{"id":3884,"date":"2012-08-23T10:54:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T14:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=3884"},"modified":"2012-10-04T10:12:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T14:12:31","slug":"a-plague-upon-your-ignorance-the-overwhelming-genius-of-zappa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/a-plague-upon-your-ignorance-the-overwhelming-genius-of-zappa\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plague Upon Your Ignorance: The Overwhelming Genius of Zappa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna tell you the way it is\/And I\u2019m not gonna be kind or easy\u201d
\nFrank Zappa, \u201cHarry, You\u2019re a Beast\u201d<\/p>\n

The contributions that Frank Zappa made to music are a matter of historical record. As The Rolling Stone Album Guide <\/em>notes, “Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music-and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable.\u201d But Zappa\u2019s oeuvre is equally notable for its brilliantly observant social commentary. The lyric snippet from \u201cHarry You\u2019re a Beast\u201d could stand as Zappa\u2019s statement of purpose musically. He told it the way it was, and it was never kind or easy. The album containing the above lyrics, 1968\u2018s We\u2019re Only In It For the Money<\/em>, contains some of Zappa\u2019s most piercing satire, and it spares no one in its mockery, particularly the counterculture.\u00a0 Zappa\u2019s intent was apparent even before the album was played. The gatefold featured a parody of the Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band <\/em>cover, complete with cut out photos of various celebrities, a real live Jimi Hendrix, the Mothers themselves in drag, and fruits and vegetables in place of the ubiquitous flowers (the gatefold photo had been intended to be the cover, but Zappa\u2019s record company protested). The back cover featured the Mothers, all with their backs to the camera save one. Zappa\u2019s message was clear; he wasn\u2019t afraid to tip over the hip crowds\u2019 sacred cows, and nothing was outside the boundaries for his razor wit. He was also clearly mocking the tendency of many of the era\u2019s artists to take themselves way too seriously. Psychedelic music wasn\u2019t about about art; it was about commerce. It could also be very silly and pretentious.<\/p>\n

Zappa\u2019s withering criticism of the Hippie movement and his refusal to go along with its narrow minded worldview or destructive habits made him something of an oddity. He didn\u2019t do drugs, but made music that was mind-expanding, and though he was a caustic critic of the establishment, he was just as hard on those in the underground for being equally as bigoted and unyielding. He was, as Jack Kerouac called himself, \u201ca Bippie in the middle.\u201d By the 80\u2019s he was known for his crusade against censorship and his criticism of the religious right, who advocated government prohibition of entertainment they deemed \u201coffensive.\u201d But it should be noted that Zappa\u2019s nemesis in his battle against the Parents Music Resource Center was Tipper Gore, hardly a scion of the religious right. For many liberals, Zappa\u2019s lyrics were offensive for their politically incorrect aspects; in this case, the left showed as much aptitude for censorship as the religious right (think speech codes and \u201chate free zones,\u201d which Zappa would\u2019ve detested). Thus, Zappa refused to be pigeonholed ideologically and often went against the grain of modern liberal thinking. Nowhere is Zappa\u2019s refusal to go along with the leftist herd more evident than on \u201cWe\u2019re Only In It For the Money<\/em>,\u201d though he lampoons the conservative establishment as well.<\/p>\n

Zappa takes careful aim at the counterculture right from the first song (the first track is, technically, not a song, but a \u201cmusic concrete\u201d featuring dialogue by, among others, Eric Clapton), \u201cWho Needs the Peace Corps?\u201d<\/p>\n

Walked past the wig store
\nDanced at the Fillmore
\nI’m completely stoned
\nI’m hippy & I’m trippy
\nI’m a gypsy on my own
\nI’ll stay a week & get the crabs &
\nTake a bus back home
\nI’m really just a phony
\nBut forgive me
\n‘Cause I’m stoned<\/p>\n

The lifestyle promoted by the counterculture is just as shallow as that against which they are reacting; they are as phony as the \u201cstraights\u201d they demean. The desire to \u201cdrop out\u201d is just an excuse for people who have no direction in life and eschew responsibility for their existence (\u201cForgive me\/Cause I\u2019m stoned\u201d). Furthermore, the alternative lifestyle the hippies are promoting has been commodified: \u201cPsychedelic dungeons\/Popping up on every street…First I\u2019ll buy some beads\/And then perhaps a leather band…I will ask the Chamber of Commerce\/How to Get to Haight Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Zappa is critical of the parents of the drop-outs as well, mainly for creating the conditions by which such meaningless rebellion against straight society is possible. The reaction of the older generation to their children\u2019s wayward behavior is extreme, and simply serves to feed into the whole \u201cUs vs. Them\u201d mentality of the youth. He paints a stark picture of the generation gap in \u201cMom & Dad.\u201d \u201cSomeone said they made some noise\/The cops have shot some girls & boys\/You’ll sit home & drink all night\/They looked too weird . . . it served them right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as their parents dull their senses with alcohol, the youth use drugs as a means of escape. But what are the kids so intent on escaping? Certainly the life the older generation laid out for them is not so bad. The problem lay in the parents\u2019 refusal to consider that the way they were doing things could be wrong, and that they shouldn\u2019t cling to old ways just for the sake of tradition.<\/p>\n

Ever take a minute just to show a real emotion
\nIn between the moisture cream & velvet facial lotion?
\nEver tell your kids you’re glad that they can think?
\nEver say you loved ’em? Ever let ’em watch you drink?
\nEver wonder why your daughter looked so sad?
\nIt’s such a drag to have to love a plastic Mom & Dad<\/p>\n

Here the music takes a different turn; while most of the music on the album is uptempo and whimsical or discordant and loud, it is decidedly melancholy at this point. It is the album\u2019s most poignant segment musically, and features nice two part harmony. Despite the caustic comedy of the album, it\u2019s clear that Zappa realizes that some things just aren\u2019t funny. He provides more humorous commentary on the failure of the older generation to understand their children on \u201cBow Tie Daddy\u201d (\u201cBow tie daddy dontcha blow your top\/Everything\u2019s under control\u201d) and \u201cWhat\u2019s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?\u201d (\u201cA PLAGUE UPON YOUR IGNORANCE THAT KEEPS\/THE YOUNG FROM THE TRUTH THEY DESERVE\u201d). He continues the theme in \u201cLonely Girl.\u201d The failure of parents to understand their daughters leads to the daughters\u2019 alienation. It is only when it is too late that the parents show concern about the types of boys from whom their daughters seek the affection they never got. \u201cWhere did Annie go\/When she went\u00a0 to town\/Who are all those creeps\/That she brings around?\u201d However, it is only from a plastic existence that empty rebellion is inevitable. The younger generation is not as far removed from the adult generation as they would like to think they are. In fact, they are a direct product of it, and their attempts at liberation are ineffectual at best. This is also reflected in the counterculture\u2019s proclaimed sexual liberation, which, for Zappa, is as banal and passionless as the uptight attitudes towards sex held by straights. This practiced lubricity is as inauthentic as the rest of the counterculture\u2019s mores, and this idea is expressed pointedly in \u201cHarry, You\u2019re a Beast\u201d with a negative image of women. \u201cYou\u2019re phony on top\/You\u2019re phony underneath\/You lay in bed and grit your teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zappa\u2019s most pointed barbs are directed at the commodification of what would be called \u201cyouth culture.\u201d All of the rebellion and rejection of society was co-opted by those who saw an easy buck to be made off of what\u00a0they deemed a passing fad. In \u201cAbsolutely Free\u201d he starts by explaining \u201cThe first word in this song is discorporate<\/strong>. It means to leave your body<\/em>.\u201d He then sings verses that seem to invite the listener on a cosmic journey.<\/p>\n

Unbind your mind
\nThere is no time
\nTo lick you stamps
\nAnd paste them\u00a0in
\nDISCORPORATE
\nAnd we will begin…WAH WAH!<\/p>\n

He then, however adds a stinging rejoinder: \u201cFlower Power Sucks<\/strong>.\u201d <\/strong>As commentary on the banality of the spiritual pursuits of the hippies, the song works on many levels. First there is the title, \u201cAbsolutely Free\u201d; it could be interpreted as a statement of defiance, as in being totally independent of anyone, but it also recalls the type of claims made in advertising, as in buy now and your second widget is absolutely free! There is also the use of the word \u201cdiscorporate;\u201d it could be taken for the meaning Zappa gives it, or if one focuses on the \u201ccorporate\u201d part, it could be taken to mean to disentangle from corporations, which, for all of the revolutionary and free your mind rhetoric of the counterculture, still controlled the means of production and distribution, as well as the concert venues and radio stations, of the music that was supposed to liberate the masses. He mixes his distaste for the phony spiritualism gibberish of the hippies with his mistrust of the supposed acceptance of such ideas by the establishment and their record label fronts. \u201cDiamonds on velvets on goldens on vixen\/On comet & cupid on donner & blitzen\/On up & away & afar & a go-go\/Escape from the weight of your corporate logo.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Zappa, all the posturing by the hippies about not \u201cselling out\u201d was just empty talk. His genuine lack of concern for satisfying the trends or the corporate bottom line is what allowed him to make the truly experimental music of WOIIFTM, in addition to its provocative lyrical content, which insured censorship; how else would he have had the balls to record a song like \u201cHot Poop\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Make the Water Black\u201d (sample lyric: \u201cWhizzing & pasting & pooting through the day\/Ronnie helping Kenny helping burn his poots away!)? What passes for counterculture is merely a matter of having the proper accessories; a flower, long hair, love beads, a peace badge, and bongos are all it takes to adapt the hippie lifestyle, as Zappa illustrates in \u201cHey Punk\u201d (based on \u201cHey Joe\u201d). \u201cHey Punk, where you goin\u2019 with that flower in your hand?\/Well, I\u2019m goin\u2019 up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band…Hey Punk, where you goin\u2019 with that button on your shirt?\/I\u2019m goin\u2019 to the love-in to sit and play my bongos in the dirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the hypocrisy of Zappa\u2019s contemporaries that most inspires his bile. The hippies, with their pseudo-spiritualism and self-importance, are no better to him than the older generation, with their plastic and stifling existence. Both are equally phony, and both hide their true thoughts behind platitudinous pronouncements about peace and love on one hand, and law and order on the other. For Zappa, it\u2019s all bullshit because it covers up what people really think. As he sings in \u201cWhat\u2019s the Ugliest Part of Your Body,\u201d \u201cSome say your nose\/Some say your toes\/ But I think it\u2019s YOUR MIND.\u201d Zappa mocks the claim that the actions of the Love Generation will effect real change in \u201cTake Off Your Clothes When You Dance.\u201d All the drugs, free love, and talk of peace is just an excuse for self-indulgence disguised by a desire to change the world, and it\u2019s the exclusive domain of a select, enlightened few. \u201cWho cares if you’re so poor you can’t afford\/To buy a pair of Mod A Go-Go stretch-elastic pants . . .THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN YOU CAN EVEN\/TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF WHEN YOU DANCE.\u201d The older generation\u2019s overreaction to the contrived rebellion of the youth is driven by their fear of losing the status quo and fear of anything that challenges their comfortable existence. Anyone with\u00a0 long hair is suspect, and anyone different is not to be trusted, as expressed in \u201cMother People.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think my pants are too tight?
\nDo you think that I\u2019m creepy?
\nLemme take a minute & tell you my plan
\nLemme take a minute & tell you who I am
\nIf it doesn\u2019t show
\nThink you better know
\nI\u2019m another person<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Zappa and his ilk must be stopped, in spite of the fact that he is not a part of the movement that the establishment finds so threatening to their way of life, as he sings in \u201cConcentration Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

AMERICAN WAY
\nThreatened by us
\nDrag a few creeps
\nAway in a bus
\nAMERICAN WAY
\nPrisoner: lock
\nSMASH EVERY CREEP
\nIN THE FACE WITH A ROCK<\/p>\n

Of course, Zappa isn\u2019t one of \u201cthem\u201d or \u201cus\u201d but truly an individual. His purpose is to challenge bad thinking, the main trait of both the establishment and the counterculture, which are essentially both sides of the same coin. Both sides resort to fascist tactics, blindly striking out at whatever is not like them. The end result of such groupthink is violence; the counterculture turns to violent acts to promote its \u201crevolution,\u201d and the establishment takes the bait and responds in kind by ratcheting up the authoritarianism; \u201cCOP KILL A CREEP! pow pow pow.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, each side feeds into the other\u2019s delusion, and each feels justified for its actions, with the hippies believing they\u2019ve struck blows agains the regime rather than provide it with an excuse to clamp down in response to their feckless rebellion. It is Zappa who truly challenges the status quo, something he would do for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Only In It For the Money<\/em> has become a classic, mainly for its musical achievements. But it should also be regarded for its astute social satire. Zappa\u2019s observations on contemporary society in 1968 weren\u2019t just insightful, they were also somewhat prescient. The seamier side of the Love Generation was revealed at Altamont and in the excesses that led to the untimely deaths of many of Zappa\u2019s fellow musicians (Hendrix included). The violence he sang about would become a reality at Kent State in 1970. The end of the decade would see race riots, protests, and assassinations and would culminate in the sick spectacle of Watergate. Peace and Love would give way to Fear and Loathing. And Zappa would continue making progressively innovative music and playing the role of social satirist and contrarian in the tradition of Mencken and Twain, pointing out the foibles and absurdities of humanity. As he sings in \u201cHarry, You\u2019re A Beast,\u201d \u201cYour whole attitude stinks, I say\/And the life you lead is completely empty.\u201d And yes, he is talking to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m gonna tell you the way it is\/And I\u2019m not gonna be kind or easy\u201d Frank Zappa, \u201cHarry, You\u2019re a Beast\u201d The contributions that Frank Zappa made to music are a matter of historical record. As The Rolling Stone Album Guide notes, “Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music-and, whether guised as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":3886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4275,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions\/4275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}