Rock and Roll has had many musicians who were deeply passionate about their art and two of them were Eric Clapton and Frank Zappa. Although they were not very similar musically, both usually prioritized their artistic vision over what might have been more commercially successful or what fans would have preferred.
Frank sadly passed away at the age of 52 in 1993, but the two had the chance to meet decades earlier and were well aware of each other’s work. Eric Clapton has spoken about Zappa on several occasions, sharing his opinion not only on his music but also on his time with the Mothers of Invention.
What is Eric Clapton’s opinion on Frank Zappa
Eric Clapton is a big fan of Frank Zappa and his working with Mothers of Invention, saying that to be able to understand their music you need to “to have an understanding of Jazz, humor and a taste for Rock and Roll”. He had the chance to meet Frank and thought he was quite weird and sarcastic.
“Yeah (I did hang around with Frank Zappa). He was weird, he was a hustler. We went to New York with Cream and I knew him. He was one of the (people that) I had (in a) kind of wish list (to meet in) New York. I had to get Hoffman’s which sold or Kauffman’s, downtown, which sold cowboy gear, fringe jacket, leather boots, cowboy boots. And I had to get to see The Mothers of Invention. I went to see them and there was a couple of hookers and a one-legged sailor, I think, in the audience.”
“They (the band) just ran right and he (Zappa) invited me back to his house. He had a kind of two-track tape recorder and he said: ‘Play me some licks’. He recorded me playing and said ‘Play me some of your Blues licks’. I went along with it, because I thought ‘Well, you know, I’ll show it to you. I’ll show you what I can do’. He recorded and I’ve never been in a situation like that… Well, one other time with Jimmy Page where we did. They were very, very similar, actually, when you come down to it, the way they behave.”
He continued:
“Then he got me and my girlfriend at the time to pretend that I was Eric Burdon on acid for the opening track of one of their albums, the beginning of one of their albums. Then the last time I saw him, he invited me to come and play on a gig in Los Angeles. Just before I was waiting to come along, I came on and I started. I had just found the rhythm and he played a solo that went on for like 10 minutes (laughs).”
“Then when I started playing he gave it to me. He turned around and faced the orchestra and started making time signature gestures like 5/4, 6/8. I thought ‘What the f*ck?’ Weird is putting it mildly (laughs). He put me through the wringer and I should have known better. (With some people) it’s very difficult to know where the sarcasm is. I think he was a sarcastic guy, he was a cynic, you know. I was invited to go to his house in Los Angeles to a party and when I got there he was at the front door with a Jack and he said ‘Come on, where’s the guitar?'”
He continued:
“So (I said) ‘Wait a minute’. I don’t know, I mean, I loved the band as much as the compositions in him, they were great. You know, it was a great band. I think (to hear them) you have to have an understanding of Jazz, humor and a taste for Rock and Roll, to be able to get it,” Eric Clapton said in an interview with Real Music Observer in 2023 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage)
In a conversation with Guitar World in 2008, Clapton had told that story. He said had some really fun times with Frank and that on that show he played with him. “They went through about 10 different time signatures and f*cked me up completely! I couldn’t make head or tail of it.” Clapton appeared on their 1968 album “We’re Only in It for the Money”, which has an alternative cover that parodies The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, released the previous year.
Frank Zappa was a big fan of Eric Clapton and Cream
Frank Zappa also deeply respected Eric Clapton as a musician and was a fan, having praised him already in the late 60s, after the two had met. In an interview with WCBN in 1967, he was asked: “If you had to pick a group as far as, if there’s any exciting trend, who would you choose?”
His answer was: “Eric Clapton! You ever talked to him?” he asks the interviewer. “He is a dynamite, I have a lot of respect for him as a musician. But I was never surprised until I sat down and talked with the cat. Because he is really, he’s really into something. He’s not exactly (in a Blues band – Cream), he’s not all Blues, if you listen to what they’re doing.”
“He’s made an attempt to take his Blues background and mold it into something more original. When you hear them in person, a lot of their improvisation will start off with a theme based upon. Like they’ll start with a song ‘Spoonful’ by Howlin’ Wolf and they’ll sing the words to that. But after that’s over they just go completely berserk and they’re into something else,” he said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Frank Zappa was active in music from 1955, when he was only 15 years old, until his death in 1993 at the age of 52. He is remembered as one of the most inventive and versatile songwriters of all time. He was a self-taught composer and performer. Two years after he passed away following a long battle with prostate cancer, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his career, he released 62 studio albums, and 72 official releases have been issued since his death.