frank: we’re only in it for the art

Frank Zappa. A game changer. And much of the aesthetic projection can be credited to Cal Schenkel…

by Art Chantry ( art@artchantry.com )

Where would we all be if there had never been a Frank Zappa? I  mean, the guy was out there beating a path through the wilderness for decades. A true pioneer/cult figure, he only achieved commercial success by accident when he had a novelty number (“don’t eat yellow snow”). however, if you ever listen to the lyrics of his songs, you’d soon realize that where was nothing ‘novelty’ about that song at all. all his lyrics were in that turf. he thought it was funny.

I think Frank and his extreme devotion to pushing the limits of creative ‘taste’ and breeding influenced far more of the people who went on to create the current American culture than almost anybody this side of the Beatles. If you read interviews with movers and shakers from the last 40 years, it seems all of them discovered Zappa as a youngster and it opened up the world to them – and such an odd world. all them ‘nerds today/cool cats tomorrow’ were Zappa heads. it’s almost universal.

back int he 60's, there used to be a crazy right wing lunatic talk show host named 'joe pyne.' he would often have counter culture oddballs on his show to do battle with (the audience participation was always choice). i saw zappa on his show an no matter what sort of crazy pre-rush john bircher madness joe threw at frank, the guy just deftly swatted it back him with a big laugh. he kept calling joe pyne "lame." and eventually he started laughing and said "joe, you're so lame your children are going to kill you in your sleep." that sorta sent joe into a tailspin he never recovered from. it was beautiful....my friend tim olsen first turned me on to the mothers. then i bought 'uncle meat', 'cruisin' with reuben & the jets' and beefheart's 'trout mask replica' and i was ruined for life. all superb cal schenkel cover work, too....

And good ol’ Frank fought the good fight long before his famous testimony before congress – where he exquisitely laid down the law on freedom of speech (to universal applause). this ( first image ) is the early dust jacket that was used in the vanity label he started indie the Warner Bros. contract, called ‘Some Bizarre records’. it was one of those ground breaking and trend setting and completely eccentric efforts that was so purely Zappa. I mean, he signed Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, recorded and produced Captain Beefheart and (the recently deceased – RIP) Wild Man Fischer. he actually record and released the GTO’s! his own solo records and band efforts by the Mothers are well known. All of it on his own strange little in-house label. It created deniability for the parent company of Warner Bros. records. it was the only way he could do what he wanted.

You see, Zappa was charting his own course since very early days. as a young man (kid, really) he had built his own studio and was following his musical interests while starving to death (literally) when he was approached by a sleazy character to make a ‘sex’ recording in his studio for that sleazeball to sell on some imagined “audio porn” market. It was desperately needed money, so, Zappa got a couple of friends together and they had big laugh making groaning noises and fake sex talk in the studio. when he turned the tape over to the sleazeball, it turns out he was an undercover cop and had set up a sting on the ‘weirdo hippie.’ now, Zappa has an old (grossly unfair) porn charge in his history. that sort of wet his tongue for some of the battles he fought the rest of his life. I mean, the whole sting was ridiculous. It was fake porn! that’s illegal? how?

Read More; http://renovcevic.blog.rs/blog/renovcevic/frank-zappaUncle Meat, released in 1969, is the soundtrack to The Mothers of Invention's long-delayed film of the same name; the front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words "(Most of the Music from the Mother's ...

When Zappa had some cash (from the warner’s empire) to build his own label, one of the first things he did was make these dust jackets (the paper sleeves that fit over the actual vinyl disk before it gets slipped into the album cover). on it, he reproduced the first amendment of the United States constitution! some dirty hippie freak was using the constitution to proclaim his creative freedom! Imagine that! It almost pisses you off to the point where you want to wrap yourself in an American flag! I had this dust jacket thumb-tacked to my studio wall for over 20 years.

When I first saw this thing, it really blew me away. I mean, look at it! not only does it have that wonderful first amendment on it to refer to, the design is almost frighteningly bizarre. those little ‘dot eyes’ in Frank’s face gave my little kid mind nightmares (i guess i was sensitive?) and what’s with that ‘label’ stuff in the upper right corner? “LA? SFO? NYC? danger? self-destruct?” huh? almost a threat of some sort?

Read More: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/f-zappa-ruben-and-the-jets-cover-recreation-cal-schenkel.htmlF Zappa Ruben and the Jets cover recreation Painting - Cal Schenkel...