Did You Know...

In fact, Frank Zappa was one of rock and roll's -- one of America's -- most underrated composers. Many people who enjoyed his iconoclastic lyrics, offbeat humor, political sophistication, and total originality are nevertheless often unaware of the fact that Zappa's great love was classical music. He wrote it all his adult life, recorded with symphony orchestras, and won numerous festival awards.

Nothing about Frank Zappa was ordinary. Delighting in experimentation, he constantly challenged established musical boundaries and refused to be pigeonholed. This was consistent with his passionate contempt for puritanical censorship and moral hypocrisy of any kind. Zappa tirelessly crusaded against what he called "cretin stupidity" and led his band, the celebrated Mothers of Invention, to unprecedented heights of avant garde artistry.

At the same time, this brilliant, wild, and highly unusual artist vigorously championed the cause of individual liberty in the face of oppressive governments -- so much so that he was recognized by anti-communist revolutionaries in Czechoslovakia as a "cultural ambassador" -- a distinction loudly derided by U. S. Senate proponents of censorship, with whom Zappa had long done battle.