In March 1968, Frank Zappa released an album called We’re Only in it for the Money. Presumably, then, Zappa — who died a little over a quarter of a century ago — would be delighted to discover that he begins his latest tour next month, with a series of shows in the US followed by a visit to the UK in May, including a show at the Palladium in London.
Zappa will be appearing in holographic form, using footage filmed in a Los Angeles rehearsal space in 1974, his disembodied voice backed by a live band. The show is to be made up of ‘footage that no one has ever seen, as it has been locked in the vaults since the early 70s,’ says Jeff Pezzuti of Eyellusion, the company that produced the hologram.
‘As a futurist, and hologram enthusiast, Frank fearlessly broke through boundary after boundary as an artist, and in honouring his indomitable spirit we’re about to do it again, 25 years after his passing,’ said Zappa’s son Ahmet.
Well, he would, wouldn’t he? But bear in mind that in 2016 another Zappa offspring, Dweezil, told Rolling Stone that the Zappa Family Trust — of which Ahmet is a trustee — is ‘beyond broke’, and it’s hard not to suspect, perhaps, that that 51-year-old album’s title was on the nose.
The music business has, of course, never been anything but fairly tawdry. It’s always been every bit as much about the business as the music. Ever since Elvis Presley’s death in August 1977, when seven singles charted simultaneously, it has been recognised that death is one of the shrewdest career moves an artist could make. But at that point the gain was sporadic: a few weeks of massively boosted sales, followed by regular reissues of greatest hits albums.
Now, though, we’ve entered an age when the combination of mortality, declining record sales and technology has led to the opening up of new frontiers in the exploitation of artists’ catalogues and legacies.
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