Frank Zappa in Toronto

Frank Zappa
(1940 - 1993)

USA Musician and Composer

The Life of Frank Zappa

21 December 1940: Born in Baltimore (USA) to Sicilian father and French / Italian mother.
January 1951: Family moves to Monterey because of Frank's asthma.
Summer 1953: Has first drum lessons at school.
1954: Moves to San Diego and joins first band at school.
1955: Moves to the Californian desert town of Lancaster.
1956: Meets up with Don Van Vliet (later Captain Beefheart) in the band, The Blackouts.
1957: Gets first guitar.
13 June 1958: Graduates from school.
1959: Moves away from home to Los Angeles. Writes music to Run Home Slow, a low budget Western released in 1963, and The World's Greatest Sinner. Marries Kay, his first wife. The marriage only lasts a couple of years.
1962: Appears on TV playing a bicycle.
1963: Begins playing professionally and spends ten days in Jail on pornography charges.
1964: Joins The Soul Giants as guitarist, takes over the group and renames them as The Muthers (later The Mothers). They start to get noticed in LA's Freak Scene.
1965: The Mothers are spotted by Tom Wilson and sign record contract with Verve and changed name to Mothers of Invention. Meets Herb Cohen, their long time manager.
1966: Records and releases first album Freak Out, the first rock double album. Meets Gail Sloatman (who becomes his wife for the rest of his life).
1967: Mothers spend several months in New York. Releases second album Absolutely Free. The track Plastic People becomes an anthem for the Czech and Slovak anti-Communist resistance. First European tour.
1968: Releases three albums containing widely varying styles of music (including We're Only In It For The Money whose cover parodied the Sgt Pepper album by the Beatles). Satirises hippy culture. Tour covers 100 cities in USA and Europe. Makes cameo appearance in the film Head with The Monkeys.
1969: Releases four albums including Hot Rats. Original Mothers broken up. Produces Captain Beefhear album Trout Mask Replica.
1970: Releases two albums, Weesils Ripped My Flesh (containing old Mother material) and Chunga's Revenge (a preview of the film and album 200 Motels). Plays Bath Festival in England. This is the first time Kryss saw Frank Zappa.
1971: Moves to London (UK) to film 200 Motels. Concert banned from Royal Albert Hall. Film and double album of music released. Live album Filmore East June 1971 released from New York concert attended by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Fire during Swiss concert destroys band's equipment. In a concert in London during December (Kryss was there) Frank is pushed off the stage by a member of the audience. Injuries keep him in a wheelchair for a year.
1972: Releases live album from previous band and two jazzy albums recorded with mainly session musicians.
1973: Third band formed. Overnite Sensation album released. Most commercially successful album to date.
1974: Two more commercially successful albums released (one enters Top Ten). Tours with new set of musicians in USA and Europe. US TV show banned.
1975: Zappa fights court case in England over Albert Hall ban in 1971. Releases One Size Fits All and Bongo Fury (both featuring Captain Beefheart).
1976: Disbands The Mothers. Gets a new group together. Transitional album, Zoot Allures released. Problems with record company and management.
1978 - 1979: New band tours and releases live albums with new record company under the name of Zappa. Old record company releases badly packaged jazz / orchestral albums.
1980: Cuts hair short.
1982: Has hit single (Valley Girl from album Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch) with daughter, Moon Unit.
1983: Begins to wind down touring activities concentrating more on writing and solo recording. Records concert with London Symphony Orchestra.
1984: Tours with new band and releases four albums. Produces Them Or Us book which summarises 20 years of work.
1985: Fights against censorship of records in USA.
1988: Writes autobiography and performs last tour.
1988 - 1992: Remixes and releases many of his older albums plus lots of live material on six double CD (You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volumes 1 to 6).
1991: Zappa diagnosed with cancer. Releases double CD The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, from his final 1988 tour.
1992: Honoured at the New Music Festival in Frankfurt along with John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
4 December 1993: Zappa dies aged 52.
2006: Zappa's son, Dweezil, tours with a band playing his fathers' music.

The Frank Zappa Albums

Year	Album Name	Cover
1966	Freak Out
1967	Absolutely Free
1967	Lumpy Gravy
1968	We're Only In It For The Money
1968	Cruising With Ruben And The Jets
1969	Uncle Meat
1969	Mothermania
1969	Hot Rats
1969	Burnt Weeny Sandwich
1970	Weasils Ripped My Fleash
1970	Chunga's Revenge
1971	Fillmore East, June 1971
1971	200 Motels
1972	Just Another Band From LA
1972	Waka / Jawaka
1972	The Grand Wazoo
1973	Over-Nite Sensation
1974	Apostrophe'
1974	Roxy And Elsewhere
1975	One Size Fits All
1975	Bongo Fury
1976	Zoot Allures
1978	Zappa In New York
1978	Studio Tan
1979	Sleep Dirt
1979	Sheik Yerbouti
1979	Orchestral Favorites
1979	Joe's Garage Act 1
1979	Joe's Garage Acts 2 and 3
1981	Tinseltown Rebellion
1981	Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar
1981	You Are What You Is
1982	Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
1983	The Man From Utopia
1983	Baby Snakes
1983	London Symphony Orchestra Vol 1
1984	The Perfect Stranger
1984	Them Or Us
1984	Thing-Fish
1984	Francesco Zappa
1985	FX Meets The Mothers of Prevention
1986	Does Humor Belong In Music
1986	Jazz From Hell
1987	London Symphony Orchestra Vol 2
1988	Guitar
1988	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1
1988	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2
1988	Broadway The Hard Way
1989	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 3
1991	The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life
1991	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4
1991	Make A Jazz Noise Here
1992	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 5
1992	You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 6
1992	Playground Psychotics
1993	Ahead Of Their Time
1993	The Yellow Shark
1994	Civilization Phaze III
1995	Strictly Commercial
1996	The Lost Episodes
1996	Lather