From Straight to Bizarre (Zappa, Beefheart, Alice Cooper and LA's Lunatic Fringe)

As we all know Frank Zappa was not one to conform to the man.  Frank felt oppressed by society and would do anything he could to express his God given freedoms.  From Straight to Bizarre is a documentary film, recently released, which chronicles Frank Zappa and the formation of his own music label. Feeling the constraints from the label he was signed to at the time (Verve), Zappa and manager Herb Cohen decided to form their own label, so that Frank could express his art without the censorship of his former label. 

Zappa and Cohen formed the Straight and Bizarre label and signed the most fucked up/controversial artists that they could find.  Not many went on to great fame with the exception of the Alice Cooper Group.  The rest of the artists just had cult followings, as did Zappa himself.  This documentary dives into the whole story of how the label was started and how it was developed.  The majority of the film is made up of archival footage of Zappa back in the day.  There are also some current interviews with people that were associated with Zappa and the label. Not a bad film, but did run a bit long.

Bottom Line - An interesting behind the scenes look of the formation of Zappa's music label, but at 2+ hours, it got a little winded.

-Ragman was intrigued, but wondered if it would ever end.