The Composer – Early ‘80s

Zappa’s dreams were finally coming true: his “serious” compositions were now being widely accepted in contemporary music circles. The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) performed some of his music and the Inter Contemporain ensemble of Paris commissioned a piece.

In 1983 he asked Kent Nagano (conductor of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra) to fly with him to London and conduct the LSO. Kent agreed noting that, “not only were they complex, but they were well written compositions.” Zappa’s work soon earned him respect from all of the musicians, even though it was “difficult music for the conductor to count [...] and also exercised little-used upper and lower ranges of instruments that were difficult to play, particularly in such unusual time signatures” [Miles p. 312] Zappa wasn’t pleased at all and called it a disaster. With four and a half days of rehearsal for music, which normally would merit four or five months, it’s safe to say Zappa was being overly harsh and demanding.

However, his “regular” music wasn’t fairing any better. People now often found him to be out of touch with the younger generation and his audiences became constantly smaller. Blaming punks for it all he was provided with new ammunition and so came Tinseltown Rebellion. The album featured more tracks against the women’s liberation movement, now accompanies by songs describing how punks were all insincere, plastic and hypocritical.

1981 welcomed three volumes of Shut Up and Play Your Guitar, which solely featured his best guitar solos from the years he had spent on the road.

In 1982 Zappa bought the Beach Boys’ mobile recording truck and was then able to record all of his live performances and most of the albums that followed used live material which he cut and paste according to his mood and desire. That same year came an unexpected radio hit for Zappa – Valley Girl. Moon had been craving to spend time with her dad and she slipped a note under his studio door proclaiming that she wanted to sing on one of his songs. One night, Zappa took her up on it. He woke her up in the middle of the night and asked her to do a monologue in her famous San Fernando Valley Girl accent. It was a hit with folks who mistakenly thought the song was celebrating Valley Girls and it lead to a line of merchandise including clothing, dolls, cosmetics and more. It even earned them a Grammy nomination!

The Composer – 1979 - 80

In 1979, when the costs of renting out studio time were simply becoming too high, Zappa opted to build his own - the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK). He was finally independent, with his own studio and record company and a distribution deal with Phonogram.

1980 saw the release of his first album on his own record, Sheik Yerbouti (a pun on the hit by K. C. and the Sunshine Band), which was a rock opera recounting the story of an American rock and roller in a country where rock is seen as the root of all evil. The album reached No. 21 on Billboard, but not without some controversy over his explicit lyrics. All Zappa had to say was: “I’m a journalist of sorts. I have a right to say what I want to say about any topic. If you don’t have a sense of humor, then tough titties.” [Miles p.274] As many later went on to note Zappa was perhaps an integral part of the pop art movement, just like Warhol. After all, it was characteristic of the pop art movement not to romanticize or beautify their images, just like Zappa with his truthful, unapologetic interpretations of the world around him, which most could not handle.

The album also features his first use of “Xenochrony” on Rubber Shirt. “He would select a number of different tapes – all at the same tempo – and play them simultaneously to create a track in which the relationship of the instruments to one another is totally random.” [p. 271]

The Performer – 1978 – 79

Zappa approached his audiences as an older, wiser patriarch. He somehow believed that perhaps if he antagonized them enough they might rebel against bosses, teachers, parents and maybe even the government. He always wanted to entertain them however, and give them good value for their money. He just hoped to do so whilst educating them. Zappa lectured his audiences on the evils of Warners, TV evangelism, Nixon and even set up voter registration booths at his shows.

Miles believes that “Zappa could never respect his audiences [because] if he did he might have to listen to their criticisms.” [p. 265]

The Entrepreneur – Zappa vs. Warners

When his contract ended, Zappa still owed Warners four CDs, which he delivered: Studio Tan, Hot Rats III, Zappa’s Orchestral Favorites and Zappa in New York. Sixty days later and he still hadn’t gotten paid so, he sued them for breach of contract.

Zappa in New York was out first and was the most vilified for sexist, sexually explicit lyrics. Illinois Enema Bandit is, for example, outright offensive as Zappa takes joy in a robber who sexually assaults women, and he goes on to claim that they all secretly love it. He always hated the women’s liberation movement and this song certainly showed it.

Warners released Studio Tan next with their own sleeve and no liner notes, Sleep Dirt (originally Hot Rats III) came in ’79, as well as Orchestral Favorites.

The albums had been released without consulting Zappa, came with new packaging, no liner notes and were all edited for content. What’s more Zappa wasn’t paid any publishing or artist royalties.

Could you blame him for hating on them and taking them to court?!

The Entrepreneur - 1976

In September Zappa had his last ever tour with a line-up called The Mothers. He then proceeded to fire and sue Herb Cohen and his lawyer brother for stealing from DiscReet (and could no longer use the name “The Mothers.”) Zappa didn’t agree with the artists Cohen was signing and he claimed that Cohen had used his royalty checks to pay for production costs of Beefheart’s album, when Zappa was away on tour.

After Zappa refused to send the master tapes of Beefheart’s album, Bat Chain Puller, to Virgin Records for release until he got his money back, everyone claimed that this was proof enough that Zappa only cared about money and not art and that he was acting like the big record companies he hated. The CD was still not released when Zappa died. Zappa was just a smart business man and when he knew something was owed to him he went out and got it. He preached proactivity and he certainly followed his own advice.

When the case reached court in 1977, Zappa asked that DiscReet be dissolved since Cohen mishandled the firm and misappropriated its assets.

The Composer / Performer – 1976

With time Zappa began to love more and more recording his live shows and later using the tapes on albums, whether in full or partially. His bands were so well rehearsed that they always sounded great and all he had to do was head into the studio for some overdubbing, where needed.

Zoot Allures came out in October 1976 and was originally titled Night of the Iron Sausage. It sold 110,000 copies in its first week, with almost no promo at all, which was quite a feat. Putting the album together was a slow and tedious process as Zappa couldn’t use his master tapes which were frozen at DiscReet (Zappa was suing Cohen and hoping to dissolve the company. More on this in the next post.) So, Zappa made due with the safety copies he had. Whenever Zappa left the studio he took a safety copy of his work with him because as he explained: “When I go home after 20 hours in the studio, what am I gonna listen to? Bob Dylan records?" [Miles p. 254]

Discreet wasn't the only company Zappa was not happy with. He was almost utterly infuriated with Warners, and would soon become even angrier when they'd begin withholding royalties from him. (More in upcoming posts.) As always, Zappa was not shy about speaking his mind and began hanging a banner proclaiming “Warners sucks!” on stage at his shows. He justified it by saying,“This is my first release for Warners, not DiscReet; it’s not subsidiary, it’s not a little independent record company. It’s “Hey I’m on your mainline label, now what are ya gonna do about it? So far they’ve done diddly shit.” [p. 257]

The Entrepreneur - 1975

After a four year wait the case of Bizarre Records vs. The Royal Albert Hall finally reached the court. The trial’s judge took time to listen to the entire soundtrack of 200 Motels, in court, and a cultural gap soon became evident. (The Court had to use a dictionary of slang to grasp the meaning in the music.

The case claimed that the Royal Albert Hall breached its contract with Zappa by banning the Mothers from playing due to the nature of their explicit lyrics. Zappa’s main argument was that if they would have consulted him he would have amended the offensive lyrics.

A verdict was reached and the judge agreed that the Hall committed a breach of contract, but it didn’t award anything to Zappa (whose legal fees ended up being 20,000 pounds!)

Later, not letting defeat stand in his way and, as always, fighting for what he believed in and not letting anyone outsmart him nor take advantage of him, Zappa (along with Herb Cohen) sued MGM for two million dollars worth of royalties withheld from them for five Mothers compilations which had been released in North America, and eleven unauthorized ones released in foreign countries.