Amazing composer, guitar player, singer, and satirical analyst of everyday life. 135 albums and 12 films, 30 years of music. This is my way of saying thank you.
It may be true that I'm young, with only a few years of digging into Zappa's extensive catalog, listening to his work, and absorbing his wisdom, but I can already see a glimpse into the genius of his work. Zappa was a musician and a comedian. No one was safe from his scathing mockery and perfectly timed satire. Whether it be bashing against swaggering high school stereotypes in "Bobby Brown Goes Down," or against the power of media and television in "I Am The Slime" Zappa usually always has a point to make (though there's plenty of silliness to be found around it.)
Even putting his lyrical content aside, Zappa was a masterful musician, who, with his compositional skills brought together generations of musicians to form an amazing band to play with him "The Mothers Of Invention" some of their best musical talents being displayed in a personal favorite of mine (a 1979 live recording of "Cosmik Debris" ) Zappa brought the best out of a whole slew of artists, and made some amazing music with them.
But outside of his art, Zappa was a free-thinker, always having plenty to say about life, politics, and the world. He's a rather quotable fellow too from things as profound as “It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice -- there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.” or the short and sweet ones, such as "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." In addition to having so many memorable snippets, he did a great service to musicians and the music industry as a whole in fighting censorship. On September 19, 1985 Frank Zappa (along with John Denver and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister) testified against the PRMC (Parent's Resource Music Centre) in a matter of censorship. The PRMC had plans for large sweeping rating systems, in addition to several taxes on tapes (which would have been wonderful for the senators that many of the board members were married to.) This was an attack on the artistic integrity of musicians, that would also have limited the availability of this music to many adults who already enjoyed it. Luckily though Zappa and the others made their statements before congress, which stopped many of the planned censorships (minus the now standard parental advisory sticker) and saved generations of artists from being silenced and watered down.
Zappa was unequivocally a genius. His music still impacts and brings joy to myself and so many other fans years after his death in 1993, and without his vision and independent spirit, musical expression would have been surely crippled. So, give him a listen, and give him thanks. Because, as Zappa said, "Music is the best"
