Frank Zappa

Imagine the dismay on Frank Zappa’s face when he concluded that not even the London Symphony Orchestra could help him realize his dreams of being a classical composer. With an entire philharmonic at his disposal, their three-day recording session in early 1983 was a complete mess. Members of the orchestra were skeptical of Zappa’s work, the sessions ran short on time, and the resulting albums, London Symphony Orchestra Vols. I & II, required laborious editing to correct all of the ensemble’s out-of-tune mistakes. After years of smashing his head against the wall trying to corral flakey rock musicians into pulling off his sky-high musical ambitions, the classical world turned out to be the biggest joke of all.