Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970 by Doyle Greene

Author:Doyle Greene [Greene, Doyle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2016-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

Takin’ Care of Business: Zappa and Bizarre Productions

Questions of parody vs. pastiche and the ambiguities of satire are both central in criticism of Zappa’s work. However, before providing a final assessment of Zappa’s musical-political project, it is necessary to consider his role as a record executive as well as a composer and musician. In 1967, MGM/Verve missed the deadline to exercise their contract option with the Mothers of Invention. With the relationship between Zappa and Verve deteriorating amid the numerous creative control disputes that reached a head over Money, Zappa and his business manager Herb Cohen used the contract situation to form Bizarre Productions, a company that included Bizarre Records, Straight Records, Third Story Music, and NT&B (Nifty, Bitchin’ & Tough). This arrangement allowed Zappa to release avant-rock albums (through Bizarre), more commercial albums by other artists (through Straight), maintain control of all publishing rights (through Third Story), and do the cover art and advertising (through NT&B; one NT&B strategy was full page adverts in Marvel Comics, in which readers—especially tweens and teens—could order Mothers albums by direct mail). Unlike the Beatles and Apple Corps’ business plan—or complete lack thereof—as a Western communism that would unconditionally bankroll numerous artistic projects, Bizarre Productions was expressly designed to guarantee Zappa creative and, as important, financial control over all aspects of his and other performer’s recordings with Zappa taking the bulk of the money generated by Bizarre Productions.

Zappa released two Mothers of Invention albums through Bizarre/Verve on condition it would definitively end his relationship with the label. One was the aforementioned Ruben & the Jets and here one suspects Ruben’s concept of a doo-wop parody album—up to recycling four songs from Freak Out!—was motivated by Zappa’s need to fulfill contractual obligations and provide throwaway music to a record label he was in the process of leaving on less than amicable terms. Not unrelated, the other was Mothermania, a compilation of selected tracks from the first three Mothers’ albums personally edited and remixed by Zappa. After moving to Warner Bros., other than Zappa and/or Mothers recordings the only albums released on Bizarre were two double albums: a posthumous Lenny Bruce release (The Berkeley Concert, 1969; recorded 1965) and a Zappa-produced collection of songs, mostly a cappella, by schizophrenic street performer Wild Man Fischer (An Evening with Wild Man Fischer, 1968).14 Barry Miles recounted, “The distribution deal meant that Warners had to pay Zappa each time he delivered some product, but some people at Warners though he was abusing the terms of the agreement by coming up with any old thing to release…. [Fischer’s album] was one of the worst-selling albums Warners ever had.”15 The album cover, a photo of a disheveled Fischer staring at the camera with a crazed leer standing next to an elderly woman in a rundown apartment room, probably did not boost sales. While Zappa was accused of exploiting the mentally ill Fischer in a manner that was even worse than the routine exploitation of musicians by record companies, David Wragg

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