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.
Dirty love
Frank Zappa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Your dirty love
Like you might surrender
To some dragon in your dreams
Give me
Your dirty love
Like a pink donation
To the dragon in your dreams
I don't need your sweet devotion
I don't want your cheap emotion
Just whip me up some dragon lotion
For your dirty love
Give me
Your dirty love
Like some tacky little pamphlet
In your daddy's bottom drawer
Give me
Your dirty love
I don't believe you have ever seen
That book before
I don't need no consolation
I don't want your reservation
I only got one destination
An' that's your dirty love
Give me
Your dirty love
Just like your mama
Make her fuzzy poodle do
Give me
Your dirty love
The way your mama
Make that nasty poodle chew
I'll ignore your cheap aroma
And your little-bo-peep diploma
I'll just put you in a coma
With some dirty love
THE POODLE BITES!
(Come on, Frenchie)
THE POODLE CHEWS IT!
(Snap it!)
THE POODLE BITES!
(Come on, Frenchie)
THE POODLE CHEWS IT!
(Snap it!)
Frank Zappa’s song Dirty Love takes on a humorous and sarcastic tone about the titular “dirty love” that the singer desires. Throughout the song, the lyrics compare this love to surrendering to a dream dragon or giving a “pink donation.” The emphasis is on the physicality of the encounter, with phrases like “whip me up some dragon lotion” and “Make that nasty poodle chew.” The singer dismisses “sweet devotion” and “cheap emotion,” stating that they only have one destination, which is this dirty love.
Zappa’s lyrics seem to be a commentary on the sexual attitudes of American society in the 70s. The graphic and explicit nature of the lyrics reveal the freedom and taboo behind the casual attitudes towards sex at the time. Zappa mocks the use of euphemisms and descriptions of sex as something sacred or emotional, instead emphasizing the physical act. The singer is not interested in love or emotion but rather in the pure physical pleasure of sexual encounters, regardless of how “dirty” they may be.
Line by Line Meaning
Give me
Your dirty love
Like you might surrender
To some dragon in your dreams
Give me your love that is not pure, but is instead wild and passionate, like one might surrender to a fire-breathing dragon in their dreams.
Give me
Your dirty love
Like a pink donation
To the dragon in your dreams
Give me your love that is raunchy and sordid, like a pink donation to the dragon in your dreams.
I don't need your sweet devotion
I don't want your cheap emotion
Just whip me up some dragon lotion
For your dirty love
I do not require your loving gestures or phoney feelings; just create for me some dragon lotion to use for our obscene love.
Give me
Your dirty love
Like some tacky little pamphlet
In your daddy's bottom drawer
Provide me with your improper and maybe even shameful love, like a crass and vulgar pamphlet hidden in your dad's dresser.
Give me
Your dirty love
I don't believe you have ever seen
That book before
I doubt you have ever encountered a love that is as filthy and degrading as what I desire.
I don't need no consolation
I don't want your reservation
I only got one destination
An' that's your dirty love
I do not require any comfort or pity from you, nor do I need your hesitant affection. I solely yearn for your immoral love.
Give me
Your dirty love
Just like your mama
Make her fuzzy poodle do
Offer me your unholy love, just like the way your mother coerced her fuzzy poodle to do her bidding.
Give me
Your dirty love
The way your mama
Make that nasty poodle chew
Provide me with your unrefined love, the way your mother made her disgusting poodle chew on indecent objects.
I'll ignore your cheap aroma
And your little-bo-peep diploma
I'll just put you in a coma
With some dirty love
I choose to overlook your unpleasant fragrance and your childish education. Instead, I will render you unconscious with my obscene love.
THE POODLE BITES!
(Come on, Frenchie)
THE POODLE CHEWS IT!
(Snap it!)
The poodle bites down onto the indecent object, come on Frenchie! It chews it, snap it!
THE POODLE BITES!
(Come on, Frenchie)
THE POODLE CHEWS IT!
(Snap it!)
The poodle bites down again, come on Frenchie! It continues chewing it, snap it!
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: JEFF PESCETTO, STEVE DUBIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind