Frank Zappa 1969-1973: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers

As a longtime Zappa fan, I wasn't sure what to expect. There are some fairly good interviews with former band members along with maybe two interviews of Zappa himself... oh, and about 2hrs worth of totally unrelated stock footage - much of it used more than once, almost all of it using very annoying filters to make all that unrelated footage seem more... authentic? Doesn't. I very nearly didn't make it to the end, but I suffered through and finished it. Wish I hadn't. It's about an hour's worth of good content... interspersed with twice as much time spent showing pointless visuals that have absolutely nothing to do with Zappa. Nothing! Esther Williams type swimming dance routines? Hollywood type dance routines, only they're dancing to something other than what we're hearing? Why? Really a huge waste of time. Disappointing.

Everything about this rings true. Everything negative that is said and everything good that is said makes perfect sense. And it's brought together well by some comments at the end. I was about 14 when I first heard Zappa and it's one of those moments where you think you're hearing the most amazing thing you're ever going to hear. Over the years it's been great to play Zappa for people and have them be amazed find out that is Zappa. This movie takes a look at a short period of time in his career that was rather chaotic and interesting and productive. I always support that a musician should be a musician and play the music they want to play. It's very sad when musicians get stuck playing whatever they first played when they got popular. Peter Frampton for example made a lot of money expanding on his early career but that made it hard for him to be the great blues musician that he is. Many cases. I always listen to the misogynistic period and think Zappa was Zappa. But that doesn't define him at all. This movie does exactly what it should do and covers this period of time with so many great moments and so many great interviews.