Summer '82: When Zappa Came to Sicily (2013) Movie Script
1
One ordinary day,
Frank Zappa's wife and kids
land in Sicily from Los Angeles.
We'd been talking so often recently,
it almost seemed like when
my American relatives used to come.
The children and grandchildren of
those who'd emigrated years before,
that my father would promptly
immortalize with his Super 8.
Eleonore, my wife, and I
pick them up from the airport.
They're expected at Partinico,
the Zappas' city of origin.
There's Gail, Frank's wife.
Diva...
Moon and her little girl Matilda.
Dweezil and his wife Megan.
Ah met, Frank's other son, isn't here.
I've always loved Zappa's music.
Today, every fan's dream
will come true for me,
to talk to his family
about a part of his life
and of my own with it.
In 1982 I was a kid who loved
the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
I loved Jimmy Hendrix,
the Doors, the Clash, the Pink Floyd.
But most of all, I loved Frank Zappa.
I had two guitars, just like his.
A Gibson SG and a Fender Stratocaster.
I liked his irreverent,
desecrating lyrics,
his smirk and his idea
of music without labels.
Pure contamination
which cut through the genres.
For me, a kid from the sticks,
he was a great inspiration,
actually, a kind of liberation.
I was raised
in a small village near Palermo.
My friends and I
would listen to "Joe's Garage",
"Sheik Yerbouti", "Hot Rats."
We liked "Peaches en Regalia",
"Montana", "Dancing fool",
and his never-ending guitar suites.
And "Bobby Brown", "Titties 'n Beer"...
They were fun.
I'd been in the service only a few months,
destination Aviano, in the north-east,
almost 1,000 miles from home,
when I heard Frank Zappa
was giving a concert in Palermo,
my city, on July 14th, my birthday.
Could I have missed it?
Today I'm trying to put the pieces
of that period together,
such an exciting moment in my life.
First of all I found out
that Frank Zappa had a big Italian
fan and friend, Massimo Bassoli,
who later became his biographer.
The memory of Frank is so clear
in my mind. That's what I say.
He told me lots of things
from his privileged position,
since he'd been a friend
for about 20 years.
Every time I read the news or watch
the news, I miss Frank. Piss, you know?
But that's the way life is!
So that's fine.
Here he's wearing the hat I gave him.
I jumped when I saw it
on the record cover!
Let me show you the first album I bought.
I was still marking the records,
I'd write my name,
because we used to lend them.
I met Frank in 1972.
I was a young kid in high school.
With my schoolmates,
we were spending our summer holiday
driving around Europe,
and we ended up in Paris.
It was in 1973 at the Palasport
concert, August 31, 1973.
My friend called his brothers in Rome.
And he asked, "Where are you guys..."
"Who are you?"
"Frank Zappa is playing in Rome
tomorrow night!"
So we were shocked. Frank Zappa in Italy!
The very same day we drove all the way
from Paris down to Rome. We drove all day
and all night and arrived at the gig.
So we saw the show, we loved it.
At the end of the show we went backstage.
At that time you could do it.
There was no security, nothing.
It was very simple.
And so we were there
like regular fans outside the dressing
room door, waiting for Frank to come out.
He'd wear this jacket
leaving his dressing room.
Frank went out and was really polite.
That's the way the friendship between
me and Frank started.
He invited me over to the house,
and I was so shy.
Massimo was not an Italian
language instructor.
Massimo is... tell him.
A live publisher.
When he came to visit us,
I think the deal was cemented because
if your kids don't run away screaming
and your cat doesn't run away,
if your dog doesn't growl
or attempt to bite them,
then they've kind of
already passed the test.
The "minchias" aren't dirty
unless you don't wash the "minchias".
But if you ever wash the "minchias"...
He brought a special sort of amusement
along with his friendship,
for Frank. Frank was amused.
This is my last single.
The fuckin' single that didn't work.
I was at the house so many times,
you know.
I stayed with the kids, you know.
Real kids, small kids.
Full of energy, and did other things.
My memories of Massimo
are him visiting the house,
spending time with my father
in the basement. He made my father laugh.
I remember him as an avid nose-picker.
Of course.
Incredible!
To me, as a kid,
he was my dad's gross friend.
But they were like two Italians
on the stoop,
like those guys together.
They turned into like a comedy duo.
And again, I just thought,
"I feel like Massimo is leading my father
into trouble".
He is a trouble-making friend!
That was my sense of him
as a teenager. So.
I had the chance to see the man working,
the genius working in his own place.
He was... He was a workaholic.
He worked hard, very hard.
He was able to stay home for hours,
for days, for weeks!
When my father was home,
he would sleep during the day,
and work at night.
So many times it was just
putting food trays on the dumbbell,
lowering the food down to the dungeon,
the basement where he was working,
and then hearing the music
throughout the house.
When we would be together
at home with him,
he... when... the rare moments when
he would come upstairs,
it was like the sun coming out.
He's one of those people... You meet
a few in your life if you're lucky
where when they're looking at you
there's nothing else in the universe.
You feel like, "Well, I'm alone here
except for this person
who's looking and paying attention
to just me!"
And Frank was like that.
You would have 100% of his focus.
If you were a munchkin
and you were in need,
he was right there for you. So...
That's the luxury of being a dad who,
you know, is out and about.
Look at me. I'm a family guy.
When he's not on the road, Frank Zappa
is very close to his wife Gail,
his son Dweezil
and the rest of the four little Zappas.
In fact, I don't ever want them
to make music like I make music,
but Dweezil is a guitar player,
a very excellent guitar player
even though he's only 12 years old.
When I got to spend time with my father,
I didn't feel like the time
we spent together
was a distraction from his work.
And a lot of the things that we did,
generally were about thinking
thinking,
and having fun
with creative thought processes.
Whether it was games with words
or when I started to get
really involved in music,
being able to discuss music and recording,
and the science of sound,
and all kinds of things
that were just fascinating subjects
that I am still interested in today.
Right now we're in the dub room
shooting another television special.
So in 1982, I was 14,
and I was frustrated because I had
a father who toured
nine months out of the year.
He was gone so very much so
I was really missing having a dad around.
So I had written a note and slid it
under the studio door basically saying,
"I've got an idea.
We should record something together
and get to spend time together".
So he woke me up one night.
He was like, "Okay".
He brought me to the studio and said to do
the funny voice I do at the dinner table.
Enough is enough!
So I've had it up to here! Okay?
So like, butt out! Gagoo the spoon.
Got the picture?
Recording "Valley Girl"
and the subsequent success of that song,
I think was very strange,
for me, and also for my father
because all of a sudden
he had an a.m. hit.
This is not representative
of the total body of his work.
But what's to take seriously?
Because you know,
that everything that goes on the radio
is destined to go off the radio.
So it goes on, it goes off. A crazy deal!
And then at first we had to do
many press things together.
I was excited because I got
to travel with my father.
And we had some photo shoots.
He hated having his photo taken.
And then he left to go on a tour.
One day Frank called me and he told me,
"They offered me a tour in Italy".
And I said, "Wonderful!
It's a great thing!"
In 1982, Frank went on
an international tour.
It was a new band,
a new drummer and a new base player,
so, completely new rhythm section.
They rehearsed so much material!
So it was one of those super groups
of Frank's
where it was just like they were
so mighty and so strong in that area.
And they spent the better half of 1981
touring in the States.
So 1982, starting in May,
was the international tour.
The Italian visit was the last section
of that tour.
And so they arrived
from somewhere in Europe to Turin.
Once we were there at the airport,
there was a bus for the crew,
for the band,
and there was no car for Frank.
So he jumped in my car,
him and John Smothers, and that was it.
And then the tour started.
For the entire tour, Frank and John
were always in my car.
Massimo and I struck up a nice friendship
and we often talked about the trip
that he took with Frank Zappa.
So, I added something about that moment.
My father had been very ill
and then got well.
The concert in Palermo
was the chance for
an unforgettable journey.
During the days when Zappa was in Italy,
my father went to Germany
with his friend, Peppino Lo Cascio,
to buy cars to sell in Sicily.
Returning from Frankfurt,
he decided to pick me up.
He had to wait for my leave
and then we left,
that way, I could hear
the concert in Palermo.
I was happy to see him again
and impatient to leave.
We played in Turin, in Milan, in Genoa,
we played in Pistoia.
At the stadium in Pistoia we arrived,
and the guardian of the stadium
didn't know there was a concert that night
and didn't let the crew drive in.
Then we played in Rome,
then we played in Naples.
And so it was a real adventure!
It was so nice to be in Italy,
because I grew up Italian-American.
Finally I was there!
And we went to so many places
in only two weeks.
And the audiences were huge. Really huge.
Tens of thousands of people,
much bigger than most places.
For me the Italian tour with Frank
was one of the highlights of my career.
Because it was my first time in Italy.
Oriali, Gentile's cross...
Goal, Rossi has scored!
Tardelli... goal!
The day of Rome was the same day
that the Italian soccer team
won the world championship.
So there was a really strange atmosphere,
you know, really electric.
Frank loved it because of all the noise,
He taped it on his recording machine.
World champions!
Bassoli told me, on the day
of the finals, they went to eat
during the game because
the streets would be deserted.
A cross by Altobelli, Conti...
Penalty kicks!
Cabrini, who'd missed the kick,
was in the hotel lobby.
Cabrini... It's out!
Curious as he was, he took his Walkman
and started recording
the swear words, the excitement!
Then he went up and down Via Veneto
among the celebrating.
It's all on the record jacket.
Suddenly he said, "This is a great
adventure and I want to make an album".
So he was asking me
if I knew some Italian artist
to do the cover
because he wanted to put in it
all the experience that he'd had.
Meeting Zappa
was pure chance, like many
other nice things in my life.
This girl said she was
a journalist for "Frigidaire",
but had a "Ranxerox" album.
He was curious, he looked at the album...
He loved the character of Ranxerox.
Actually Frank told Tanino
that he believed that the power
of his drawings
was comparable to Michelangelo's drawings.
He was convinced, it made me laugh
and I was pleased.
I did a "Frankxerox" on the cover,
with things from the tour.
The famous mosquitoes
that had ruined him in Milan.
On the back I put: "3-1 vaffanculo",
"The girl who wanted to lay him",
"The Pope", "The Palermo smoke bombs".
FRANK ZAPPA TOMORROW IN PALERMO
The last show was Palermo,
the infamous concert in Palermo.
TONIGHT FRANK ZAPPA
WILL PLAY IN THE STADIUM
INTERVIEW WITH THE FAMOUS MUSICIAN
THE 'DUKE OF PRUNES' SAYS
HE'LL NEVER PLAY IN EUROPE AGAIN
Then came that fateful July 14th.
My father and I left very early
to cross Italy from North to South.
My father was a funny guy.
He needled me the whole way
about Frank Zappa and his music.
He loved film sound-tracks
so Zappa was far from his taste.
And the idea that I wanted
to hear that concert
became one of
his never-ending ironic torments.
Frank landed in Palermo
with his magic circus,
invading a world that was unknown to him,
between the corpses of a bloody Mafia war
and the Feast of Saint Rosalia,
patron saint of Palermo.
Hi, Tom. Welcome to Palermo.
Come over and film my discussion
with the taxi driver. It'll be eventful.
I'm paying the taxi driver and Larry
has to give me the money!
This is on film!
So we ended up in Palermo
for the last gig of the tour.
I had this idea
of giving Frank a surprise.
So I said,
"Frank, what are you doing there?"
"Come with me. I'll drive you around
to see Palermo. You come from Sicily!"
So he agreed, and I immediately
left town and took the highway.
Frank looked around and said,
"Where are we going?"
"Actually we're going to Partinico.
I want to show you your father's town".
Before I met Massimo, I'd heard stories
about Frank Zappa's visit to Partinico,
I heard he was accompanied
by a fireman on duty at the stadium
for the concert,
who stopped at a friend's
to let him meet Frank,
to boast: "Look who I brought!"
But the friend wasn't at home.
I heard lots of stories!
A fertile imagination
is never lacking in Sicily.
Massimo told Dweezil and Diva Zappa
what really happened that day.
So we're going... We're doing
the same trip that we did with Frank.
How did you get Frank to get into the car?
- That is a good question!
- It was my charm.
Yeah, your charm got him in there.
I had the idea. I said,
"You want to see the prison?"
And Frank said,
"What are you talking about?"
I said, "You'll love this.
I believe you'll love this".
The main prison of Palermo,
the famous Ucciardone.
The prison where they locked
all the mafiosi... blah, blah, blah.
And Frank suddenly said,
"Ok, let's go!" and he was in the car.
Normally Frank didn't want to go to
many places when he was on a tour.
- He'd stay at the hotel and relax.
- I can't believe he was by the pool.
Yeah. That's kind of rare for him.
Yeah, he was... That is why I told you.
He was at the pool with the band,
and also it was the end of the adventure.
And it was also unusual for a rock band
to come and play in Sicily, right?
At that time you didn't have things
like Frank Zappa playing in Italy.
Not only, on the 14th of July
it's the anniversary of the saint
of the city, Santa Rosalia.
July 14th is an important day for Palermo.
For centuries they've feasted
their patron saint, Saint Rosalia.
The entire population
participates in the event
which is held in
the city's historic center.
Frank Zappa's concert
was unlike any other,
never had a concert
been held in the stadium
when all attention
was for the Feast of the Saint.
They're climbing over!
We'll kick them all out.
Do that and they'll climb over again.
We'll get the police! They're coming.
The police and the Carabinieri
were under pressure.
On the one hand,
the tension for the Mafia murders,
on the other,
the crowd control for the feast,
what's more, there was
this concert at the stadium.
It all became concentrated
in an explosive mixture.
We were, without knowing, in the middle
of one of the worst Mafia battles.
They were killing each other.
DEATHS HAVE REACHED 100
MURDERED
IT'S ALMOST CURFEW
IN THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR
WAR OF THE BOSSES, HERE ARE THE WINNERS
If you use the computer
and you Google "Partinico",
criminals come up, and then a picture
of Frank as a baby.
Did Frank ever talk to you
about this experience?
You know, he never told the story,
but I'd heard... you know...
the little bits of legend.
I can't remember how Frank decided
to spend his time in Sicily,
but Sicily, of course, has a special
meaning because his father is from there.
It's just a part of his cultural heritage.
And I don't mean in the sense
that it's in his genes!
I mean in the sense that the way the world
was explained to him
was through the eyes
of some Sicilian people.
At least at some point, you know.
It wasn't the only influence,
but certainly it's part of it.
Here we are!
We finally hit Partinico!
During the Italian tour,
it was the only time
that Frank told me a lot
about his childhood.
I remember my father talking about
his father coming over from Italy,
and having a sense that
there was a very big gap
between how my grandfather was raised,
and how my father was so different
from his father.
And just how the changes
of exposure to another culture,
continued to morphine
and form you into who you are.
But again, that sense that it was
our blood line and that we were Italian.
We've been claimed by many cultures,
but I definitively identify myself as
Sicilian. Not just Italian, but Sicilian!
Most people when they examine
where they came from,
or their relatives...
You know, like,
"Ok, you're Sicilian-American!"
What is that about your grandfather?
Why is he like that? How do I fit in?"
That's not the kind of question
that Frank Zappa would every ask himself.
That's not interesting to him.
What is interesting to him is,
how you come by an education
by virtue of contrast material.
So here we are.
I drove your father and John here.
I think if I remember well,
we parked over there.
He went out and your father
was looking around with sunglasses.
He was very surprised,
just like you are now.
The way Massimo tells the story
is so funny anyway.
So for us to experience it,
and know that they went into this place
and probably seemed like
complete aliens from another planet
to the people in town at that time.
Nobody was here. Nobody.
Frank looked... John Smothers looked
around and said "It's a ghost town!"
I told him,
"Don't worry. Everybody is behind
the shades watching us!"
All these shutters.
They're still shut down. You see?
But the people are watching us.
And then we moved to the bar down there.
It didn't look like this.
I know it was probably different
when my dad visited it,
but it was just great to see that,
here's this town, still with its own
personality in a modern time.
But it's almost a town
where time stood for Partinico.
People were coming to the fountain
with their plastic jugs
to fill their water.
That, to me was remarkable.
That's happening now?
The bar was here. We took a coffee here.
There was a phone booth there, I believe.
And we checked the phone book.
- Looking for a Zappa.
- Looking for a Zappa.
I was looking at the names,
trying to find some relatives,
but he didn't know anybody.
So we saw the town,
and Frank asked a question.
"I would like to know how in the
beginning of the century, my father
was able to leave from here
and hit New York!
There was the ceremony that the town
set up in the mayor's office,
and we weren't really sure
what was going to happen.
We were told there was a bit
of a surprise.
Here's the mayor whose dressed
in a very slick black suit, kind of shiny.
Almost Miami Vice!
I award honorary citizenship
to Diva... right?
And to Dweezil.
Thank you so much!
We're very honored.
Your grandfather
used to live in Via Zammat.
We'll rename Via Zammat
for your father, Frank Zappa.
Down this way?
So this is the street. This number 13?
I'll go check.
I can't really...
No door knob.
Such a small space. It's the size
of a shoe, like a shoe box.
So small of a space, that they left.
It's incredible.
I don't even have words to explain
what seeing that was for me.
- There's a water bottle in there.
- A water bottle.
And what looks like a nitrogen like...
A butane tank or something?
It looks like a missile!
- Can you see a kitchen?
- No.
To see this place, to see
that they walked out of this door
and got on a boat to go to America...
You know, it's a crazy journey.
It's incredible.
I thought, "Could I right now"
leave my whole life and go
to some other place, with nothing?
Rebuild a life with
having to learn a new language,
and maybe not being able to use
the skill you already know,
"could I do it?" I don't know.
That's a heroic effort for anyone to do.
But now you reverse time
and you think about it in terms of
the uncertainty of travel,
how did anybody do it!
In the early afternoon
there was already a crowd
in Stadium Square.
Soon there would be 20,000 people.
Frank, John Smothers, his bodyguard,
and Massimo came in from Partinico
at that very moment
to start the sound check.
So on the way back from Partinico,
we went straight to La Favorita,
to the stadium.
There was no organization,
there was no security way for artists.
We had to walk with the car
inside La Favorita.
That's awesome!
One thing that was really amazing,
is we stopped to get a cup of coffee
in this place called "Tropical Bar".
Desolation, right?
But they had a room with video games!
I mean five of these things
all going full blast!
The town doesn't have enough water,
the streets are all rocks.
This is the city where the Mafia boss
of New York...
He's from there.
Maybe he still lives there
and runs the world from this place.
And when you see it,
if you ever see it, you can't imagine
how anybody could even get out of there.
It's just total trash and rubbish!
- Any trace of your family still there?
- No.
We looked in the phone book.
There's nothing.
Maybe they have an unlisted number!
It was a dumpster.
The streets were like no pavement.
- Yeah, fourth world!
- Fifth world!
Last world!
They're all having a good time.
Ok, let's do the sound check.
Is Vince ready?
The footage reveals a lot of the setup
so you get a general vibe about
how everybody was feeling.
It was the last show of the tour,
it was a nice sunny day,
the weather was good. It was an exciting
feeling. The band was on stage.
They were playing.
Everyone was kind of in a good mood.
And they start playing the sound track,
and that all goes well.
The prospect of having Massimo come
on stage that night and play was fun.
Maybe Frank wants you to come around me
I don't know for exactly what.
Maybe he wants some bad
Italian expression. Ok.
I don't know!
- We'll do it before the show.
- Yeah.
The Italian language
is famous for bad words.
He was fascinated by Italian bad words.
He wanted to know all of the bad words.
So when we were going to Palermo,
he asked me,
"What are the bad words of Palermo?"
I told him the king of the bad
words in Palermo was "minchia".
And he laughed. He loved the way
the word sounds, and he repeated it.
So he had an idea.
He called me up and said,
"Now that we're doing the sound check,
can you write some lyrics
with the "minchia" word,
on the songs, on the music
that we use for the warmup?"
And that's the way
"Ten go 'na minchia tanta" was born.
The sound check with Frank
was always interesting
because he was always writing something,
recording something.
That's the other reason
this also explains...
When you see this, you'll understand
why he chose Massimo
out of millions of Italians he could've
on the stage for an announcement.
Because Massimo was going to perform
with them and didn't get his chance.
So this is as close as he gets.
What's this called?
It says, "I have a big bunch of dick!"
I started in 1977 with Frank,
so that was my first big time
rock 'n' roll event period.
When we came to Italy, in particular...
Again, this is way back in time.
New big rock 'n' roll shows and stuff.
As he played in Palermo where it wasn't
a standard routine to put on such a show.
Frank had his own sound, his own lights.
Plus, to see other countries' crews,
to deal with this,
and adapt to a big show like that...
That's why I think
all the confusion happened.
I was filming it and Joe Travers told me
that there's a lot of footage.
He mentioned he wanted to see it one day.
I got on stage and I looked out
and there were more people
than I'd ever seen in my life,
ever, in one place.
It was a big soccer stadium.
They were all lined up.
While the audience was already
in the stadium waiting,
we were still on the road.
Despite his condition,
my father drove the whole time.
It was a memorable day,
my father and I heading to Sicily,
we had the chance to talk
and be together for
what seemed an eternity to me,
but it was just one day in our lives.
From Villa San Giovanni
we crossed the Strait of Messina
and at sunset we reached Sicily.
And then towards Palermo until night.
What happened at the gig in Palermo...
At that time we didn't know.
Another thing we knew
was that the stage was very strange
because they set the stage
in the middle of the field.
The stage is so far away,
the musicians look like dots.
It's like hearing the music at home
on a record player.
People started complaining,
hooting at the stage.
They tried to boost the volume,
but it wasn't enough.
- You probably noticed it. Look.
- You can hear it.
See? That's the beginning of the concert.
In just a few minutes,
three or four young kids
tried to enter the field
and get closer to the stage.
We couldn't really see what was going on,
but we saw some movement.
We were very high. The stage
was very high off the ground.
All of a sudden, somebody got over the
barrier and ran to the front of the stage.
I'm looking down at them
and they're just one little person,
They're going "Hi, I'm here! I made it!"
The kids that entered the field
and stood at the foot of the stage,
did well!
I wonder why they wouldn't let them
in the field.
I wanted to do it too!
It was a wrong setting to begin with.
I guess they wanted to save the lawn,
but that's how it all happened.
There was an immediate reaction
by the police.
Evidently they were ready,
being worried about something
which they thought
had to happen at a rock concert.
He guards beat the shit out of them.
Hell!
Welcome to the last show
of the last European tour.
You can actually tell what's going on
when Frank goes on to the stage.
I'm so used to seeing this kind
of footage, of being in a concert,
and the sound of the audience comes up,
and it's got a special quality to it.
When Frank goes out on to the stage,
the sound is different.
You know right away something is wrong.
You can sense it.
I can see it in Frank's gait.
There's something going on out there.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Of course you realize
they can't see anything.
They have no idea if there's five people
or ten thousand people.
The first piece was "Dancing Fool".
We were excited
and we went wild right away,
but we couldn't dance,
we couldn't twist and turn.
Those were years
when no one had the slightest idea,
especially in the south,
what it meant to do a live concert.
A rock concert
can't be heard from cement bleachers,
everyone sitting,
and your hero so far away.
The wonderful complexity
I expected to find in performance
and the crystallized musical thought,
didn't exist,
with a sound
that didn't reach where it should,
the way it should.
At that point,
several back-up agents
came running from the other side.
They had the armed forces,
the national guard
with shields and guns
around the whole perimeter.
The arrival of the back-up forces
made the audience even angrier
and they began throwing things:
Empty cans, empty bottles.
Then suddenly we started hearing
sounds, rumors, riots.
They have no idea what's going on.
A plainclothesman came running,
maybe a police chief.
It seemed absurd, we were bewildered,
but he called for tear gas.
We saw an agent get on his knee,
aim the gun
and fire the first shot.
And this is what you're seeing
from the stage.
The first was followed
by a second, a third
and then all hell broke loose!
The launching of tear gas began,
first in one sector,
so everyone moved
trying to get away.
People were running in all directions,
risking serious injury.
They over-reacted really.
You bastards!
Massimo, come here.
Bring the band on down behind me, boys.
Kids, please,
Zappa wants to tell you stay calm,
not to throw things in the stadium
and not to have problems with the police.
Try to stay calm.
We don't know exactly what's happening,
but stay calm, so the show can continue.
Now listen!
We want to continue the concert,
we want to keep playing music.
Will you please be calm, sit down,
and relax so we can play music?
Sit down, please!
They broke that door
and the cops didn't want people coming in.
You can see how stressful
and how scared he must have been.
- But he's also thinking about running.
- Of course.
If they start running,
they're going to die out there.
Or they'll get hit by bullets
or trip and get trampled to death.
- He's just so on the case.
- In the moment...
Some people reacted,
but it was a small reaction
compared to the excessive intervention.
The policemen were shooting teargas
inside the stadium,
and the people in the stadium watching
the show were taking the teargas
and sending it back to them.
So now's the time to play the news.
And when the teargas
would continue around the stadium,
the people that were all here,
were in a panic and running.
It came all the way around
and finally it hit the stage.
I don't know if you've ever felt teargas.
But it's very unpleasant.
And I was... you know
starting to tear and choke and...
We've got to get out.
The police chief sent
the back-up forces into the stands,
there was a general fleeing,
the evening ended there.
The stadium emptied in a few minutes,
but I didn't move.
I wasn't scared,
I hoped this would be over,
that they'd all sit down
and it could start over.
I was there because
I wanted to hear Frank Zappa.
The events regarding public disorder
went on outside for quite a while.
We started running,
we got out of the stadium.
Once outside, I saw
a situation of guerrilla warfare.
The traffic was hell,
it was the evening of the Feast,
the whole city was out.
In Palermo and other cities,
between 1977 and 1978,
there were clashes in the squares
and maybe the police
acted with the same criteria
it used in those situations.
Besides it was a period of Mafia wars
so tension in the city was high.
I think what happened in Palermo
is not so common in those times,
especially with governments being
what they are from time to time.
Those attitudes extending down to people
who were employed by the state,
and also carry guns.
And fortunately, I don't think
anybody died from that event.
Thanks for coming to the concert.
Hope you liked it.
And good night!
So that's the premature ending
of the show.
An hour and six minutes in.
We just got off,
and a complete riot broke off.
We were backstage
and it was complete chaos.
Come on.
Missed!
There's crazy mayhem going on.
Concert's over. They're stuck.
He's so stressed. He's like
"What do we do in this bunker?"
Italian language lesson.
This is the desk of an Italian...
This is just how friendships are built.
Massimo and Frank
in the trenches together.
This is certainly the basis,
and ongoing, you know, sort of respect.
I want you to... Just like this was
a real language school.
Somebody just paid a lot of money
to come to learn how to speak Italian.
And this is an Italian language school.
Give them the works!
You guys back out of the way.
Before we go on...
The first important word
that you have to understand
in the Italian language is...
"Porca put tan a".
This is not the first time that Frank
has been threatened,
and this is just a maybe
because they're firing guns out there.
But the reason he had the vest
in the first place is from death threats.
But this is the occupational hazard of
rock 'n' roll for anyone who's political.
They won't stop shooting out there
with those kids.
The more they shoot,
the more they throw rocks at them.
There were fireworks way behind Frank.
Those fireworks were gun fire.
They fire people with guns.
They're probably shooting at them
and cops are shooting back.
That means I have to get my cigarettes.
My father and I arrived in the dead
of night, when it was all over,
the concert, the clashes
and the Feast of Saint Rosalia.
It was a great disappointment
for me to miss that concert.
But I didn't know
that was to be our last trip together.
My father died two months later,
he was only 49.
I saved the ticket
in the "Shut up 'n' Play Yer Guitar" box.
A ticket I never used, but very precious.
Today, 30 years later,
I'll see that concert,
but in Los Angeles,
at Frank's house, with the Zappas.
It's a ticket that served them
to come to Sicily
and rediscover their origins,
taking the same trip
to Partinico that Frank had.
The circle closes with one word, "Utopia".
Massimo told me what it meant for Frank
the title of the album
The Man from Utopia.
Utopia was Italy,
the land of his forefathers,
where, according to his father,
all things had been created
and sent into the world.
But after the Italian tour
it seemed like a land of madmen
and he was the man who came from Utopia.
It's a big one. It's all the way!
The rainbow close to the rocks.
Sicilia to me opens a doorway
to all the things that I remember.
Frank saying about his family,
and how they felt about Sicily.
Frank's father was always telling him
that all of these inventions that were
from everywhere, were invented in Sicily.
There would be nothing of culture
in the entire universe,
were it not for Sicily.
Hearing this when he was a child
has to have opened a window for him
to say, "I will fly through here!"
Even though I am small
and insignificant, and isolated
like an 'isola',
"I can do things that no one else can do!"
So now I come here,
and you know what? I believe it!
In Frank's career,
he took a very difficult path
to do what he wanted to do.
A very singular Maverick style
of doing what he did.
I can recognize
that people from Sicily
definitively have that sort of
independence and creative thought process.
I think there's that bit
of Sicilian history in our family,
whether we are cognizant of it coming out.
I think it's more apparent
when we're here.
Even just meeting the relatives
we had here,
there are certain things
that we learned in talking to them.
His last name is Zappa.
Really?
Good afternoon,
this is Dweezil and Diva Zappa.
You are Zappas.
Not only do we find
a whole bunch of Zappas,
that are in many ways characteristic
of the family
that I thought I was looking for.
They are so not like the family
I came from.
So not the family that Frank came from.
But they are very representative
of a true family spirit.
And they were here in Sicily.
Which was so crazy!
The facial hair!
This is my grandfather,
your great-grandfather's brother.
- This is the brother of your grandfather.
- Look at the hair! The moustache!
My memories of my paternal grandparents
are very strange. I remember them
as small people in a small house.
With stubborn ways.
There was not a lot of discussion
about feelings.
Feelings became a meal, usually sweets.
So there was always that sense of
like a gap between what you want to say
and what could be said.
This subterranean love,
but with this thing
that you couldn't break through,
which I called, "that Italian thing".
In the early 1900s, Frank's
grandparents and father, a child,
left for the United States.
His grandfather's brother went too,
but he returned to Sicily,
starting this branch of the family.
I was amazing because
the family was explaining to us
that there were several siblings.
The father of that Zappa family
had purchased land for the family to live.
And I don't remember
if it was five girls or five boys,
how many children there were,
but all but two of them live on the street
and live in houses beside each other.
And they spend all of their time together.
It's a special day,
Eleonora and I and Federica, our daughter,
take part in the party,
in which the American Zappas
meet the Sicilian Zappas.
A reunion of worlds,
separated a century earlier,
following totally different paths.
I think of all those
infinite family holiday meals
and about Piero, my father, and his irony,
so similar to Frank's.
Maybe it's what helps me find
the words and images today
and assemble the contrasting material
that make up our lives.
My father had a degree
of that "Sicilian thing".
He was a very emotional and sensitive
person, because he was an artist.
He was a very soft spoken,
logical, gentle person.
And it brings tears to my eyes
to think about
how thoughtful he was in his words
and his actions as a parent.
As I continue to play music,
play his music for people,
it's a way for me to continue having
a relationship that's familiar to me.
And through playing the music,
and the experience we had here in Sicily
where people were celebrating him,
being proud that he's from Partinico...
Well, all of that stuff...
It's a chance for him
to still be here for us.
I'm sorry that he wasn't here longer.
The silence is horrible,
but I'm grateful
for what he did manage to do.
The two things that I think
Frank loved the most,
that represented his life,
was, first freedom,
and second, music.
And through music,
and when you have that experience,
or whatever it is that you choose,
but for Frank it was music,
you discover freedom,
and you don't want anyone or anything
to have the power, to be in your way,
to such a degree that you cannot
do the things you're destined to do.
And I am lucky that I have
this thing that I know, that compels me.
And I saw Frank do that
with his life as well.
One ordinary day,
Frank Zappa's wife and kids
land in Sicily from Los Angeles.
We'd been talking so often recently,
it almost seemed like when
my American relatives used to come.
The children and grandchildren of
those who'd emigrated years before,
that my father would promptly
immortalize with his Super 8.
Eleonore, my wife, and I
pick them up from the airport.
They're expected at Partinico,
the Zappas' city of origin.
There's Gail, Frank's wife.
Diva...
Moon and her little girl Matilda.
Dweezil and his wife Megan.
Ah met, Frank's other son, isn't here.
I've always loved Zappa's music.
Today, every fan's dream
will come true for me,
to talk to his family
about a part of his life
and of my own with it.
In 1982 I was a kid who loved
the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
I loved Jimmy Hendrix,
the Doors, the Clash, the Pink Floyd.
But most of all, I loved Frank Zappa.
I had two guitars, just like his.
A Gibson SG and a Fender Stratocaster.
I liked his irreverent,
desecrating lyrics,
his smirk and his idea
of music without labels.
Pure contamination
which cut through the genres.
For me, a kid from the sticks,
he was a great inspiration,
actually, a kind of liberation.
I was raised
in a small village near Palermo.
My friends and I
would listen to "Joe's Garage",
"Sheik Yerbouti", "Hot Rats."
We liked "Peaches en Regalia",
"Montana", "Dancing fool",
and his never-ending guitar suites.
And "Bobby Brown", "Titties 'n Beer"...
They were fun.
I'd been in the service only a few months,
destination Aviano, in the north-east,
almost 1,000 miles from home,
when I heard Frank Zappa
was giving a concert in Palermo,
my city, on July 14th, my birthday.
Could I have missed it?
Today I'm trying to put the pieces
of that period together,
such an exciting moment in my life.
First of all I found out
that Frank Zappa had a big Italian
fan and friend, Massimo Bassoli,
who later became his biographer.
The memory of Frank is so clear
in my mind. That's what I say.
He told me lots of things
from his privileged position,
since he'd been a friend
for about 20 years.
Every time I read the news or watch
the news, I miss Frank. Piss, you know?
But that's the way life is!
So that's fine.
Here he's wearing the hat I gave him.
I jumped when I saw it
on the record cover!
Let me show you the first album I bought.
I was still marking the records,
I'd write my name,
because we used to lend them.
I met Frank in 1972.
I was a young kid in high school.
With my schoolmates,
we were spending our summer holiday
driving around Europe,
and we ended up in Paris.
It was in 1973 at the Palasport
concert, August 31, 1973.
My friend called his brothers in Rome.
And he asked, "Where are you guys..."
"Who are you?"
"Frank Zappa is playing in Rome
tomorrow night!"
So we were shocked. Frank Zappa in Italy!
The very same day we drove all the way
from Paris down to Rome. We drove all day
and all night and arrived at the gig.
So we saw the show, we loved it.
At the end of the show we went backstage.
At that time you could do it.
There was no security, nothing.
It was very simple.
And so we were there
like regular fans outside the dressing
room door, waiting for Frank to come out.
He'd wear this jacket
leaving his dressing room.
Frank went out and was really polite.
That's the way the friendship between
me and Frank started.
He invited me over to the house,
and I was so shy.
Massimo was not an Italian
language instructor.
Massimo is... tell him.
A live publisher.
When he came to visit us,
I think the deal was cemented because
if your kids don't run away screaming
and your cat doesn't run away,
if your dog doesn't growl
or attempt to bite them,
then they've kind of
already passed the test.
The "minchias" aren't dirty
unless you don't wash the "minchias".
But if you ever wash the "minchias"...
He brought a special sort of amusement
along with his friendship,
for Frank. Frank was amused.
This is my last single.
The fuckin' single that didn't work.
I was at the house so many times,
you know.
I stayed with the kids, you know.
Real kids, small kids.
Full of energy, and did other things.
My memories of Massimo
are him visiting the house,
spending time with my father
in the basement. He made my father laugh.
I remember him as an avid nose-picker.
Of course.
Incredible!
To me, as a kid,
he was my dad's gross friend.
But they were like two Italians
on the stoop,
like those guys together.
They turned into like a comedy duo.
And again, I just thought,
"I feel like Massimo is leading my father
into trouble".
He is a trouble-making friend!
That was my sense of him
as a teenager. So.
I had the chance to see the man working,
the genius working in his own place.
He was... He was a workaholic.
He worked hard, very hard.
He was able to stay home for hours,
for days, for weeks!
When my father was home,
he would sleep during the day,
and work at night.
So many times it was just
putting food trays on the dumbbell,
lowering the food down to the dungeon,
the basement where he was working,
and then hearing the music
throughout the house.
When we would be together
at home with him,
he... when... the rare moments when
he would come upstairs,
it was like the sun coming out.
He's one of those people... You meet
a few in your life if you're lucky
where when they're looking at you
there's nothing else in the universe.
You feel like, "Well, I'm alone here
except for this person
who's looking and paying attention
to just me!"
And Frank was like that.
You would have 100% of his focus.
If you were a munchkin
and you were in need,
he was right there for you. So...
That's the luxury of being a dad who,
you know, is out and about.
Look at me. I'm a family guy.
When he's not on the road, Frank Zappa
is very close to his wife Gail,
his son Dweezil
and the rest of the four little Zappas.
In fact, I don't ever want them
to make music like I make music,
but Dweezil is a guitar player,
a very excellent guitar player
even though he's only 12 years old.
When I got to spend time with my father,
I didn't feel like the time
we spent together
was a distraction from his work.
And a lot of the things that we did,
generally were about thinking
thinking,
and having fun
with creative thought processes.
Whether it was games with words
or when I started to get
really involved in music,
being able to discuss music and recording,
and the science of sound,
and all kinds of things
that were just fascinating subjects
that I am still interested in today.
Right now we're in the dub room
shooting another television special.
So in 1982, I was 14,
and I was frustrated because I had
a father who toured
nine months out of the year.
He was gone so very much so
I was really missing having a dad around.
So I had written a note and slid it
under the studio door basically saying,
"I've got an idea.
We should record something together
and get to spend time together".
So he woke me up one night.
He was like, "Okay".
He brought me to the studio and said to do
the funny voice I do at the dinner table.
Enough is enough!
So I've had it up to here! Okay?
So like, butt out! Gagoo the spoon.
Got the picture?
Recording "Valley Girl"
and the subsequent success of that song,
I think was very strange,
for me, and also for my father
because all of a sudden
he had an a.m. hit.
This is not representative
of the total body of his work.
But what's to take seriously?
Because you know,
that everything that goes on the radio
is destined to go off the radio.
So it goes on, it goes off. A crazy deal!
And then at first we had to do
many press things together.
I was excited because I got
to travel with my father.
And we had some photo shoots.
He hated having his photo taken.
And then he left to go on a tour.
One day Frank called me and he told me,
"They offered me a tour in Italy".
And I said, "Wonderful!
It's a great thing!"
In 1982, Frank went on
an international tour.
It was a new band,
a new drummer and a new base player,
so, completely new rhythm section.
They rehearsed so much material!
So it was one of those super groups
of Frank's
where it was just like they were
so mighty and so strong in that area.
And they spent the better half of 1981
touring in the States.
So 1982, starting in May,
was the international tour.
The Italian visit was the last section
of that tour.
And so they arrived
from somewhere in Europe to Turin.
Once we were there at the airport,
there was a bus for the crew,
for the band,
and there was no car for Frank.
So he jumped in my car,
him and John Smothers, and that was it.
And then the tour started.
For the entire tour, Frank and John
were always in my car.
Massimo and I struck up a nice friendship
and we often talked about the trip
that he took with Frank Zappa.
So, I added something about that moment.
My father had been very ill
and then got well.
The concert in Palermo
was the chance for
an unforgettable journey.
During the days when Zappa was in Italy,
my father went to Germany
with his friend, Peppino Lo Cascio,
to buy cars to sell in Sicily.
Returning from Frankfurt,
he decided to pick me up.
He had to wait for my leave
and then we left,
that way, I could hear
the concert in Palermo.
I was happy to see him again
and impatient to leave.
We played in Turin, in Milan, in Genoa,
we played in Pistoia.
At the stadium in Pistoia we arrived,
and the guardian of the stadium
didn't know there was a concert that night
and didn't let the crew drive in.
Then we played in Rome,
then we played in Naples.
And so it was a real adventure!
It was so nice to be in Italy,
because I grew up Italian-American.
Finally I was there!
And we went to so many places
in only two weeks.
And the audiences were huge. Really huge.
Tens of thousands of people,
much bigger than most places.
For me the Italian tour with Frank
was one of the highlights of my career.
Because it was my first time in Italy.
Oriali, Gentile's cross...
Goal, Rossi has scored!
Tardelli... goal!
The day of Rome was the same day
that the Italian soccer team
won the world championship.
So there was a really strange atmosphere,
you know, really electric.
Frank loved it because of all the noise,
He taped it on his recording machine.
World champions!
Bassoli told me, on the day
of the finals, they went to eat
during the game because
the streets would be deserted.
A cross by Altobelli, Conti...
Penalty kicks!
Cabrini, who'd missed the kick,
was in the hotel lobby.
Cabrini... It's out!
Curious as he was, he took his Walkman
and started recording
the swear words, the excitement!
Then he went up and down Via Veneto
among the celebrating.
It's all on the record jacket.
Suddenly he said, "This is a great
adventure and I want to make an album".
So he was asking me
if I knew some Italian artist
to do the cover
because he wanted to put in it
all the experience that he'd had.
Meeting Zappa
was pure chance, like many
other nice things in my life.
This girl said she was
a journalist for "Frigidaire",
but had a "Ranxerox" album.
He was curious, he looked at the album...
He loved the character of Ranxerox.
Actually Frank told Tanino
that he believed that the power
of his drawings
was comparable to Michelangelo's drawings.
He was convinced, it made me laugh
and I was pleased.
I did a "Frankxerox" on the cover,
with things from the tour.
The famous mosquitoes
that had ruined him in Milan.
On the back I put: "3-1 vaffanculo",
"The girl who wanted to lay him",
"The Pope", "The Palermo smoke bombs".
FRANK ZAPPA TOMORROW IN PALERMO
The last show was Palermo,
the infamous concert in Palermo.
TONIGHT FRANK ZAPPA
WILL PLAY IN THE STADIUM
INTERVIEW WITH THE FAMOUS MUSICIAN
THE 'DUKE OF PRUNES' SAYS
HE'LL NEVER PLAY IN EUROPE AGAIN
Then came that fateful July 14th.
My father and I left very early
to cross Italy from North to South.
My father was a funny guy.
He needled me the whole way
about Frank Zappa and his music.
He loved film sound-tracks
so Zappa was far from his taste.
And the idea that I wanted
to hear that concert
became one of
his never-ending ironic torments.
Frank landed in Palermo
with his magic circus,
invading a world that was unknown to him,
between the corpses of a bloody Mafia war
and the Feast of Saint Rosalia,
patron saint of Palermo.
Hi, Tom. Welcome to Palermo.
Come over and film my discussion
with the taxi driver. It'll be eventful.
I'm paying the taxi driver and Larry
has to give me the money!
This is on film!
So we ended up in Palermo
for the last gig of the tour.
I had this idea
of giving Frank a surprise.
So I said,
"Frank, what are you doing there?"
"Come with me. I'll drive you around
to see Palermo. You come from Sicily!"
So he agreed, and I immediately
left town and took the highway.
Frank looked around and said,
"Where are we going?"
"Actually we're going to Partinico.
I want to show you your father's town".
Before I met Massimo, I'd heard stories
about Frank Zappa's visit to Partinico,
I heard he was accompanied
by a fireman on duty at the stadium
for the concert,
who stopped at a friend's
to let him meet Frank,
to boast: "Look who I brought!"
But the friend wasn't at home.
I heard lots of stories!
A fertile imagination
is never lacking in Sicily.
Massimo told Dweezil and Diva Zappa
what really happened that day.
So we're going... We're doing
the same trip that we did with Frank.
How did you get Frank to get into the car?
- That is a good question!
- It was my charm.
Yeah, your charm got him in there.
I had the idea. I said,
"You want to see the prison?"
And Frank said,
"What are you talking about?"
I said, "You'll love this.
I believe you'll love this".
The main prison of Palermo,
the famous Ucciardone.
The prison where they locked
all the mafiosi... blah, blah, blah.
And Frank suddenly said,
"Ok, let's go!" and he was in the car.
Normally Frank didn't want to go to
many places when he was on a tour.
- He'd stay at the hotel and relax.
- I can't believe he was by the pool.
Yeah. That's kind of rare for him.
Yeah, he was... That is why I told you.
He was at the pool with the band,
and also it was the end of the adventure.
And it was also unusual for a rock band
to come and play in Sicily, right?
At that time you didn't have things
like Frank Zappa playing in Italy.
Not only, on the 14th of July
it's the anniversary of the saint
of the city, Santa Rosalia.
July 14th is an important day for Palermo.
For centuries they've feasted
their patron saint, Saint Rosalia.
The entire population
participates in the event
which is held in
the city's historic center.
Frank Zappa's concert
was unlike any other,
never had a concert
been held in the stadium
when all attention
was for the Feast of the Saint.
They're climbing over!
We'll kick them all out.
Do that and they'll climb over again.
We'll get the police! They're coming.
The police and the Carabinieri
were under pressure.
On the one hand,
the tension for the Mafia murders,
on the other,
the crowd control for the feast,
what's more, there was
this concert at the stadium.
It all became concentrated
in an explosive mixture.
We were, without knowing, in the middle
of one of the worst Mafia battles.
They were killing each other.
DEATHS HAVE REACHED 100
MURDERED
IT'S ALMOST CURFEW
IN THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR
WAR OF THE BOSSES, HERE ARE THE WINNERS
If you use the computer
and you Google "Partinico",
criminals come up, and then a picture
of Frank as a baby.
Did Frank ever talk to you
about this experience?
You know, he never told the story,
but I'd heard... you know...
the little bits of legend.
I can't remember how Frank decided
to spend his time in Sicily,
but Sicily, of course, has a special
meaning because his father is from there.
It's just a part of his cultural heritage.
And I don't mean in the sense
that it's in his genes!
I mean in the sense that the way the world
was explained to him
was through the eyes
of some Sicilian people.
At least at some point, you know.
It wasn't the only influence,
but certainly it's part of it.
Here we are!
We finally hit Partinico!
During the Italian tour,
it was the only time
that Frank told me a lot
about his childhood.
I remember my father talking about
his father coming over from Italy,
and having a sense that
there was a very big gap
between how my grandfather was raised,
and how my father was so different
from his father.
And just how the changes
of exposure to another culture,
continued to morphine
and form you into who you are.
But again, that sense that it was
our blood line and that we were Italian.
We've been claimed by many cultures,
but I definitively identify myself as
Sicilian. Not just Italian, but Sicilian!
Most people when they examine
where they came from,
or their relatives...
You know, like,
"Ok, you're Sicilian-American!"
What is that about your grandfather?
Why is he like that? How do I fit in?"
That's not the kind of question
that Frank Zappa would every ask himself.
That's not interesting to him.
What is interesting to him is,
how you come by an education
by virtue of contrast material.
So here we are.
I drove your father and John here.
I think if I remember well,
we parked over there.
He went out and your father
was looking around with sunglasses.
He was very surprised,
just like you are now.
The way Massimo tells the story
is so funny anyway.
So for us to experience it,
and know that they went into this place
and probably seemed like
complete aliens from another planet
to the people in town at that time.
Nobody was here. Nobody.
Frank looked... John Smothers looked
around and said "It's a ghost town!"
I told him,
"Don't worry. Everybody is behind
the shades watching us!"
All these shutters.
They're still shut down. You see?
But the people are watching us.
And then we moved to the bar down there.
It didn't look like this.
I know it was probably different
when my dad visited it,
but it was just great to see that,
here's this town, still with its own
personality in a modern time.
But it's almost a town
where time stood for Partinico.
People were coming to the fountain
with their plastic jugs
to fill their water.
That, to me was remarkable.
That's happening now?
The bar was here. We took a coffee here.
There was a phone booth there, I believe.
And we checked the phone book.
- Looking for a Zappa.
- Looking for a Zappa.
I was looking at the names,
trying to find some relatives,
but he didn't know anybody.
So we saw the town,
and Frank asked a question.
"I would like to know how in the
beginning of the century, my father
was able to leave from here
and hit New York!
There was the ceremony that the town
set up in the mayor's office,
and we weren't really sure
what was going to happen.
We were told there was a bit
of a surprise.
Here's the mayor whose dressed
in a very slick black suit, kind of shiny.
Almost Miami Vice!
I award honorary citizenship
to Diva... right?
And to Dweezil.
Thank you so much!
We're very honored.
Your grandfather
used to live in Via Zammat.
We'll rename Via Zammat
for your father, Frank Zappa.
Down this way?
So this is the street. This number 13?
I'll go check.
I can't really...
No door knob.
Such a small space. It's the size
of a shoe, like a shoe box.
So small of a space, that they left.
It's incredible.
I don't even have words to explain
what seeing that was for me.
- There's a water bottle in there.
- A water bottle.
And what looks like a nitrogen like...
A butane tank or something?
It looks like a missile!
- Can you see a kitchen?
- No.
To see this place, to see
that they walked out of this door
and got on a boat to go to America...
You know, it's a crazy journey.
It's incredible.
I thought, "Could I right now"
leave my whole life and go
to some other place, with nothing?
Rebuild a life with
having to learn a new language,
and maybe not being able to use
the skill you already know,
"could I do it?" I don't know.
That's a heroic effort for anyone to do.
But now you reverse time
and you think about it in terms of
the uncertainty of travel,
how did anybody do it!
In the early afternoon
there was already a crowd
in Stadium Square.
Soon there would be 20,000 people.
Frank, John Smothers, his bodyguard,
and Massimo came in from Partinico
at that very moment
to start the sound check.
So on the way back from Partinico,
we went straight to La Favorita,
to the stadium.
There was no organization,
there was no security way for artists.
We had to walk with the car
inside La Favorita.
That's awesome!
One thing that was really amazing,
is we stopped to get a cup of coffee
in this place called "Tropical Bar".
Desolation, right?
But they had a room with video games!
I mean five of these things
all going full blast!
The town doesn't have enough water,
the streets are all rocks.
This is the city where the Mafia boss
of New York...
He's from there.
Maybe he still lives there
and runs the world from this place.
And when you see it,
if you ever see it, you can't imagine
how anybody could even get out of there.
It's just total trash and rubbish!
- Any trace of your family still there?
- No.
We looked in the phone book.
There's nothing.
Maybe they have an unlisted number!
It was a dumpster.
The streets were like no pavement.
- Yeah, fourth world!
- Fifth world!
Last world!
They're all having a good time.
Ok, let's do the sound check.
Is Vince ready?
The footage reveals a lot of the setup
so you get a general vibe about
how everybody was feeling.
It was the last show of the tour,
it was a nice sunny day,
the weather was good. It was an exciting
feeling. The band was on stage.
They were playing.
Everyone was kind of in a good mood.
And they start playing the sound track,
and that all goes well.
The prospect of having Massimo come
on stage that night and play was fun.
Maybe Frank wants you to come around me
I don't know for exactly what.
Maybe he wants some bad
Italian expression. Ok.
I don't know!
- We'll do it before the show.
- Yeah.
The Italian language
is famous for bad words.
He was fascinated by Italian bad words.
He wanted to know all of the bad words.
So when we were going to Palermo,
he asked me,
"What are the bad words of Palermo?"
I told him the king of the bad
words in Palermo was "minchia".
And he laughed. He loved the way
the word sounds, and he repeated it.
So he had an idea.
He called me up and said,
"Now that we're doing the sound check,
can you write some lyrics
with the "minchia" word,
on the songs, on the music
that we use for the warmup?"
And that's the way
"Ten go 'na minchia tanta" was born.
The sound check with Frank
was always interesting
because he was always writing something,
recording something.
That's the other reason
this also explains...
When you see this, you'll understand
why he chose Massimo
out of millions of Italians he could've
on the stage for an announcement.
Because Massimo was going to perform
with them and didn't get his chance.
So this is as close as he gets.
What's this called?
It says, "I have a big bunch of dick!"
I started in 1977 with Frank,
so that was my first big time
rock 'n' roll event period.
When we came to Italy, in particular...
Again, this is way back in time.
New big rock 'n' roll shows and stuff.
As he played in Palermo where it wasn't
a standard routine to put on such a show.
Frank had his own sound, his own lights.
Plus, to see other countries' crews,
to deal with this,
and adapt to a big show like that...
That's why I think
all the confusion happened.
I was filming it and Joe Travers told me
that there's a lot of footage.
He mentioned he wanted to see it one day.
I got on stage and I looked out
and there were more people
than I'd ever seen in my life,
ever, in one place.
It was a big soccer stadium.
They were all lined up.
While the audience was already
in the stadium waiting,
we were still on the road.
Despite his condition,
my father drove the whole time.
It was a memorable day,
my father and I heading to Sicily,
we had the chance to talk
and be together for
what seemed an eternity to me,
but it was just one day in our lives.
From Villa San Giovanni
we crossed the Strait of Messina
and at sunset we reached Sicily.
And then towards Palermo until night.
What happened at the gig in Palermo...
At that time we didn't know.
Another thing we knew
was that the stage was very strange
because they set the stage
in the middle of the field.
The stage is so far away,
the musicians look like dots.
It's like hearing the music at home
on a record player.
People started complaining,
hooting at the stage.
They tried to boost the volume,
but it wasn't enough.
- You probably noticed it. Look.
- You can hear it.
See? That's the beginning of the concert.
In just a few minutes,
three or four young kids
tried to enter the field
and get closer to the stage.
We couldn't really see what was going on,
but we saw some movement.
We were very high. The stage
was very high off the ground.
All of a sudden, somebody got over the
barrier and ran to the front of the stage.
I'm looking down at them
and they're just one little person,
They're going "Hi, I'm here! I made it!"
The kids that entered the field
and stood at the foot of the stage,
did well!
I wonder why they wouldn't let them
in the field.
I wanted to do it too!
It was a wrong setting to begin with.
I guess they wanted to save the lawn,
but that's how it all happened.
There was an immediate reaction
by the police.
Evidently they were ready,
being worried about something
which they thought
had to happen at a rock concert.
He guards beat the shit out of them.
Hell!
Welcome to the last show
of the last European tour.
You can actually tell what's going on
when Frank goes on to the stage.
I'm so used to seeing this kind
of footage, of being in a concert,
and the sound of the audience comes up,
and it's got a special quality to it.
When Frank goes out on to the stage,
the sound is different.
You know right away something is wrong.
You can sense it.
I can see it in Frank's gait.
There's something going on out there.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Of course you realize
they can't see anything.
They have no idea if there's five people
or ten thousand people.
The first piece was "Dancing Fool".
We were excited
and we went wild right away,
but we couldn't dance,
we couldn't twist and turn.
Those were years
when no one had the slightest idea,
especially in the south,
what it meant to do a live concert.
A rock concert
can't be heard from cement bleachers,
everyone sitting,
and your hero so far away.
The wonderful complexity
I expected to find in performance
and the crystallized musical thought,
didn't exist,
with a sound
that didn't reach where it should,
the way it should.
At that point,
several back-up agents
came running from the other side.
They had the armed forces,
the national guard
with shields and guns
around the whole perimeter.
The arrival of the back-up forces
made the audience even angrier
and they began throwing things:
Empty cans, empty bottles.
Then suddenly we started hearing
sounds, rumors, riots.
They have no idea what's going on.
A plainclothesman came running,
maybe a police chief.
It seemed absurd, we were bewildered,
but he called for tear gas.
We saw an agent get on his knee,
aim the gun
and fire the first shot.
And this is what you're seeing
from the stage.
The first was followed
by a second, a third
and then all hell broke loose!
The launching of tear gas began,
first in one sector,
so everyone moved
trying to get away.
People were running in all directions,
risking serious injury.
They over-reacted really.
You bastards!
Massimo, come here.
Bring the band on down behind me, boys.
Kids, please,
Zappa wants to tell you stay calm,
not to throw things in the stadium
and not to have problems with the police.
Try to stay calm.
We don't know exactly what's happening,
but stay calm, so the show can continue.
Now listen!
We want to continue the concert,
we want to keep playing music.
Will you please be calm, sit down,
and relax so we can play music?
Sit down, please!
They broke that door
and the cops didn't want people coming in.
You can see how stressful
and how scared he must have been.
- But he's also thinking about running.
- Of course.
If they start running,
they're going to die out there.
Or they'll get hit by bullets
or trip and get trampled to death.
- He's just so on the case.
- In the moment...
Some people reacted,
but it was a small reaction
compared to the excessive intervention.
The policemen were shooting teargas
inside the stadium,
and the people in the stadium watching
the show were taking the teargas
and sending it back to them.
So now's the time to play the news.
And when the teargas
would continue around the stadium,
the people that were all here,
were in a panic and running.
It came all the way around
and finally it hit the stage.
I don't know if you've ever felt teargas.
But it's very unpleasant.
And I was... you know
starting to tear and choke and...
We've got to get out.
The police chief sent
the back-up forces into the stands,
there was a general fleeing,
the evening ended there.
The stadium emptied in a few minutes,
but I didn't move.
I wasn't scared,
I hoped this would be over,
that they'd all sit down
and it could start over.
I was there because
I wanted to hear Frank Zappa.
The events regarding public disorder
went on outside for quite a while.
We started running,
we got out of the stadium.
Once outside, I saw
a situation of guerrilla warfare.
The traffic was hell,
it was the evening of the Feast,
the whole city was out.
In Palermo and other cities,
between 1977 and 1978,
there were clashes in the squares
and maybe the police
acted with the same criteria
it used in those situations.
Besides it was a period of Mafia wars
so tension in the city was high.
I think what happened in Palermo
is not so common in those times,
especially with governments being
what they are from time to time.
Those attitudes extending down to people
who were employed by the state,
and also carry guns.
And fortunately, I don't think
anybody died from that event.
Thanks for coming to the concert.
Hope you liked it.
And good night!
So that's the premature ending
of the show.
An hour and six minutes in.
We just got off,
and a complete riot broke off.
We were backstage
and it was complete chaos.
Come on.
Missed!
There's crazy mayhem going on.
Concert's over. They're stuck.
He's so stressed. He's like
"What do we do in this bunker?"
Italian language lesson.
This is the desk of an Italian...
This is just how friendships are built.
Massimo and Frank
in the trenches together.
This is certainly the basis,
and ongoing, you know, sort of respect.
I want you to... Just like this was
a real language school.
Somebody just paid a lot of money
to come to learn how to speak Italian.
And this is an Italian language school.
Give them the works!
You guys back out of the way.
Before we go on...
The first important word
that you have to understand
in the Italian language is...
"Porca put tan a".
This is not the first time that Frank
has been threatened,
and this is just a maybe
because they're firing guns out there.
But the reason he had the vest
in the first place is from death threats.
But this is the occupational hazard of
rock 'n' roll for anyone who's political.
They won't stop shooting out there
with those kids.
The more they shoot,
the more they throw rocks at them.
There were fireworks way behind Frank.
Those fireworks were gun fire.
They fire people with guns.
They're probably shooting at them
and cops are shooting back.
That means I have to get my cigarettes.
My father and I arrived in the dead
of night, when it was all over,
the concert, the clashes
and the Feast of Saint Rosalia.
It was a great disappointment
for me to miss that concert.
But I didn't know
that was to be our last trip together.
My father died two months later,
he was only 49.
I saved the ticket
in the "Shut up 'n' Play Yer Guitar" box.
A ticket I never used, but very precious.
Today, 30 years later,
I'll see that concert,
but in Los Angeles,
at Frank's house, with the Zappas.
It's a ticket that served them
to come to Sicily
and rediscover their origins,
taking the same trip
to Partinico that Frank had.
The circle closes with one word, "Utopia".
Massimo told me what it meant for Frank
the title of the album
The Man from Utopia.
Utopia was Italy,
the land of his forefathers,
where, according to his father,
all things had been created
and sent into the world.
But after the Italian tour
it seemed like a land of madmen
and he was the man who came from Utopia.
It's a big one. It's all the way!
The rainbow close to the rocks.
Sicilia to me opens a doorway
to all the things that I remember.
Frank saying about his family,
and how they felt about Sicily.
Frank's father was always telling him
that all of these inventions that were
from everywhere, were invented in Sicily.
There would be nothing of culture
in the entire universe,
were it not for Sicily.
Hearing this when he was a child
has to have opened a window for him
to say, "I will fly through here!"
Even though I am small
and insignificant, and isolated
like an 'isola',
"I can do things that no one else can do!"
So now I come here,
and you know what? I believe it!
In Frank's career,
he took a very difficult path
to do what he wanted to do.
A very singular Maverick style
of doing what he did.
I can recognize
that people from Sicily
definitively have that sort of
independence and creative thought process.
I think there's that bit
of Sicilian history in our family,
whether we are cognizant of it coming out.
I think it's more apparent
when we're here.
Even just meeting the relatives
we had here,
there are certain things
that we learned in talking to them.
His last name is Zappa.
Really?
Good afternoon,
this is Dweezil and Diva Zappa.
You are Zappas.
Not only do we find
a whole bunch of Zappas,
that are in many ways characteristic
of the family
that I thought I was looking for.
They are so not like the family
I came from.
So not the family that Frank came from.
But they are very representative
of a true family spirit.
And they were here in Sicily.
Which was so crazy!
The facial hair!
This is my grandfather,
your great-grandfather's brother.
- This is the brother of your grandfather.
- Look at the hair! The moustache!
My memories of my paternal grandparents
are very strange. I remember them
as small people in a small house.
With stubborn ways.
There was not a lot of discussion
about feelings.
Feelings became a meal, usually sweets.
So there was always that sense of
like a gap between what you want to say
and what could be said.
This subterranean love,
but with this thing
that you couldn't break through,
which I called, "that Italian thing".
In the early 1900s, Frank's
grandparents and father, a child,
left for the United States.
His grandfather's brother went too,
but he returned to Sicily,
starting this branch of the family.
I was amazing because
the family was explaining to us
that there were several siblings.
The father of that Zappa family
had purchased land for the family to live.
And I don't remember
if it was five girls or five boys,
how many children there were,
but all but two of them live on the street
and live in houses beside each other.
And they spend all of their time together.
It's a special day,
Eleonora and I and Federica, our daughter,
take part in the party,
in which the American Zappas
meet the Sicilian Zappas.
A reunion of worlds,
separated a century earlier,
following totally different paths.
I think of all those
infinite family holiday meals
and about Piero, my father, and his irony,
so similar to Frank's.
Maybe it's what helps me find
the words and images today
and assemble the contrasting material
that make up our lives.
My father had a degree
of that "Sicilian thing".
He was a very emotional and sensitive
person, because he was an artist.
He was a very soft spoken,
logical, gentle person.
And it brings tears to my eyes
to think about
how thoughtful he was in his words
and his actions as a parent.
As I continue to play music,
play his music for people,
it's a way for me to continue having
a relationship that's familiar to me.
And through playing the music,
and the experience we had here in Sicily
where people were celebrating him,
being proud that he's from Partinico...
Well, all of that stuff...
It's a chance for him
to still be here for us.
I'm sorry that he wasn't here longer.
The silence is horrible,
but I'm grateful
for what he did manage to do.
The two things that I think
Frank loved the most,
that represented his life,
was, first freedom,
and second, music.
And through music,
and when you have that experience,
or whatever it is that you choose,
but for Frank it was music,
you discover freedom,
and you don't want anyone or anything
to have the power, to be in your way,
to such a degree that you cannot
do the things you're destined to do.
And I am lucky that I have
this thing that I know, that compels me.
And I saw Frank do that
with his life as well.