SON OF THE FREAK Dweezil Zappa
Aug 25, 2010
"Frank's music sounded the way it sounded because he wrote it that way": the son reprises, and in places even expands upon, the late composer's genius.
BY RANDY HARWARD
Frank Zappa's 1966 debut Freak Out! was presciently titled, as first listens to Zappa's music evoke a range of reactions, almost all of them some form of freak-out. A Surgeon General's warning, if music was a concern to them, might caution listeners that Zappa music could cause them to crack up - fall into fits of laughter or go hopelessly bonkers - or get good and pissed off: ‘What is this shit?!'
Hyperbolic, you say? Only if you've never really listened to Zappa. Or perhaps you're one of the weirdoes for whom Zappa is as catchy as bubblegum pop; you ‘get it' as if Zappa's odd tuplets and freewheeling lyrical themes are bundled into your DNA, and your own introduction to his music made you as nutty as a Beatles groupie in 1964. Fact is, Zappa - whom straight-laced folks regarded as a freak - is tough to wrap one's head around. Just ask his boy, Dweezil.
Yeah, that dude. The name is familiar to most people, usually because FZ became famous circa 1982 when his crossover hit/novelty song "Valley Girl" showcased the vocal stylings of his daughter Moon Unit. The hubbub over her name exposed Dweezil's own unusual moniker and thus was written another note in the fast-food popular perception of Frank Zappa, the crazy composer that gave his kids seemingly embarrassing names. A few years later, Dweezil began to make a name for himself with shred guitar albums and stints on MTV, playing guitar for Donny Osmond, composing theme music for The Ben Stiller Show and doing voiceover work (see Duckman).
Although he'd carved his own niche in the music world and kept busy helping mom Gail run the Zappa Family Trust after Frank died in 1993, Dweezil wanted to ensure his father's music lived on beyond simple reissue campaigns. To that end, he tried on his father's shoes and formed Zappa Plays Zappa, a band dedicated to taking Zappa's music to a younger, larger audience and put it in context for them.
"The impetus for me to get involved in this was to educate the audience," says Dweezil. He laments the fact that the average person's exposure to Zappa's music has been the comedic material like "Valley Girl" and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow," and as such, they've missed the point entirely: "You really don't have any idea of what Frank's music is about." So instead of writing a book or going on the lecture circuit, Dweezil took two years to learn enough of his pop's catalog to take ZPZ on tour and commence an effort to "give people a broader perspective."
Little did Dweezil know his horizons would be first to expand. Beyond some rudimentary first lessons from guitar virtuoso and one-time member of FZ's band the Mothers of Invention, Steve Vai, Dweezil was a self-taught "rock" guitarist with a taste for high-octane solos a la Eddie Van Halen. Although he'd grown up watching his dad from the wings, heard more than his share of the records, and developed a hefty musical vocabulary of his own, Dweezil had to become a "musician." What's more, he had to contend with his father's devout fan base, who would approach Dweezil's take on FZ with skepticism, and a desire to do right by his dad.
He started in the most logical place: guitar. FZ was a guitar hero - albeit not like the Van Halens of the world. His six-string acrobatics came from a composer's perspective, and involved an improvisational sensibility that paired a jazzman's improvisational skills with the most open of minds. Getting into that headspace, recreating that towering musical presence, was job one. "I needed to learn some of the other impossible guitar parts and take it to extremes," says Dweezil.
One of the first compositions he tackled was the notorious "Black Page," a piece of music FZ wrote as a drum solo and was so named due to the myriad black notes crammed onto the sheet music. With no shortage of hard labor, Dweezil adapted it to guitar and included it on ZPZ's eponymous 2007 debut live CD and DVD, which found the band - a group of Zappa neophytes - winning over crowds around the country with their note-perfect renditions of Zappa's greatest works, including "Zomby Woof" and "Peaches En Regalia."
Not that it was so easy. At first the band met with the expected skeptics and critics. Some self-appointed huge Zappa fans even thought rarities like "Imaginary Diseases" and "Regyptian Strut" were Dweezil originals and complained. Some even called ZPZ a glorified cover band. But that only proved Dweezil's point: Even if you think you know Frank Zappa, there are layers yet to be exposed. Ultimately, ZPZ's enthusiasm and reverence for the music won out. The band won a Grammy for their performance of "Peaches" on Zappa Plays Zappa and his father's audience has accepted ZPZ, seeing them multiple times on a single tour and even asking when they'll record original music. "I never expected that," marvels Dweezil, who says they may even comply this year.
For now, ZPZ is touring behind their sophomore release, The Return of the Son of..., a live 2-CD set on which they resurrect more of FZ's greatest material. Mainly they perform the recorded arrangements, which are more familiar than the umpteen live bootleg versions, but they're known to cough up hybrid arrangements that merge recordings with noteworthy live takes. Special to this release, however, are the guitar solos, which Dweezil decided to take into the stratosphere just like his dad would do if he was still alive.
Although he says "Frank's music sounded the way it sounded because he wrote it that way and he made people play it that way," Dweezil notes that it's a way to feel close to his father, whom he often watched play from the wings. Sharing his father's music and helping expand on it creates a feeling of closeness that transcends death. "Ultimately my goal was to create a band that could play this music with respect and really give people and authentic experience." And that's something to freak out about.
[NOTE: An abridged version of this story appeared in the June 3, 2010 edition of Salt Lake City Weekly.]
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