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.
Uncle Bernie's Farm
Frank Zappa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's a bomb to blow yo mommy up,
A bomb for yo daddy too! (ouch!)
A baby doll that burps 'n pees;
A case of airplane glue!
There's a hungry plastic troll,
To scarf yo buddy's arm!
"Uncle bernie's farm"
There's a little plastic 'congress'
There's a 'nation' you can buy!
There's a doll that looks like mommy
(She'll do anything but cry) (yes, sir)
There's a doll that looks like daddy
(He's a funny little man...
Push a button 'n ask fo money:
There's a dollar in his hand!) (check his wallet)
We gotta send sanny claus back to de rescue mission!
Christmas don't make it no more!
Don'tcha know that murder an' destruction
Scream de toys in every store! (I think this is sold in new york)
There's a man who runs the country
There's a man who tried to think
And they're all made out of plastic
(When they melt, they start to stink)
There's a book with smiling children,
Nearly dead with christmas joys
And smiling in his office
Is the creep who makes 'the toys'
(they got this car, when it hits the wall, you can see the guy dying
You got little plastic pools of blood
Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho (I'm dreaming...)
...intestines...you can see right into his stomach...
There's this other thing, i...
I got bombs, I got rockets, I got a, I got a stillson wrench
And comes with a tape recorder...
I got plastic brass knuckles
With sound effects
We got a '39 chevy...
The lyrics of Uncle Bernie's Farm, by Frank Zappa, are a satirical critique of the commercialization of Christmas and the consumer culture that surrounds it. The first stanza refers to the violent and dangerous toys that are being sold, such as a bomb to blow up parents or a baby doll that burps and pees. There is also a reference to airplane glue, a substance that can be sniffed for a euphoric effect, highlighting the dangerous and addictive nature of consumer products. The phrase "Uncle Bernie's farm" is used as a metaphor for the world of consumerism, where plastic products are churned out like crops.
The second stanza mentions dolls that resemble parents and a doll congress, highlighting the absurdity of toys being used to replicate the structures of real-life society. The reference to a doll of Daddy with a button that gives him a dollar also exposes the greed and materialism of society. Zappa then suggests that Christmas has lost its true meaning and has become synonymous with the destruction and violence that screams from the toys in every store. The final lines expose the inhumanity of the corporate world, where smiling children in a book are juxtaposed with the man who makes the toys, who smiles in his office despite the ghastly products he produces.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a bomb to blow yo mommy up,
There is a toy bomb that emulates destruction of your mother
A bomb for yo daddy too! (ouch!)
There is a toy bomb that emulates destruction of your father
A baby doll that burps 'n pees;
There is a doll that emulates a baby that burps and pees
A case of airplane glue!
There is a case of glue meant for model airplane enthusiasts
There's a hungry plastic troll,
There is a plastic troll that might eat your buddy's arm
To scarf yo buddy's arm!
The hungry plastic troll might eat your buddy's arm
There's a box of ugly plastic things marked:
There is a box filled with hideous plastic toys that's branded as Uncle Bernie's farm
There's a little plastic 'congress'
There is a toy set of congressional figures made out of plastic
There's a 'nation' you can buy!
You can purchase a toy nation
There's a doll that looks like mommy
There is a doll that looks like your mother
(She'll do anything but cry) (yes, sir)
The doll that looks like your mother emulates everything that she does except crying
There's a doll that looks like daddy
There is a doll that looks like your father
(He's a funny little man...
The doll that looks like your father is humorous in appearance
Push a button 'n ask fo money:
Press a button on the doll and it'll ask for money
There's a dollar in his hand!) (check his wallet)
The doll that looks like your father might even have a dollar in its hand
We gotta send sanny claus back to de rescue mission!
We need to send Santa Claus back to the nonprofit organization where he is part of
Christmas don't make it no more!
Christmas doesn't seem as magical as it used to
Don'tcha know that murder an' destruction
Scream de toys in every store!
Don't you know that toy stores are filled with toys that depict violence and destruction?
(I think this is sold in new york)
(This situation might be limited to New York)
There's a man who runs the country
There is a toy man who presides over running the fictional toy country
There's a man who tried to think
There is a toy man who was made to seem like a thinker
And they're all made out of plastic
All of these fictional toy characters are made out of plastic
(When they melt, they start to stink)
(However, when they start to melt, they smell awful)
There's a book with smiling children,
Nearly dead with christmas joys
In the toy store, there is a book filled with pictures of happy children enthralled with Christmas
And smiling in his office
Is the creep who makes 'the toys'
Smiling while sitting in his office is the person responsible for creating these toys that emulate destruction and violence
(they got this car, when it hits the wall, you can see the guy dying
(For example, there is a toy car that shows a person dying when it crashes into a wall)
You got little plastic pools of blood
There are even miniature plastic pools of fake blood
Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho (I'm dreaming...)
This situation almost seems like a nightmare disguised as a dream
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Frank Vincent Zappa
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind