Frank Zappa

[asdf]

drooperdoo said:

It cracks me up, someone listing Zappa's name and saying: "See? --It doesn't denote anything Arab!"
Lebanese people are mostly Christian, not "Arab". Lebanese-American comic Danny Thomas was born "Amos Jacobs".
If you asked the average nimrod what that name "sounds" like, he'd say "Jewish".
Alas, Danny Thomas was a Lebanese Christian. So, no, not all Lebanese people have "Arab" names. Look at football star Doug Flutie. He's also of Lebanese extraction. How many Americans know that "Flutie" is an Anglicization of the common Lebanese surname "Faloodi"?
Here's a link from the "Lebanese American Society," with a list of famous Americans with Lebanese heritage. cedars1.com/prominent/amleb.htm#Entertainment

P.S.--I'm not Lebanese myself and couldn't care less if Zappa was Lebanese. I always knew--like all Americans--he was a mix of many different things. Among those things was clearly Sicilian. Whether he's more Sicilian than Lebanese or Lebanese than Sicilian, I don't know. Perhaps his ancestors were from a Lebanese community in Sicily. What do I know? . . . All I'm saying is: He looks more Levantine than Sicilian--at least, to me.

There's a better thread at Skadi on him... Oh, and most Lebanese are not Christian. This was true 40 years ago, but you know how Muslims work now. Less than half of the population is Christian the numbers are declining. I suppose they've sent out plenty of immigrants though that were Christian. I think almost all of Lebanese-Americans are Christian.

Like your English.

Maybe we should all try better to be a little more tactful.

[nockwasright]

drooperdoo said:

Whether he's more Sicilian than Lebanese or Lebanese than Sicilian, I don't know. Perhaps his ancestors were from a Lebanese community in Sicily. What do I know? . . . All I'm saying is: He looks more Levantine than Sicilian--at least, to me.

I think his levantine look comes not from the Sicilian but from the Neapolitan side. There are some very levantine looking people in Naples (I'm thinking of my grandfather). There are no Lebanese or Lebanese descended in Italy, but some areas, notably Sardinia, may share a phoenician influence with Lebanon.

Btw, FZ was what he is and that's all it is.

[Herzeleid]

seizure said:

There's a better thread at Skadi on him... Oh, and most Lebanese are not Christian. This was true 40 years ago, but you know how Muslims work now. Less than half of the population is Christian the numbers are declining. I suppose they've sent out plenty of immigrants though that were Christian. I think almost all of Lebanese-Americans are Christian.

That is important to be highlighted. Most Lebanese in Brazil are Christian too. At the same time, the vast majority of muslims in Brazil are of Lebanese extraction.

Like your English.

seizure said:

Maybe we should all try better to be a little more tactful.

Tactful? Now you got that guy running for a dictionary...
His English is bad, but you shouldn't make fun of him like this! ;D

[Funky Kong]

This was true 40 years ago, but you know how Muslims work now. Less than half of the population is Christian the numbers are declining.

Worldwide there are more Christian Lebanese descendants than Muslims. There are more Lebanese in diaspora than there are Lebanese in Lebanon, and they are mainly Christians.

There are 15 million Lebanese outside Lebanon, 13 million of these are Christians.

[creug]

quot; The fact it lists Sicilian and Italian as different voices says all about wilkpedia though.
Never heard the Lebanese thing. Any source? [/quote]

Ther are a lot of Italians that would be offended by being called Sicilian and visa versa.

[Funky Kong]

Here is a picture of him and his parents.
So that's the apparently "Greek/Arab" father.

[nockwasright]

Ther are a lot of Italians that would be offended by being called Sicilian and visa versa.

This means nothing. The same could be true for people from any region in Italy and also many other regions in Europe (as Catalunia).
No person of average culture in western world ignores Sicily is part of Italy and in no book or textbook you will find such an ignorant mistake as putting Sicilyan and an Italian as different voices. Only on wilkpedia.

[Funky Kong]

The fact it lists Sicilian and Italian as different voices says all about wilkpedia though.

Zappa himself made this distinction in his biography, that's where they got it.

My ancestry is Sicilian, Greek, Arab and French. My mother's mother was French and Sicilian, and her Dad was Italian (from Naples). She was first generation. The Greek-Arab side is from my Dad. He was born in a Sicilian village called Partinico, and came over on one of the immigrant boats when he was a kid.

s115622334.onlinehome.us/cd/bl/zappabook/trfzb30.htm
Wikipedia has since changed "Arab" to "Lebanese".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa

It is very likely that his father was half Greek and half Lebanese. Lebanese Christians have strong ties to Greece, and his fathers parents could just as well had been Cypriotic Maronites.

[countlessivor]

His music as weird as his appearence.

[klabauter]

Was Zappas father Greek orthodox? What's the maiden-name of his fathers mother?

[osservatore]

springa said:

He was not "mainly Lebanese".
This is what he says in his autobiography:
"My ancestry is Sicilian, Greek, Arab, and French. My mother's mother was French and Sicilian, and her dad was Italian (from Naples). The Greek-Arab side is is from my Dad. He was born in a Sicilian village called Partinico..."

Therefore, his arab side was probably kind of distant and maybe even just assumed. From what I've read, his father family was mainly of greek sicilian lineage. Anyway, his father was half Arab at the most, and I haven't seen anything saying this Arab side was Lebanese. I don't even think he was half Arab, it was probably a distant thing. After all he was supposedely Greek-Arab, but was born in a sicilian village and had a Sicilian sounding name, Zappola.

Frank's dad's name was supposedly Francesco Zappola, hardly the name of someone who's "mainly Lebanese". His "american name" was Francis Vincent Zappa, also not denoting anything overtly greek or arab.

Anyway, Zappa was Italian-American, end of story.

I agree.

According to what he says, he's from Sicily and Naples, plus some Frecnh from the mother's side.
As many sicilians, probably he had arab ancestors, as well as greek ones.

But, reasoning this way, he could have claimed celts ancestors also, basing on his mother's french blood!

[Crimson Guard]

<<As many sicilians, probably he had arab ancestors, as well as greek ones.>>

Thats just asinine right there.

I have no idea what his ancestry is other than Sicilian/Italian and French from all that I read over the years..maybe he made up the rest cause he's hipster and is ignorant of his background/history and probably genetics.All that Greek and Arab stuff is just plain strange regardless.