Frank Zappa

"I _(you just fill in the blank)_, do hereby solemnly swear, in accordance with the regulations of the contract with this here rock and roll engagement, and the imbecilic laws of the State of Florida, and the respective regulations perpetrated by Red-Necks everywhere, do hereby solemnly swear, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, TO REVEAL MY TUBE, WAD, DINGUS, WEE-WEE, AND/OR PENIS ANYPLACE ON THIS STAGE!! This Does NOT include Private Showings in the motel room, however." "Mothers of Invention Anti-Smut Loyalty Oath," September 1970. Names used in other languages. Zappa means "hoe" in Italian. Names derived from the Hebrew Pesach (Passover):. Some encyclopedias still incorrectly claim that his real name was "Francis". Names related to Eostremonat (Eostre Month):. Until rediscovering his birth certificate as an adult, Zappa himself believed he had been christened Francis, and he is credited as Francis on some of his early albums. Some suggest an etymological relationship between Eostre and the Sumerian goddess Ishtar ([1] (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html) [2] (http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html) [3] (http://www.pathlights.com/theselastdays/tracts/tract_22n.htm) [4] (http://www.tiral.com/2004/04/the_origins_of_.html)) and the possibility that aspects of an ancient festival accompanied the name, claiming that the worship of Bel and Astarte was anciently introduced into Britain, and that the hot cross buns of Good Friday and dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now.

As his autobiography The Real Frank Zappa Book notes, his real name was "Frank", never "Francis". They were a widespread symbol of rebirth and resurrection and thus might have been adopted from any number of sources. Zappa portrays the voice of the pope in a 1992 episode of Ren & Stimpy. However, the giving of eggs at spring festivals was not restricted to Germanic peoples and could be found among the Persians, Romans, Jews and the Armenians. [2] (http://www.klet.org/names/view.php3?astnum=3834) [3] (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/asteroid.html) Since then other things have been named in his honor including: another asteroid (16745 Zappa), a gene (ZapA gene of Proteus mirabilis, a microbe that causes urinary tract infections [4] (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/ZapA.html)), a goby fish (Zappa confluentus [5] (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/fish.html) ), a jellyfish (Phialella zappa which was actually named by Nando! (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/jellyfish.html)), an extinct mollusc (Amauratoma zappa), and a spider with an abdominal mark supposedly resembling Zappa's mustache (Pachygnatha zappa [6] (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andymurkin/Resources/MusicRes/ZapRes/spider.html)). This practice might explain the incorporation of Eostre traditions into the Christian holiday. After his death an internet email 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. The Pope sanctions such conversion tactics as biblically acceptable, pointing out that God did much the same thing with the ancient Israelites and their pagan sacrifices.

They are: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Rodan, and Diva. The Pope suggests that (http://www.englishheathenism.homestead.com/popesletter.html) converting heathens is easier if they are allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditional pagan practices and traditions, while recasting those traditions spiritually towards the one true God instead of to their pagan gods (whom the Pope refers to as "devils"), "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". Sloatman and Zappa had four children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom had rather unusual names. Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastic History of the English People") contains a letter from Pope Gregory I to Saint Mellitus, who was then on his way to England to conduct missionary work among the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Zappa was married twice, once to Kay Sherman (1959–1964) and then to Gail Sloatman, whom he remained with until his death. He also cites various place names in Germany as being evidence of Ostara, but critics contend that the close etymological relationship between Ostara and the words for 'east' and 'dawn' could mean that these place names referred to either of those two things rather than a goddess. Zappa received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Amongst other traditions, Grimm connected the 'Ostern Hare' (Easter Bunny) and Easter Eggs to the goddess Ostara/Eostre.

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's an international Festival celebrating the music of Frank Zappa. Others point to Grimm's stated intent to gather and record oral traditions which might otherwise be lost as explanation for the lack of further documentation. Zappa was immortalized by Konstantinas Bogdanas, the famous Lithuanian sculptor who had previously cast portraits of Vladimir Lenin. Again, because of a lack of written documentation, critics suggest that Grimm took Bede's mention of a goddess Eostre at face value and constructed the goddess Ostara around existing Germanic customs which may have arisen independantly. That same year the only known cast of Zappa was installed in the center of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Jakob Grimm took up the question of Eostre in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, noting that Ostaramanoth was etymologically related to Eostremonat and writing of various landmarks and customs related to the goddess Ostara in Germany. Zappa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. The debate receives considerable attention because the name 'Easter' is derived from Eostremonat, and thus, according to Bede, from the pagan goddess Eostre.

Frank Zappa died on December 4, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California. Others note that Bede's status as "the Father of English History", having been the author of the first substantial history of England ever written, might make the lack of additional mention for a goddess whose worship had already died out by Bede's time unsurprising. He stated in interviews that he was working on hundreds of synclavier pieces, most of which remained unfinished. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Elizabeth Freeman) have suggested that a lack of supporting documentation for this goddess might indicate that Bede assumed her existence based on the name of the month. In 1993, he completed Civilization, Phaze III, a major synclavier work he had begun in the '80s. In recent years some scholars (Ronald Hutton, P.D. During these years, he edited numerous CD collections of concert recordings made throughout his career. In his 'De Temporum Ratione' the Venerable Bede wrote that the month Eostremonat was so named because of a goddess, Eostre, who had formerly been worshipped in that month.

Although ill, in 1992 he appeared as a guest conductor with the Ensemble Modern in a series of concerts in Germany devoted to his compositions, recordings from which appeared on Yellow Shark. Some Christian fundamentalists reject nearly all the customs surrounding Easter, believing them to be irrevocably tainted with paganism and idolatry. In 1990 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a disease which caused his death in 1993. In Hungary (where it is called Ducking Monday), perfume or perfumed water is often sprinkled in exchange for an Easter egg. In the early 1990s Zappa devoted almost all of his energy to modern orchestral and synclavier works. A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it is now little more than an all-day waterfight. The tour was documented on the albums The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (Zappa "standards" and obscure cover tunes), Make a Jazz Noise here (mostly instrumental and experimental music), and Broadway The Hard Way (new original material), with bits also to be found on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 6.. Some feminists allege it is a disgusting medieval tradition.

His last tour in a "rock band format" took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which was reported to have a repertoire of over 800 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split acrimoniously before the tour was completed. The habit slightly varies across the Czech Republic. Zappa put some of the PMRC hearings to music in his song "Porn Wars." Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton, Al Gore (who admitted to being a Zappa fan), and, most notably, a funny exchange with Florida Senator Paula Hawkins over what toys the Zappa children played with. The females can get revenge in the afternoon when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any male. He said,. A legend says that females should be whipped in order to keep their health and fertility during whole next year. On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the US Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music censorship (though others would say watchdog) organization founded by then-Senator Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore and including many other political wives, including the wives of five members of the committee. The whipped female gives a coloured egg to the male as a sign of her thanks and forgiveness.

His work was also more explicitly political satirising the rise of television evangelists and the Republican party. Rather, the purpose is for males to exhibit their attraction to females; unvisited females can even feel offended. After a break Zappa returned, and much of his later work was influenced by his use of the synclavier as a compositional and performance tool and his mastery of studio techniques for producing specific instrumental effects. It must be mentioned that while whipping can be painful, the purpose is not to cause suffering. In 1980, Zappa helped former band members Warren Cuccurullo and Terry Bozzio launch their new band, Missing Persons, by letting them record their 4-song demo EP in his brand new UMRK (Utility Muffin Research Kitchen) studios. The pomlázka consists of eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods) and is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. He continued a high rate of production through the early 1970s, including the excellent and accessible albums One Size Fits All and Apostrophe, OverNite Sensation and Roxy and Elswhere featuring ever-changing versions of a band no longer called the Mothers. In the morning, males whip females with a special handmade whip called pomlázka.

He began touring again in late 1972, first with a Grand Wazoo 'big band' and with groups that variously included Ian Underwood on brass and reeds, Ian's wife Ruth on vibes, Sal Marquez (trumpet), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax and vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums), George Duke (kbds, vocals) and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin). In the Czech Republic, a tradition of whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In 1971-72 he released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the layoff from live concert touring, using floating lineups of session players and Mothers alumni. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. officer. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. He employed a bodyguard thereafter when touring, John Smothers, a former L.A.P.D. In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is tradition to solve murders at Easter.

(He was wearing a leg brace for a period thereafter, had a noticeable limp and couldn't stand for very long while onstage.) He said one leg healed shorter than the other -- a reference found years later in the lyrics of "Dancin' Fool" . The Easter Bunny's motives for doing this are seldom clarified. This left him wheelchair bound for a time, forcing him off the road for over a year. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The jealous husband of a female fan pushed Frank offstage landing him unconscious in the orchestra pit, with serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx (which caused his voice to drop a third after it healed). In the United States, the Easter holiday has been largely secularized, so that many American families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. Then in December, Zappa was attacked on stage at the Rainbow Theatre, London. Today it is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans.

While performing in Montreux, Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a disastrous fire that burned the casino where they were playing — an event immortalised in Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". Since its origins, it has been a time of celebration and feasting. In 1971 there were two serious setbacks. As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. The latter was released according to FZ to provide some royalties to the band members who were suddenly in limbo, unable to tour.
. The former features hilariously low-concept cover art just at the apex of the era of great rock "album cover artwork". For the remainder of the week (known as "Bright Week"), all fasting is prohibited, and the customary greeting is "Christ is risen!", to be responded with "Truly He is risen!" (See also Pascha greeting).

This double disc album was followed by two superb live sets, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From LA, which included the 20-minute track "Billy The Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera, set in Southern California. In this service, it has become customary during the last few centuries for the priest and members of the congregation to read a portion of the Gospel of John (20:19–25 or 19–31) in as many languages as they can manage. He left the band to play with Cannonball Adderly and was replaced Don Preston from the original Mothers, who acted in the film, but is not playing on the soundtrack. Instead, in the afternoon, it is often traditional to hold "Agape vespers". At the time George Duke was in the band and appears both in the film and on the sound track as a musician. The day after, Easter Sunday proper, there is no liturgy, since the liturgy for that day has already been done. The new lineup debuted on Zappa's next solo LP Chunga's Revenge, which was followed by the sprawling soundtrack to the movie project 200 Motels, featuring both The Mothers and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Immediately after the Pascha liturgy, it is then customary for the congregation to share a meal, essentially an agape dinner (albeit at 2.00 am or later!).

(Their own music was later published under Liccianetti Music.) Because contractual problems prevented them from recording as The Turtles or even under their own names, Volman and Kaylan were often billed as "Flo and Eddie". The hymn "Christ is Risen" is sung many times within this service. They were nicknamed "The Phlorescent Leach and Eddie" by Zappa. Entirely lit by candle, the priest and congregation process around the church building and return for the completion of the liturgy—again entirely lit by candles held by the congregation. Around 1970 Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, previous Mothers member, multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood and singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who had been the lead singers in Sixties folk-pop band The Turtles. The Pascha liturgy begins at midnight, with the Priest lighting candles held by deacons or other assistants, who then go to light candles held by the congregation. After he disbanded the original Mothers, Zappa released the acclaimed solo instrumental album Hot Rats, featuring his jazz-inflected guitar playing backed by jazz, blues and R&B players session players including violinist Don "Sugarcane" Harris, drummer John Guerin, and bassist Shuggie Otis. It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and arguably had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre. At midnight, the vespers end and all light in the church building is extinguished.

During this period Zappa also produced the extraordinary double album Trout Mask Replica for his old friend Captain Beefheart as well as releases by Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, Wild Man Fischer and The GTOs. Traditionally, on the evening of Holy Saturday, Pascha vespers begin and these services last until midnight (local time). More importantly, the financial strain and interpersonal tensions involved in keeping a large jazz-rock ensemble on the road eventually led to the group's demise in 1969, although numerous members would remain with or return to Zappa in years to come. In addition to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, Orthodox are supposed to reduce all entertainment and non-essential activity, gradually eliminating them until Holy Friday. Although they were lauded by critics and their peers and had a rabid cult following, mainstream audiences often found much of the Mothers' music, appearance and attitude impossible to comprehend, and the band was often greeted with derision. Celebration of the holiday begins with the "anti-celebration" of Great Lent. In the late 1990s some of the best of these recordings were collected for the 12-CD set You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. Because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing in concert, from the 1970s on Zappa was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and he is known to have inserted 'live' guitar solos into the final studio recordings of some compositions. This is succinctly summarized by the Orthodox Easter hymn "Christ is Risen":.

In the process he built up a vast archive of live recordings. Pascha (Easter) is the primary act that fulfils the purpose of Christ's ministry on earth—to defeat death by dying and to purify and exalt humanity by voluntarily assuming and overcoming human frailty. Around 1968 Zappa also began regularly recording his concerts, beginning with a simple two-track portable recorder and eventually progressing to a portable 48-track digital system. Instead, these events are all seen as necessary but preliminary to the full climax of the Resurrection, in which all that has come before reaches fulfilment and fruition. The Mothers' anarchic stage shows were legendary — during one famous 1967 performance at the Garrick Theatre in New York, Zappa managed to entice some soldiers from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a collection of baby dolls. This is not to say that Christmas and other elements of the Christian liturgical calendar are ignored. During a residency in New York's Greenwich Village in late 1966, Zappa became friends with Jimi Hendrix and is reputed to have introduced Hendrix to the Wah-wah pedal. Eastern Rite Catholics in communion with the Pope of Rome have similar emphasis in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar.

He also became known for dismissing the contributions of his musicians, going so far as to withhold royalties rather than share the glory. Christmas customs, on the other hand, are usually foreign imports, either from Germany or the USA. Zappa earned a fearsome reputation as a ruthless taskmaster who possessed a seemingly limitless capacity for work (he regularly worked as much as twenty hours a day in the studio until very late in his career) who also possessed immense technical knowledge and a photographic memory of the contents of his vast archive. Easter-connected social customs are native and rich. He also frequently quoted from or referred to TV show themes and advertising jingles, from famous rock songs such as My Sharona and Stairway To Heaven, and from classical works such as Stravinsky's "The Rite Of Spring". This is reflected in the cultures of countries that are traditionally Orthodox Christian majority. He also became famous for regularly quoting musical phrases that influenced or amused him — one of his most famous and regular quotes was the riff from the perennial Sixties rock hit 'Louie Louie', which appears in various forms in more than twenty separate recordings over the whole span of his career. Every other religious festival on their calendars, including Christmas, is at best secondary in importance to the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord.

His work combines satirical lyrics and pop melodies with virtuoso instrumental prowess, where long, jazz-inflected improvisational passages are counterbalanced with densely edited and seemingly chaotic collage sequences that mix music, sound effects and snatches of conversation. Easter is the fundamental and most important festival of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox. Zappa evolved a unique compositional approach — which he dubbed 'conceptual continuity' — that ranged across virtually every genre of music. Some churches read the Old Testament lessons before the procession of the Paschal candle, and then read the gospel immediately after the Exsultet. He increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool; his editing skills are apparent on the stunning work he produced in the late Sixties with The Mothers. Some churches prefer to keep this vigil very early on the Sunday morning instead of the Saturday night to reflect the gospel account of the women coming to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. During the late Sixties Zappa continued his rapid artistic development, emerging as a superb lead guitarist, a skilled producer and engineer, and a composer and arranger of extraordinary range and facility. Additional celebrations are usually offered on Easter Sunday itself.

Other important Mothers recordings from this period (including the pivotal song Oh No) were collected in the 1970 compilation album Weasels Ripped My Flesh. The Easter Vigil concludes with the celebration of the Eucharist and Holy Communion. After We're Only In It For The Money, next was his Doo-Wop tribute Cruising with Ruben & the Jets. This act is often sealed by the sprinkling of the congregation with holy water from the font. The dazzling audio collage Lumpy Gravy (1967) took Zappa's production techniques to a new peak and, according to Zappa himself, took nine months to edit. Whether there are baptisms at this point or not, it is traditional for the congregation to renew the vows of their baptismal faith. This was bookended by two closely linked companion pieces. Anciently, Easter was considered the most perfect time to receive baptism, and this practice is being revived in some circles.

The cover photo (which included Jimi Hendrix) famously parodied that of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Then the focus moves from the lectern to the font. It was followed by the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late Sixties work, We're Only In It For The Money (1968) which featured some of the most radical audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and ruthlessly satirised the hippie and flower power phenomena. A sermon may be preached after the gospel. The brilliant Absolutely Free (1967) continued Zappa's lyrical preoccupations with the hypocrisy and conformism of American society and the sinister suppression of underground and alternative culture. This part of the service climaxes with the singing of the Alleluia and the proclamation of the gospel of the resurrection. Zappa's second and third studio albums were landmarks of record production and were highlighted by liberal use of his famous 'cut-up' editing techniques. After this service of light, a number of readings from the Old Testament are read; these tell the stories of creation, the sacrifice of Isaac, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the foretold coming of the Messiah.

During this period, Wilson also had Zappa collaborate with The Animals on the song "All Night Long" on their album Animalism. This, the most important liturgy of the year, begins in total darkness with the blessing of the Easter fire, the lighting of the large Paschal candle (symbolic of the Risen Christ) and the chanting of the Exsultet or Easter Proclamation attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan. It's clear that even on the two first albums, Zappa was already responsible for virtually all of the musical decisions, with Wilson providing the industry clout, credibility, and connections to get the unknown group the financial resources they needed to produce a double album with use of an orchestra; by the third album, Zappa had already enough of a proven track record to allow for a more accurate description in the album's credits of their respective roles. The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practised among Roman Catholics and some Lutherans and Anglicans begins on the night of Holy Saturday with the Paschal Vigil. Wilson is also credited with producing the even more accomplished follow-up Absolutely Free; but for the third LP, Wilson was listed as 'Executive producer', and Zappa took over as producer for all the Mothers and solo Zappa recordings issued from that time on. The Easter festival is kept in many different ways among Western Christians. One of the first record albums united by an underlying theme, it was also only the second double LP of rock music ever released, and firmly established Zappa as a major new voice in rock music.
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With Wilson credited as producer, The Mothers recorded their groundbreaking double album debut Freak Out! (1966), a mixture of often topical R&B and experimental sound collage that attempted to capture the 'freak' subculture of Los Angeles at that time. The far more common worldwide name of the holiday, Pascha (or variations thereof) indicates that the holiday most likely arose as a continuation of Passover celebrations, with emphasis upon the Resurrection of Jesus. Around this time, Zappa also met and signed with longtime manager Herb Cohen. In addition, Jesus and the Apostles were observing Sukkot (the "Feast of Booths") when the Transfiguration occurred, indicating that he was not immediately opposed to the observance of annual holidays. Wilson signed The Mothers to the Verve label, which had built up a strong reputation for its fine modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was then attempting to diversify into pop and rock, but with an "artistic" or "experimental" bent. Many commentators, however, have interpreted the last supper as a Passover seder at which Jesus presided. Wilson was also notable for being one of the only African-Americans working as a major label pop producer at this time. Furthermore, the entirety of the chapter (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.viii.xxiii.xml) renders the statement in the context of defending diversity of dates for the holiday, without rejecting or denigrating the celebration.

They gradually began to gain attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground 'freak scene' and in 1965 they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson, who had earned acclaim as the producer of the seminal Bob Dylan albums Bringin' It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, as well as the breakthrough 'electric' version of Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence. In addition, if one wishes to take this specific sentence prima faciae, one could just as easily invent a justification for rejecting weekly worship services on Sunday, Saturday, or any other day, rejecting the ownership of church buildings by religious organizations, and rejecting the participation of Christians in any sort of political process, as none of these activities were specifically enjoined by Jesus or the Apostles, either. He soon assumed leadership, renaming the band "The Mothers" (and, later still, "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" at the insistence of the record company). Nowhere in his history did Socrates Scholasticus state that the observance of Easter was due to pagan influences, however. After a short career as a professional songwriter — his elegiac "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by The Penguins — in 1964 Zappa joined a local R&B band, The Soul Giants, as a guitarist. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates Scholasticus attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of local custom, "just as many other customs have been established", stating that neither Jesus nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. Unfortunately the customer turned out to be an undercover member of the Vice Squad and Zappa was jailed for ten days on charges of supplying pornography. His entrapment and brief imprisonment left a permanent mark on him, and was a key event in the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. The observance of any special holiday throughout the Christian year is an innovation postdating the early church.

After being approached by a customer who wanted him to produce a suggestive tape for a stag party, Zappa and some friends jokingly faked the "erotic" recording, which purported to contain the sounds of people having sex. However, an Easter Homily does survive from the 2nd century which indicates (http://www.preteristarchive.com/Books/0150_melito_pascha.html) that the practice arose quite early in the history of the Church. By the time he recorded his first LP with The Mothers in 1966 he was already an accomplished recording and mastering engineer and from his third LP on and for the rest of his career, he produced all his own work. There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic fathers. At this time, only a handful of the most expensive commercial studios had multitrack facilities and for smaller studios, the industry standard was still mono or two-track. Placing the Paschal Divine Liturgy at midnight guarantees that no Divine Liturgy will come earlier in the morning, ensuring its place as the pre-eminent "Feast of Feasts" in the liturgical year. Although only a small business, Pal was particularly attractive to Zappa because it contained a unique 5-track tape recorder built by the previous owner, Paul Buff. The Paschal Divine Liturgy generally takes place around midnight, into the early morning of Pascha.

Soon after, his marriage ended and he moved out of his apartment and into the studio, where he began routinely working 12 hours per day and more, setting a pattern that would endure for almost all of his life. Easter is immediately followed by Bright Week, during which there is no fasting, even on Wednesday and Friday. Zappa had begun recording at Pal since the early 1960s and after receiving a payment for one of his film scores he was able to buy the studio. After Lazarus Saturday comes Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and finally Easter itself, or Pascha (Πασχα), and the fast is broken immediately after the Divine Liturgy. In 1963 he began playing professionally around Los Angeles and bought the small Pal Recording Studio in Rancho Cucamonga, California (formerly called Cucamonga), which he renamed "Studio Z". Lazarus Saturday officially brings Great Lent to a close, although the fast continues for the following week. He married his first wife Kay the same year but the relationship soon deteriorated and they divorced two years later. Following the fifth Sunday of Great Lent is Palm Week, which ends with Lazarus Saturday.

Although many of the tapes of this series were later destroyed, the video of Zappa's remarkable performance survives. In Eastern Christianity, preparations begin with Great Lent. In 1962 he appeared as a solo artist on the Steve Allen Show performing a satirical dadaist piece involving a bicycle. Eastertide, the season of Easter, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost, seven weeks later. Among his earliest professional recordings are two adventurous and remarkably accomplished scores for the low-budget films Run Home Slow and The World's Greatest Sinner. In some countries, Easter lasts two days, with the second called "Easter Monday". Many churches start celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil. He began working as a graphic artist while trying to establish himself as a musician and composer. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as the Sacred Triduum (Latin for "Three Days").

Zappa moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and spent most of the rest of his life there. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. One of Zappa's best-known and best-loved album images is that created for the 1969 compilation Weasels Ripped My Flesh, a disturbingly surreal painting by renowned album artist Neon Park. The week before Easter is very special in the Christian tradition: the Sunday before is Palm Sunday, and the last three days before Easter are Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday). His two most important visual collaborators were Cal Schenkel in the Sixties and early Seventies, and Donald Roller Wilson in the Eighties and Nineties. In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of the forty days of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at Easter Sunday. Zappa's album covers are highly distinctive, and frequently bizarre and surreal. For example, Quartodecimanism was the practice of setting the holiday on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, which is the day of preparation for Passover.

Zappa always took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, rapidly developing from album cover designer (e.g. Absolutely Free) to director of his own films and videos. Historically, other forms of determining the holiday's date were also used. His sojourn in the commercial world was another important influence on his work, and within a few years Zappa was co-opting the techniques he learned as a commercial artist, and was using them to deconstruct music, the music business, the media and society at large by combining them with the ideas he had gleaned from his studies of dada, situationism, and surrealism. In the Western Church, Easter has not fallen on the earliest of the 35 possible dates, March 22, since 1818, and will not do so again until 2285; it fell on the latest possible date, April 25 most recently in 1943, and will next fall on that date in 2038. After graduating in June 1958 he worked for a time in advertising. See computus for a discussion covering both the traditional tabular methods and more exclusively mathematical algorithms such as the one developed by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. During high school Zappa had also developed a strong interest in graphic arts. The calculations for the date of Easter can be somewhat complicated.

Zappa did see his childhood dream realized, as the London Symphony Orchestra played a program of his music, and the Ensemble Modern in 1992 received a 20-minute ovation after performing a program of his work a the Frankfurt Opera House. These suggestions have yet to attract significant support, and their adoption in the foreseeable future is deemed unlikely. A portion of this historic recording is included on the CD The Lost Episodes. A few clergymen of various denominations have advanced the notion of disregarding the moon altogether in determining the date of Easter; proposals include always observing the feast on the second Sunday in April, or always having seven Sundays between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, producing the same result except that in leap years Easter could fall on April 7. By his final year he was writing prolifically and had not only composed, arranged and conducted an avant-garde performance piece for the school orchestra, but had also contrived to have the event both broadcast on local radio and recorded. See Reform of the date of Easter. Although he was primarily self-taught, his music teacher gave him considerable encouragement. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.

Zappa's interest in composing and arranging burgeoned in his later high school years and he dreamed of being taken seriously as a composer. At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced an equation-based method of calculating Easter with direct astronomical observation; this would have side-stepped the calendar issue and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. It is possible that he might have become a professional jazz musician, but he was soon drawn into rock music, although he retained a lifelong attachment to jazz forms, voicings and structures and often drew his band members from the jazz world, if only because of the high degree of musical competence his music demanded. Since western churches now use the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date and Eastern Orthodox churches use the original Julian calendar, their dates are not usually aligned in the present day. He considered his solos "air sculptures", and developed an eclectic, fluent and extremely individual style, eventually becoming one of the most highly regarded electric guitarists of his time. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne, when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method. In 1957 Zappa was given his first guitar and quickly developed into a highly accomplished and inventive player. Most churches in the British Isles used a late third century Roman method to determine Easter until they adopted the Alexandrian method at the Synod of Whitby in 664.

Van Vliet's own feelings about Frank Zappa were perhaps best summarized in a quote published in a March 1994 issue of Musician magazine: "I knew him for thirty-seven years, and in the end, the relationship was private.". The Church of Rome used its own methods to determine Easter until the 6th century, when it may have adopted the Alexandrian method as converted into the Julian calendar by Dionysius Exiguus (certain proof of this does not exist until the ninth century). They became close friends, influencing each other musically, and becoming collaborators in the late Sixties and mid- Seventies (on the album Bongo Fury, released 1975), although they later became estranged for a period of years. During the Middle Ages this practice was more succinctly phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. In 1956 Zappa met Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) while taking classes at Antelope Valley High School, when Zappa was playing guitar in a local band, The Blackouts, a racially-mixed outfit that also included Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood, who later lived with Zappa at 'Studio Z' and was a member of the Mothers of Invention, playing on many of their most famous recordings. The practice of this city was to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the earliest fourteenth day of a lunar month that occurred on or after March 21. Classically trained percussionist and drummer Terry Bozzio, who played for Zappa in the late 1970s as well as playing and recording many well-known classical and avant-garde works, is on record as saying that Zappa's writing for percussion is as difficult and complex as anything else he has played. Instead, the matter seems to have been referred to the church of Alexandria, which city had the best name for scholarship at the time.

His bands have been notable for the excellence of their drummers and works such as The Black Page are notorious for the virtuoso complexity of their rhythmic structure and arrangement, featuring radical changes of tempo and metre and short, densely arranged passages which are contrasted with free-form breaks and extended improvisations. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that Easter would be celebrated on the same Sunday throughout the Church, but it is probable that no method was specified by the Council (unfortunately no verbatim account of the Council's decisions has survived). Although he performed as a singer-guitarist for most of his career, Zappa always retained a strong interest in rhythm and percussion. The precise date of Easter has often been a matter for contention. He drummed with local teenage combos, but later switched to guitar, which he quickly mastered. Instead, they are based on a lunar calendar similar—but not identical—to the Hebrew Calendar. Zappa began his playing career on drums, taking his first lessons at school in the summer of 1953, aged 13. Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (which follow the motion of the sun and the seasons).

[1] (http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/zappa.html). The following day, Easter Monday, is recognized as a legal holiday in most countries with a generally Christian tradition, but not as a rule in the United States, except formerly in a few states, all of which had dropped it by the 1980s. Zappa had Varèse's letter framed and he kept it for the rest of his life. In Western Christianity, Easter Day always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 inclusive. He and Varèse subsequently wrote to each other. The Easter Bunny is often identified as a remnant of this fertility festival, although there is no hard evidence of any link. Unfortunately, Varèse was away in Europe at the time, but the young fan spoke to the composer's wife. According to the 8th century Christian monk and historian Bede, this month was dedicated to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre.

Although she greatly disliked Varèse's music, she was indulgent enough to give Frank the gift of a long distance call to the composer at his home in New York as a fifteenth birthday present. The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern", are not etymologically derived from Pesach and are instead related to ancient names for the month of April, Eostremonat and Ostaramanoth respectively. Zappa's mother gave him considerable encouragement. This would put the Last Supper slightly before Passover. When he spotted a copy of The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One in a local record store, where it was being used as a hi-fi demonstration record, he convinced the salesman to sell him the copy despite the fact that he didn't have the full price, beginning a lifelong passion for Varèse and his music. The Gospel of John has a different chronology which has Christ's death at the time of the slaughter of the Passover lambs (perhaps for theological reasons). His introduction to Stravinsky seems to have been a pivotal musical discovery but he was soon ranging even further afield, musically, in addition to his interests in jazz, doo-wop, R&B, and rock'n'roll. After reading a magazine review panning Varèse's dissonant drum piece in "Ionisation" (actually The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One) as 'a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds', the teenage Zappa became convinced that he should seek out Varèse's music. Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar; the Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover seder, based on the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels.

Zappa was from the first interested in sounds for their own sake, which led to his interest in modern composers. In most languages of Christian societies, other than English and German, the holiday's name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked. His parents were not musicians but had broad musical tastes also, and he grew up influenced in equal measures by avant-garde composers such as Edgar Varèse and Igor Stravinsky, local rhythm and blues and doo-wop groups (particularly local pachuco groups), and modern jazz, including bebop and free jazz, all of which influences show up in his work. See Eastertide.). However, he was passionately interested in music, developing wide-ranging and highly idiosyncratic musical interests and demonstrating superior ability at an early age. (Easter can also refer to the season of the church year, lasting for fifty days, which follows this holiday and ends around Pentecost. He was highly intelligent, ambitious and articulate, widely read, and possessed a voracious intelligence, drive, singular concentration, enormous creativity and a huge capacity for work and organisation. Easter is the most important holiday of the Christian year, observed in March, April, or May each year to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead after his death by crucifixion (see Good Friday), which Christians believe happened at about this time of year around AD 30-33.

Nevertheless, he was in essence a polymath. Unkrainian Великдень (Velykdenj) (literally: the Grand Day). He maintained his disdain for formal education throughout his life, taking his children out of school at age 15 and refusing to pay for their college. Slovenian Velika noč (singular; literally: the Grand night). He left community college after one semester in order to make low-budget films. Slovak Veľká Noc (singular; literally: the Grand Night). As a student, he was bored and given to distracting the rest of the class with his antics, and was once suspended from school for a dangerous prank involving explosive chemicals and a Parents' Open House night. Serbian Uskrs or Vaskrs (literally: resurrection).

Nasal imagery and references to the nose also recur, both in his writing and in the classic collage album covers created by his longtime visual collaborator, Cal Schenkel. Polish Wielkanoc (literally: the Grand Night). To Frank's lasting horror, his doctor treated the stubborn ailment by inserting a pellet of radium into his nose on a probe. Japanese 復活祭 (Fukkatsu-sai; lit. resurrection festival). Another formative event was a persistent sinus problem during his early teens. Hungarian Húsvét (means taking (or buying) meat). TV also exerted a strong influence and references to TV and TV shows, including quotations from themes and advertising jingles, can be found in almost every piece he wrote. Estonian Lihavõtted (literally: meat taking).

Lancaster's location gave the young Zappa access to the exciting sounds coming from radio stations in Los Angeles and beyond, as well as exposure to the hype that went with it, and his parents were affluent enough to afford a record player, records, a TV, and musical instruments. Czech Velikonoce (plural, no singular exists; made from Grand Nights). His father once wrote and published a small mathematical volume on gambling odds. Croatian Uskrs (literally: resurrection). References to germs, germ warfare and other aspects of the 'secret' defence industry occur throughout his work. Simplified Chinese: 复活节; Traditional Chinese: 復活節; pinyin: Fùhuó Jié; literally "Resurrection Festival". Due to their proximity to Edwards AFB, he kept gas masks at home in case of an accident, and this evidently had a profound effect on the young Frank. Bulgarian Великден (Velikden) (literally: the Grand Day).

His father, a chemist and mathematician who was born in Sicily, worked nearby at Edwards Air Force Base which had at the time a federal government chemical warfare research facility. Belarusian Вялікдзень or Vialikdzen' (literally: the Grand Day). By age 15, Frank had attended six different high schools, which may have contributed to his sense of alienation in adult life. Welsh Pasg. By 1955 the Zappa family relocated to Lancaster, which at the time was a small aircraft and farming town in the Antelope Valley in the Mojave Desert 73 miles north of downtown Los Angeles north of the San Gabriel Mountains. Turkish Paskalya. They moved to Pomona, then El Cajon before moving a short distance once again to San Diego in the early 1950s. Swedish Påsk.

In January 1951 the Zappa family relocated to the west coast because of Frank's asthma, settling in Monterey, California, on the coast about 100 miles south of San Francisco. Spanish Pascua. He was the oldest of four children, with two brothers and a sister. Scottish Gaelic Càisg. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on 21 December 1940, Zappa was of mixed Sicilian, Italian, Greek, Arab, French, Irish, and German ancestry. Russian Пасха (Paskha). Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American rock/jazz fusion musician, composer, and satirist. Romanian Paşti.

Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa, by Kevin Courrier, ECW Press (June, 2002) ISBN 1550224476. Portuguese Páscoa. Zappa: A Biography, by Barry Miles, Publisher: Grove Press (November 9, 2004), ISBN 080211783X. Norwegian Påske. Being Frank: My Time with Frank Zappa, by Nigery Lennon. Lower Rhine German Paisken. Under the Same Moon, by Suzannah Thana Harris. Italian Pasqua.

Them or Us, by Frank Zappa. Irish Cáisc. My Brother was a Mother, by Patrice "Candy" Zappa. Indonesian Paskah. Cosmik Debris: The Collective History and Improvisations of Frank Zappa, by Greg Russo, Crossfire Pubns; 2nd Rev edition (January 9, 2003), ISBN 0964815702. Icelandic "Páskar". The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, by Billy James. French Pâques.

Necessity Is.. Finnish Pääsiäinen. Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa, by Neil Slaven. Esperanto Pasko. Mother! the Frank Zappa Story, by Michael Gray. Dutch Pasen. Lunar Notes-Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience, by Bill Harkleroad, contains several references about Zappa's collaboration with Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart. Danish Påske.

Playground Psychotics (1992). 6 (1992). You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 (1992).

You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. Conceptual Continuity (1976). Our Man In Nirvana (1968). Swiss Cheese/Fire! (2 discs) (1971).