Frank Zappa was slumped in the back seat of a Cadillac gliding in darkness over a Kansas City freeway.

He leaned silently against a window, sleepily watching the sweep of headlights and neon signs. Coca-Cola, Shell Oil, Holiday Inn. . . .

As the founder and leader of a rock group called the Mothers of Invention, Zappa is the musician who has bestowed on the world such songs as “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask,” “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” and “Willie the Pimp.” (read more)

WHEN YOU buy a cassette of “Video From Hell,” a recent product of Frank Zappa’s imagination, funny bone and bile, a gift comes with it: a pair of cardboard “No-D” glasses that you assemble by pushing little tabs through little slots. The instructions for this, and for attaching an ample cardboard nose modeled on Zappa’s own, are set forth in elaborate, deadpan detail.

One note at the bottom of the instruction sheet, though, has nothing to do with No-D and everything to do with Zappa’s latest overmastering obsession:

“Register to vote and read the Constitution before it’s void where prohibited by law.” (read more)