The prog rock bands Frank Zappa refused to call prog rock: “He was rather unkind to some of us”
Frank Zappa remains impossible to define. He released over 60 albums, was revered for his musical genius, and continues to live on in the hearts of many as one of the greatest musicians of all time. However, despite his accolades, he remains one of the hardest artists to put into words. He didn’t just dabble in one strand of music; he played a combination of rock, jazz, pop, and various other styles.
When you listen to some of the exceptional work that Frank Zappa put out into the world, you can understand why he is tough to put into one specific genre. No two of his songs sound the same, and despite releasing such a plethora of music, it’s hard to find any albums in his discography that feel as though they overlap. It’s this ambiguity that often lands him in the category of prog rock.
This opens up more questions than answers, as prog rock also seems impossible for a lot of people to define. Zappa had a go at putting the genre into words once, and in doing so, managed to eliminate a number of bands out of the genre who had previously been celebrated as pioneers of the sound.
“I would presume that people would accept this definition,” said Zappa when discussing what prog rock actually is, “Progressive Rock is anything that doesn’t sound like regular Rock. Regular Rock is everything that sounds like itself. All songs which sound the same, everything on MTV, everything on the radio, that’s Rock. Progressive Rock is stuff that doesn’t sound like that.”
Zappa said that some of the most popular prog rock bands on the planet only sometimes fit the criteria of the genre. For instance, when talking about Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, he said that it was only occasionally that their music could be considered left-field enough to fit into the genre of prog rock. Ian Anderson once spoke about Zappa’s dislike of his band and pinned it down to jealousy more than anything else.
“Sadly I never got to meet Frank Zappa, we nearly did. And I actually read that he didn’t like Jethro Tull at all back then in the ’70s. He rather resented the fact that us British bands Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple and so on. We were going over there [United States] and making tons of money. Seemingly while he was struggling to run his band,” said Anderson, “So he was rather unkind to some of us in the press. [It] was a shame because I was a big Frank Zappa fan at that point.”
While Zappa might have criticised Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd because they only sometimes played prog rock, there were other bands that he said didn’t fit the genre at all. One of the bands that he said couldn’t be considered champions of the genre was Devo. Being very brief, Zappa said, “No, I wouldn’t describe Devo as Progressive Rock.” He also criticised Procol Harum and Traffic, saying that neither of them could be considered artists who wholeheartedly make prog rock.
It is worth recognising that while Zappa’s comments might surprise some people, he was very elusive when it came to the genre as a whole, suggesting that he doesn’t believe that he fits the mould either. “I wouldn’t describe myself as Progressive Rock either,” he said, “In fact, a lot of the time as even Rock and Roll at all. It just happens to be consumed by a Rock and Roll audience.”
