38 Frank Zappa Quotes On Life, Music And Politics

Frank Vincent Zappa was an innovative rock guitarist, film-maker, composer, and satirist of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.

During 3o years of his career span, he composed more than sixty albums as a solo artist under his band name 'The Mothers Of Invention.' Zappa is considered one of the most significant electric guitar soloists and stylistically diverse rock musicians.

Frank Zappa composed orchestral, rock, jazz, pop, jazz fusion, musique concrete work. His debut album 'Freak Out!' was released in 1966. 'Apostrophe (’)' was the most successful solo album in the US, which helped him top Billboard pop album charts. He was extremely popular for his singing and he sang many well-known songs 'Inca Roads', 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow', 'Dancin’ Fool', 'Dinah Moe Hum', 'Willie The Pimp', 'Dumb All Over' and more... Read on for Frank Zappa quotes.

If you like to read similar quotes about music, you can check our latest articles Rock quotes and Dave Grohl quotes.
 

Frank Zappa was an expert in operating a rock or post-rock medium. He was one of the greatest musicians of his era. "Watch out where the huskies go, And don't you eat that yellow snow" is one of the famous lyrics from his album 'Apostrophe (’)'. Following is a collection of Frank Zappa quotes that every music lover likes.

1."No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to."

-Frank Zappa.

2."Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence."

-Frank Zappa.

3."The computer can’t tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what’s missing is the eyebrows."

-Frank Zappa.

4."Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read."

-Frank Zappa.

5."Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."

-Frank Zappa.

6."There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another."

-Frank Zappa.

7."The universe consists of 5% protons, 5% neutrons, 5% electrons and 85% morons."

-Frank Zappa.

8."The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse."

-Frank Zappa.

9."A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open."

-Frank Zappa.

10."Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it."

-Frank Zappa.

11."I searched for years I found no love. I'm sure that love will never be a product of plasticity."

-Frank Zappa.

12."There are only two things to remember. Number one…Don’t Stop, and number two…Keep Going!"

-Frank Zappa.

13."If you want an education, go to the library."

-Frank Zappa.

14."It gets harder the more you know. Because the more you find out the uglier everything seems."

-Frank Zappa.

15."You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

-Frank Zappa.

Zappa got influenced by classical modernism, Aoo-wop, and Avant-garde classical. With his group rock and roll band, he created jazz and complicated modern serious music. Here is the list of Frank Zappa quotes about music.

16."Music is the only religion that delivers the goods."

-Frank Zappa.

17."Music is always a commentary on society."

-Frank Zappa.

18."Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."

-Frank Zappa.

19."All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

-Frank Zappa.

20."Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST."

-Frank Zappa.

21."The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has a medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball...I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon."

-Frank Zappa.

22."You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream."

-Frank Zappa.

Zappa considered himself as a 'practical conservative' on the view of politics. He wished for a lesser interfering government and low taxes. Zappa's music was often politically charged. Here a list of some Frank Zappa quotes on government.

23."Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex."

-Frank Zappa.

24."Politics is the entertainment branch of industry."

-Frank Zappa.

25."There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."

-Frank Zappa.

26."I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird."

-Frank Zappa.

27."A wise man once said, never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment."

-Frank Zappa.

28."The manner in which Americans 'consume' music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movie --it's consumed that way without any regard for how and why it's made."

-Frank Zappa.

29."It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

-Frank Zappa.

30."One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds."

-Frank Zappa.

31."It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range effects of our national stupidity"

-Frank Zappa.

32."The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced."

-Frank Zappa.

33."Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff."

-Frank Zappa.

34."Just be glad you don't live in one of those little countries where at this very moment, music is severely restricted, or as it is in Iran, totally illegal."

-Frank Zappa.

35."Power will be maintained by the groovy guy or gal who gets the most media coverage for his sleaze. Naturally, his friends in various businesses will do okay, too."

-Frank Zappa.

36."The first thing you have to do if you want to raise nice kids, is you have to talk to them like they are people instead of talking to them like they're property."

-'The Howard Stern Show' (1987).

37."The richest people in the world aren’t particularly smart or happy. And the happiest people in the world aren’t particularly smart or rich.…"

-'A Conversation With Frank Zappa', By Dave Rothman, Oui, April 1979.

38."Most people don’t think I’m rational. They’re too busy featuring their hurt. They find it irrational not to feature your hurt. That’s how fucked up they are."

-'A Conversation With Frank Zappa', By Dave Rothman, Oui, April 1979.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Frank Zappa quotes then why not take a look at singing quotes, or Jimi Hendrix quotes.