FRANK ZAPPA Doin’ The Hand Jive

No, this isn’t the newest dance craze. This is our boy Frank Zappa demonstrating the tricks of his trade. It may look like monkeyshines, but how would you like to be responsible for riding herd on a pack of mangy instrumentalists, each hot to solo his grand wazoo off given half a chancy? You’d have to keep a firm hand, and that’s what Frank demonstrates here in ten freeze frames, each commemorating one of his years in the business and immortalizing his distinctive brand of body language. Some say the hand is quicker than the eye, but our photographers disproved that old axiom and caught Frank in his famous fickle fingers act. So the old fart decided to fess up and tell us what all the hand jive means.