Ko-Ko
Zappa dedicated The Real Frank Zappa Book to Gail, The Kids, Stephen Hawking and Ko-Ko.
When asked, in an interview with Vladimir Sovetov, the book's co-author Peter Occhiogrosso responded:
VS: Who is Ko-Ko?
PO: How the fuck should I know?
VS: Heh!
PO: I didn't mean to be so flip about Ko-Ko, but Frank's spirit took possession of me. There is Ko-Ko the Klown, who was a character in the Betty Boop cartoons, which were also quite psychedelic and which West's work seems to reflect. There is also a famous Charlie Parker song called "Koko," but I'm afraid Frank wasn't into real jazz, only jazz from hell...." - [1]
Occhiogrosso later surmised:
BTW, I hadn't heard of Ko-Ko the Gorilla before, but the fact that Zappa linked the name with Stephen Hawking -- who also communicates to the world via a computer keyboard -- and that Zappa was in love with the keyboard of his computer-driven Synclavier, tends to make me think that may be the correct reference.
In the song Broken Hearts Are For Assholes Ko-Ko is also mentioned "You were dazzled by the exciting new costume of Ko-Ko.".
Ko-Ko was also listed in the liner notes of The MOFO Project/Object (2006) album.
Notes
The gorilla was called KoKo. The Charlie Parker piece is called Ko-Ko as was an earlier piece by Duke Ellington.
