When people marched to a different drummer, Frank Zappa played rhythm.
"People think of me as some deranged comedian,"the mustachioed muscian once told an interviewer.But when he talked about free expression,even statesmen took him seriously.
We're Only In It For The Money was the title of an early album,but Zappa clearly wasn't.
As a teen-ager,he was booted from the school band for smoking.Yet he lived to hear his orchestral work performed by the London Symphony.
When Zappa died last weekend of prostate cancer at age 52,even the family's announcement kept a touch of his trademark tongue-in-cheek.
"Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6 p.m. Saturday,"it said.His wife,Gail,and four children,Moon Unit,26,Dweezil,24,Ahmet,19,and Diva,14,were with him at the family's Laurel Canyon home.
He was buried Sunday in a private ceremony in Los Angeles,said family friend Jim Nagle.
Zappa had battled prostate cancer for more than two years,but his illness rarely kept him from work
"I think his mind would not let him stop composing and creating," said cartoonest friend Matt Groening,creator of television's The Simpsons.
"He said that he was sure his work kept him going longer."
Zappa rose to fame in the anarchic counterculture of the late 1960's,performing what he called"sonic mutilations" with his band the Mothers of Invention.
In all, he releashed about 50 albums,includingHot rats,Burnt Weeny Sandwich,and Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
