Cultural references to Frank Zappa
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This is a list of tributes and references to the American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist, Frank Zappa.
Contents |
[edit] In media
[edit] Appearances
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- Zappa made an appearance on The Steve Allen Show in 1963. This appearance featured Frank demonstrating the wide scope of percussion by playing the spokes of a spinning bicycle wheel with drum sticks.
- He made a cameo appearance in the 1968 film starring the Monkees, Head, with a talking cow. He also made a cameo appearance on an episode of the Monkees TV series entitled "The Monkees Blow Their Minds" (air date: 3/11/68). Here, he was shown "playing" a car by beating it into submission. This is done in a Monkees-style montage to the Zappa song "Mother People" after being interviewed by Monkee Michael Nesmith. Zappa agreed to appear on the show provided he could be Nesmith. Nesmith liked the idea, so long as he could be Zappa. The two wore cheap, exaggerated disguises and the interview was performed as if Mike was Frank and Frank was Mike.
- He appeared on What's My Line? in 1971, during the show's syndicated run, as a mystery guest.
- Zappa was the host and musical guest of a season four episode of Saturday Night Live in October of 1978. His odd sense of humor and constant mugging to the camera has led Lorne Michaels to ban this episode, just like he banned the episodes hosted by Louise Lasser (from season one) and Milton Berle (also from season four). This, however, proved to be temporary as the Zappa episode has been rerun a few times on NBC. In the same show he portrayed Connie Conehead's date. He was also part of another skit, entitled "Night of Freak Mountain", in which Zappa met with a couple hippies who offered various drugs to him, which he declined, stating "I don't do drugs." The hippies regarded his statement in awe and surprise. As part of the musical performance of "I'm The Slime" (on an earlier episode hosted by Candice Bergen), the transparent screen of a fake television monitor fills up with a slimy green goo.
- He played a drug dealer in the episode "Payback" of TV show Miami Vice.
- He played Attilla the Hunchback in Shelley Duvall's "Faerie Tale Theatre", in the episode titled "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers" (1984).
- Zappa was the voice of the Pope in the 1992 Ren and Stimpy episode Powdered Toast Man.
[edit] Various references
Zappa is mentioned in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Manos: The Hands of Fate", and the episode "Village of the Giants" was dedicated in memoriam to him. Kevin Murphy, one of the writers and performers on the show, is an admitted lifelong fan. In addition, the Zappa album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is briefly mentioned in MST3K 417 "Crash of the Moons".
For years the Belgian magazine Humo had a running gag whenever Zappa was interviewed or mentioned in their articles. Due to chief editor, Guy Mortier's, physical resemblance with the rock artist, they were always compared or mistaken for each other.
The character Zappa in the fighting game Guilty Gear XX is a reference to him.
In Sim City 3000, one of the buildings that appears in industrial zones is called "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen", the name of the recording studio that Zappa had built and used extensively at his home for many of his musical recordings.
In the anime/manga Rave Master, there is a location called Garage Island, in which the areas motto is "All Good Music Starts In The Garage", a quote from Zappa.
In Dream Theater's Live at Budokan DVD, during the Zappa-esque passage immediately after the extended jam in Beyond This Life, a shirtless Zappa can be seen conducting on the center screen.
Zappa's music and cult status play an important role in Kenneth Lonergan's play, This is Our Youth.
His face and his movie 200 Motels are referenced in the pornographic animated film Dirty Duck where two of his former lead singers, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (also known as Flo & Eddie) perform some of the voices.
He is referenced in the film The Banger Sisters where one of the two former groupies explains that Zappa gave them the name "banger sisters".
The Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine Chunga is named after the album Chunga's Revenge, and mutant Gypsy vacuum cleaners frequently appear in the illustrations thereof.
In the film School Of Rock, when Dewey Finn is making a chart to teach the students about the history of rock music he puts Zappa in the category "?" branching off of Progressive Rock along with Can and Capt. Beefheart.
[edit] In art
In 1995 a cast of Zappa was installed in the center of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Zappa was immortalized by Konstantinas Bogdanas, the Lithuanian sculptor who had previously cast portraits of Vladimir Lenin. In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in a square in Bad Doberan, a small town in the north of Germany, where, since 1990, there has been an annual international festival celebrating the music of Frank Zappa, the "Zappanale".[1]
[edit] In comic strips
Zappa's easily recognizable face and appearance have made him a popular character in several comic strips: He was referenced in several comics of French comic artist Gotlib where for instance Scout leader Hamster Jovial listens to 200 Motels. When he hears the track, "Penis Dimension"", he decides to measure his own penis. The Belgian cartoonist Kamagurka made a comic strip in the seventies starring Zappa. He once met Zappa after a concert and showed him a comic he drew about him, only with empty text balloons. Zappa then filled in the balloons. Zappa also appeared as an evil professor in the album, Het Beest Zonder Naam (The Beast Without A Name) (1985) in the Belgian comic series Nero by Marc Sleen. In another Nero album, De Zwarte Toren (The Black Tower) (1983) he appears as a robber who together with a gang threatens to attack Jan Spier, the strong french fries seller. And in the Nero album "Doe De Petoe" (1994) his face is seen against a wall in a music business center where one also recognises the faces of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and Flemish charm singer, Eddy Wally.
[edit] In song
- "Winds of Change" - The Animals.
- "Smoke on the Water" and "MTV" by the British Hard Rock band, Deep Purple.
- "Sucede" by the Spanish Hard Rock band, Extremoduro.
- "Ouija" by the Spanish band, Gigatron.
- "Censorshit" by The Ramones.
- "Blood from a Clone" by George Harrison.
- "Thanx" by Sublime (on the 40 Oz. to Freedom album).
- "Rock and Roll" by Edan.
- "Scrapbook" by Chicago.
- "Weihnachtskaat Vun Nem Flittche Vum Eijetstein" by The Piano has been Drinking.
- "Genius in France" - "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Poodle Hat album. The song is performed in the Frank Zappa musical style, and quotes many different songs and techniques unique to Zappa. The intro solo is also performed by Dweezil
- "Art School Canteen" from "L" by Godley & Creme - "Does getting into Zappa / mean getting out of Zen?"
- "Зачем?" ("What for?") by the Russian band Aquarium.
- "Corporation Combo Boys" by the Dutch "Canterbury Scene" group Supersister (on their "Present from Nancy" album).
- "Walropus" by Microwave Mangos.
- "Chunga's Revenge" by the France-based band Gotan Project on their album La Revancha del Tango.
- "2401" by John Mayall on his album, Blues From Laurel Canyon.
- "Frank" by Steve Vai, his emotional instrumental tribute.
- "Black Tongue" - Gene Simmons
- "The Ultimate Revenge" - The Circle of Tyrants
- "Весёлый ансамбль" ("Merry Ensemble") - Krematorij
- "Asteroid 3834" - Mattias Eklundh
- "Cruddy" - Madlib, from an unreleased album
[edit] Things named after Zappa
After his death, an internet campaign to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center led to an asteroid being named in his honor: 3834 Zappafrank, the asteroid having been discovered by Czech astronomers in 1980.[2][3]
Since then, other things have been named in his honor including:
- Another asteroid in 1996 (16745 Zappa).
- The ZapA gene of Proteus mirabilis, a microbe that causes urinary tract infections[4]
- A goby fish (Zappa confluentus[5])
- A jellyfish (Phialella zappai[6])
- An extinct mollusc (Amauratoma zappa)
- A spider with an abdominal mark supposedly resembling Zappa's mustache (Pachygnatha zappa.[7])
- A series of Intel PC motherboards in 1995.
- In mid-2007, the MUSIKFABRIK ORWOhaus (musicians community) and the city of Berlin will rename Street 13 in the Marzahn district the "Frank-Zappa-Straße."[8]
