text:
Talk:Frank Zappa/Archive 3

Background music in documentaries
I inserted a little note about the (i.m.o. notable) usage of tracks from the jazz-fusion LPs. Could we perhaps include an audio-sample of Waka/Jawaka? DVdm 11:16, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Could you please provide some notable examples and sources? Otherwise, it will not "survive" a WP:FAC nomination. About samples, I am right now creating some. But as you can guess it is impossible to find just a few samples that well documents such a diverse composer!--HJensen, talk 11:45, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Alas, I don't think I can prove this with sources. In the course of the years I have heard "Waka/Jawaka" in at least 4 different docus: two about astronomy (one on Dutch TV and one on BBC), one BBC-nature docu, and in a (French, I believe) docu on Giorgio Armani. I heard "Peaches En Ragalia" many times in the background, but can't remember where. It was also, during almost a decade the opening music of the well-know (well, in Belgium, that is) movies-programme "Premiere". As for the other tracks, we have noticed parts from "Sleep Dirt", "Filthy Habits", "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution", "Big Swifty", "Little Umbrellas", "Big Swifty", "Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus", "Eat That Question".
 * What *is* striking though, and what I did not mention in the article, is that I never noticed anything of the kind on U.S. documentaries - they all originated in Europe (U.K., France, Netherlands, Belgium). Strange.
 * Anyway, I guess this is not sufficient to survive a WP:FAC nomination. This begs the question: do we need such a nomination? ;-)
 * So, also I won't do it, I do feel a bit tempted to undo your revert and see what other contributors do with it. What do you (and others) think? Cheers, DVdm 12:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Please be WP:BOLD and do so if you like. My own opinion is probably that it is not the most important to put into the article. But it would definitely be relevant to the article on Cultural references to Frank Zappa.--HJensen, talk 15:34, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Ok, thanks, I appreciate. I will put it back and let's see what happens. Maybe someone does find a proper source.
 * Cheers, DVdm 16:08, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Samples
Until now, there were just three samples "hidden" in the bottom of the article in an independent section. I have insted inserted samples at appropriate places in the article. Finding representative samples for Zappa's diverse work is, of course, impossible. I have nevertheless chosen the following: --HJensen, talk 15:34, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * "The Black Page": As an example of his strong percussion-influence in compositions (classical as well as rock) and complicated rhytmical patterns. It goes well with the surrounding text.
 * "Hungy Freaks Daddy": As an example of early vocal music with social commentary, and it goes well with text.
 * "Naval Aviation in Art?": As an example of his classical music (which should have a bit more text in the article)
 * "Shut up 'n play Your Guitar": As an example of his improvisations on the guitar
 * "Bobby Brown": As an example of later vocal music, and it goes nice with the existing text.
 * "N-Lite": As an example of his synclavier pieces. I doubt that a newcomer will have any idea about what the synclavier sounds like, so I think this example lead them onto it.

 * As always, excellent job!
 * Dare I boldly formulate the following litle request? Would you mind inserting these 40-sec extracts of "Peaches En Regalia" and "Waka/Jawaka". You can get the ogg-files from my site by clicking the links.
 * Tia! DVdm 16:46, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Ok, I managed to add the samples.
 * "Peaches En Regalia": One of Zappa's best known "songs". Example of richly layered rhytmic/instrumental complexity resulting in highly melodic experience.
 * "Waka/Jawaka": Representatie example of Jazz-Fusion works.
 * DVdm 14:01, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Panel discussion
Hi HJEnsen, I notice you reverted the panel Discussion. Too bad, since it is a pretty interesting talk.

Two questions:
 * You say that it is a "commercial link". Indeed, although the content of the discussion can hardly be called commercial, it is indeed sitting on a commercial site. But then again, ins't The Official Frank Zappa Site a commercial link as well?
 * Do you think there is any possible policy compliant way to have this discusion on board? I guess the file itself is copyrighted material and can't just be made available as an audio-clip?

Cheers, DVdm 17:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Hi there "DVdm"! Check out the WP:EL page on general wiki policies about links, in particular under "Links normally to be avoided". I definitely think this link is against policy. It is from a Blog-like site of a commercial radio station (Detroit Jazz stage). Clearly, Zappa.com is also a commercial site, as is any official site of an artist, but those are allowed according to policy in articles on the subject in hand. Moreover, we cannot link to everything interesting about Zappa. It should serve some specific purpose (preferably add citations to the text), and some of the links in external links section are already on the border. Hope this clarifies (and thanks for putting up the "Jazz" samples to the articles!). Cheers.--HJensen, talk 17:28, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I have checked WP:EL and couldn't really find any item in the list of links normally to be avoided stating that this link should be removed.
 * Not mentioning the i.m.o. obviously irrelevant/unapplicable items, the page itself
 * is not "mainly intended to promote a website" (4),
 * doesn't "primarily exist to sell products or services" (5),
 * it has no "objectionable amounts of advertising" (6),
 * it clearly isn't a blog (12),
 * but it is "directly related to the subject of the article" (14).
 * So... what do others think? By the way, are there any other left? ;-)
 * Cheers, DVdm 18:36, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I would say it comes from a commercial website: . Note also that a user has been noticed about potential conflict of interest here: . So I would not consider it a valid link. Also it fails on "1. Any site that does not provide a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a Featured article." In any case, I follow the rule that if in doubt, don't include it. To quote from the policy "Adding external links can be a service to our readers, but they should be kept to a minimum of those that are meritable, accessible and appropriate to the article." I think the link is interesting, but not needed for the encyclopedic value of the article. (And yes, where is everybody?) --HJensen, talk 13:33, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Indeed, from a commercial site, but (4), (5), (6) are not applicable. Agreed, at first clearly entered by someone with a potential conflict of interest. But when I enter the link, this can't be an objection anymore.
 * Anyway, I'll leave it out. Perhaps some of the others have an opinion as well ;-) - Cheerio, DVdm 16:35, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Drugs
It should be noted that, while he opposed drug use, he supported drug use as an individual right, in accordance with his libertarian leanings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.68.31.79 (talk) 19:12, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Source it and we can maybe include it. --John 19:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

External link to Wiki Jawaka
User John removed the external link to Zappa Wiki Jawaka - a Wiki exclusively about Frank Zappa, "per wp:el" - probably because of item 13: "Links to open wikis, except those with a substantial history of stability and a substantial number of editors.".

I think this open Wiki deserves to be listed as an external link because:
 * It contains a welth of information not available here,
 * it has a history of stability, which i.m.o. is sufficiently substantial,
 * it has a number of editors, which i.m.o. is also sufficiently substantial.

John, what do you think? Cheers, DVdm 20:28, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

 * You're right, that was why I removed it. I have mixed feelings; I like the idea of this Zappa wiki, but I do not think this Wikipedia article needs the link. I also don't think it fits with our policy WP:EL. Let's see what others think. --John 02:17, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Ok, fair enough. So, Others, what do you think? :-) - DVdm 10:47, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I am quite indifferent. BTW, I think there is a policy on not linking to other wiki-generated sites (on the same grounds that a link to another wiki rticle is not a proper citation). In any case, I guess my indifference sums up to a "no". It is not essential.--HJensen, talk 13:58, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Quick addendum: And that probably goes for a lot of the external links.--HJensen, talk 13:59, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Well, I have pointed to and quoted the policy item above: "Links normally to be avoided: 13 - Links to open wikis, except those with a substantial history of stability and a substantial number of editors." and I gave the reason why I think it's a nice to have. DVdm 14:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok, quick review:
 * Yes, definitey (DVdm),
 * No, because no need (John),
 * No, because indifferent (HJensen)

So where are the other editors? It looks like we have substantially less editors than the Wiki Jawaka :-) - DVdm 10:06, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I might go to Jawaka myself, but it seems to me to fail the three-part test. -- Orange Mike 18:07, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

 * I've heard an overseas (U.S.) colleague of mine use that expression before. I asked what she meant by it, which three parts she had in mind, and when and by whom it was establshed that the desicion we were about to make, depended on those three parts. The answer went a bit like "Ha, never mind, it's just a silly expression we use all the time over here. You're not supposed to ask about the parts - just nod, and talk about the next topic."
 * So, just out of curiosity... is this an exception, or do I just nod, and open a new section on an entirely different topic? :-)
 * DVdm 19:53, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

 * No, by "the three-part test" I meant this:
 * Is it accessible to the reader?
 * Is it proper in the context of the article (useful, tasteful, informative, factual, etc.)?
 * Is it a functional link, and likely to continue being a functional link?
 * Jawaka might be great for a hardcore Zappaphile like myself, but I don't think it meets these criteria for an encyclopedic link.-- Orange Mike 17:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

 * Ok, thanks. Of course, as far as I can see,
 * it is accessible to the reader,
 * it is proper in the context of the article (useful, tasteful, informative, factual, etc.),
 * it is a functional link, and likely to continue being a functional link,
 * so i.m.o. it clearly does meet the criteria. DVdm (talk) 19:07, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Guys! As an editor on Wiki Jawaka I am obliged to say "keep the link". I see Old Francesco manages an external link to us without any problems. We offer some unique insights into the world of Zappa. When you eventually finish this one page article feel free to pop over and work on a real Zappa Wiki ;-)

Lame Name 23:57, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
 * There you provided a very good argument for deleting the Franscesco Zappa article. It is one line, and then a link to the Zappa Wiki. Not notable for this Wikipedia!--HJensen, talk 17:19, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes I would agree with that as it could all be included as a note on the album's page. Must try and find time to correct all the mistakes in the FZ article ;-)
 * Lame Name (talk) 18:44, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes, who would dream of going through the trouble of creating an article on the Wikipedia if all the work has already been done elsewhere? Let's quickly delete the one-line article and the link, and sit by the sideline until someone copies everything from the jawaka :-) DVdm (talk) 19:07, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

muslim? what?
this website claims Frank Zappa was muslim. I've never heard such a claim before, anyone got a clue?

http://www.searchboth.com/MuslimHeritage/

--Popoi (talk) 17:02, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

 * I think it's saying he's of "Muslim" (by which they seem to mean, at least in part, "Arab") heritage! -- Orange Mike 17:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Regardless, there is no truth to this. Zappa's heritage was exclusively Italian, and his family was catholic (though Zappa actively opposed organised religion, as the article notes). Manning (talk) 04:06, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Zappa's heritage was not exclusively Italian. The way his parents' etniticity is written is sourced from his own book. But, of course, the equation arab=muslim is not always true, and definitely not in Zappa's case.--HJensen, talk 06:57, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
 * That idea is strong in the U.S., and wrong. Lebanese Christians, whose ranks in the U.S. range from Danny Thomas to Ralph Nader to former Wisconsin Progressive legislator James Azim, are both Arab and Christian. -- Orange Mike  |  Talk  15:36, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

 * It seems to be unknown what Arab country or what religion Zappa's Arab family was from, but since his father was apparently part Arab and part Greek, it seems likely that the Arab part was Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic (Melkite, which many Christian Arabs are. Funkynusayri (talk) 15:54, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

GA nomination on hold
Please leave a note on my talk page when you're done with this stuff - cheers, — Dihydrogen Monoxide  07:33, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

 * The location of his death should be noted in the infobox (if known) and in the persondata at the bottom
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * 1977 shouldn't be wlinked in the infobox image caption
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "The same year, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #71" - "Rolling Stone" should be in italics
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Ref 3 should have Rolling Stone wlinked somewhere
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Although many assumed that he, like many musicians, used drugs," - that statement that many musicians use drugs is one of opinion, not fact - it may be true but it shouldn't be used there without an easily verifiable source (preferably not a book) pointing to someone in the know saying "many musicians use drugs"
 * ✅ Sentence has been reworded. It was not the intention to say that today “many musicians use drugs”, but that many did in Zappa’s time. I hope it can pass without a source at that point (many prominent musicians of this time a well known to have died from drugs). HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * As you've decided to cite statements in the lead, you should get a few sources/refs for the last paragraph of it
 * ✅ Added more sources. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Ref 2 - ISBN formatting please
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "when he lived in the Baltimore area.[10],[8]" - The comma seperating the refs isn't necessary
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "In 1952, his family relocated mainly because of Frank's asthma." - Change "Frank" to "Zappa" (throughout)
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "The first music Zappa purchased were R&B singles," - Switches between singular and plural (or seems to). Suggest rewording to "The first items of music Zappa purchased were R&B singles," (but you can do something else if you prefer)
 * ✅. Followed your suggestion. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Do you know when/at what age he say the LOOK article, etc.?
 * ✅ The answer is “around” thirteen; source is added. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "where Zappa had his own Saturday night show" - Did he have this show at age 15, or later on in his life?
 * ✅ Removed sentence. It was misplaced (it was much later Zappa had a weekly radio show, and it is not of great importance). HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Although he performed as a singer and guitarist for most of his later career, Zappa's original influence by classical percussion compositions made him retain a strong interest in rhythm and percussion and his bands have been noted for the excellence of their drummers and percussionists. His works such as "The Black Page" are notorious for complexity in rhythmic structure, featuring radical changes of tempo and metre as well as short, densely arranged passages contrasted by free-form breaks and extended improvisations." - Source/Ref?
 * ✅ I have provided two sources and rephrased the sentence slightly. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Ref 23 - YouTube is one word, and can be wlinked (to YouTube). You may also wish to consider using the YouTube template. Same with ref 42
 * ✅ Fixed spelling and wlink. Could not make template work – hope that is o.k. for now. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * 2nd last paragraph of early life section needs a ref. Last para should be merged up into 2nd last (thus making it the last).
 * ✅ A lot was POV, which has been deleted. I have merged paragraphs and added some new information. Also in the section as a whole, I have reshuffled a few paragraphs for the sake of chronological continuity. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * 1st para of 1960s section needs ref/sources
 * ✅ Added sources, and split the section. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Unfortunately, the customer was an undercover member of the Vice Squad " - Replace "unfortuneately" with "however" (or similar)
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Around this time, Zappa also met and signed with longtime manager Herb Cohen." - Remove this - already noted earlier in the paragraph
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "With Wilson credited as producer, The Mothers recorded" - Didn't they rename to The Mothers of Invention? If so, use this name...also, that paragraph needs refs
 * ✅ Added refs for what could be sourced (and deleted some uncourced statements). Fixed renaming. The problem is, however, that the band was mostly known as The Mothers, but it was in order to please the record company that the “of Invention” was added. Later, Zappa also gradually dropped the “of Invention” from album titles. Finally, it gets long to write it in full every time. But I have for now tried to make it consistent. HJensen, talk 15:33, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "it was also only the second double LP of rock music ever released" - you could note here what the first was
 * ✅ Deleted statement. No source can be found. On the album’s WikiPage wordings are also more cautious. (Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” is widely considered the first, so it may be the second, but until no source is found let’s keep it as it is.) HJensen, talk 15:33, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "and Zappa took over as producer for all the Mothers and solo Zappa recordings issued from that time on" - again, use the full name (Mothers of Invention) - this occurs a few times so keep an eye out
 * ✅ See comments above. Also, I have rewritten the thing a bit, included a section about his meeting of his second wife, and mentioned Absolutely Free in slight more detail, as its music is very much archetypical Zappa. HJensen, talk 15:33, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, I have noted that from the 1970s and onwards, Zappa almost always removed ”of Invention” and just used ”The Mothers.” HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "according to Zappa, took nine months to edit. It mixes a multitude of musical styles and orchestra line ups." - Source for him saying this?
 * ✅ The source is liner notes from his album Civilization Phaze III, but I took out the specific statement and put a slightly extended description of the album prior to that of “We’re only in it..” The sources for the collage nature of the album are provided. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Also the New York part of the band’s existence is rewritten, making the existing paragraph on a Garrick theatre performance fit in more natural. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "During the late Sixties, Zappa continued to develop both the artistic and business sides of his career..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ Added source. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "He became famous for regularly quoting musical phrase..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ The paragraph has been removed. It is like stating that one of his main contributions was his musical quotes. I could not find solid references for that (although the examples given in the now deleted paragraph were correct – one example of Stravinsky quote is moved to description of “Ruben...” album).HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Although they were lauded by critics and their peers and had a rabid cult following..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ Paragraph rewritten and sourced. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and undoubtedly had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre." - Who says it's popular, who says it had an influence?
 * ✅ Slightly reworded the paragraph and sourced it. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "and no fewer than three members of" - Just say "and three members of"
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "The new lineup debuted on Zappa's next solo LP..." - paragraph needs source
 * ✅ Sources provided, as well as extending the mention of “200 Motels” slightly as it is important. HJensen, talk 16:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "In December 1971 there were two serious setbacks." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ Sources added. HJensen, talk 16:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "(which caused his voice to drop a third after healing)" - Not sure that third points to where you want it to point in this case
 * ✅ Fixed wlink. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "In 1971-72 Zappa released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LP..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ And I have deleted some of sentence I couldn’t source. HJensen, talk 16:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Zappa and Cohen merged the Bizarre and Straight labels in 1973..." - And again...paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ Sourced things. HJensen, talk 16:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Zappa soon appeared on the (at the time) influential Los Angeles radio station KROQ" - AFAIK they still are influential - in any case you need a source for them being "influential". Also need a source for Warner Bros refusing to release it, just before the sentence quoted
 * ✅ Could not find backing for the “then influential” (although I reckon it was and still is). Rest is sourced now, though. HJensen, talk 00:23, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in 1976..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ Sources provided. And parts extended to give more room for the Läther material. HJensen, talk 00:23, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Cohen had used some of Frank's money to fund recordings for other artists" - Change "Frank" to "Zappa"
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "which received some controversial attention" - fact
 * ✅ Explained the occurrence and provided sources. HJensen, talk 23:34, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "and mixes catchy songs like" - "catchy" is POV (unless a source says that)
 * ✅ Removed POV. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Joe's Garage went on to be named one of the top-25 drumming performances of all time in a 1993 Modern Drummer magazine article" - fact
 * ✅ Rm sentence, until source can be found. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Any reason why ref 36 is all in italics? Same with ref 40
 * ✅ I could not identify this problem. The notes look fine (non-italicized) to me. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "In 1981, Tinsel Town Rebellion..." - Paragraph needs sourcing
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released..." - Same again...
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "being a devastating tirade on religion" - "devastating" is POV
 * ✅ Removed POV. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "to popular demand.[37]As the title" - There needs to be a space between the ref and the "As"
 * ✅ Removed space. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Frank Zappa's guitar solos had been a trademark during his career, and now he decided to release albums focusing on his work as a guitarist" - Ref for this decision/quote?
 * ✅ Removed sentence. No reference found for decision (immaterial as it is kind of tautological anyway). HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "which featured his biggest selling single, "Valley Girl" (topping out at #32 on the Billboard charts)." - fact
 * ✅ Provided reference. HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "In her improvised "lyrics" to the song, Zappa's daughter Moon Unit satirized the vapid speech of teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley, which popularized many "Valspeak" expressions such as "gag me with a spoon" and "barf out."" - fact
 * ✅ Provided reference. HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "something he had been waiting to accomplish for some time" - Source?
 * ✅ Removed unsourced statement, and rewrote and sourced. HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "In 1984, he released four albums within a few months" - change "a few" to "several"
 * ✅ Removed mention of months. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Francesco Zappa a synclavier rendition of works by 17th century composer" - The link here goes to Francesco Zappa, but in the navbox at the bottom it points to Francesco Zappa (album). Which is correct?
 * ✅ The latter is correct. I have made the wlink to the composer’s article in surrounding text. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "and including many other political wives, including the wives of five members of the committee." - This doesn't really make sense...
 * ✅ Reworded the sentence. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Ref 41 could do with better cite web style formatting (accessdate, publisher, etc. etc.)
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "brought Zappa his first Grammy Award" - change "brought" to "earned"
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "His last tour in a "rock band format"" - whose quote is this, and is there a source for it?
 * ✅ Removed quotation marks; it was not meant as representing a quote. HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "Vols. 4 and 6." - Change "vols" to "volumes"
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * "of all his classic 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s" - "classic" is POV, remove it
 * ✅ HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Ref 45 needs a source (if that makes sense)
 * ✅ Removed fn, but provided source of for general comparisons between LPs and CDs. HJensen, talk 17:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "Although ill, in September 1992, he appeared as a guest conductor with the classical "Ensemble Modern" for several of a series of concerts in Germany and Austria devoted to his compositions, recordings from which appeared on The Yellow Shark." - fact
 * ✅ Sourced the statement. HJensen, talk 17:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * "He stated in interviews that he was working on hundreds of synclavier pieces, most of which remain unreleased" - Source of this statement?
 * ✅ Removed statement for now. HJensen, talk 17:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Most of the external links shouldn't be there - the only one that should (it seems) is his official website and IMDB page. However, most of the sites there could potentially be used for sourcing
 * ✅ Removed all links. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * For eventual future reference, I record the list (as of December 29, 2007) of links here:
 * * Information Is Not Knowledge Comprehensive discography (vinyl and CD), songlists, chronology, filmography, lists of musicians, etc.
 * * The Zappa Patio Includes "The Frank Zappa Versions Guide;" detailed discography including bootlegs and differences between vinyl and CD releases.
 * * ARF: Frank Zappa Scholars Web Page Includes detailed FAQs on nearly every song on every released album.
 * * United Mutations Constantly updated web site about the Zappa community, including Zappa's backing musicians, worldwide.
 * * Frank Zappa's Musical Language Detailed analyses of various compositions.
 * * The FZShows homepage Setlists for most Frank Zappa shows.
 * * PlanetZappa - A Tribute to Frank Zappa Discography, interviews, photos.
 * * The Highway 57 Zappa Zone Includes searchable discography.
 * * The Planet Of My Dreams Includes list of all Frank Zappa shows and line-ups chronology.
 * * Touring Can Make You Crazy Detailed tour info, and in-depth analysis of selected tours.
 * HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Frank Zappa at the bottom could do with a list of band members, but that's not a GA requirement.
 * ✅ That would in Zappa’s case be an enormous list. So for now, I have just let it be. HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Reviewed version:

Good luck, — Dihydrogen Monoxide  07:33, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks for a very thorough job. I will start working on it, but due to the upcoming holidays, it may take a bit more than a week. Cheers.--HJensen, talk 09:36, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * OK that's fine - I'm happy to wait :) — Dihydrogen Monoxide 10:03, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Today I have managed to get 1/3 of the stuff done. I expect to get to the rest very soon.--HJensen, talk 17:01, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Today I have not managed that much, but I progress. HJensen, talk 15:33, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Today, I have just made a few of the “simple” edits. Happy New Year! HJensen, talk 16:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Today I have ended the 1960s section. HJensen, talk 01:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * This is truly impressive. If you are Dweezil in disguise, I hope you'll tour in Europe again by the end of the year :-)
 * Cheers and happy 2008! - DVdm (talk) 12:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Today I have moved into the 1970s. Getting closer to the finish! HJensen, talk 16:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I moved on to Sheik Yerbouti. So I guess I am one revision away now. HJensen, talk 00:23, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Almost done (one revision to go), see above (Also, I have removed most items from “Further reading” section which are not formatted appropriately.) HJensen, talk 23:34, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Still, almost done, see above. HJensen, talk 15:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * I have now addressed all the concerns in the review, and left a note on the reviewer’s talk page. Again, thanks for a helpful review, and I will be happy to make further needed changes should they be needed. HJensen, talk 17:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * I noticed that you removed the background music remark. I have been looking for a source, but couldn't find any either. Who knows, maybe one day, by accident :-)
 * Again, congrats for a tremendous job well done. If this does not deserve the GA label now, I'll have to stop believing in the concept altogether. Cheers, DVdm (talk) 19:29, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks a bunch! Yes, I took out the background music remark. I fully believe you are right, but we need cites (and they would be great to have as it would show Zappa's legacy). I did some searches, but so far with no success. Let's hope something will pop up some time! HJensen, talk 21:03, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * It absolutely deserves GA (don't lose faith!) so I'm passing it. Great work, HJensen. — Dihydrogen Monoxide 21:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice work, I've watched this article get better and better, unfortunately I don't have time to work on it myself. Any ideas on what would now be required to push it to FA status? It would be great to see Frank on the front page some time. RWhite (talk) 12:58, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I am empty for ideas right now. But I think a little more on his last years should be there. I'll put some in soon. But please step in whenever you have time. Cheers! --HJensen, talk 20:36, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Frank Vincent Zappa - not Francis
Regarding this edit by 70.49.3.32:
 * "(I was in my mid-twenties when I found out! Up until the time I had to get a passport for the first European tour, I thought my name was Francis -- a name I had always hated. In order to get the passport, I had to present my birth certificate -- a mysterious document I had never seen before. My mother mailed it to me from California, and on it, much to my delight, was a name OTHER THAN FRANCIS -- well, it wasn't that good -- "Frank" isn't much of a bargain -- but I had thought for years, even printing it on album covers, that I was Francis Vincent Zappa Junior. How could I be such a fool?)" (from "The Real Frank Zappa book").

DVdm (talk) 10:00, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Creative "nadir"?
The section "1.3 1970s" (seventh paragraph) contains a curious statement: A live recording from 1974, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988) shows that Zappa during this period was at a creative nadir.[106]. I don't have the reference source (Miles, Barry 2004) at hand, but I find the term "nadir" very odd in this context. Most Zappa fans would regard the 74 band as one of the best, not the worst, and Zappa's creative output at the time was superb. Why the reference claims it was his worst period baffles me.Manning (talk) 14:03, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Good observation. I rechecked the source (which is Lowe, 2006), and he uses the word "nadir" in between high praises of that band and period. So I am as confused as you are. So, I picked another quote. --HJensen, talk 21:48, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Maybe the author just didn't know what "nadir" actually meant. The new version reads much better now anyway. Manning (talk) 03:39, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Intro
Seems a little crowded, what do others think? ReverendG (talk) 06:23, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Tim Buckley
Removed a reference to Tim Buckley that made it sound as it Frank had produced his recordings. Though Buckley had three albums released by Straight Records, Zappa did not do any production work for Buckley. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.229.4.82 (talk) 06:30, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

The music
The article has a well-written biography, but it totally lacks info about his music, what kind of music he wrote, the way he compose/wrote songs, his view on music, his guitar playing, etc. I think you get my point. 213.66.120.120 (talk) 23:37, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think the archive discussion of his guitar style points in the right direction, but the person who wrote it has a tenuous grasp of how to describe musical performance. I will deal with this section soon, since I am a trained musician myself. Qwertysocks (talk) 22:41, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Was Zappa a capitalist
Is it accurate to describe Zappa as a capitalist based on the interview citing his political point of view? I think it is erroneous to draw such a conclusion. I could be wrong and if anyone has proof that Zappa avowed faith in capitalism, I would appreciate it very much and it would enlighten me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nmukh1 (talk • contribs) 07:11, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Significant topics for inclusion?
I did not waste too much time on the Powdered Toast Man link as I anticipated a rapid unilateral reversion - but it lasted for over an hour which is pretty good for this article. So is this an article about the works of Zappa, in which case a marginal voice appearance would probably not be worth mentioning, or is it an article about Frank Zappa, in which case there would be a good case for it's inclusion - along with Duckman, The Simpsons, Gábor Csupó et. al. ?

One learns little, if anything, of the man from the article. The inclusion of silliness such as Grammys,  and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (surely both anathema to Zappa) further clouds any impression of the man one might garner from the article. Baltimore's Frank Zappa Day had more to do with local politics than Zappa himself. Yet someone seemed to think these were significant enough for inclusion whilst excluding much that would be informative.

Perhaps you could list what would be acceptable topics to include so we do not waste our time adding information to improve the article - which still has so many glaring factual errors as to be in need of some serious work.

Lame Name (talk) 15:31, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
 * A great thing for a start would be to point out any glaring factual error. The Grammy stuff is valuable as it, like it or not, is "objective" indications of Zappa's legacy. I think the article does convey that his work was nevertheless anything but traditional. (Note also that there is an article on Cultural references to Frank Zappa where the Powdered Toast Man is mentioned.) --HJensen, talk 19:33, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Errors? Pick a paragraph -  any paragraph ;-)  He met Donald Vliet at school - the Van affectation was added later.  He was imprisoned (according to his account in TRFZB) for conspiracy rather than supplying pornography.  The 1970 band was touring during summer 1970 so was formed before late 1970. Etc. Etc.  I know I should jump in and make some changes but I fear I would need to rewrite the whole thing...  "he started seriously dreaming of becoming a composer." Really? Seriously? Do we know about his frivolous dreams too?

 * Perhaps the Grammy (I would question their significance - can you name any winners from last year?) bit could be phrased along the lines of... although Zappa was critical of such things and saw no value in them he was nominated...

 * But I still learn little of the actual man from the article. Did he enjoy smoking cigarettes?  Who knows?   Lame Name (talk) 20:08, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Since you don't want to contribute at the moment, I have taken care of the stuff you mention. Thanks for pointing out these things. "Glaring factual errors" are just an easy term to throw around if one is sitting comfortable and knowingly but passively watching from the sides. But please point out more, and I will be happy to make corrections. Cheers. About the Grammys, do you have a good cite? As for cigarettes, I don't care if he liked smoking them. --HJensen, talk 21:14, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Factual errors are not an easy term to throw around they are factual errors. Whether you care or not about his smoking it was something that he enjoyed from his childhood to his death.  Given his anti-drug stance his own usage (and rationale for doing so) of nicotine and caffeine is surely worth mentioning. Lame Name (talk) 20:04, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree that the Powdered Toast Man mention should be made, as it's perhaps the only example of Zappa collaborating "underneath" another artist in a field other than that of music. And, no, the Grammies aren't a fucking "objective" indicator of legacy, give me a break. They're an "objective" indicator that a certain performer pleased the suits responsible for shitting the little awards out, nothing more, nothing less. Beethoven managed quite a legacy without Grammies, thank you very much. Or great-Grammies, for that matter.

 * That said, you're dead-on, the article is in a bit of a messy state, to put it mildly. I believe a lot of the strictly-stylistic errors have to do with the fact that a significant potion (probably even a majority) of contemporary Zappa fans hail from non-English speaking countries (c.f. Zappanale). Then there're the copy-editors and casual drive-by editors whose sum total of Zappa-knowledge can be summed up as "guy who took drugs and ate shit on stage". By all means, let's work on a re-write. --Badger Drink (talk) 20:56, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Please be bold and correct all the mistakes made by people who cannot write in English as well as you. Your
 * "And, no, the Grammies aren't a fucking "objective" indicator of legacy, give me a break. They're an "objective" indicator that a certain performer pleased the suits responsible for shitting the little awards out, nothing more, nothing less. Beethoven managed quite a legacy without Grammies, thank you very much. Or great-Grammies, for that matter"
 * would, however, be slightly unsuitable for an encyclopedia. :-) --HJensen, talk 21:14, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Bold I shall. And come on, how about if I sourced that rant? I was just about to make it into a template, too... =( --Badger Drink (talk) 10:23, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

POV ALERT!
the introduction is super opinionated, being way positive about mr. zappa. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.207.2.228 (talk) 19:45, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Note that in constrast with most biographies, the lead is backed by citations - I don't see any POV. Please be more specific, as that would help improve the article.--HJensen, talk 20:18, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Using his own The Real Frank Zappa Book ("A lot of stuff in that book is bull shit. It was just his imagination." - Don Preston) and given his observation that "rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read." the POV of the citations could be queried. Lame Name (talk) 19:58, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * It is not POV to cite the opinions of a reliable source. It is POV to write you own opinions unbacked by citations.--HJensen, talk 20:47, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Greek Arab claim
Do we have any actual evidence that Francis (his father) was of "Greek-Arab descent"? Zappa is a common surname in Italy, not of Greeks or Arabs. What Frank seems to have been doing is the same thing as Salvador Dalí, linking himself to what he may see as "glamourous" or "mysterious" parts of his ancestors countries history (no matter however small in Zappa's case), rather than his extended family actually been Greeks or Arabs. What is more likely is that his father is just a normal Sicilian that Frank wanted to "spice up" for mystique factor. - Gennarous (talk) 19:05, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Agreed. Given that Sicily was part of Ancirnt Greece and was, over centuries, invaded by, amongst others, Arabs.  It is not particularly notable that someone from Sicily claims "Greek-Arab descent".

 * But I have yet to figure out how his mother had an English name like Colimore. Any suggestions?  Lame Name (talk) 19:49, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Interesting. As for now, let us keep the thing that has a citation. --HJensen, talk 20:45, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Does the first line of the Miles book (I am not at home so am unable to check) say (something along the lines of) he lived west of Los Angeles. Just because it is in a book does not mean it is true, accurate, notable, or a neutral point of view. Lame Name (talk) 21:10, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Of course not. But what is your suggestion then? You seem just to vent a lot of criticism against the article. That is fine, but we need to get more specific to improve it (questioning everything doesn't get us far), so it could reach FA status (note that it is at GA status - I did not spend a lot of time intentionally making a mess out of the article. I followed the suggesions in the GA review).--HJensen, talk 22:54, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Technically, Reno, Nevada is west of Los Angeles. ;) I think the most sensible course of action would be to remove the ancestry line completely. Just because it's sourced doesn't mean it has to be in the article. --Badger Drink (talk) 04:49, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Agreed. His ancestry was not a significant influence on his own life and reference to it adds nothing to the article. Lame Name (talk) 06:30, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I think it is informative and natural to spend a line on that in any biography, so why not Zappa's? --HJensen, talk 06:45, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

 * It would be informative if it is true. Is it verifiable? Is there anything to support the claims?  Without support  the reference should be qualified with "Zappa claimed..." or somesuch. Lame Name (talk) 07:13, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Dynamo Hum
Heard "don't eat yellow snow" and "valley girl" on Dr. Demento but AOR stations' late nite DJs would play Dynamo Hum. Shjacks45 (talk) 21:06, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Info Box Deletion Proposal
With so many genres, instruments, labels etc. I think the info box could be removed in line with these discussions. Thoughts? Lame Name (talk) 06:38, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * There was a debate on how many genres, etc. And the "settlement" was four. In this particular case, I don't think it is too many. I also think the infobox serves a good purpose of providing overview. But I will look at the discussion you mention. I wasn't aware of it. Thanks. --HJensen, talk 06:42, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

One Shot Deal
I am shocked and alarmed that there isn't an article for album #83 that just came out. Zazaban (talk) 06:08, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Fell free to start one. Cheers! --HJensen, talk 11:58, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I suck at making articles. But I'll try. Zazaban (talk) 17:45, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Job well done!! It is started, and that's important. I added a photo, and then the article can be expanded when more people hear it. --HJensen, talk 21:46, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Atheist?
Instead of continuing a mindless edit war, is Frank Zappa an atheist? I was under the impression he is. Zazaban (talk) 03:11, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Of course. So am I. So what? Is that important? DVdm (talk) 09:46, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * If this is to become an informative article about Frank Zappa then it would be important. If you want the article to merely catalogue his works and the names of the musicians that he performed with then anything about Frank Zappa as an individual will be of less importance.  Lame Name (talk) 11:00, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * I don't see how a musician's (lack of) religion could be of any importance, unless one could demonstrate that it was a significant issue in his work or life. If some Pope turns out to be an atheist, okay, that would be relevant and worth mentioning. In this case, I don't see any reason to do so. Everyone knows that Zappa was an atheist, that should be pretty obvious. He also had black hair. So what?
 * By the way, if the colour of Zappa's underwear turns out to be important, I hereby declare that mine is white ;-) - DVdm (talk) 11:52, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The reason I brought it up was because I was in the middle of an edit war with someone who was insistent on removing Zappa from Category:atheists Zazaban (talk) 19:32, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * If we follow your reasoning... Everyone knows Zappa was a musician - shall we put the article up for speedy deletion? There are many (50+ ?) references to religion and churches in TRFZB. The article already mentions some songs he wrote on the topic.  If it was important to him it should be reflected in an encyclopedic article about him. Lame Name (talk) 14:31, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall him ever explicitly saying being an atheist, not even in TRFZB - although it is 200% obvious. You can find many anti-church aka anti-organised-religion references in there and in many of the lyrics, so go ahead and mention those. But as for explicit atheism, i.m.o. all you can say is something like Zappa obviously was - or must have been - an atheist - and i think that would pull down the current factual quality of the article.
 * DVdm (talk) 14:56, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
 * "the current factual quality" is still debatable IMHO. If it is 200% obvious it should be verifiable whether he said it or not (he is not the most reliable source!!).  But you would need to define Atheism for us -Wikipedia says... "Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere". Which is probably a good starting point and would certainly cover much of Zappa's thinking. Lame Name (talk) 19:07, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * "But you would need to define Atheism for us" => I'll leave the defining of Atheism to those who have a sore toe over it. I'm not the one who brought it up, nor the one who insists on mentioning it in the article, remember? :-)
 * DVdm (talk) 21:09, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

So have we reached any consensus with regard to the original post? Bearing in mind, of course, that consensus among a limited group of editors, at one place and time, should never over-ride community consensus on a wider scale and consensus can change...

Should the article have a Category:atheists?
 * Yes - Throughout his life and work he expounded an atheistic point of view - mention of which should be incorporated into a fuller article about Zappa some day. He is already listed under List of atheists (music) so the addition of the category would further enhance the usability  of Wikipedia. Lame Name (talk) 11:58, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

 * No - For reasons already stated. DVdm (talk) 14:02, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * No - No one should be included in the list who hasn't specifically and publicly declared himself to be an atheist--using the term atheist. TheScotch (talk) 08:02, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Frank Zappa/Archive 3


text:
Faith healing

Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate a divine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend on empirical evidence of an evidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing. Virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience. See also:

Claims that "a myriad of techniques" such as prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries. Recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly classified as faith healing. It can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.

Many people interpret the Bible, especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, and the practice of, faith healing. According to a 2004 Newsweek poll, 72 percent of Americans said they believe that praying to God can cure someone, even if science says the person has an incurable disease. Unlike faith healing, advocates of spiritual healing make no attempt to seek divine intervention, instead believing in divine energy. The increased interest in alternative medicine at the end of the 20th century has given rise to a parallel interest among sociologists in the relationship of religion to health.

Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal topic, and, in some cases, belief in faith healing can be classified as magical thinking. The American Cancer Society states "available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments". "Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses." When parents have practiced faith healing rather than medical care, many children have died that otherwise would have been expected to live. Similar results are found in adults.

Overview
Regarded as a Christian belief that God heals people through the power of the Holy Spirit, faith healing often involves the laying on of hands. It is also called supernatural healing, divine healing, and miracle healing, among other things. Healing in the Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals including Elijah, Jesus and Paul.

Christian physician Reginald B. Cherry views faith healing as a pathway of healing in which God uses both the natural and the supernatural to heal. Being healed has been described as a privilege of accepting Christ's redemption on the cross. Pentecostal writer Wilfred Graves Jr. views the healing of the body as a physical expression of salvation. , after describing Jesus exorcising at sunset and healing all of the sick who were brought to him, quotes these miracles as a fulfillment of the prophecy in : "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases".

Even those Christian writers who believe in faith healing do not all believe that one's faith presently brings about the desired healing. "[Y]our faith does not effect your healing now. When you are healed rests entirely on what the sovereign purposes of the Healer are." Larry Keefauver cautions against allowing enthusiasm for faith healing to stir up false hopes. "Just believing hard enough, long enough or strong enough will not strengthen you or prompt your healing. Doing mental gymnastics to 'hold on to your miracle' will not cause your healing to manifest now." Those who actively lay hands on others and pray with them to be healed are usually aware that healing may not always follow immediately. Proponents of faith healing say it may come later, and it may not come in this life. "The truth is that your healing may manifest in eternity, not in time".

New Testament
Parts of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament say that Jesus cured physical ailments well outside the capacity of first-century medicine. Jesus' healing acts are considered miraculous and spectacular due to the results being impossible or statistically improbable. One example is the case of "a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was not better but rather grew worse". After healing her, Jesus tells her "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured from your illness". At least two other times Jesus credited the sufferer's faith as the means of being healed: and.

Jesus endorsed the use of the medical assistance of the time (medicines of oil and wine) when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), who "bound up [an injured man's] wounds, pouring on oil and wine" (verse 34) as a physician would. Jesus then told the doubting teacher of the law (who had elicited this parable by his self-justifying question, "And who is my neighbor?" in verse 29) to "go, and do likewise" in loving others with whom he would never ordinarily associate (verse 37).

The healing in the gospels is referred to as a "sign" to prove Jesus' divinity and to foster belief in him as the Christ. However, when asked for other types of miracles, Jesus refused some but granted others in consideration of the motive of the request. Some theologians' understanding is that Jesus healed all who were present every single time. Sometimes he determines whether they had faith that he would heal them. Four of the seven miraculous signs performed in the Fourth Gospel that indicated he was sent from God were acts of healing or resurrection. He heals the Capernaum official's son, heals a paralytic by the pool in Bethsaida, healing a man born blind, and resurrecting Lazarus of Bethany.

Jesus told his followers to heal the sick and stated that signs such as healing are evidence of faith. Jesus also told his followers to "cure sick people, raise up dead persons, make lepers clean, expel demons. You received free, give free".

Jesus sternly ordered many who received healing from him: "Do not tell anyone!" Jesus did not approve of anyone asking for a sign just for the spectacle of it, describing such as coming from a "wicked and adulterous generation".

The apostle Paul believed healing is one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that the possibility exists that certain persons may possess this gift to an extraordinarily high degree.

In the New Testament Epistle of James, the faithful are told that to be healed, those who are sick should call upon the elders of the church to pray over [them] and anoint [them] with oil in the name of the Lord.

The New Testament says that during Jesus' ministry and after his Resurrection, the apostles healed the sick and cast out demons, made lame men walk, raised the dead and performed other miracles. Apostles were holy men who had direct access to God and could channel his power to help and heal people. For example, Saint Peter healed a disabled man.

Jesus used miracles to convince people that he was inaugurating the Messianic Age, as in Mt 12.28. Scholars have described Jesus' miracles as establishing the kingdom during his lifetime.

Early Christian church
Accounts or references to healing appear in the writings of many Ante Nicene Fathers, although many of these mentions are very general and do not include specifics.

Catholicism
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes two "not mutually exclusive" kinds of healing,  one justified by science and one justified by faith:
 * healing by human "natural means through the practice of medicine" which emphasizes that the theological virtue of "charity demands that we not neglect natural means of healing people who are ill" and the cardinal virtue of prudence forewarns not "to employ a technique that has no scientific support (or even plausibility)"
 * healing by divine grace "interceded on behalf of the sick through the invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus, asking for healing through the power of the Holy Spirit, whether in the form of the sacramental laying on of hands and anointing with oil or of simple prayers for healing, which often include an appeal to the saints for their aid"

In 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued "Instruction on prayers for healing" with specific norms about prayer meetings for obtaining healing, which presents the Catholic Church's doctrines of sickness and healing.

It accepts "that there may be means of natural healing that have not yet been understood or recognized by science", but it rejects superstitious practices which are neither compatible with Christian teaching nor compatible with scientific evidence.

Faith healing is reported by Catholics as the result of intercessory prayer to a saint or to a person with the gift of healing. According to U.S. Catholic magazine, "Even in this skeptical, postmodern, scientific age – miracles really are possible." According to a Newsweek poll, three-fourths of American Catholics say they pray for "miracles" of some sort.

According to John Cavadini, when healing is granted, "The miracle is not primarily for the person healed, but for all people, as a sign of God's work in the ultimate healing called 'salvation', or a sign of the kingdom that is coming." Some might view their own healing as a sign they are particularly worthy or holy, while others do not deserve it.

The Catholic Church has a special Congregation dedicated to the careful investigation of the validity of alleged miracles attributed to prospective saints. Pope Francis tightened the rules on money and miracles in the canonization process. Since Catholic Christians believe the lives of canonized saints in the Church will reflect Christ's, many have come to expect healing miracles. While the popular conception of a miracle can be wide-ranging, the Catholic Church has a specific definition for the kind of miracle formally recognized in a canonization process.

According to Catholic Encyclopedia, it is often said that cures at shrines and during Christian pilgrimages are mainly due to psychotherapy – partly to confident trust in Divine providence, and partly to the strong expectancy of cure that comes over suggestible persons at these times and places.

Among the best-known accounts by Catholics of faith healings are those attributed to the miraculous intercession of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as Our Lady of Lourdes at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and the remissions of life-threatening disease claimed by those who have applied for aid to Saint Jude, who is known as the "patron saint of lost causes".

, Catholic medics have asserted that there have been 67 miracles and 7,000 unexplainable medical cures at Lourdes since 1858. In a 1908 book, it says these cures were subjected to intense medical scrutiny and were only recognized as authentic spiritual cures after a commission of doctors and scientists, called the Lourdes Medical Bureau, had ruled out any physical mechanism for the patient's recovery.

Evangelicalism
In some Pentecostal and Charismatic Evangelical churches, a special place is thus reserved for faith healings with laying on of hands during worship services or for campaigns evangelization. Faith healing or divine healing is considered to be an inheritance of Jesus acquired by his death and resurrection. Biblical inerrancy ensures that the miracles and healings described in the Bible are still relevant and may be present in the life of the believer.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the new Pentecostal movement drew participants from the Holiness movement and other movements in America that already believed in divine healing. By the 1930s, several faith healers drew large crowds and established worldwide followings.

The first Pentecostals in the modern sense appeared in Topeka, Kansas, in a Bible school conducted by Charles Fox Parham, a holiness teacher and former Methodist pastor. Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention in 1906 through the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles led by William Joseph Seymour.

Smith Wigglesworth was also a well-known figure in the early part of the 20th century. A former English plumber turned evangelist who lived simply and read nothing but the Bible from the time his wife taught him to read, Wigglesworth traveled around the world preaching about Jesus and performing faith healings. Wigglesworth claimed to raise several people from the dead in Jesus' name in his meetings.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Aimee Semple McPherson was a controversial faith healer of growing popularity during the Great Depression. Subsequently, William M. Branham has been credited as the initiator of the post-World War II healing revivals. The healing revival he began led many to emulate his style and spawned a generation of faith healers. Because of this, Branham has been recognized as the "father of modern faith healers". According to writer and researcher Patsy Sims, "the power of a Branham service and his stage presence remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the Charismatic movement". By the late 1940s, Oral Roberts, who was associated with and promoted by Branham's Voice of Healing magazine also became well known, and he continued with faith healing until the 1980s. Roberts discounted faith healing in the late 1950s, stating, "I never was a faith healer and I was never raised that way. My parents believed very strongly in medical science and we have a doctor who takes care of our children when they get sick. I cannot heal anyone – God does that." A friend of Roberts was Kathryn Kuhlman, another popular faith healer, who gained fame in the 1950s and had a television program on CBS. Also in this era, Jack Coe and A. A. Allen were faith healers who traveled with large tents for large open-air crusades.

Oral Roberts's successful use of television as a medium to gain a wider audience led others to follow suit. His former pilot, Kenneth Copeland, started a healing ministry. Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, and Peter Popoff became well-known televangelists who claimed to heal the sick. Richard Rossi is known for advertising his healing clinics through secular television and radio. Kuhlman influenced Benny Hinn, who adopted some of her techniques and wrote a book about her.

Christian Science
Christian Science claims that healing is possible through prayer based on an understanding of God and the underlying spiritual perfection of God's creation. The material world as humanly perceived is believed to not be the spiritual reality. Christian Scientists believe that healing through prayer is possible insofar as it succeeds in bringing the spiritual reality of health into human experience. Prayer does not change the spiritual creation but gives a clearer view of it, and the result appears in the human scene as healing: the human picture adjusts to coincide more nearly with the divine reality. Therefore, Christian Scientists do not consider themselves to be faith healers since faith or belief in Christian Science is not required on the part of the patient, and because they consider healings reliable and provable rather than random.

Although there is no hierarchy in Christian Science, practitioners devote full time to prayer for others on a professional basis, and advertise in an online directory published by the church. Christian Scientists sometimes tell their stories of healing at weekly testimony meetings at local Christian Science churches, or publish them in the church's magazines including The Christian Science Journal printed monthly since 1883, the Christian Science Sentinel printed weekly since 1898, and The Herald of Christian Science a foreign language magazine beginning with a German edition in 1903 and later expanding to Spanish, French, and Portuguese editions. Christian Science Reading Rooms often have archives of such healing accounts.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has had a long history of faith healings. Many members of the LDS Church have told their stories of healing within the LDS publication, the Ensign. The church believes healings come most often as a result of priesthood blessings given by the laying on of hands; however, prayer often accompanied with fasting is also thought to cause healings. Healing is always attributed to be God's power. Latter-day Saints believe that the Priesthood of God, held by prophets (such as Moses) and worthy disciples of the Savior, was restored via heavenly messengers to the first prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith.

According to LDS doctrine, even though members may have the restored priesthood authority to heal in the name of Jesus Christ, all efforts should be made to seek the appropriate medical help. Brigham Young stated this effectively, while also noting that the ultimate outcome is still dependent on the will of God.

"If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and to ask my Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to sanctify that application to the healing of my body.

But suppose we were traveling in the mountains, ... and one or two were taken sick, without anything in the world in the shape of healing medicine within our reach, what should we do? According to my faith, ask the Lord Almighty to ... heal the sick. This is our privilege, when so situated that we cannot get anything to help ourselves. Then the Lord and his servants can do all. But it is my duty to do, when I have it in my power.

We lay hands on the sick and wish them to be healed, and pray the Lord to heal them, but we cannot always say that he will."

Islam
A number of healing traditions exist among Muslims. Some healers are particularly focused on diagnosing cases of possession by jinn or demons.

Buddhism
Chinese-born Australian businessman Jun Hong Lu was a prominent proponent of the "Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door", claiming that practicing the three "golden practices" of reciting texts and mantras, liberation of beings, and making vows, laid a solid foundation for improved physical, mental, and psychological well-being, with many followers publicly attesting to have been healed through practice.

Scientology
Some critics of Scientology have referred to some of its practices as being similar to faith healing, based on claims made by L. Ron Hubbard in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and other writings.

Scientific investigation
Nearly all scientists dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience. Believers assert that faith healing makes no scientific claims and thus should be treated as a matter of faith that is not testable by science. Critics reply that claims of medical cures should be tested scientifically because, although faith in the supernatural is not in itself usually considered to be the purview of science,  claims of reproducible effects are nevertheless subject to scientific investigation.

Scientists and doctors generally find that faith healing lacks biological plausibility or epistemic warrant, which is one of the criteria used to judge whether clinical research is ethical and financially justified. A Cochrane review of intercessory prayer found "although some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer, the majority do not". The authors concluded: "We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken and would prefer to see any resources available for such a trial used to investigate other questions in health care".

A review in 1954 investigated spiritual healing, therapeutic touch and faith healing. Of the hundred cases reviewed, none revealed that the healer's intervention alone resulted in any improvement or cure of a measurable organic disability.

In addition, at least one study has suggested that adult Christian Scientists, who generally use prayer rather than medical care, have a higher death rate than other people of the same age.

The Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) was created in 2012 to start collecting medical records of patients who claim to have received a supernatural healing miracle as a result of Christian Spiritual Healing practices. The organization has a panel of medical doctors who review the patient's records looking at entries prior to the claimed miracles and entries after the miracle was claimed to have taken place. "The overall goal of GMRI is to promote an empirically grounded understanding of the physiological, emotional, and sociological effects of Christian Spiritual Healing practices". This is accomplished by applying the same rigorous standards used in other forms of medical and scientific research.

A 2011 article in the New Scientist magazine cited positive physical results from meditation, positive thinking and spiritual faith

Criticism
"I have visited Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal, healing shrines of the Christian Virgin Mary. I have also visited Epidaurus in Greece and Pergamum in Turkey, healing shrines of the pagan god Asklepios. The miraculous healings recorded in both places were remarkably the same. There are, for example, many crutches hanging in the grotto of Lourdes, mute witness to those who arrived lame and left whole. There are, however, no prosthetic limbs among them, no witnesses to paraplegics whose lost limbs were restored."

Skeptics of faith healing offer primarily two explanations for anecdotes of cures or improvements, relieving any need to appeal to the supernatural. The first is post hoc ergo propter hoc, meaning that a genuine improvement or spontaneous remission may have been experienced coincidental with but independent from anything the faith healer or patient did or said. These patients would have improved just as well even had they done nothing. The second is the placebo effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the power of their own belief that they would be healed. In both cases the patient may experience a real reduction in symptoms, though in neither case has anything miraculous or inexplicable occurred. Both cases, however, are strictly limited to the body's natural abilities.

According to the American Cancer Society: "... available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments... One review published in 1998 looked at 172 cases of deaths among children treated by faith healing instead of conventional methods. These researchers estimated that if conventional treatment had been given, the survival rate for most of these children would have been more than 90 percent, with the remainder of the children also having a good chance of survival. A more recent study found that more than 200 children had died of treatable illnesses in the United States over the past thirty years because their parents relied on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment."

The American Medical Association considers that prayer as therapy should not be a medically reimbursable or deductible expense.

Belgian philosopher and skeptic Etienne Vermeersch coined the term Lourdes effect as a criticism of the magical thinking and placebo effect possibilities for the claimed miraculous cures as there are no documented events where a severed arm has been reattached through faith healing at Lourdes. Vermeersch identifies ambiguity and equivocal nature of the miraculous cures as a key feature of miraculous events.

Negative impact on public health
Reliance on faith healing to the exclusion of other forms of treatment can have a public health impact when it reduces or eliminates access to modern medical techniques. This is evident in both higher mortality rates for children and in reduced life expectancy for adults. Critics have also made note of serious injury that has resulted from falsely labelled "healings", where patients erroneously consider themselves cured and cease or withdraw from treatment. For example, at least six people have died after faith healing by their church and being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medications. It is the stated position of the AMA that "prayer as therapy should not delay access to traditional medical care". Choosing faith healing while rejecting modern medicine can and does cause people to die needlessly.

Christian theological criticism of faith healing
Christian theological criticism of faith healing broadly falls into two distinct levels of disagreement.

The first is widely termed the "open-but-cautious" view of the miraculous in the church today. This term is deliberately used by Robert L. Saucy in the book Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?. Don Carson is another example of a Christian teacher who has put forward what has been described as an "open-but-cautious" view. In dealing with the claims of Warfield, particularly "Warfield's insistence that miracles ceased", Carson asserts, "But this argument stands up only if such miraculous gifts are theologically tied exclusively to a role of attestation; and that is demonstrably not so." However, while affirming that he does not expect healing to happen today, Carson is critical of aspects of the faith healing movement, "Another issue is that of immense abuses in healing practises.... The most common form of abuse is the view that since all illness is directly or indirectly attributable to the devil and his works, and since Christ by his cross has defeated the devil, and by his Spirit has given us the power to overcome him, healing is the inheritance right of all true Christians who call upon the Lord with genuine faith."

The second level of theological disagreement with Christian faith healing goes further. Commonly referred to as cessationism, its adherents either claim that faith healing will not happen today at all, or may happen today, but it would be unusual. Richard Gaffin argues for a form of cessationism in an essay alongside Saucy's in the book Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? In his book Perspectives on Pentecost Gaffin states of healing and related gifts that "the conclusion to be drawn is that as listed in 1 Corinthians 12(vv. 9f., 29f.) and encountered throughout the narrative in Acts, these gifts, particularly when exercised regularly by a given individual, are part of the foundational structure of the church... and so have passed out of the life of the church." Gaffin qualifies this, however, by saying "At the same time, however, the sovereign will and power of God today to heal the sick, particularly in response to prayer (see e.g. James 5:14, 15), ought to be acknowledged and insisted on."

According to the Catholic apologist Trent Horn, while the Bible teaches believers to pray when they are sick, this is not to be viewed as an exclusion of medical care, citing Sirach 38:9,12-14:

"'when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you...And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, for they too will pray to the Lord, that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.'"

Fraud
Skeptics of faith healers point to fraudulent practices either in the healings themselves (such as plants in the audience with fake illnesses), or concurrent with the healing work supposedly taking place and claim that faith healing is a quack practice in which the "healers" use well known non-supernatural illusions to exploit credulous people in order to obtain their gratitude, confidence and money. James Randi's The Faith Healers investigates Christian evangelists such as Peter Popoff, who claimed to heal sick people on stage in front of an audience. Popoff pretended to know private details about participants' lives by receiving radio transmissions from his wife who was off-stage and had gathered information from audience members prior to the show. According to this book, many of the leading modern evangelistic healers have engaged in deception and fraud. The book also questioned how faith healers use funds that were sent to them for specific purposes. Physicist Robert L. Park and doctor and consumer advocate Stephen Barrett have called into question the ethics of some exorbitant fees.

There have also been legal controversies. For example, in 1955 at a Jack Coe revival service in Miami, Florida, Coe told the parents of a three-year-old boy that he healed their son who had polio. Coe then told the parents to remove the boy's leg braces. However, their son was not cured of polio and removing the braces left the boy in constant pain. As a result, through the efforts of Joseph L. Lewis, Coe was arrested and charged on February 6, 1956, with practicing medicine without a license, a felony in the state of Florida. A Florida Justice of the Peace dismissed the case on grounds that Florida exempts divine healing from the law. Later that year Coe was diagnosed with bulbar polio, and died a few weeks later at Dallas' Parkland Hospital on December 17, 1956.

Miracles for sale
TV personality Derren Brown produced a show on faith healing entitled Miracles for Sale which arguably exposed the art of faith healing as a scam. In this show, Derren trained a scuba diver trainer picked from the general public to be a faith healer and took him to Texas to successfully deliver a faith healing session to a congregation.

United States law
The 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) required states to grant religious exemptions to child neglect and child abuse laws in order to receive federal money. The CAPTA amendments of 1996 state:

"(a) In General. – Nothing in this Act shall be construed –

'(1) as establishing a Federal requirement that a parent or legal guardian provide a child any medical service or treatment against the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian; and '(2) to require that a State find, or to prohibit a State from finding, abuse or neglect in cases in which a parent or legal guardian relies solely or partially upon spiritual means rather than medical treatment, in accordance with the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian.

'(b) State Requirement. – Notwithstanding subsection (a), a State shall, at a minimum, have in place authority under State law to permit the child protective services system of the State to pursue any legal remedies, including the authority to initiate legal proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, to provide medical care or treatment for a child when such care or treatment is necessary to prevent or remedy serious harm to the child, or to prevent the withholding of medically indicated treatment from children with life threatening conditions. Except with respect to the withholding of medically indicated treatments from disabled infants with life threatening conditions, case by case determinations concerning the exercise of the authority of this subsection shall be within the sole discretion of the State."

Thirty-one states have child-abuse religious exemptions. These are Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. In six of these states, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio and Virginia, the exemptions extend to murder and manslaughter. Of these, Idaho is the only state accused of having a large number of deaths due to the legislation in recent times. In February 2015, controversy was sparked in Idaho over a bill believed to further reinforce parental rights to deny their children medical care.

Reckless homicide convictions
Parents have been convicted of child abuse and felony reckless negligent homicide and found responsible for killing their children when they withheld lifesaving medical care and chose only prayers.

title: Faith healing


text:
Furry

Furry may refer to:

 * The state of being covered with fur
 * Furry fandom, a subculture interested in non-human animal characters with human personalities and characteristics
 * Furry convention, a formal gathering of those who participate in Furry fandom
 * Wendell H. Furry (1907–1984), an American physicist
 * Furry Lewis (Walter E. Lewis, 1893 or 1899 – 1981), an American country blues guitarist and songwriter

title: Furry


text:
Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States. One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic science-fiction film Metropolis (1927) and the influential M (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film Woman in the Moon showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock.

His other major films include Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), and after moving to Hollywood in 1934, Fury (1936), You Only Live Once (1937), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945) and The Big Heat (1953). He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

Early life
Lang was born in Vienna, as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940), an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang ( Schlesinger; 1864–1920). His mother was born Jewish and converted to Catholicism. His father was described as a “lapsed Catholic.” He was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna. He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961).

Lang's parents were of Moravian descent. At one point, he noted that he was “born [a] Catholic and very puritan". Ultimately describing himself as an atheist, Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics.

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 in order to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa, and later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian Army and fought in Russia and Romania, where he was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye, the first of many vision issues he would face in his lifetime. While recovering from his injuries and shell shock in 1916, he wrote some scenarios and ideas for films. He was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918 and did some acting in the Viennese theater circuit for a short time before being hired as a writer at Decla Film, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.

In 1919, he married Lisa Rosenthal, who died in 1920 under mysterious circumstances of a single gunshot wound deemed to have been fired by a sidearm weapon from World War I.

Expressionist films: the Weimar years (1918–1933)
Lang's writing stint was brief, as he soon started to work as a director at the German film studio UFA, and later Nero-Film, just as the Expressionist movement was building. In this first phase of his career, Lang alternated between films such as Der Müde Tod ("The Weary Death") and popular thrillers such as Die Spinnen ("The Spiders"), combining popular genres with Expressionist techniques to create an unprecedented synthesis of popular entertainment with art cinema.

In 1920, Lang met his future second wife, the writer Thea von Harbou. She and Lang co-wrote all of his movies from 1921 through 1933, including Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler ("Dr. Mabuse the Gambler," 1922 – which ran for over four hours, in two parts in the original version, and was the first in the Dr. Mabuse trilogy), the five-hour Die Nibelungen (1924), the dystopian film Metropolis (1927), and the science fiction film Woman in the Moon (1929). Metropolis went far over budget and nearly destroyed UFA, which was bought by right-wing businessman and politician Alfred Hugenberg. It was a financial flop, as were his last silent films Spies (1928) and Woman in the Moon, produced by Lang's own company.

In 1931, independent producer Seymour Nebenzahl hired Lang to direct M for Nero-Film. His first "talking" picture, considered by many film scholars to be a masterpiece of the early sound era, M is a disturbing story of a child murderer (Peter Lorre in his first starring role) who is hunted down and brought to rough justice by Berlin's criminal underworld. M remains a powerful work; it was remade in 1951 by Joseph Losey, but this version had little impact on audiences, and has become harder to see than the original film.

During the climactic final scene in M, Lang allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorre's battered look. Lang, who was known for being hard to work with, epitomized the stereotype of the tyrannical Germanic film director, a type embodied also by Erich von Stroheim and Otto Preminger; Lang wore a monocle, adding to the stereotype.

In the films of his German period, Lang produced a coherent oeuvre that established the characteristics later attributed to film noir, with its recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia, fate and moral ambiguity.

At the end of 1932, Lang started filming The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933, and by March 30, the new regime banned it as an incitement to public disorder. Testament is sometimes deemed an anti-Nazi film, as Lang had put phrases used by the Nazis into the mouth of the title character. A screening of the film was cancelled by Joseph Goebbels, and it was later banned by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. In banning the film, Goebbels stated that the film "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence", and that the film posed a threat to public health and safety.

Lang was worried about the advent of the Nazi regime, partly because of his Jewish heritage, whereas his wife and co-screenwriter Thea von Harbou had started to sympathize with the Nazis in the early 1930s, and later joined the Nazi party in 1940. After he discovered von Harbou in bed with Ayi Tendulkar, an Indian journalist and student 17 years younger than her, they soon divorced. Lang's fears would be realized following his departure from Austria, as under the racist Nuremberg Laws he would be identified as half-Jewish even though his mother was a converted Roman Catholic, and he was raised as such.

Emigration
According to Lang, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called Lang to his offices to inform him – apologetically – that The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was being banned but, nevertheless, he was so impressed by Lang's abilities as a filmmaker (especially Metropolis), that he offered Lang the position of head of German film studio UFA. Lang said it was during that meeting he had decided to leave for Paris – but that the banks had closed by the time the meeting was over. Lang claimed that, after selling his wife's jewelry, he fled by train to Paris that evening, leaving most of his money and personal possessions behind. However, his passport of the time showed that he traveled to and from Germany a few times during 1933.

Lang left Berlin for good on July 31, 1933, four months after his meeting with Goebbels and his initial departure. He moved to Paris, having divorced Thea von Harbou, who stayed behind, earlier in 1933.

In Paris, Lang filmed a version of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, starring Charles Boyer. That was Lang's only film in French (excluding the French version of Testament). He then moved to the United States.

Hollywood career (1936–1957)
Lang made twenty-two features in his 20-year American career, working in a variety of genres at every major studio in Hollywood, and occasionally producing his films as an independent. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

Signing first with MGM Studios, Lang's crime drama Fury (1936) saw Spencer Tracy cast as a man who is wrongly accused of a crime and nearly killed when a lynch mob sets fire to the jail where he is awaiting trial. However, in Fury, he was not allowed to represent black victims in a lynching scenario or to criticize racism, which was his original intention. By the time Fury was released, Lang had been involved in the creation of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, working with Otto Katz, a Czech who was a Comintern spy. He made four films with an explicitly anti-Nazi theme, Man Hunt (1941), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944) and Cloak and Dagger (1946). Man Hunt, wrote Dave Kehr in 2009, "may be the best" of the "many interventionist films produced by the Hollywood studios before Pearl Harbor" as it is "clean and concentrated, elegant and precise, pointed without being preachy."

His American films were often compared unfavorably to his earlier works by contemporary critics, although the restrained Expressionism of these films is now seen as integral to the emergence and evolution of American genre cinema, film noir in particular. Scarlet Street (1945), one of his films featuring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, is considered a central film in the genre.

One of Lang's most praised films noir is the police drama The Big Heat (1953), known for its uncompromising brutality, especially for a scene in which Lee Marvin throws scalding coffee on Gloria Grahame's face. As Lang's visual style simplified, in part due to the constraints of the Hollywood studio system, his worldview became increasingly pessimistic, culminating in the cold, geometric style of his last American films, While the City Sleeps (1956) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).

Last films (1959–1963)
Finding it difficult to find congenial production conditions and backers in Hollywood, particularly as his health declined with age, Lang contemplated retirement. The German producer Artur Brauner had expressed interest in remaking The Indian Tomb (from an original story by Thea von Harbou, that Lang had developed in the 1920s which had ultimately been directed by Joe May), so Lang returned to Germany to make his "Indian Epic" (consisting of The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb).

Following the production, Brauner was preparing for a remake of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse when Lang approached him with the idea of adding a new original film to the series. The result was The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), whose success led to a series of new Mabuse films, which were produced by Brauner (including the remake of The Testament of Dr. Mabuse), though Lang did not direct any of the sequels. Lang was approaching blindness during the production, and it was his final project as director.

In 1963, he appeared as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's film Contempt.

Death and legacy
On February 8, 1960, Lang received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry, located at 1600 Vine Street.

Lang died from a stroke on August 2, 1976, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles.

While his career had ended without fanfare, Lang's American and later German works were championed by the critics of the Cahiers du cinéma, such as François Truffaut and Jacques Rivette. Truffaut wrote that Lang, especially in his American career, was greatly underappreciated by "cinema historians and critics" who "deny him any genius when he 'signs' spy movies ... war movies ... or simple thrillers." Filmmakers that were influenced by his work include George Lucas, Jacques Rivette, William Friedkin, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Luis Buñuel, Osamu Tezuka, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard and Stanley Kubrick.

Lang is credited with launching or developing many different genres of film. Philip French of The Observer believed that Lang helped craft the "entertainment war flick" and that his interpretation of the story of Bonnie and Clyde "helped launch the Hollywood film noir". Geoff Andrew of the British Film Institute believed he set the "blueprint for the serial killer movie" through M.

In December 2021, Lang was the subject for BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.

Preservation
The Academy Film Archive has preserved a number of Lang's films, including Human Desire and Man Hunt.

Awards

 * Silver Hand in 1931, for his film M, by the German Motion Picture Arts Association
 * Commander Cross, Order of Merit in 1957 and 1966
 * Golden Ribbon of Motion Picture Arts in 1963 by the Federal Republic of Germany
 * Order of Arts and Letters from France in 1965
 * Plaque from El Festival Internacional del Cine de San Sebastian in 1970
 * Order of the Yugoslavia Flag with a Golden Wreath in 1971
 * Honorary Professor of Fine Arts by the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1973

title: Fritz Lang