The album Frank Zappa thought was “superior” to The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’
Frank Zappa was always defined by his unwavering refusal to conform. While Beatlemania and rock swept the planet in the 1960s, Zappa emerged from a different scene. In his youth, he listened to R&B singles and modern classical, picking up the drums just before he hit his teens. By the time he reached high school, he was playing in bands, learning guitar, and composing orchestral music.
Zappa eventually found his place in the R&B band the Soul Giants, later to be renamed the Mothers of Invention, who put out their debut album Freak Out! in 1966. The record took a political focus and marked the second double album ever, following Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde earlier that year.
The record also set into motion Zappa’s ongoing ridicule of his peers and their culture. In 1968, the Mothers of Invention followed this theme with the release of their third album, We’re Only In It For the Money. As its name suggests, the record mocked the culture surrounding huge stars like The Beatles, with particular reference made to the celebrated Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
On ‘Flower Punk’, Zappa mocks hippie culture with the lyrics, “Hey punk, where you going with that button on your shirt? I’m going to the love-in to sit and play my bongos in the dirt.” The accompanying artwork even satirised Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is an almost exact copy of The Beatles’ cover art but with darker skies and a feature from Jimi Hendrix.
It’s no surprise, then, that Zappa wasn’t the biggest fan of The Beatles’ supposed masterpiece. In fact, he once declared that a Rolling Stones album was “superior” to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In 1975, Zappa shared his love for the Stones during an interview with Let It Rock. Naming his top ten favourite records of all time, he picked out the Stones’ 1967 record Between the Buttons. He stated, “The American release – I don’t like the English version so much because it contains a totally different set of tunes. I understand that they don’t like the album very much, but I thought it was an important piece of social comment at the time.”
Zappa continued to reminisce on an intoxicated encounter he once had with the Stones’ founder Brian Jones: “I remember seeing Brian Jones very drunk in the speakeasy one night and telling him I like it and thought it superior to Sgt. Pepper.” Jones didn’t react positively to the comment. As Zappa recalls, he “belched discreetly and turned around”.
Despite Zappa’s non-conformity and satirisation of the hippie movement surrounding The Beatles, the legendary guitarist did respect his pop peers. Alongside Between the Buttons, he gave the iconic Abbey Road a shout-out on his top ten list.
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