Frank Zappa – My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

I’ve heard people say that to truly appreciate Frank Zappa, one must have an understanding of humor, jazz, and rock and roll. I agree with that, but many of his songs are so engaging that you can just start listening to them, and they grow on you. I heard a live cut of this one first, and it was so good…I thought it was a studio cut. The song is also known as “My Guitar.”

Zappa was one of the best guitarists in the music scene. His band was always top-notch. As we talked about last week, Little Feat was born out of that band, and we all know how great they are. Flo and Eddie also graduated from the Mothers of Invention.

When it starts, it comes right at you, like Zappa is daring you to keep up. The title alone tells you what kind of ride you’re in for, and I’m a sucker for a great title. I love the humor of it, but this is a rock song that knows exactly what it’s doing. Zappa’s vocal delivery stays pointed, almost like he’s reading a message off a note he left on the refrigerator.

You can laugh at the story, but the groove is real, and the guitar work carries weight. Zappa could have stretched it out into something longer, but keeping it short makes it hit harder.

This song first appeared on The Mothers of Invention’s 1970 album Weasels Ripped My Flesh, released in 1969. Frank Zappa wrote this song…who else could have? The song was released as a single.

Here is a live cut from December 23, 1984.

My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

You know, your mama and your daddy
Saying I’m no good for you
They call me dirty from the alley
Till I don’t know what to do

I get so tired of sneaking around
Just to get to your back door
I crawled past the garbage and your mama jumped out
Screaming, don’t come back no more
I can’t take it

My guitar wants to kill your mama
My guitar wants to kill your mama
My guitar wants to burn your dad
I get real mean when it makes me mad

Later I tried to call you
Your mama told me you weren’t there
She told me don’t bother to call no more
Unless I cut off all my hair

I get so tired of sneaking around
Just to get to your back door
I crawled past the garbage and your mama jumped out
Screaming, don’t come back no more

My guitar wants to kill your mama
My guitar wants to kill your mama
My guitar wants to burn your dad
I get real mean when it makes me mad

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

28 thoughts on “Frank Zappa – My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama”

  1. This is a cool-sounding song I instantly dig, Max. I also agree Frank Zappa was a great guitarist. Oftentimes, my “challenge” with Zappa is he was too much over the top. I get the humor/satire aspect but find it can be overwhelming. If most of his music would be more like “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” my comment would be very different.

    Like with all music, it also depends on your mood. I recall a few summers ago, I was walking though the forest and actually listening to some Zappa music. At some point, I believe he literally was singing about his colon. When that happened, I couldn’t resist and started laughing out loud. I literally lost it! If somebody watched me, they probably thought there was a crazy man roaming the forest!🤣

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    1. Mood does play a part…with me mood plays a part in bands like Pink Floyd as well.

      Love your story…and YES I can see that. His humor will get to you in different ways. But of course behind that humor is a hell of a musician so he has the humor balanced with that deep music.

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      1. My favorite work by Zappa has long been the work he did with Flo and Eddie. Today, as I think about it, I am enraptured by the musical of simplicity of some of it, such as the singalong “A mountain is something you don’t want to fuck with” put together with the incredible arrangement and performance Flo and Eddie and Zappa singing. Incredible.

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      2. Yea I do love Flo and Eddie. When I think of them I think of the song Keep It Warm they did in the mid seventies. And their backup vocals on Hungry Heart by Springsteen.
        I’m just now diving into Zappa seriously…I’ll check more of the Flo and Eddie era out.

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  4. weird memory. when I was really younger my folks would take me when they went to a local department store and would ditch me where the records were because I guess I was just in the way…..I wasn’t able to do much more than look at the album covers but two albums I remember that would catch my eye was Ten Years After Shhhhhhh, and Zappa…when Christmas came around at one point and my parents asked me what I wanted, these two abums and Alice Cooper’s School’s Out…..I don’t think they knew what they were giving me, but, well the panties that came with the Cooper album and Zappa’s album I don’t think impressed them….but it sent me on this path an an early age…oopppps

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    1. Thank you Warren! You told me something I had no clue about. I just looked it up…wow…you did get panties with the album…I never heard of that! Makes me miss the 70s even more.
      My mom and step dad did the same thing to me. I would wander to the record department in a Department store and the album cover I remember the most was Black Sabbath albums…the debut with the witch and a few others.

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      1. speaking of Zappa, Overnight Sensation was on my high school soundtrack…..and, um, one of our girlfriend’s name was Moe….can you guess what her nickname became?

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  5. Still waiting for Norelco to come out with that Weasel razor… Zappa was a great talent musically and wrote some oddly catchy and jarring tunes. ‘Montana’ and ‘Bobby Brown’ are faves of his and ‘Valley Girl’ now that I’m not hearing it many times a day. This one’s new to me

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    1. I like Catholic Girls a lot…thats my goto Zappa song but I like the ones you mentioned as well. Yes he was a great talent and I think his oddness gets remembered more…but what a songwriter/arranger/ musician he was!

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      1. right. As I think you touched on he apparently even scored some classical compositions . But I like Randy’s analogy of rock’s mad scientist. Oh, ‘Joe’s gArage’, I forgot that one , it would be right by the top of my list for him ,too

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  6. Believe it or not, back in the day, My Guitar Wants To KIll Your Mama got some air play here in Los Angeles. So I’ve been familiar with it for years, and always loved it. I never paid much attention to it, beyond the initial attack and thrust of the whole ouerve right into the heart of my brain. I loved it.

    And there was much to love. Zappa’s guitar playing, which I always respected but never really cared about. Neon Park’s cover art. The feeling that this one song was part of the musical genesis of Little Feat.

    Today your writing put it all together for me. All of the stuff that I loved but knew there was more. Today I understand that I was paying attention to the pieces but missing the main point.

    I love the direction you’ve taken in the last few weeks, Max. You are bringing an old man who has listened to this great music for 60 years an understanding and a measurement device.

    Thank you.

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    1. I appreciate you following me through this. I think Frank’s odd songs and humor overshadows his musicianship that was so huge.
      I really thought about Little Feat when I did this… knowing they were in there playing. They took a turn in musicial direction when they left and it paid off.
      Thank you again!

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  7. I don’t think I have heard this one,but I don’t go out of my way to listen to Zappa. But I do think he was a musical genius, kind of the mad scientist of Rock and Roll. A genre he generally eschewed is my understanding. My wife’s brother is a huge Zappa fan so I at least know enough that we can have a conversation about him.

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  8. 2 for 2 on your takes with me today Max. 2 bands I ate up and still do. Different types of music but played by topnotch musicians. Franks guitar gets over looked but back then he waa always mentioned as one of the best. Cody plus Frank = a smorg for CB. I also bust out into song at unexpected times with a Frank lyric.
    “He’s a slobberin’ drunk ay the Palomino, They gave him 30 days in San Ber’ dino”

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    1. I look up live clips of him doing solos…just mind blowing on how good he was. No “tapping” just pure finger movement everywhere.
      That is great…I like Christian’s story about his lyrics as well. He had no rules in lyrics or music…

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      1. I listen to his music a lot. So much coming at you. The bands he had were so tight and he was a taskmaster so I guess they all vented on stage from all the stressful rehearsals. He rips a good one on the live cut you posted. It took me a few years and then I caught on to his love of Doo Wop. You hear it in a lot of the singing. Big influence on Frank along with others things.

        Lots of interesting comments. Very cool.

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