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Frank Zappa: The Mother of Us All
An Exclusive Online Extra
by Larry Kart —
10/3/1969
A sage whom I invented once said: "The only event which might merit the term ‘progress’ would be an increase in the percentage of intelligent human beings." And he added: "Those who work toward this goal are know, variously, as fools, clowns, and prophets."
*****
For purposes of economic gain and protective coloration, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention have promoted themselves as a group of truly weird people. Well, the Mothers may have their eccentricities, but no more than other musicians I have met, and Zappa himself is a man of striking sobriety. Sometimes, he even made me feel frivolous.
*****
Zappa is standing onstage in front of 10,000 or so people, most of them under 21, at an open-air concert last summer. He says to the audience, "We’ve just had a request for ‘Caravan’ with a drum solo" (the fruit of their routine on America Drinks & Goes Home). Laughter. Shouts of "yeah!" "Now we may play ‘Caravan’ with a drum solo, or we might refuse to play ‘Caravan’ with a drum solo. Which will it be? We think we’ll let you decide." (All of this is delivered in a light, mocking tone of voice.) An applause-meter type test indicates that the crowd does not want "Caravan" with a drum solo. "All right, we’ll play ‘Wipeout’" (the nadir of early-‘60s schlock). Which they proceed to do, in three tempos at once. The mindless riff of "Wipeout" melts like plastic.
*****
Consider this scenario. A bright young boy is attending a Southern California high school. It is 1955. We’ve just "won" the Korean War. The boy is prey to all the adolescent agonies—acne, young love, cars, dumb teachers, the rigid status system of the American high school, et al. He doesn’t particularly want to grow up and be a successful anything. There is a music called rock ‘n’ roll that expresses his condition. He like the music, maybe loves it. Since he is musically talented, he begins to play it.
But soon several things disturb him. First, he is musically curious, so he begins to explore other kinds of music—jazz perhaps, certainly the 20th century classical avant-garde. After this, the musical limitations of rock ‘n’ roll seem obvious. Second, he sees that popular music, and rock in particular, serves its consumers in ways they would never recognize. It diverts their anxious energy into rhythmic response and lulls their sorrows with romantic fantasy. It helps to render them harmless, or at least controllable. And behind all this there is a chain of promoters, D.J.’s, record company executives, and on up who are making a living on the music. This makes the boy angry. He resents being used and manipulated. And his intelligence tells him that this is an insidious form of propaganda (definition: propaganda is not designed to change opinions, but to move men to action, or inaction). Perhaps he eventually resolves to do something about it.
*****
On every Mothers’ album aside from Ruben And The Jets this statement is printed on the sleeve: "The present-day composer refuses to die! Edgar Varese, July 1921" (on Ruben it reads: "The present-day Pachuco refuses to die! Ruben Sano, June 1955").
Varese was born in Paris in 1885 and settled in New York in 1916. His distinction as a composer lies in his acceptance of the harsh sonic environment of the modern city as his musical material. Out of this "noise," with a scientist’s precision, he created a musical order. Although Varese’s music can be violent, it is never programmatic or sentimental. He masters his environment on its own terms.
*****
Zappa begins the second half of the concert by saying, "Ian Underwood will now play for you the Mozart Piano Sonata in B flat." Underwood begins to play the first movement of a Mozart piano sonata (K. 281, I think). He plays it very well.
*****
I asked Zappa about his run-in at the London School of Economics, and he said, "I was invited to speak at the London School of Economics. So I went o |
