1971 - The Worst Year Of Frank Zappa's Life

1971 was a very strange year in the life of Frank Vincent Zappa (1940-1993) that in many ways he would struggle to try and forget.

The year began with him and his band The Mothers Of Invention flying over to England to make the movie “200 Motels.” It was an illfated project which saw bassist Jeff Simmons quit the band days before shooting began, unhappy with how he was being asked to portray himself in the movie. To make matters worse, Simmons had the biggest part in the film. Quick recasting brought in non bass player Martin Lickert to replace him.

The film was being shot at Pinewood Studios and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were hired to play Zappa's orchestral score on screen. A Union agreement dictated that to cut costs of rehearsals, Zappa, the band and the orchestra would have to perform a live concert before shooting began. Such a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London had been arranged but on the day of the show, the band arrived at the venue to find themselves locked out and refused entry. One of the halls' members of staff Marion Herrod had looked at the libretto of the show that was to be performed and took objection to it's sexual content. She then had the show banned on grounds of obscenity. This incident had long term ramifications for Zappa leading to a court case in 1975 over the costs of the show which Zappa ultimately lost.

Due to budget constraints imposed by the movie company United Artists – $679,000 was assigned – Zappa and director Tony Palmer had just 7 days in which to shoot the entire movie. To cut costs and to enable various special effects, “200 Motels” was shot live on videotape as opposed to film. The idea was to then edit the tapes which would then be converted to celluloid for cinematic release. Zappa's script was extremely ambitious, but the production was plagued by so many technical and personnel problems that in the event just over half of the material was filmed. This meant having to rewrite the movie in the video editing suite in order to make some sense out of it. It was during this process that Zappa and Tony Palmer clashed with each other. Palmer at one point demanded his name be removed from the credits and when the movie was released later that year, he wrote damning reviews in British newspapers calling it the “worst” movie ever made.

Zappa and the band shaken, but undeterred by the experience returned to America to find a new bassist and get back to work on new material. The lead singers of the band, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman suggested Jim Pons, bassist in their previous band The Turtles – who had enjoyed a few hits in the late 1960's – to fill the vacant spot. For Pons it would prove to be a challenge learning so much material. Zappa's music was not standard pop and rock music. It was technically difficult to play. Zappa meanwhile unveiled a new composition entitled “Billy The Mountain” - it was a half hour comedy rock operetta with a full storyline and a couple of dozen different musical themes. It would take the band quite some time to learn it but by May 1971, they were ready to perform it and premiered at some new concert dates.

In June 1971, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention performed a two night stint at The Fillmore East in New York which was closing down shortly after. Zappa hired a 16 track mobile recording unit to record the shows for a live album. One show climaxed with Zappa bringing on two very special guests for an extended improvised jam – John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This was an exciting moment for all concerned and after the show, Lennon and Zappa made an agreement between them about the recording. Lennon would be given a copy of the multitrack tape so he could use it on a future album, whilst Zappa also planned to release his own version of the event.

The following year, Lennon released a heavily remixed version of the performance on his “Sometime In New York City” album but incurred Zappa's wrath by failing to give him songwriting credits. Zappa also objected to the way the tapes had been remixed by notorious producer Phil Spector who mixed out many elements giving a false impression of the show. It wouldn't be until 1992 when Zappa released a double CD devoted to live recordings from 1971 entitled “Playground Psychotics” that one could finally hear Zappas' mix of the show which revealed how badly Spector had mixed the tapes. In a moment of humour during the show, was a strange jam called “Scumbag” and at one point, Volman and Kaylan sang “Throw Yoko in a Scumbag” - video footage reveals at the point, they shoved a cloth bag over Yoko. All of that was mixed out by Phil Spector suggesting the Lennons thought it was an insult to Yoko.

Shortly after the shows, Zappa edited together a double album entitled “The Mothers – Fillmore East June 1971” but record company pressure forced him to edit it down to a single album. Though popular, it remains one of his most controversial albums due to heavy sexual content in the lyrics and dialogue.

The band played some more concerts that Summer during which a show recorded at the Pauley Pavillion in Los Angeles was recorded. A portion of that was released the following year as “Just Another Band From LA” which finally gave a release to “Billy The Mountain.”

Autumn 1971 saw final preparations in place for the release of the “200 Motels” movie and double soundtrack album. Nobody was really happy with the end result and upon it's release it baffled fans and critics alike who couldn't make head nor tail of it. It was a seemingly random mess with a plot that was unclear.

Meanwhile the band were once more busy in rehearsal preparing for a European tour in November and December. Zappa was to use the tour to help promote the movie and he hatched a plan to have all his shows in England recorded professionally with the intention of creating yet another live album. Unfortunately, the tour was to be the biggest disaster of Zappa's entire career.

The tour began well in Sweden, then moved to Germany and Holland. The band were in great form and the shows extremely successful. Then, on 4^th December, they arrived in Montreux, Switzerland for a concert at the Montreux Casino. It was to be the final concert of the year in that venue. The Casino promoter Claude Nobs had agreed to hire the venue out to British rock band Deep Purple who intended to record a brand new album in there. Various members of Purple attended Zappa's show. Somebody in the audience was making a sneaky stereo tape recording of the event which reveals it was a great show with the band playing better than ever. Kaylan and Volman's comedy routines were going down a treat with the audience.

Frank then signalled the band to start playing one of his major compositions “King Kong” - a staple of his live show since late 1967, “King Kong” was a lengthy jazzy instrumental designed to showcase the talents of the band. Half hour renditions were not uncommon. The band played the opening theme and keyboardist Don Preston began to play a synthesiser solo. At that very moment, some idiot in the audience let off a rocket firework which hit the ceiling. The ceiling was covered in cloths and drapes and instantly caught alight. Upon seeing the flames, Mark Volman quipped “FIRE! Arthur Brown in person!” a comical reference to Brown's 1968 hit “Fire!” which he would perform wearing a metal helmet on fire. Quickly realising this was a serious danger, Frank took to the microphone and asked the audience to leave the building quietly and calmly as possible. The fire spread alarmingly quickly and chaos broke out as the audience set about escaping from the building. A roadie of the band threw an amplifier through a large window to enable members to escape. The band meanwhile ran for it using an underground tunnel backstage. Remarkably, nobody was injured and the building evacuated in record time. Everybody – including the band – stood outside stunned as they watched the fire spread violently out of control into a full fledged inferno.

Within an hour, there was not much left of the building. Everybody returned to their hotels shaken by the incident. The following morning, Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan sat at his window and observed smoke from the fire lingering over Lake Geneva and put pen to paper, writing a song called “Smoke On The Water.” Deep Purple now had a problem on their hands since the venue they had hired to record an album no longer existed and they had a mobile recording truck ready for the task. Promoter Claude Nobs arranged for them to take residence in the local Grand Hotel which was to be vacant for the next couple of months so the band ended up making do and setting up their equipment in there. They emerged with a new album “Machine Head” which for many, is regarded as the bands' best album.

Whilst Deep Purple were able to emerge triumphantly from the fire disaster, Frank Zappa was not so lucky. In the aftermath of the fire, he called an emergency meeting with the band to decide what to do next. There was one major problem – they had lost all their equipment in the fire. This was problematical because some of that gear, notably Don Preston's keyboards were specially customised and could never be replaced. The band had a few concerts lined up in France followed by a double booking in London at the Rainbow Theatre. The band were to perform 4 shows across 2 nights and Zappa had booked expensive recording equipment to record the entire British tour. Tired and frustrated by all that had gone on, Zappa wanted to go home to America and cut his losses. He asked the band to vote on what to do – either go home now or fly to London, scrounge new equipment and instruments and go ahead with the British leg of the tour. Cancelling the tour would had cost them a lot of money so the band decided to go to London and press on.

The opening night at the Rainbow was on 10^th December. They shopped and asked around London frantically to assemble a new PA system and instruments in time to honour the shows. On the afternoon of the 10^th, the band set up in the Rainbow Theatre to get ready for the first show. It was a technical nightmare. They couldn't configure the new system correctly since it was an alien set up. The biggest problem was feedback screeching and wailing away.

The band were still trying to resolve these issues when the audience began to enter for the first of the two shows that night. Two tapes began rolling capturing the event – the 8 track professional recording unit that Zappa had hired and a small mono cassette recorder sneaked in by a member of the audience. Frank was to use sections of this night's recording many years later across three separate albums, notably “Playground Psychotics” which featured a 25 minute chunk of the show, albeit heavily edited. The audience recording though imperfect with sections chopped out to try and conserve tape enables us to hear the true running order of the show.

That tape clearly reveals the first half of the show was plagued by feedback problems. Despite these annoyances, the band soldiered on and concentrated on putting on a good show. Frank spoke with the audience trying to explain the problems and dramas they'd had. He revealed that everything had been destroyed in the fire except one solitary cowbell from drummer Aynsley Dunbar's drum kit. The feedback issues managed to be resolved for the second half of the show and the band gave a fiery inspired performance.

It came to the final number - “King Kong.” Mindful of what had happened days earlier, Frank told the audience he was unsure whether to play it or not given that was the number they played as the fire began, feeling it was an omen. Poor Frank. Little could he had known. Howard Kaylan immediately before they began playing the song quipped “Remember what happened last time we played this?” to which Frank muttered “I know...” and into the number they charged as if their lives depended on it.

This time, it all went to plan and they were able to complete the number. Frank's own guitar solo was an interesting moody sombre one which he used years later on a live compilation album. Sadly, it was to be his last solo of 1971. The band left the stage then returned for an encore. On earlier dates in the tour they had played a lively cover of The Beatles' “I Want To Hold Your Hand” so they chose to perform this. Unfortunately, Zappa's hired recording equipment had run out of tape and it was decided not to record the encore since they wanted to save expensive tape for the following shows. Worse still, the guy in the audience who was recording the show had run out of tape just as Frank was ending his solo in “King Kong” so what was about to happen was never recorded.

So, there they were performing “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Backstage security wandered off for a smoke. Seemingly out of nowhere, a member of the audience Trevor Howells, clambered onto the stage unknown to Zappa and all Frank could remember next was slowly coming round in hospital in great agony. Howells in full view of the audience crept up behind Frank and pushed him off the stage. Frank fell ten to fifteen feet below landing on solid concrete, smashing his neck badly and breaking his leg. Worse still, because his guitar was plugged into an amplifier, it yanked the amp and sent that crashing on top of him.

The band grinded to a halt stunned by what had just happened and the roadies ran onstage to seize Howells. Others began rushing to the orchestra pit where Frank lay unconscious bleeding severely. The theatre had to be evacuated and in the mayhem, it was feared that Frank was dead. Nobody knew quite what was happening. Worse still, there was a large audience queued up outside waiting to go indoors for the second show. Word went around and there was panic and hysteria as rumours of Frank's demise spread.

Frank was rushed to hospital. He slowly came around but because he had a head wound was unable to be given anaesthetic so passed out once more. His neck had been almost broken, his leg smashed to pieces and he had several broken ribs. Trevor Howells was arrested then released on bail forcing the use of a security guard in the hospital since there was no guessing how deranged Howells was. Howells' reason for the assault was twofold. He would claim that Zappa had been “making eyes” at his girlfriend during the show so reacted in a jealous rage. Frank later disputed that saying he couldn't even see the audience anyway because of stage lights shining in his eyes. Howells also claimed that the band had failed to provide “value for money” so took matters into his own hands to let them know how he felt.

Howells was imprisoned for a short time for the assault. Frank though had a long slow recovery ahead and the injuries were to plague him for the rest of his life. The hospital failed to set his leg properly in plaster so it failed to heal properly, leaving him with one leg slightly shorter than the other which was to result in chronic back pain. The neck injury had crushed his larynx resulting in deepening his voice. Frank later mused it was “nice” to have a lower voice but would had preferred another way of acquiring it.

The tour inevitably cancelled, the band had little option but to fly back to America and wait for Frank to recover. The recovery was to take almost a year, and they needed to work, so the band split up with members going off to new projects and never reformed. When Frank was released from hospital he was bound to a wheelchair and flew back home where he continued his recovery, using the time to get back to composing and even overseeing the recording of a couple of brand new instrumental albums. But the whole nasty incident took it's toll coming on top of the “200 Motels” fiasco, the John Lennon row, and the Montreux fire leaving Frank highly embittered rarely able to trust anybody ever again.

The final insult was the 1975 court case in the Old Bailey over the expenses issue surrounding the cancelled Royal Albert Hall concert. The judges ruled that though it wasn't Zappa's fault, he still had to pay all costs anyway. That left Frank with a special hatred for Britain and it's people for the rest of his life.

Frank sadly died of Prostate cancer in December 1993. His last years were plagued by illness. His life since 1971 had had various farcical dramas, but nothing could top 1971 for sheer disaster and misery.