Eat That Question Frank Zappa in His Own Words (2016) Review

Eat That Question offers plenty of archival footage of various interview sessions Frank Zappa did for television, combining this with clips from some of his own personal movies, as well as a number of his stage performances in front of crowds both welcoming and skeptical. Some of the delights include a clean-cut younger Frank Zappa improvising music to an audience who clearly don’t get it on “The Steve Allen Show” in 1963, where the witty host praised Zappa for his far-sighted courage to push the boundaries of his artistic expression, while also quipping to not ever perform that music around him again. We also get some insightful footage of Zappa’s testimony to congress in the 1980s, taking on Tipper Gore’s proposal to put warning labels on music of objectionable content to protect younger ears, while he fought back on trying to clamp down on artistic freedoms, feeling that there is no such thing as a bad word.