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.
The Duke Of Prunes
Frank Zappa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The cheese I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
Is real and very new
Prune! (Pa-da-dah!)
If it is a real prune knows no cheese
(Cheeky chanky, cheeky chanky)
And stands (oh no!)
Taller or softer than any tree (or bush)
And I know the love I have for you
Will grow and grow and grow, I think
And so my love I offer you
A love that is strong a prune that is true
The lyrics of Frank Zappa's Duke of Prunes are about an unusual romantic encounter. The song seems to describe a surreal, dream-like sequence where the singer is admiring the body of his lover through a moonbeam shining on a prune. The imagery is weird and borders on the absurd - "your lovely beans" is a euphemism for breasts, and "that magic go-kart" is presumably a metaphor for some strange device or a state of mind. The singer then declares his love for his partner, offering her a "real and very new" piece of cheese as a symbol of devotion.
The second section of the song takes a sudden turn and becomes more cryptic. The prune is used as a symbol for authenticity, contrasting it with the unauthenticity and insincerity of cheese. The lyrics suggest that the power of the natural world - represented by the "taller or softer" tree - is more real than any human construct. The singer then affirms his love once again, pledging that it will only keep growing.
Overall, the lyrics of Duke of Prunes are a fascinating mix of surrealism, romanticism, and social commentary. They suggest that love can exist in unconventional forms and that the natural world should be valued more than material possessions.
Line by Line Meaning
A moon beam through the prune in june
The moon shining through a prune in June
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
I can see your chest through your shirt buttons
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
I give you a hickey in a go-kart
The cheese I have for you, my dear
My love for you, my dear
Is real and very new
Is genuine and fresh
Prune! (Pa-da-dah!)
Exclamation of prune
If it is a real prune knows no cheese
A true prune cannot contain cheese
(Cheeky chanky, cheeky chanky)
Onomatopoeia for mischievousness
And stands (oh no!)
It has a prominent presence
Taller or softer than any tree (or bush)
It is unique and incomparable to any other plant
And I know the love I have for you
I am aware of my affection for you
Will grow and grow and grow, I think
I believe my love for you will continue to flourish
And so my love I offer you
And thus, I present my affection to you
A love that is strong a prune that is true
A love that is unwavering and genuine
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Frank Zappa
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
dôgus utôôpia
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The cheese I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The love I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
Prune! (Pa-da-dah!)
If it is a real prune knows no cheese
(Cheeky chanky, cheeky chanky)
And stands (oh no!)
Taller or softer than any tree (or bush)
And I know the love I have for you
Will grow and grow and grow, I think
And so my love I offer you
A love that is strong a prune that is true
A A
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The cheese I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The love I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
Prune! (pa-da-dah!)
If it is a real prune knows no cheese
(Cheeky chanky, cheeky chanky)
And stands (oh no!)
Taller or softer than any tree (or bush)
And I know the love I have for you
Will grow and grow and grow, I think
And so my love I offer you
A love that is strong a prune that is true
Lalalalalala... lalalalalaaa
My darling, you mean so very much to me,
I love you so deeply
It just makes me...
Duke, duke, duke, duke of prunes, prunes, prunes
I'll never forget you darling...
And you'll be my duchess, my duchess of prunes
A moon beam through the prune in june
Reveals your chest I see your lovely beans
And in that magic go-kart I bite your neck
The cheese I have for you, my dear
Is real and very new
Prunes! (pa-da-dah!)
If they are fresh prunes knows no
(Cheeky chanky, cheeky chanky)
And they just lay there
Tell me and sing me and just if I don't know
And I know I think the love I have for you
Will never end (well maybe)
And so my love, I offer you
A love that is strong a prune that is true
This is the exciting part
This is like the supremes, see the way it builds up...
Baby, baby, baby.
My prune is yours my love,
My cheese for you,
My baby prunes, my baby prunes, my baby prunes,
My baby prunes, my baby prunes, my baby prunes,
Oh baby prunes.
Cheesy, cheesy.
iamdamosuzuki_
This song was my gateway drug into avant-garde music.
Max Shea
A love that is real. A prune that is true.
DXR
Probably the greatest piece of music (referring to the entire album) ever written that is super fun to play for a musician.
Harry Klane
At age 13 in 1967, I told my mother I wanted this album. She did get it for me, but commented she never wanted to buy me albums like this again. Ha ha
Mishima Toshiro
lovely comment
Stony Rerootkit
50 yrs later, this Still Kicks Ass! 🐙🔥
mezchr
sheer genius, and answers the question "what is love?" the dracula vampire reference, (I bite your neck) represents that picture in our minds of a form of intimacy and the "Amnesia Vivace" refers to a mental process by which you can concentrate on something and yet at the same time be completely forgetful. The total concept is there in words and music. "Duke" is also a beautiful melody with that ever so soft and subtle keyboard chord in the background
Elizabeth Hann
This is one of the best Nonsense songs I've ever heard. It also makes me wanna go eat prunes stuffed with cheese, prunes stuffed with cheese being something I never ever thought I'd want to eat before I heard this song. Such is the power of Frank Zappa.
BONGUSTHEDOG
Nonsense song? I think is clearly a double sense love song, plenty of allegories.
Sparkina
Cheese stuffed prunes sounds like it could be a real dish, probably something that would be served at fancy cocktail parties around the time this album came out.