Pope
The pope is the head of the Roman-Catholic Church. He often turns up as a character in Zappa's work.
References to the pope
- White Ugliness: "President ..." -"Or pope, I dunno, ah, I dunno..."
- The Massive Improve'lence: "Whoa, do de Pope shit in de woods?"
Roy Estrada played the pope (or a Mexican pope) during the Mothers' concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968. This followed a news story that Pope Paul VI had spoken out a ban on contraceptives. Audio footage can be heard on the tracks Holding The Group Back and The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage and seen in the film Uncle Meat (The Film). Interesingly enough, Zappa later received a request to play a concert for Pope Paul VI, as mentioned in the interview Frank Zappa: America's Weirdest Rock Star Comes Clean Zappa tells that he and The Mothers were once asked to perform for the Pope: "We even had an offer to play for the pope. (...) You don't believe me. Pope Paul VI. This is an offer that came into our office. The pope wanted to attract the youth of the world to a speech he wanted to make, and they were going to get all these rock groups to play. Popestock."
Pope Paul III is portrayed on the cover of We're Only In It For The Money.
Greggery Peccary invents the calendar, which is a reference to the "Gregorian Calendar", invented by Pope Gregory XIII.
The Pope is a character in Zappa's Dio Fa.
The Pope can be seen on the back cover of The Man From Utopia.
Zappa played the pope in an episode of Ren And Stimpy. He also played Snuky Tate's He's The Groove as guest DJ on the radio, which is a song about the pope.
