Zappa

It’s been said on this blog before, but the past few years have shaped up to be something of a minor Renaissance for musician biopics. Besides Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody and a cavalcade of lesser-knowns, we now have one for the inimitable Frank Zappa by way of Magnolia Pictures, with Alex Winter (yes, that Alex Winter, of Bill & Ted fame) directing.

Known for defying generic conventions, careening from pop, to rock, to jazz, to avant-garde classical—yet sounding very Zappa throughout it all—the trailer doesn’t necessarily attempt to musically summarize his activity, devoting the first thirty seconds instead to a clip from “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”—including the classic lyric at 0:31, “Watch out where the huskies go / And don’t you eat that yellow snow.”

That being said, just seconds prior we see him conducting an orchestra. The shot is even more meaningful than perhaps it first appears: Zappa’s youngest son, Ahmet, explained to Billboard that his rock music “paid the bills so he could hire these orchestras”—this shot of him conducting was for his first classical record, The Yellow Shark, released November 1993; he would pass away just one month later, of prostate cancer. This wasn’t a late interest, either—he’s found in 1973 “scoring all the parts” for his music and taking a liking to Penderecki and Stravinsky. As much as Zappa is popularly conceived in the public conscious as a free-wheeling persona, he’s also a self-described conservative, as explored in the 2016 documentary Eat That Question—Frank Zappa in His Own Words.

Zappa’s unassuming nature and image is reflected in the trailer; later, “Bobby Brown Goes Down”—another of his best-known songs, from 1979’s Sheik Yerbouti—plays against footage of his US Senate hearing appearance in 1985. It’s one of many moments where one can hear Zappa’s elocution beyond his musical genius.

The most exciting element here is the complete access Winter has had to the archival footage in the Zappa family trust, and the trailer isn’t shy about promoting that fact either. In terms of music used, one could argue that the editors played it rather safe with a few of Zappa’s best-known songs. On the other hand, it also sort of serves as a ballast for the various other facets of Zappa’s life that the trailer promises the biopic will explore, such as Zappa’s various political leanings and activities and, again, his forays into the world of so-called serious/classical music (or whatever one might want to call it).

Zappa arrives November 27th.

— Curtis Perry