Frank Zappa, it turns out, was a huge fan of the Navy Band.
As we've noted in this space before, the Navy Band has a long history of having a blast and entertaining audiences, and on April 1, 1980, that audience was none other than one of the greatest rock stars of the 1970sall time.
The producers of the forthcoming documentary "Who the F*@% Is Frank Zappa," (including Alex Winter of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" fame) have been given unprecedented access to Zappa's personal vault by the Zappa family, which resulted in this gem of a video.
The story goes that the Navy Band surprised the enigmatic rocker at the San Francisco airport playing his hit song, "Joe's Garage," which clearly made his day. Grinning from ear to ear, Zappa comes over and starts to direct the band.
It's a priceless moment that really impressed Winter, who is directing the film.
"I've been looking at a lot of previously unknown or little-seen archival of Frank, and this one was particularly powerful to me for two reasons," Winter, told Rolling Stone. "The first is that Frank was so rarely himself in public. He was a master showman, performer, orator, wit, political pundit, etc. In this clip, Frank is genuinely and profoundly moved by the band's performance of his music, and so we get to see him unprepared and just being himself.
"The other reason I love this piece is to watch it from the other side: the joy, concern, nervousness and reverence of these musicians, doing a fantastic job of playing a difficult piece for the notoriously discerning composer. At the end of the day, it's all about the power of music. And Frank's wonderful music in particular."
Check out the video below:
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
