Zappa's earliest influences were 1950s pop and rock (such as doo-wop and rhythm and blues), and 20th-century classical composers including Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse. His output was divided between adventurous instrumental compositions and succinct, catchy rock songs with ribald, satirical, or comically absurd lyrics. On stage he demanded virtuosity and spontaneity from his musicians, and employed many performers who would later go on to achieve fame in their own rights. He directed and released a number of films featuring himself, his musicians and entourage, including 200 Motels and Baby Snakes.
His career started in 1955. His earliest recordings date from the mid-1960s, and include collaborations with his school friend Captain Beefheart. In 1965 he joined a bar-band called The Soul Giants, quickly dominating its musical direction and rechristening it The Mothers. Their first release (as The Mothers of Invention; the name alteration requested by their record company) was the 1966 double album Freak Out!. The line-up of the Mothers gradually expanded to accommodate Zappa's increasingly ambitious and avant-garde music, but by 1969 he decided to work outside the band structure, focusing on his solo career, and effectively disbanding the Mothers in 1971.
The beginnings of his solo career in the late sixties and early seventies was characterised by a strong free jazz influence, with albums containing little, if any, lyrical content, such as Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. Towards the mid-seventies his albums became more rock-orientated, with a combination of Jazz Fusion instrumentation and Rock song structures. This more accessible sound bore reasonable mainstream appeal, especially with the release of the well-advertised albums Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe (') (which both went Gold), but Zappa's unpredictably eclectic output never led to solid mainstream recognition. He received uniformly lukewarm reviews from popular music publications such as Rolling Stone throughout his career. In his late seventies' output, the gulf between his humorous songs and more lengthy, complex instrumental music widened, and albums, such as Zappa in New York, Joe's Garage: Acts I, II & III, and Sleep Dirt displayed, by track, both sides firmly segregated.
Zappa saw a second run of success in the early eighties with the release of many albums with predominantly comedic rock songs, but later continued to experiment with virtually every style of music through the eighties, and was productive as ever until his death. His output in this later-career period included two albums of strikingly original classical music with the London Symphony Orchestra, an electronic take on 18th-century chamber music (written by the obscure Italian composer 'Francesco Zappa', no relation), an album of Synclavier compositions (misleadingly titled Jazz From Hell which garnered a Grammy award), a double-CD release of electric guitar instrumental music (the laconically titled Guitar) and a plenitude of official live releases, revisiting fan-favourites as well as showcasing Zappa's talent for reinventing the music of others; his version of Stairway to Heaven becoming a word-of-mouth favourite.
Zappa produced almost all of his own albums, spending many hours in the studio recording and manipulating tracks, and was always at the forefront of emerging technologies; from tape editing, collage, multitrack and overdubbing in the sixties to digital recording, electronic instruments and sampling in the eighties. Conversely, Zappa was also a obsessive self-archivist, recording virtually every one of his live performances, and often using live recordings of new material without needing to enter the studio. The archive of tapes at his family home in Los Angeles continues to be a source of posthumous releases for the Zappa Family Trust. He was also noted as a spotter of talent and his shifting line-up of musicians included Lowell George, Jean-Luc Ponty, Terry Bozzio, Chad Wackerman, George Duke, Mike Keneally, Adrian Belew and Steve Vai, as well as giving Alice Cooper his first break in music and working again with his old collaborator Captain Beefheart when his career was in decline.
In the late 1980s he became active in politics, campaigning against the PMRC's music censorship scheme and acting as culture and trade representative for Czechoslovakia in 1989; and considered running as an independent candidate for president of the US.
His death in Los Angeles, California, on 4th December 1993 came three years after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"A Different Octave"
Frank Zappa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But different octave
Right, we are 4 928 octaves below the big note
Are ya are you trying to tell me that that this whole universe revolves around one note?
No, it doesn′t revolve around it, that's what it is, it′s one note
Everybody knows that lights are notes
Light-light, is just a vibration of the note, too, everything is
That one note makes everything else so insignificant
Pigs use it for a tambourine, which is one of the reasons why their music is so hard to understand
In the song "A Different Octave," Frank Zappa presents the idea that everything in the universe is derived from one note. The lyrics suggest that this note is so significant that everything else pales in comparison. The singers in the song argue about the nature of this note, with one suggesting that the universe revolves around it and another responding that it simply is the one note from which everything else comes. In support of this idea, they suggest that even light and negative light are just varying vibrations of this same note.
Zappa's lyrics in "A Different Octave" speak to the interconnectedness of the universe and suggest that everything is ultimately derived from one source. Whether or not one agrees with this metaphysical perspective, the song presents it in a humorous and entertaining way that encourages reflection on the nature of existence.
Line by Line Meaning
We are actually the same note, but
We are the same fundamental frequency, but
But different octave
We are a different frequency range
Right, we are 4 928 octaves below the big note
We are 4 928 frequency ranges below the fundamental frequency
Are ya are you trying to tell me that that this whole universe revolves around one note?
Do you mean to say that the entire universe is derived from one fundamental frequency?
No, it doesn′t revolve around it, that's what it is, it′s one note
It is not that everything orbits around it, but that the universe is composed of one fundamental frequency
Everybody knows that lights are notes
It is common knowledge that light is a type of frequency
Light-light, is just a vibration of the note, too, everything is
Light is merely a different form of frequency vibration, everything is!
That one note makes everything else so insignificant
This single frequency renders all other forms of frequency irrelevant
What about negative light?
How does anti-light or negative light factor into this?
Pigs use it for a tambourine, which is one of the reasons why their music is so hard to understand
Swine incorporate it into their percussion music, resulting in a perplexing sound to human ears
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Contributed by Charlotte Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.