Trivia

Before going into the music business, Frank Zappa was a greeting-card designer.

On December 4, 1993: Frank Zappa dies at the age of 52 Real Audio 167 K.

Frank Zappa died at his Los Angeles home, shortly before his 53rd birthday. Zappa was one of the most exotic, original and complex figures to have emerged from rock culture. Bandleader, guitar hero, composer, satirist, and political commentator, Zappa managed to avoid being easily categorized for over three decades. And uniquely among rock idols, the career of the man who put the sneer into rock evolved outside the mainstream of pop history. Hailed by some music critics as a genius, came to prominence in the early 1960s, leading his band, the Mothers of Invention, in a merry cacophony of what he called "sonic mutilations." With the band or as a solo performer he released about 50 albums. Zappa, who had battled prostate cancer for several years, remained active to the end, vowing not to let the disease conquer him. He said he didn't care how he was remembered after he died. "It's not important to even be remembered," he said ", "I mean, the people who worry about being remembered are guys like Reagan, Bush. . . . I don't care."