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.
Ronnie's Booger Story
Frank Zappa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Frank zappa (guitar)
Ronnie:
We lived in a little room, man. it was, it was probably a fourth as big as, as your livin' room, frank. (cough) and uh, everytime we picked a booger we'd flip it on this one winduh, or wipe it there if we couldn't flip it there, why'know. and uh, I guess dwight stayed with me for about....'bout seven months, wasn't it? six months? and uh, every night we'd contribute, why'know, two or three or four boogers, why'know. and when he left, uh my mom knew what was goin' on all the time but we thought we had her hoodwinked. why'see, she was smarter than we, what, than what we were. an' she made us clean 'em off, why'know? we used ajax and we couldn't get them things...we had to use a... had to use a putty knife, man, to get them damn things off the winduh. you couldn't even see out the winduh with all them boogers, man. I'm not kiddin' you (sniff). an' it was big ones too, an little, and there was some goober ones that weren't even hard man, you'd just smear 'em, young ones. it's like fro-you've seen f
Rosted glasses. that wind
Uh was just like a frosted glass with spots all over it, why'know? and uh, (sniff) it was- it was no good. although, th-that was the good ol' days, though.
The lyrics of Ronnie's Booger Story by Frank Zappa are a humorous but disgusting narrative of the activities of Ronnie and his friend Dwight during their stay in a small room. The song begins with Ronnie describing how small the room was, and how every time they picked a booger, they would flick it on the same window, or wipe it there if they couldn't get it to stick. The storyline is an anecdote about what transpired every other day for about seven months that they lived together.
Despite them assuming they had kept their activities a secret from Ronnie's mom, she was aware of everything that was transpiring, and when they left, she made them clean off the boogers from the window. We hear about the struggles they had, trying to clean the boogers from the window using Ajax, only to realize they had to use a putty knife to get them off finally. Ronnie describes the window as having spots all over it, making it look like frosted glass. The title of the song is quite apt as the entire story is about the duo's penchant for booger picking and flicking it on the window.
Overall, the song is a satirical and exaggerated take on the activities of teenage boys, which may strike a chord of nostalgia for some, while for others, it may merely come across as bizarre and gross.
Line by Line Meaning
We lived in a little room, man. it was, it was probably a fourth as big as, as your livin' room, frank. (cough)
Ronnie and Dwight had lived in a small room with little space, which was much smaller in comparison to Frank Zappa's living room. Ronnie coughs.
and uh, everytime we picked a booger we'd flip it on this one winduh, or wipe it there if we couldn't flip it there, why'know.
Ronnie and Dwight would flick their boogers on the window, or wipe them on it when flicking wasn't an option.
and uh, I guess dwight stayed with me for about....'bout seven months, wasn't it? six months?
Dwight stayed with Ronnie for around six or seven months.
and uh, every night we'd contribute, why'know, two or three or four boogers, why'know.
Every night, Ronnie and Dwight would add two, three or four boogers to the window.
and when he left, uh my mom knew what was goin' on all the time but we thought we had her hoodwinked.
When Dwight left, Ronnie's mom knew about the booger collection, but they believed they were deceiving her.
why'see, she was smarter than we, what, than what we were. an' she made us clean 'em off, why'know?
Ronnie's mom was much smarter than they had assumed, and she made them clean the boogers off the window.
we used ajax and we couldn't get them things...we had to use a... had to use a putty knife, man, to get them damn things off the winduh.
Ronnie and Dwight tried to clean the window using Ajax, but it wasn't effective. They had to resort to using a putty knife to remove the boogers from the window.
you couldn't even see out the winduh with all them boogers, man. I'm not kiddin' you (sniff).
The accumulation of boogers on the window eventually made it impossible to see through it, and Ronnie emphasizes that he isn't joking.
an' it was big ones too, an little, and there was some goober ones that weren't even hard man, you'd just smear 'em, young ones.
There were both small and large boogers on the window, as well as some that weren't hard and could be easily spread around.
it's like fro-you've seen frosted glasses. that wind
To explain how the window looked, Ronnie compares it to frosted glasses.
Uh was just like a frosted glass with spots all over it, why'know?
The window was akin to being covered in spots, much like a frosted glass.
and uh, (sniff) it was- it was no good.
Ronnie concludes that the build-up of boogers on the window was not good at all.
although, th-that was the good ol' days, though.
Despite the negative aspects, Ronnie reminisces about the past and the memories they'd shared.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Frank Vincent Zappa
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind