‘Supernaut’: Frank Zappa’s favourite song
At face value, you might not expect Frank Zappa and Black Sabbath to have anything in common, but there are several parallels. Whether this be their shared disdain for hippies, the brave strides of their music, or their wicked sense of humour, while their sonics might differ, their general spirit did not.
Beyond these incidental factors, Zappa and Black Sabbath shared a mutual respect. According to the band’s bassist, Geezer Butler, the American musician played a key role in reshaping critical opinions of Black Sabbath, transforming negative reviews into glowing praise. Zappa was one of the band’s most prominent supporters, and as the members of the Birmingham group have noted, ‘Supernaut’, a standout track from their 1972 album Vol. 4, was reportedly Zappa’s favourite song of all time.
In the book Into the Void, Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne provided more details about a party in America with Zappa in 1974, wherein he allegedly told him that the sludgy ‘Supernaut’ was his favourite track ever. He recalled: “Frank Zappa – who was a very techno guy – invited us to a restaurant once where he was having a party. He said, ‘The song ‘Supernaut’ is my favourite track of all time.’ I couldn’t believe it – I thought, ‘This guy’s taking the piss: there’s got to be a camera here somewhere…’”.
In Osbourne’s tell-all memoir, I Am Ozzy, the vocalist goes into more detail about that night with Zappa. It started with Sabbath playing a show in Chicago and Zappa staying in the same hotel. He explained: “All of us looked up to Zappa – especially Geezer – because he seemed like he was from another planet. At the time he’d just released this quadraphonic album called Apostrophe (’), which had a track on it called ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow.’ Fucking classic.”
Naturally, Sabbath and Zappa ended up hanging out. The following day, they were invited to his Independence Day party, which was held at a local restaurant. Around eight o’clock, they went to meet Zappa and eventually reached the venue, where they sat down with him and his band at an enormous table. Everyone started to get drunk, and as they did, things became truly strange for Osbourne, as the different members of the ‘Cosmik Debris’ singer’s band kept coming up to him and asking him for cocaine. They were doing it in secret, though, as they didn’t want their moustachioed leader to know as he was “straight”.
Despite having a large bag of white powder in his pocket, Ozzy denied having anything on him when asked by his bandmates—he didn’t want to get involved. After dinner, Osbourne found himself sitting next to Zappa when two waiters emerged from the kitchen carrying a massive cake shaped like a naked woman. The room fell silent, and understandably so: champagne was flowing from between the cake’s legs. It was a grotesque spectacle, emblematic of the misogyny of the era. However, the awkward tension dissipated when the band began singing ‘America the Beautiful’. Ever the eccentric, Ozzy complained that the champagne tasted terrible, much to the amusement of their American counterparts.
It was a night to remember for him. Not only had Zappa told him that ‘Supernaut’, out of all their songs, was his favourite of all time and brought out a surreal cake, but there was something else memorable. Zappa leaned over and quietly asked him if he had any blow. It wasn’t for him, but his bodyguard, he maintained, asking if he wouldn’t tell his bandmates, as they were all “straight”.
