— Zappa the musician-performer:

The first instrument that Frank learned how to play was the drums at 12 years old, and he went on to be the drummer of several bands. This is actually the instrument that got him interested in one of his musical idols, Edgard Varèse, listening to the rare strong drums on his classical compositions. Zappa didn’t pick up the guitar until he was 18, when he bought one at an auction. His brother and a Mickey Baker book taught him some chords and how to play it.  He then got his first electric guitar at 21 and got progressively better at it. He was influenced by several guitarists such as: Johnny Guitar Watson, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) and Matt Murphy. Frank, however, never lost his love for percussion.

The Mothers of Invention

As a bandleader Frank was a control freak and saw the band as an extension of himself. Some of The Mothers of Invention band members such as Ray Collins and Jimmy Carl Black describe him as being extremely controlling, very disapproving of their drug use, and a tough bandleader to work with overall. His authoritarian style irritated many of them. Frank made everyone rehearse before a show, no exceptions. He was a perfectionist.

The band’s performances had a "conceptual continuity", an intentional control of thematic and structural elements flowing though all the live shows.  These performances were described many times are creative and bizarre, where Zappa was usually very outspoken. He always stayed true to himself during his presentations, even if the crowd wasn’t pleased (he had very little respect for his fans). His "conceptual continuity" did not only flow throughout his performances, it did so on every aspect of his art and music. Every album, every song, every cover, every character. His "concept album" Freak Out! inspired many musicians such as The Beatles, who published they album Sgt. Pepper as the very first rock 'concept album', but later admitted to had been very influenced by Zappa's album.

Freak Out! album cover

The shows were very theatrical and frequently included ritual activities with vegetables and the use of props such as dismembered dolls. They also integrated several comedic skits such as the ones performed at the Garrik Theater in their New York show “Pigs and Repugnant”, where they married people on stage and insulted the audience.

On stage, Zappa was the clown, frequently acting as a fool. He had a cynical humor through which he expressed his bitterness towards several subjects. He would bring a cartoon element to his performances.

On the musical side, the group tended to improvise a lot while on stage, always guided by Frank and his famous hand signals.

John Smothers

Franks Zappa was way ahead of his time in many aspects; one of them was the implementation of security. On 1971 he hired himself a bodyguard (John Smothers), after a fan made him fall ten feet off the stage, and he nearly died. Many assume that he realized what the danger of being in the public eye really meant, and what that was going to represent for famous rock musicians in the future, especially because fans would often get out of control in rock concerts. He decided to prevent incidents like these by assessing the right amount of security in all his concerts, including his bodyguard who stayed with him throughout the rest of his career.This represented an evolution of rock concerts security in the 70's.

As it turns out, a year after a fan assaulted Zappa, John Lennon, who did not implement that type of security security, was murdered by one obsessed fan.