By Dave Gil de Rubio
When it comes to musical iconoclasts, the late Frank Zappa left behind quite the creative legacy despite only living to the age of 52 before succumbing to prostate cancer in 1993. Three-plus decades later, eldest son Dweezil is honoring his pop via the Rox (Postroph)Y Tour Return of the Son of…, a string of dates that will find Zappa the younger focusing his outfits energies on revisiting a pair of his father’s albums—Apostrophe (‘) and Roxy & Elsewhere, both of which were released in 1974 and hitting the half century mark this year. All set to hit the concert stage after a four-year layoff partially caused by the pandemic, Zappa is eager to tackle this part of his pop’s canon.
“The material that we’re playing from Apostrophe (‘) and Roxy is very well-known to the fans, but the versions we’re doing are probably not as well-known because some of them pre-date the albums,” he explained. “There are arrangements that came from live performances that were from 1973, but the album was recorded in 1974, so there are differences in some of the harmonies and some of the rhythms. These are very popular records and it’s just one of those things where the music stands in stark relief if you listen to what is happening in that music and you compare it to anything that’s happening in modern music. And you realize, that it was done 50 years ago. It really shows people that there is so much that is undiscovered and so much more that can be done with music and that’s something dad’s music showcases all the time.”
Zappa was barely four going on five years old when both these records came out. This was also around the time of a couple of vivid memories—the whirring of tape machines as his father was doing edits (“you would just hear the tape rocking back and forth going ‘wherp, wherp, wherp’) and the recording of a song called “St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast.”
“I was four or five years old when he was making that and I just remember thinking, ‘Oh great—a song about pancakes–that’s pretty sweet,’” he recalled before adding, “That happens to be one of my favorite songs still and we’re playing that on this tour, but with a slightly different arrangement.”
And while Zappa was given a guitar when he was six, it wouldn’t be until the California native was 12 that he started getting serious about playing. At that point, it was a golden age of guitar players in the Golden State where storied names like Edward Van Halen and Randy Rhoads proved to be a huge influence on the budding guitarist. So much so that the former wound up overseeing Zappa’s recording debut despite only having been playing for nine months.
“The first song I ever recorded was ‘My Mother’s a Space Cadet’ in my dad’s studio, but Edward Van Halen produced it along with Donn Landee, who was the engineer that did the first six Van Halen albums,” Zappa recalled. “There are no words to describe how inspirational it was for me to be able to work with Edward on that recording.”
Zappa’s fascination with the guitar and his increasing proficiency on the instrument has served him well. Not only has he recorded seven solo albums, but cut a pair of records with brother Ahmet and made cameo appearances on a string of projects tied to artists ranging from his father’s recordings, Spinal Tap and “Weird Al” Yankovic to Winger, Todd Rundgren, and Dixie Dregs.
For now, Zappa is gearing up for the current tour and while much of his recent time was spent podcasting on his website (“Most of it is music related, but it can go off to other areas that are just lifestyle-related. It’s fun to be able to get together with your friends and talk about stuff whether its nostalgic or current.”), he’s also been shooting footage for a possible concert film focusing on the behind-the-scenes prep for the tour.
As is the Zappa way, Dweezil is going down his own creative path, a lesson he observed having a front-row seat to his father’s day-to-day.
“A lot of people will ask you what it’s like to either be in the shadow or follow in the footsteps of my father and what the struggles might be,” he said. “I didn’t ever think about it like that because I was just happy to have access to my dad, who I admired. When it came to me doing my own thing, all I was concerned with was if I am doing work that I am happy with or proud of—that’s really all that matters. I’ve always looked at things as the work will have to speak for itself. When I started playing my dad’s music, I wasn’t concerned about what people would think because I wanted it to be an apples-to-apples comparison so the music would be able to do all the talking. And that’s what I’ve always focused on.”
Dweezil Zappa will be appearing on Friday, Aug. 30, at The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. For more information, visit www.theparamountny.com or call 631-673-7300.
