Top 100 Zappa Quotes
#1. My parents were big music fans, and my dad plays music, so I grew up with Madonna, Frank Zappa, the Beatles, Alice In Chains ... it was all over the place. I had a Third Eye Blind record, but I also had Korn, Courtney Love, and Shania Twain.
Madi Diaz
#2. Frank [Zappa]'s music was never for the mass audience. His music contains specific kinds of information that you won't find elsewhere in rock and roll.
Gail Zappa
#3. We are not a Zappa cover band. We only play Frank's songs that were recorded by the Mothers of Invention and I think a lot of those songs were complex.
Jimmy Carl Black
#4. When I was growing up, when I was 11 years old I was listening to The Mothers of Invention. You know, I mean I was a Frank Zappa fan in Arkansas.
Billy Bob Thornton
#5. People like Frank Zappa and Bryan Ferry knew we could pick and choose from the history of music, stick things together looking for friction and energy. They were more like playwrights; they invented characters and wrote a life around them.
Brian Eno
#6. The hardest and worst interview that I have ever done was with Frank Zappa.
Nina Blackwood
#7. There's a long tradition - certainly with country, but in all kinds of genres of music - to have humorous lyrics. Certainly with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and, if you look at country, Roger Miller and Jim Stafford.
Rick Moranis
#8. I was his "little girl with the William Burroughs mind," his "secret fairy," "female Frank Zappa" and "window onto a magical world." He said I fell to earth, leaving wing-marks on the ceilings of our dreams.
Jalina Mhyana
#9. Zoyd remembered her...as a tall florid girl in a minidress that bore the image, from neck to hemline, of Frank Zappa's face, thus linking her in Zoyd's mind somehow with Mount Rushmore.
Thomas Pynchon
#10. My first big gig was an opening show for Frank Zappa, and I think that was difficult.
Tom Waits
#11. 'Pastoralia' by George Saunders. Possibly my favorite book. It's one of the weirdest books I've ever read. If Monty Python and Thomas Pynchon had a love child, and it was raised by Frank Zappa on a weird commune, that would be this book.
Libba Bray
#12. I'm jamming 'Black Sabbath Vol. 4' all the time. Zappa's 'Cruising With Ruben & The Jets.' A lot of Gong lately. Some Hawkwind. The Residents' 'Duck Stab' is amazing. Some Fugs. Lots of stuff, man. I'm pretty schizophrenic with records.
Ty Segall
#13. The amazing thing about Freak Out! was that there was nothing quite like it in rock 'n roll at the time. It was really simultaneously crude and ugly, and incredibly sophisticated. The Beatles were funny, but there was nothing with the kind of sneer that you could feel in the music of Frank Zappa.
Matt Groening
#14. Interviewer: 'So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?'
Frank Zappa: 'You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?
Frank Zappa
#15. The music that I was playing and writing in those early years, that I was importing to Europe, was quintessentially New York music in a way that I always hoped it would be. I wanted my concert music to be as distinctive as Zappa at the Fillmore East, and I think I ended up doing that.
Philip Glass
#16. I got married about three years ago again to a wonderful German woman. Her name is Monika and she is beautiful. She is one of the biggest women Zappa fans I have ever met in my life.
Jimmy Carl Black
#17. In my opinion, Lenny Bruce was more of an influence on Zappa's satirical lyric's than anyone that I know of.
Jimmy Carl Black
#18. Nowadays I just don't care; I've taken the Frank Zappa stance. I am who I am! Some love me, some loathe me, some respect me and some despise me. But after all that's been, I still love the insane! As they're exciting, dangerous and highly explosive! For me mad dogs are gentlemen.
Stephen Richards
#19. Jeff Beck is my idol .. sometimes he finds notes that I just do not have on my guitar. Frank Zappa's another one .. I loved Frank Zappa ... I do think Van Halen reinvented the guitar ... he's an excellent musician, a shrewd guitarist and as a person he's wonderful ...
Ritchie Blackmore
#20. Frank Zappa was one of the gods of the Czech underground, I thought of him as a friend. Whenever I feel like escaping from the world of the Presidency, I think of him.
Vaclav Havel
#21. It's nice to hear when someone gets something and the sincerity is enough to tickle you. They can have the wrong notes but the essence of it is there, so it makes you laugh, because even when Frank [Zappa]'s music is sad, it makes me laugh.
Gail Zappa
#22. Frank Zappa ... was Beethoven for insane rock guys.
Scott Ian
#23. Zappa warned you of the threat of mediocrity in music.
Henry Rollins
#24. Music without the ebb and flow would be like "watching a film with only good guys in it." -attrib Frank Zappa
John Powell
#25. My obligation is to release the music the way Frank [Zappa] released it.
Gail Zappa
#26. Zappa was very technical and impressed by things that were musically challenging - weird time signatures, strange keys, awkward chord sequences. Zappa was important to me as an example of everything I didn't want to do. I'm very grateful to him, actually.
Brian Eno
#27. I think a solo moves forward the way a song does, because it's reflective of the chords that I'm considering as I'm soloing, and at the same time I'm going as much out on a limb as Frank Zappa used to, in terms of just going crazy on the instrument.
John Frusciante
#28. But I mean, again, Zappa's far more musical than the Bonzos ever were.
Neil Innes
#29. This song is dedicated to Frank Zappa, and River Phoenix, Fred Gwynne who played Herman Munster, Dixie Lee Ray, Thomas P, Tip O'Neil, and you, dumb ass, who just threw water on me.
Kurt Cobain
#30. People like Frank Zappa were amazing for us Brits.
Rick Wakeman
#31. Frank [Zappa] was not a big fan of having lyrics, but sometimes he had things to say that lent themselves to lyrics.
Gail Zappa
#32. My dad was a big Frank Zappa fan, so I remember listening to a lot of Frank Zappa. Girls do not like Frank Zappa.
Bill Hader
#33. You can grow up being a troublemaker and then before you know it the next thing you're doing is listening to Frank Zappa whilst chilling out ... now that's the intelligent way out. What would a psychiatrist say about that?
Stephen Richards
#34. Frank [Zappa] always wanted to do a sound library - he sampled so many great musicians. For piano, for example, he sampled every octave, not just one (that you could just transpose electronically), and he did all different types of attack, with and without pedals, all that kind of stuff.
Gail Zappa
#35. Should I have taken him by the hand and led him over to the Zappa? No. I won't spoon-feed the customers. If you don't know your alphabet, you have no business leaving your house, let alone shopping for premium music.
Yvonne Prinz
#36. There was a lot of camaraderie among the bands. I remember a lot of times when I'd be driving up Laurel Canyon and pass by the house where Frank Zappa was living and I'd just see people out on the porch playing guitars.
June Millington
#37. One of my pet peeves is that sometimes the talents of my band get overlooked because, and it was the same problem that Frank Zappa had, with a lot of groups that use humor, people don't realize there's a lot of craft behind the comedy.
Al Yankovic
#38. Frank [Zappa] said he probably would have been a major criminal, given his brain power and his attention to detail, had he not been a composer. But being a composer is not something you can't help.
Gail Zappa
#39. I think what my father appreciated was the science experiment of life. He had these kids, and they had their own experiences. He wanted us to discover the world for ourselves.
Ahmet Zappa
#40. You can bet everything will come to an end. It's going to be ugly and it's going to be a mess, and it's going to be something that somebody did in the name of God ...
Frank Zappa
#41. Don't mind your make-up, you'd better make your mind up.
Frank Zappa
#42. My Dad was so open creatively that I was off in search of black turtleneck bathing suits with long sleeves.
Moon Unit Zappa
#43. Nothing I've ever written has been motivated by trying to impact or influence anybody.
Frank Zappa
#44. Sexual gratification can only be achieved through the use of machines.
Frank Zappa
#45. I think you should leave it up to the parent, because not all parents want to keep their children totally ignorant.
Frank Zappa
#46. Catholic girls with tiny little mustaches.
Frank Zappa
#48. Left me here to cry alone with a bottle of juice and pork chop bone.
Frank Zappa
#49. The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own.
Frank Zappa
#50. I think that if you use the so-called "strong words" you'll get your point across faster and you can save a lot of beating around the bush. Why are people afraid of words? Sometimes the dumbest thing that gets said makes the point for you.
Frank Zappa
#53. I don't want to see any religious people in public office because they're working for another boss.
Frank Zappa
#54. And, you know, my dad would show me some things sometimes, but the best things that I got to do were to actually see really good players play up close. That gives you an idea of fingering and technique and what not.
Dweezil Zappa
#55. We will have close to 3 months of rehearsals to learn about 30 songs. Frank usually rehearsed a band for at least 3 months. If it took him that long to be comfortable we probably would need double the amount, but It's just not financially possible to do so.
Dweezil Zappa
#56. Frank's bands could play the hardest stuff and make it seem like no big deal.
Dweezil Zappa
#57. Tighten my headband for an extra rush.
Frank Zappa
#58. Cocaine decisions that you make today, will mean nothing later on when you get nose decay.
Frank Zappa
#59. Nobody looks good bent over. Especially to pick up a check.
Frank Zappa
#60. The Very Big Stupid is a thing which breeds by eating The Future. Have you seen it? It sometimes disguises itself as a good-looking quarterly bottom line, derived by closing the R&D department.
Frank Zappa
#61. I proceeded to take that mitten full of the deadly yellow snow crystals and rub it all into his beady little eyes with a vigorous circular motion.
Frank Zappa
#62. Reality is what it is, not what you want it to be.
Frank Zappa
#63. The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has a medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball ... I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon.
Frank Zappa
#64. I picked books by their covers - the worse the cover, the more I wanted to read it.
Ahmet Zappa
#65. I'm totally convinced I can write the perfect pop song.
Moon Unit Zappa
#66. I've got a new relationship and I'm trapped in this old life.
Moon Unit Zappa
#67. They were wearing smelly blankets, they looked like Donovan fans.
Frank Zappa
#68. Her head is full of bubbles, her nose is petite, she looks like she never gets nothing to eat.
Frank Zappa
#69. Anybody who wants religion is welcome to it, as far as I'm concerned
I support your right to enjoy it. However, I would appreciate it if you exhibited more respect for the rights of those people who do not wish to share your dogma, rapture, or necrodestination.
Frank Zappa
#70. I had this whole ritual with my mother making the bed with me inside it so I would be invisible.
Ahmet Zappa
#71. Republican is fine, if your a millionaire. Democrats is fair, if all you own is what you wear. Neither of them's really right, cause neither of them care.
Frank Zappa
#72. The last election just laid the foundation of the next 500 years of Dark Ages.
Frank Zappa
#73. Tosses her head and flips her hair, she got a whole bunch of nothing in there.
Frank Zappa
#74. Environmental laws were not passed to protect our air and water, they were passed to get votes.
Frank Zappa
#75. Books Are Good For Lots Of Uses, Not For Dropping In The Toilet.
Frank Zappa
#76. There is no hell. There is only France.
Frank Zappa
#77. I want a horny little Jewish princess.
Frank Zappa
#78. Just because something has tubes doesn't mean it's the best. I mean, tubes are obviously good, but the circuit of this thing is designed well and it sounds good.
Dweezil Zappa
#79. For the record, folks; I never took a shit on stage and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.
Frank Zappa
#80. The universe consists of 5% protons, 5% neutrons, 5% electrons and 85% morons.
Frank Zappa
#81. Let's not be too tough on our own ignorance. It's the thing that makes
America great. If America weren't incomparably ignorant, how could we
have tolerated the last eight years?
Frank Zappa
#82. The Silvertop and the Goldtop both had subtlety where it was needed but lots of definition as well. I liked the different voicings of the distortion/fuzz elements.
Dweezil Zappa
#83. Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.
Frank Zappa
#84. I'll take a drive to Beverly Hills
Just before dawn
An' knock the little jockeys
Off the rich people's lawn
An' before they get up
I'll be gone, I'll be gone
Before they get up
I'll be knocking the jockeys off the lawn
Frank Zappa
#85. Hey ugly folks, go get some cyanide and die.
Frank Zappa
#86. The NRA, with the fingers on the triggers when they kneel and pray.
Frank Zappa
#87. Modern music is people who can't think signing artists who can't write songs to make records for people who can't hear.
Frank Zappa
#89. Stuff up the cracks, turn on the gas, I'm gonna take my life.
Frank Zappa
#90. In every language, the first word after "Mama!" that every kid learns to say is "Mine!" A system that doesn't allow ownership, that doesn't allow you to say "Mine!" when you grow up, has
Frank Zappa
#91. Scientology , how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion ?
Frank Zappa
#93. Certainly Apple has improved enormously. At the beginning, the sampling rate was an issue for me, but a bigger argument was over digital rights, which I had.
Gail Zappa
#94. Kid's heads are filled with so many nonfacts that when they get out of school they're totally unprepared to do anything. They can't read, they can't write, they can't think. Talk about child abuse. The U.S. school system as a whole qualifies.
Frank Zappa
#95. This has to be the disease for you
Now scientists call this disease
Bromidrosis
But us regular folks
Who might wear tennis shoes
Or an occasional python boot
Know this exquisite little inconvenience
By the name of:
Stink Foot
Frank Zappa
#96. A true Zen saying: "Nothing is what I want.
Frank Zappa
#97. My father would often work all night and sleep during the day, so for us, dinner might be pancakes, and breakfast might be beef stroganoff.
Ahmet Zappa
#99. A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole.
Frank Zappa
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