The musician Frank Zappa thought improved the music world
Frank Zappa’s ethos as a musician was always and forever tied into his life as a music fan. A significant part of his career was dedicated to helping his peers and fellow musicians around him. His Laurel Canyon home became a resting place for down-and-out artists to come and get some food, water and inspiration. His own record labels were designed to increase creative control for himself and the artists he worked with. His belief that artists should be trusted to make their own work in the way they want is exactly what makes him love one iconic artist so much.
There are many reasons to love Prince; his guitar playing, prolific output, and an endless list of ever-catchy greatest hits manage to be both commercially great and artistically sharp. Countless artists have discussed the musician’s impact and importance as a songwriter, producer, player, and frontman. He endures as one of the most revered and respected artists to have ever lived, so Frank Zappa is merely one of many to have been a huge fan.
However, Zappa’s reasoning for his deep admiration of Prince is more specific and niche than simply loving his music. Instead, it seems to come more from his business mind than his musical heart, as he discussed how the industry should especially learn from Prince.
For the majority of his career, Zappa was a passionately independent artist who wouldn’t be trapped by any major label. With so many horror stories about the way labels can so often cage in creativity or keep artists stifled under their thumb, the weird-rock pioneer would not be one of them. However, in the case of Prince, Zappa saw that as the gold standard for the way labels and musicians should interact.
Talking about creative control, Zappa said, “At least Warner Brothers were smart enough to give it to Prince. To their credit, they were smart enough to stay out of Prince’s way.”
It was a rare and miraculous thing, but Warner Brothers truly did give Prince the reins and let him run from the start. His debut album, For You, was made solely by the artist. He wrote, composed, performed and produced every note, seemingly trusted to go off and make an album with no external input or opinion. When that first album more than proved his capabilities, Prince was then off to the races, allowed to journey down his artistic path for a long time without any industry hurdles.
For Zappa, the success of that is something to learn from, no matter what you think about the artist. “You can decide for yourself whether or not you like his music or whether or not you like his personality or his image or anything else, but I would say that the whole music scene would be better off if there were more Prince-like relationships between creative artists and record companies, where they would just stay out of the guy’s way,” he said.
However, it wouldn’t always be so ideal for Prince. In 1993, during a major dispute with Warner Brothers, Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol until the label freed him from his contract. But the dispute came about when the label began chiming in more, demanding he cut down label lengths or change things, breaking the covenant of trust their relationship had been built on and proving Zappa’s point.
But regardless of the label drama, Zappa claims that no matter what, it’s an undeniable fact that Prince had a clear and powerful artistic eye. “I think that compared to the rest of the stuff in the vicinity, Prince’s stuff stands out because its a vision,” he said, adding, “That’s worth something. That’s something that’s worth protecting and worth commending. I hereby do that. I hereby commend Prince.”
