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* AscendedFanon: Once during a concert, a fan called out for "Whipping Post" by Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand, but Zappa and his band didn't know it at the time. They would go on to learn it and it would be performed often, including at the concert that produced the ''Music/DoesHumorBelongInMusic'' album. It's also available on ''Music/ThemOrUs''.
* AuthorPhobia: Many of the things that functioned as {{berserk button}}s for Zappa were things that he was also afraid of. He really did not like the idea of government-mandated restriction and control over people's lives, whether it be censorship or lack of choice.
* BlackSheepHit: The rather catchy (with the obligatory share of LyricalDissonance) "Bobby Brown Goes Down" from ''Music/SheikYerbouti''. In a documentary, Frank admitted to being amused that it kept climbing to #1 in Norway every once in a while, to the point where he wanted to send an anthropologist to find out why this was happening. Also fitting the bill are his two biggest hits in the US, "Dancin' Fool" and his only Top 40 hit, "Valley Girl" from ''Music/ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch''.
* ChannelHop: Zappa was originally signed to Creator/VerveRecords. When the contract expired in 1967, he and manager Herb Cohen successfully negotiated with Verve to open Bizarre Records as a vanity imprint. Verve distributed Zappa's releases under Bizarre until 1969, when Creator/RepriseRecords took over. In 1973, Bizarre went under, and Zappa and Cohen concurrently opened [=DiscReet Records=] as a new imprint under Creator/WarnerBrosRecords. However, legal issues with Cohen would result in Zappa cutting ties with Warner and opening Zappa Records under Phonogram in 1977. In 1981, he would open Barking Pumpkin Records and stay there for the rest of his life, partnering with Creator/{{Rykodisc}} and Creator/{{EMI}}; Ryko would inherit the rights to the Zappa catalog on CD until 2012, when Zappa's estate took the rights over to Creator/UniversalMusicGroup. They remain owned by Universal to this day.
* {{Corpsing}}: He often included moments like these on his albums.
** During ''White Ugliness'' and ''I Don't Think I Can Go Through This Again'' on Music/LumpyGravy, people crack up in laughter.
** Zappa cracks up during the intro of "Muffin Man" from ''Music/BongoFury''.
** Zappa cracks up several times on ''Music/JoesGarage'', usually whenever the word ''plooking'' is mentioned.
** ''You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol.3'' features singer Ike Willis repeatedly breaking off in mid-line to exclaim, for no apparent reason, "Hi-ho ''Sil-verrr''!", to the point that even Zappa can't sing for laughing. When that joke wears out, Ike and other bandmates find more exclamations to throw in there to keep Zappa laughing.
* CreatorBacklash:
** Frank would eventually disown "Valley Girl" when its success mislabeled him as novelty music.
** After having a bad falling out with Music/WildManFischer, which led to an incident where Fischer allegedly threw a bottle that nearly hit a then-newborn Moon Zappa (Fischer himself denied this claim), Frank would refuse to ever reissue the album ''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer'' again, which he produced and owned the rights to. Even after Frank's death it was one of his only involved records that never got reprinted, at least until 2016, when the rights were purchased by Gonzo Records.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Zappa has encountered heavy amounts of this throughout his career:
** One of the first cases of Zappa and ExecutiveMeddling, comes from his first Album, ''Music/FreakOut!"''. You know "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"? The 12 Minute finale that's nothing but a bunch of drums and sound effects? Well, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Son_of_Monster_Magnet that's just the rhythm track]]. Zappa wanted to do more, but due to budget problems with the Studio he was a part of at the time, and due to the fact that the percussion work for what they did make was $12,000 (An insanely high amount of money for just a rhythm track), the studio wouldn't let him finish it. That is why it's subtitled is "An '''Unfinished''' Ballet in Two Tableaux'''. Unlike most of his other works, however, Zappa would never finish this track.
** ''Music/LumpyGravy'' was originally released in 1967 as a 22-minute orchestral album by Creator/CapitolRecords. Creator/MGMRecords sued Capitol, claiming that Zappa was not allowed to record for them because he was signed to Creator/VerveRecords (which MGM owned), even though his contract stated that he was allowed to work on outside projects in which he did not ''perform''; all of the music on the original ''Lumpy Gravy'' was performed by an orchestra. This ExecutiveMeddling didn't turn out too bad, though, because Zappa ended up reediting the original album into a longer and more avant-garde album released by Verve in 1968, containing dadaist improvised spoken word pieces and archival excerpts from older surf, jazz and blues recordings, turning it into one of Zappa's most acclaimed albums.
** ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney'' had several bits edited out on its original release. Then the label pulled the album and released an even more edited version. Zappa heard the heavily censored release when he was receiving an award for that album, and consequently refused the award because it was now the censor's album, not his.
** In the '70s, Zappa prepared an album called ''Music/{{Lather}}'' and delivered it to Creator/WarnerBrosRecords. It consisted of 4 [=LPs=] of material which included orchestral pieces, studio recordings in various styles, live rock songs and ''Music/LumpyGravy''-esque dadaist spoken word pieces. Warner refused to release the box set, and insisted that his contract owed the label four more albums. Zappa cut three single albums and a live double album from the original recordings: ''Music/ZappaInNewYork'', ''Music/StudioTan'', ''Music/SleepDirt'' and ''Music/OrchestralFavorites'', which would fulfill his contract. The label initially agreed to release this, putting out ''Music/ZappaInNewYork'' with Zappa's prepared artwork, but removed the song "Punky's Whips", in which Terry Bozzio described a fictional sexual encounter with Punky Meadows of the glam rock band Angel, and insisted that Zappa still owed them four more albums. This led Zappa to sue Warner Bros. for breach of contract, and Warner Bros. to issue the rest of the albums with artwork by Creator/GaryPanter that he did not approve, and in fact, hated, once he saw the covers. These events spurred Zappa's "Warner Bros. Sucks" campaign and several critical references to the label throughout his career. Ironically, Warner later distributed posthumous Zappa releases by Creator/{{Rykodisc}} and later the Zappa Family Trust.
*** Even more egregious about Warner's unauthorized issuing of ''Music/StudioTan'', ''Music/SleepDirt'' and ''Music/OrchestralFavorites'' is that in addition to the fact that Zappa prepared no artwork or even liner notes for the albums (meaning that the original albums were devoid of any crediting towards the original musicians), Zappa had not completed mixing on the original albums.
* FatalMethodActing: Averted. In December 1971, right after an encore at the Rainbow Theater in London, Frank was pushed into to the orchestra pit by an audience member. His own band members thought he died. Frank substained head trauma, fractures, and injuries to his back, leg, & neck. It also resulted in a crushed larynx, which caused Zappa's voice to drop a third after healing. This happened just days after "some stupid" shot a flare onto the stage during a show at Montreux in Switzerland. It destroyed the Mothers' equipment and burnt the neighboring casino to the ground. This event was immortalized by Music/DeepPurple on [[Music/MachineHeadAlbum ''Smoke on the Water'']]. The Rainbow Theater show was eventually released on ''The Mothers 1971'' boxset and you can hear the audio of Frank being pushed into the pit.
* FunnyCharacterBoringActor: From the section "Life on Stage" in the chapter "All About Music" in ''Literature/TheRealFrankZappaBook'':
--> ''As much as I would like to walk out there and 'be myself,' the fact is that the 'self' that I am- when I am just 'being myself'- would be utterly boring and unwatchable on a stage.''
* HeAlsoDid: Produced Music/CaptainBeefheart's 1969 album ''Music/TroutMaskReplica'' and Music/GrandFunkRailroad's 1976 album ''Good Singin', Good Playin'''.
* MagnumOpusDissonance: Even though Zappa never named ''Music/ThingFish'' his masterpiece he often called it an essential album because of the political message. Yet to this day many Zappa fans revile it as his worst, least imaginative and most unenjoyable record ever, partly because unlike most of his other albums it contains little new music; [[RepurposedPopSong many of the backing tracks are from previous Zappa songs]] and just have new vocal tracks. Disenchanted fans consider the political aspect so far-fetched that it's impossible to take seriously: it's a bizarre and obscene parody of a Broadway musical, featuring a chorus of mutant black men who've been the victims of medical experiments that have made their heads shaped like potatoes, and also featuring an uptight yuppie couple in the audience who are reluctantly drawn into the action, a baby with an eerie robot voice and many, many different kinds of sex acts. Despite its weirdness, some fans do prize it as a masterpiece.
* OneHitWonder: As mentioned above, Zappa has just one Top 40 single to his credit, "Valley Girl" from ''Music/ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch''.
* ReferencedBy: References to Zappa in popular culture has [[ReferencedBy/FrankZappa its own page]].
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Was kicked out of his first band because they said he played the cymbals too much.
* SequelGap: ''Music/CivilizationPhazeIII'' was released over 25 years after ''Music/LumpyGravy'', to which it is a sequel (''Lumpy Gravy'' is itself a sequel to ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney''; the "Phaze III" references the fact that ''Civilization'' is the third installment).
* [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment The Shelf of Album Languishment]]: ''Music/{{Lather}}'' was submitted to Warner Brothers in 1977, but due to ExecutiveMeddling, was not released as submitted until 1996. The material intended to be released on the four-LP set was instead divided between four albums, one of them itself a double LP set.
* ThrowItIn: He elevated this to a central artistic principle. he would rehearse his bands for weeks, drilling them so that they could change styles mid-song with just a hand gesture from him -- and then release recordings in which everything falls apart because one of the band does a ridiculous ad-lib that cracks the others up.
* TributeToFido: Zappa did this literally, featuring a poodle named Fido in many of his song lyrics, especially on ''Music/OverNiteSensation'', ''Music/{{Apostrophe}}'' and ''Music/RoxyAndElsewhere''. He too owned a dog named Frunobulax, which became the Giant Poodle Monster Frunobulax in the song ''Cheepnis'' in ''Music/RoxyAndElsewhere''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: He was pretty much past his peak dexterity as a guitarist and had to call Music/SteveVai in for help near the end... But he could have gone on a damned sight longer as a composer.
** Sheesh...be thankful that he lived as long as he did - an on-stage accident at the Rainbow Theatre in London in 1971 could easily have killed him. Even though it didn't, his injuries were serious enough to keep him in a wheelchair and off the road for six months; it also [[VocalEvolution lowered his vocal range by a third]].
** Between Zappa's tour with his ''Music/TheGrandWazoo'' big band and his return to a small rock/jazz group, there was a 3 month period at the end of 1972 where Zappa toured with a much smaller brass combo known as the Petit Wazoo. Zappa fans love the Petit Wazoo, are hungry for any material from that era, and frequently lament it only lasted for 24 concerts. Two albums have been released of Petit Wazoo material: ''Imaginary Diseases'' and ''Little Dots''
** One can only guess what Zappa's late '70s output had sounded like if Bianca Odin didn't succumb to continually abrasive audiences and stuck with the band past 1976.
** Legend has it that Creator/GeorgeLucas approached Frank to compose the music for ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]''. He turned it down and Music/JohnWilliams got the job instead.
*** Good god: can you imagine a Creator/DavidLynch directed ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' with a Zappa soundtrack? The world wouldn't be able to handle that much avant garde.
** In his last days, he quit the guitar and seemed to not be considering returning to rock music. Instead, he spent quite a bit of time with musicians of different 'folk' traditions-- the Tuvan Throat Singers, Huur-Huun-Tuur, and the Irish Chieftains. It seemed like WorldMusic was the next genre he was really going to experiment with-- some examples of this can be heard on his last album.
** Near the end of the 1970s Music/BobDylan contacted Zappa in person to produce one of his next albums. Although ideas were worked out Dylan eventually withdrew himself from the project.
** [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]] auditioned for a singing role for Zappa's band at one point. However, he left the country the day after in an emergency, and never knew if he got accepted or not.
** Popular rumor is he was a big fan of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' and was in talks to make a guest appearance, but sadly died before anything could be done. Given Zappa's resemblance to [[Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate The Master]] one can only image the fun that would have been had.
** He was asked to perform at the Film/MontereyPop Festival, but refused. His main reason for refusing the invite was his lack of respect for the San Francisco bands, who he would have been sharing the bill with.
** He refused a spot at Film/{{Woodstock}} due to his hatred of hippies and had no regrets. Similarly, he turned down an offer to appear at Live Aid in 1985, citing his distrust with how the charity concert's funds would be used (specifically suspecting it of being a front for a cocaine-laundering scheme), and walked away without any regrets.
* WorkingTitle: Originally the album ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney'' was going to be called ''Our Man in Nirvana''. Zappa changed the title and the concept when he heard about the Beatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' hype.
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