Frank Zappa: Music's Conspiracy Theorist

[0th0d0xypr0xy]

I've been having a look at Frank Zappa from a different perspective in recent years. He was always described as an odd-ball within the music industry. His album Thing-Fish dealt with an AIDS like virus which he himself did seriously believe was made in a lab:

He also disliked the music industry to the point he ran his own affairs as a self-employed musician leading his own affairs.



He's a very interesting figure and I'd be interested to hear what you can find on him. So far what I've discovered is information suggesting he was an CIA informant and a member of the Laurel Canyon conspiracy..

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread861138/pg1

It does seem surprising that both Jim Morrison and Frank Zappa's parents were involved within the US military. This site speculates he may have been involved in MKULTRA experiments.

http://sabotagetimes.com/life/5-conspiracy-theories-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

Furthermore, and a reason why I respected Zappa was that he didn't advocate drug-use:

Frank Zappa isn't Jewish as far as I'm aware of, but he seemed to me an interesting figure in otherwise a very bland and drugged-up decade.

[FrankDialogue]

I tell you a story, true story.

I met Frank Zappa in 1970, summer...Me and two of my high school friends decided to hitch hike across the United States, east coast to California.

One of my buddies relatives have friends in Los Angeles: His sister was a cartoonist for Hanna-Barbara, his cousin did something else, I forget...We stay with the cousin, who live in North Hollywood.

We were big fans of Zappa, and his buddy, Don Van Vliet, also known as Captain Beefheart.

So, one day when we were out there, we decided we would try to find Zappa's house...That was just the way it was in those days, we were young, and we would do whatever came into our heads.

Well, Zappa live not far from North Hollywood, in Laurel Canyon, a kind of suburb...So, we hitched rides up to Laurel Canyon, and stopped into the neighborhood grocery store, and ask 'Do you know where Frank Zappa lives?'

The guy said 'Sure' and gave us directions, and even the address, as he delivered food to Zappa's house...Nobody really paranoid back in those days, mostly...

So, we go find Zappa's house, a big place on a hillside with a big front porch and a big yard...I got appointed 'spokesman'.

We went to his house and rang his doorbell...A young guy comes out...I say 'Listen, we are from Philadelphia, and are big friends of Frank Zappa; we love his music...Does he live here?...We just want to say hello.'

The guy looks at us and says 'Sure...Wait a minute.'

In a minute, Frank Zappa comes out, holding a baby boy, who was his son named Dweezil...I say 'Mr. Zappa, we are visited from Philadelphia, and we just wanted to tell you how much we admire your music...I am sorry if we are bothering you.'

Zappa looks at us for about 30 seconds, then, for some reason, gets very angry...He tells us 'Get the FUCK off of my porch'.

Well, we were a little shocked, but we were just kids, really...So I stammered a few words 'Duh, duh...'...Zappa again says 'GET THE FUCK OFF OF MY PORCH!'.

Anyway, I tried to apologize to him and of course, we left...It wa a bit disillusioning for us teenage fans...Zappa was no superstar then, you see, and we were young musicians ourselves.

That was one of my first visits with a 'rock star': I had met Pete Townsend of the Who at a concert earlier the same year, and he was really cool.

In any case, Zappa was a quite brilliant composer, plus a very good guitarist...He knew how the music biz works inside out, since he had been involved in it since he was a teenager.

His politics?...I would say libertarian, with a very strong dose of cynicism...In addition to our experience with him, he was not reputed to be a 'nice guy', but was quite serious and extremely intelligent.

No, he was not a 'Jew'; his roots are Sicilian, and he was originally from the Baltimore MD area.

He was considered very 'far out' when he released the first 'Mothers of Invention' records in the late 60s, and always had a lot of satire in his music.



Frank Zappa & Dweezil, about the time we met him

[0th0d0xypr0xy]

Wow, thanks for the story man.

To be honest, I'd always thought he'd be a dickhead if I'd have actually met him. To bad he died before my time

I did meet David Brock from Hawkwind, but after meeting him I learned I would've rather Robert Calvert lived and met him instead!



legendary lyricist



Burnt out hippie

Back the issue in question however, what do you think Zappa's take on conspiracy etc was? He was extremely intelligent with an aptitude for seeing things in an uncanny way. But as your story suggest he took things too seriously it seemed, his bandmates complained that they never received the royalties owed to them as Zappa was greedy and self-centered when it came to his work.

But then again, a man who creates music like this should be afforded bragging rights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcDHUeCPs0c

[FrankDialogue]

Wow, thanks for the story man.

To be honest, I'd always thought he'd be a dickhead if I'd have actually met him. To bad he died before my time

I did meet David Brock from Hawkwind, but after meeting him I learned I would've rather Robert Calvert lived and met him instead!



legendary lyricist




Back the issue in question however, what do you think Zappa's take on conspiracy etc was? He was extremely intelligent with an aptitude for seeing things in an uncanny way. But as your story suggest he took things too seriously it seemed, his bandmates complained that they never received the royalties owed to them as Zappa was greedy and self-centered when it came to his work.

But then again, a man who creates music like this should be afforded bragging rights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcDHUeCPs0c

Hawkwind were very interesting...I used to enjoy Soft Machine, Gong, European bands like that...I saw Soft Machine (Robert Wyatt) open for Jimi Hendrix on his first US tour, late 67, early 68.

There are misconceptions about Zappa and most of that Laurel Canyon stuff was bullshit...A lot of people lived in Laurel & Topanga Canyon from the band Love (Arthur Lee), Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison etc...Morrison wasn't involved in any 'intel' stuff, but his dad was an admiral in the US Navy, a lifer type, no spook...You can see interviews with Morrison's pop on YouTube...It is actually pretty sad.

Zappa's dad was employed by the US government for awhile, but he was an engineer or a mathematician, something of that sort, not working in Intel.

I think that Zappa's take on things of a 'secret' nature was much the same as what most of us have: You have a corporate/government interlock with the goal being control and money...It's all pretty much out in the open nowadays, and with the Internet, news spreads fast...There was no Internet in the 60s, 70s & most of the 80s, so knowledge of shadow government and that type of thing was mostly consigned to insiders in government, corporate world, military...If you were a regular person and had an interest in those things, you 'read between the lines' in newspapers, magazines etc...I mean, as far as 'conspiracies', most intelligent people knew that Vietnam was a scam, that JFK wasn't killed by a 'lone gunman'...People knew, but what could you do unless you wrote a book, and many were written.

I used to read 'Foreign Affairs', the quarterly put out by the Council on Foreign Relations, the NYT and some foreign papers when they were available...Radio was almost all commercial bullshit, there were hardly any 'talk shows', and even something like NPR didn't exist...If you had a short wave radio, you listened to BBC, VOA and maybe something like Radio Moscow for a change.

BTW, the 'holocaust' was no big topic of any conversation: that scam started to really gain momentum later, like maybe the 80s...I knew a lot of Jewish people: Not one ever mentioned any 'holocaust' to me...I knew a couple of Jews who claimed to have been in work camps, older ones, but there was no 'gas chamber' talk...One guy was a tailor: He said he sewed clothes and uniforms in the camp.

A couple of my relatives, who were Polish and fled Poland when the Red Army came, were in DP camps ('Displaced Persons') after the war ended, in Germany, before the family got them over here...Plenty of Germans and other Eastern Europeans, too...It was after a big fookin' war, you know?