Frank Zappa was actually Frank Zappa’s real name, Zappa, the rock’n’roll musician, freak-provocateur and contemporary composer and orchestral arranger influenced by Anton Webern, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky. This film allows him to speak “in his own words”, which means clips from his imperturbably droll, articulate performances in TV interviews over the years .
In a perfect world, “Zappa in his own words” would really mean nothing but his music and lyrics, which is where he would be truly himself – but this is nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining watch. He emerges as a radical, sceptical libertarian who derided what he saw as the occasional fascism of the left. In one edition of a TV debate show, he even describes himself as a conservative, while making mincemeat of the plumply suited disapprovers ranged to his left and right.
Zappa allied himself broadly within the counterculture but was obviously a pretty strict taskmaster with his own band musicians, like a cross between James Brown and Leonard Bernstein. He didn’t much care for drugs, and to one interviewer he reveals he had sacked musicians for drug-taking on the road, on the pragmatic grounds that they might get thrown in jail when he needed them on stage. Hundreds, of musicians were inspired by him; drop in a few nuggets of We’re Only In It for the Money or Hot Rats . Of course, Zappa was never one to do anything the easy, or easily comprehensible, way — we’re talking about an artist who composed a concerto for two bicycles and railed against the norm at every opportunity. Better, then, to honor his life and work with a jagged, collage-like assembly of archival footage. And, given the eloquence and biting wit he displayed in his lyrics
He was cautious of the term revolutionary (though he did not object to “genius”), on the grounds that it was coercive and aggressive. But actually he does seem like a revolutionary, and someone who couldn’t be categorised. This film could trigger a revival in his music – and maybe new performances of his orchestral work.
The Fat Angel Sings 