Frank Zappa. The bicycle before it became a political punching bag

SAN FRANCISCO – THANKSGIVING DAY 2024

Lee Heidhues 11.28.2024

The bicycle is now the motorists favorite political punching bag.

There was a time when the bicycle in America was a curiosity piece and the favorite delivery vehicle for another American icon, the morning newspaper.

Back in 1963 Frank Zappa, soon thereafter to become famous with his group The Mothers of Invention, appeared on The Steve Allen Show. His instruments of choice were a pair of bicycles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa#

Frank Zappa earned enough money to allow him in 1963 to stage a concert of his orchestral music and to broadcast and record it.^[11]: 74 In March of that same year Zappa appeared on Steve Allen‘s syndicated late night show playing a bicycle as a musical instrument^{[26][27]: 35–36}— using drum sticks and a bow borrowed from the band’s bass player he proceeded to pluck, bang, and bow the spokes of the bike, producing strange, comical sounds from his newfound instrument. – Excerpted from WIkipedia

A couple of years later Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention became musical icons. Their perhaps most famous album was the 1966 Freak Out! Which included the overtly political song “Trouble Everyday.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freak_Out! Composed after the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles.