Frank Zappa Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert A. Rosenstone

Critical Essay by Robert A. Rosenstone

The most successful song depicting the situation of the Negro was "Trouble Coming Everyday," written by Frank Zappa during the Watts uprising in 1965. Though the song does not go so far as to approve of rioting, it paints a brutal picture of exploitation by merchants, bad schooling, miserable housing, and police brutality—all of which affect ghetto-dwellers. Its most significant lines are Zappa's cry, "You know something people, I ain't black, but there's a whole lots of times I wish I could say I'm not white." No song writer showed more empathy with the black struggle for liberation than that. (p. 135)

The image [of inauthenticity, of plasticity,] recurs most frequently in the works of the Mothers of Invention. In one song ["Uncle Bernie's Farm"], they depict the country as being run by a plastic Congress and President. Then, in "Plastic People," they start with complaints about a girl-friend who...
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