Review: Zappa | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Not Rated |
By Kyle Osborne
When I was 21 years old, I interviewed Frank Zappa backstage before a show in Brussels, Belgium.
He was not happy to be there.
He was exactly twice my age on that night, and I was sure I could feel his low-key hatred quietly emanating from his furrowed brow straight into my young soul, and I was heartbroken.
Now, thanks to director Alex Winter, I realize Frank’s demeanor was exactly the same for most of the interviews he granted for several decades. He was a no bullshit guy who had to exist in a bullshit world, and doing rock star interviews with people like me was part of that bullshit world. At least that’s the way he saw it.
This is not to say that there aren’t entertaining and humorous bits of his interviews in Winter’s recent documentary “Zappa.” It doesn’t exactly peel back many layers of Zappa’s notoriously cranky persona, he was a tough nut to crack, but thanks to the director’s full access to the Zappa archives, and more than 6 years of restoring and sifting through it all, the viewer does get to see performances and clips and some firsthand insights that haven’t been seen before. Zappa famously saved everything during his career-every audio and video recording that he’d ever had his hands on found its way onto the shelves of his personal library. His children have maintained it, with some major help from guys like Joe Travers, in the years since Zappa’s death in 1993, just shy of his 53rd birthday.
And so, with a bounty of source material, “Zappa” is especially fun for “completest” fans who will delight in seeing footage from way, way back. I really enjoyed the observations of the now gray-haired and late-aged musicians who knew him best, yet never were allowed to know all of him. They speak of a perfectionist who knew what he wanted. But their own contributions are significant and, in some cases, what the Maestro wanted was them.
Seventy-four year old Ruth Underwood is especially engaging and warm, and she sees Zappa in a way that no one else could. In my opinion, her xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone contributions to the music are just as much a sound signature as Zappa’s virtuoso guitar playing.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention may have been, or at least looked like, quintessential rock and roll debauchery on wheels, but he and his musicians were deadly serious about every note they played. Things that looked like depravity to a casual viewer were always built on a foundation of musicianship as organized and formal as any world renowned symphony.
Will this be of any interest to someone unfamiliar with Zappa’s music? I think so. .A narrative has been assembled that brings along any viewer. Even for those of us who thought we knew a lot, there are moments of “Holy shit, I didn’t know that!” And that’s the most one could ever hope for while watching a biographical documentary.
Tickets or Watch at Home options available at: https://www.thezappamovie.com/
