48 of 100: Frank Zappa, musician

If you can imagine: a short-haired, clean-shaven, suit-and-tie-wearing, twenty-two-year-old Frank Zappa  on the Steve Allen Show in 1963, playing, yes, a bicycle:

I posted this video on FB, and my guitarist friend Dorian had this to say, which I absolutely agree with: "the great thing about this is that steve allen was so hip. its easy to see how zappa could be his satirical concept art self. but what impresses one most is that steve allen would put this on his show and go along with, and dig, the whole concept." 

But back to Zappa: Whenever I drive over the Grapevine, heading into or out of LA, and pass by Gorman, I think of him and his song "Billy the Mountain" (sadly, I find no video of it being performed, but it's a good listen regardless, this one live from 1971): 

And here he is speaking about his work (it's a compilation—but he does mention a few timestamps):

One of his last performances, in Prague, 1991 (he died on my birthday in 1993, of prostate cancer, age 52); the music starts at about 5:15, but the rest is worth hearing:

I could go on mining and posting videos of him, but instead I'll just end with his classic "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow and Nanook Rubs It"—politically incorrect perhaps, but did Frank care? Nah. Or yeah, sure. He saw the complexity, the ineffability, the possibility—the gray—in things.

PS. I wasn't thinking about Frank Zappa at all today, or at all recently for that matter, but I had a rough work day, and was considering just skipping the blog post. But then I went googling, just to see if I'd happen on something worth relating. I don't even remember what got me to that Steven Allen Show episode, but once there, I was glad. Zappa was his own kind of genius. 

And that's one reason I enjoy doing this blog. Sometimes I stumble on the darnedest, most enriching things.

 

Finally, finally, here's a revealing article from the WaPo just two weeks ago, about Zappa's family and legacy. Why does life have to be so complicated? Maybe he wouldn't have found it surprising, who knows.