Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa with his Parents
1971 by John Olson for LIFE magazine
Who paints their living room purple?

Diligent daughter and I were doing some trivia quizzes from the book 399 Games by Nancy Linde yesterday evening and one of the questions prompted me to recall Frank Zappa. Dutiful daughter had never heard of him. I thought for sure I had posted this picture of him earlier, but no, but I certainly remembered it, so here it is. 

But now I'm trying to remember what made him famous enough for me to notice and the only thing I can recall is a song about about "moving to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon", which is a line I still use whenever I get fed up with the sea of bullshit in which we find ourselves immersed. He was a very talented musician.

6 Amazing Frank Zappa Guitar Solos (1973 - 1991)
Frank Zappa Interview Collection

When I was in high school he was an icon, an icon of what I am not sure. He and The Mothers of Invention produced some odd music, nothing that ever made the top 40, nothing that had any kind of conventional melody. The only memorable thing I can point out is that he gave his children the very odd names of Dweezil and Moon Unit.

Then there was the Captain Beefheart band. Most of their stuff just sounded like noise to me. Captain and Frank were like brothers under the skin.

The reason Frank appealed to me might be because he said, in a subtle way, all kinds of rude and crude things, things that in my white bread cocoon I never heard. It was like somebody telling me about pizza when all I had ever eaten was bologna sandwiches.