The 10 best Frank Zappa songs
As the 1960s got underway, rock and roll was progressing by leaps and bounds. In the wake of the British Invasion and psychedelia being around the corner, artists were toying with new ways to make rock and roll, from elongated jams to expanding your mind through the power of acid. Whereas most artists like to shift the dynamic of rock, Frank Zappa had something different in mind.
From his first record onward, Zappa was always concerned with taking rock to places that the mainstream had never seen before. When you look at a retrospective of the man’s work, he almost seems to be making anti-rock and roll, pulling from the world of jazz, big band, and everything else that he can think of to follow his muse.
Although his creativity didn’t always translate to record sales, Zappa’s way with melodies left an indelible mark on the future generations of rockers, from inspiring bands like Phish to John Frusciante to pick up their instruments. Aside from his massive catalogue, there are a few songs that stand up as a cut above the rest.
While every one of these songs might take a bit of getting used to at first, Zappa was never one to make a straightforward rock and roll song. This was a man looking to explore the vocabulary of guitar, and once you stop worrying about pleasing the masses, anything is possible with the guitar in your hand.
The 10 best Frank Zappa songs
10. ‘Five Five Five’
Zappa always thrived on playing his best work without vocals. Though it’s always more commercial to have vocals in your songs, Zappa is one to let his music do the talking before anything else. So when he released the triple album Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar, ‘Five Five Five’ became one of the ultimate Zappa guitar moments.
Aside from the strange time signature, the entire track feels like a journey through Zappa’s strange world, as he goes through different modes and keeps up with the band in an almost assembly-line manner. Even though Zappa was known to go against the grain, there’s almost a metal tinge to his guitar solo, sounding closer to what was to come in some of Van Halen’s later work.
While every one of Zappa’s solos has been known to bend the listener’s mind a little bit, this is the first time where it sounds like he’s actually speaking through his instrument. There might be a bit of a radio-friendly tone, but Zappa doing something commercial is still out of left field compared to any other musician.
9. ‘My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama’
Every one of Zappa’s albums is known to have a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour in it. Since Zappa didn’t like it when people danced to the words, he was known to put a bit of zaniness into every word that fell out of his mouth. While Weasels Ripped My Flesh might have been Zappa’s turn towards progressive music, ‘My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama’ is the kind of tune that deserves to be in the hallowed halls of prog rock.
Despite having a great solo on both acoustic and electric guitar, the killing blow on this song comes from the duelling saxophones, grabbing you by the ears and forcing you to pay attention the minute they come in. The swirling sound of the saxes almost make the section sound like it’s being played on a distorted synthesizer years before they became prominent in music.
The guitar skills in this song haven’t gone overlooked either, with virtuoso Steve Vai performing this song live in concert as a tribute to his former mentor. Playing something that sounds so off the wall had to take some guts, but Zappa was never one for having hang-ups when it came to music. If it felt good to play, then it didn’t matter what came next.
8. ‘Valley Girl’
Zappa’s lyrics were never anything to mull over for too long. Sometimes the songs would be funny, some grotesque, and some of them never made any goddamn sense. When Zappa saw something that he didn’t like, though, he found a way to work it into his songs as well.
Playing like a Randy Newman-style satire, ‘Valley Girl’ is a kiss-off to all of the preppy girls in California. Performed by Zappa’s daughter behind the mic, this entire song is a caricature of what the valley girl is supposed to be, always focused on the next big thrill going down in Encino and making copious trips to the mall to buy miniskirts. The song does take a few dark turns – like coming across a potential abuser – this girl is stuck in her own world as if nothing ever happened.
Though the song might not have been the most indicative of Zappa’s sound, it did earn him his first-ever chart position, breaking into the top 40 in 1982. It may have fit in with the culture of the early ‘80s, but chances are some of the valley girls in question didn’t even know they were being made fun of.
7. ‘Joe’s Garage’
Zappa was never one to shy away from the more ambitious concepts. After spitting out some of the wildest music of the ‘70s, Joe’s Garage encompassed a little bit of everything about Zappa, wrapping his progressive tendencies in a story centred around the adolescent Joe trying to form a band. All great stories have to start off with a bang, though, and the title track has a lot more thunder than any other Zappa project.
Since Joe is just forming his band in this song, you can hear that rough and tumble rock and roll spirit, as if you’re right there in the room listening to Joe and his friend Larry hammer out tunes. As opposed to writing something complex for the hell of it, there’s a bit of a rough edge on this tune that is more unusual for Zappa, as if he’d been listening to some of the early metal bands and trying his hand at that musical flavour.
For anyone who falls in love with music, it’s easy to recognise the sense of ambition in this song, as you’re watching this kid slowly discover his love for music. Zappa might have his fair share of songs that can make you laugh, but he can also tug on your heartstrings when the time calls for it.
6. ‘Muffin Man’
At the tail end of the ‘70s, Zappa was starting to find his edge a little bit more. In the wake of his jazz fusion period on One Size Fits All, Zappa was starting to get more gritty guitar tones and writing songs that had a metalised edge to them. Although Zappa might have seen the studio as his playground, he was a completely different animal on the live stage.
Capping off his live disc Bongo Fury, ‘Muffin Man’ might be one of the heaviest songs that Zappa ever committed to tape. While the whole song starts with a bit of spoken word, Zappa takes the listener on a journey through the heaviest riffs in his arsenal, all while writing lines that have to do with the traditional nursery rhyme about the Muffin Man.
Of all Zappa’s guitar solos, this track feels like him exploring every part of the fretboard, favouring the lower notes on the neck and then building it up to a climax of craziness towards the very end. Considering the amount of mayhem being laid down on this one track, Zappa could easily make a song about ‘Three Blind Mice’ and still make it sound amazing.
5. ‘Willie the Pimp’
At the end of the ‘60s, Zappa was becoming known as the resident weirdo of rock and roll. Although he had helped launch the careers of acts like Alice Cooper, Zappa was still the artistic maverick that even the swinging ‘60s wouldn’t allow on the radio too often. So what happens when you put one of rock’s most eccentric characters with one of the most off-the-wall performers in history?
In the middle of his opus Hot Rats, ‘Willie the Pimp’ is the ultimate head trip, bringing in Captain Beefheart to provide the vocals behind the jazzy backdrop. Though there’s supposed to be a touch of humour to this song, Beefheart sounds like a demon coming up from Hell, playing up the persona of the pimp with ease.
Compared to the more straightforward jams of jazz-rock past, it’s hard to keep track of where one section is headed, always switching on a dime into something completely different. Zappa has been known to put his listener’s brain in a blender, but it’s another matter entirely to throw structure out the window as well.
4. ‘Inca Roads’
Towards the mid-70s, rock was slowly starting to get reacquainted with jazz. In the midst of blues and progressive rock, bands were starting to notice that the brilliance of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis were a lot more alike than they realised. While Steely Dan might get their fair share of accolades for jazz-rock, ‘Inca Roads’ puts Zappa in that same company.
Across its lengthy runtime, Zappa is trying out different pieces on his guitar, taking the fire that you’d hear from Eric Clapton and repurposing it for his own use. While the song has its fair share of memorable moments, Zappa used the jazzier side of his work to stretch out, mixing different meter changes as percussionist Ruth Underwood does his best to keep up with him on the marimba.
For all of the crazy detours that Zappa has taken throughout his career, this might be the ultimate song to play for someone uninitiated in his work. Even though rock has come a long way since the 1950s, Zappa was reminding us that we were only scratching the surface of this song.
3. ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow’
Frank Zappa was always a man of many titles. Aside from his amazing ability behind his guitar, Zappa was known for his unique approach to vocals, his iron fist when directing his band, and standing up for making the kind of music he loved. Of all the approaches he had made throughout his lifetime, Zappa should also add stand-up comedian to the list.
While the basic joke behind ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow’ is fairly juvenile, it’s the music that keeps the song rolling, including the massive amount of vocal harmonies that are used to sing the key line. Despite the amazing musicianship, the tone of this song is still fairly humorous when it comes to the narrator’s mother, almost sounding like the soundtrack of some strange slapstick comedy.
Although Zappa and ‘hit single’ don’t go together that often, this is about as close to pop music as he would get during his jazz-rock period, keeping a playful spirit while still melting your face off with music. It isn’t easy to have someone do a Frank Zappa deep dive, but sometimes you just need a little bit of comedy to make everything go down easy.
2. ‘Montana’
When talking about Frank Zappa’s accolades, everything circles back to the guitar. The six string was always where he felt the most comfortable, and hanging back and letting the music do the talking was where some of his best ideas came from. Then again, playing your guitar doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not saying anything.
Although ‘Montana’ might not be the brightest moment for Zappa’s guitar skills, this is his high point as a bandleader, bringing together every part of his backing band to make some of the weirdest rock and roll committed to tape. As you listen to the music, Zappa almost feels like the puppetmaster behind the scenes, making his band sound orchestral as they play around it each other.
The brilliance of rock and roll has always been about band members bouncing off each other in exactly the right way. And when you put on a song like ‘Montana’, you’re listening to Zappa paint his arranging masterpiece.
1. ‘Peaches en Regalia’
Throughout his career, Frank Zappa was never one for doing the same thing twice. Whenever he played his guitar, you never knew if it was going to be something heavy, melodic, jazzy, or every one of them at once. While it’s hard to categorise the man’s music, ‘Peaches En Regalia’ is the closest that he ever came to perfection.
Opening up Hot Rats, every single part of the song works in sync with itself, from the galloping rhythms that add a steady pulse to the chord changes that take influence from jazz music. Although Zappa does have full command of his band, the icing on top is the guitar breaks, sounding like Zappa is wrestling against his guitar and winning.
After jazz acolytes like Miles Davis had dipped their toes into rock on albums like Bitches Brew, this was Zappa returning the favour with his own brand of jazz rock. Some artists may have tried their hand at this brand of jazz rock, and some of them might have gone on to great success, but there’s only one rock madman who can make a song come alive like this.
