For a decade, musician Dweezil Zappa toured steadily under the banner of Zappa Plays Zappa, the son playing the songs of his father so that the creatively eclectic music of the late Frank Zappa might live on.

Now, though, as Zappa kicks off his fall schedule with a pair of Southern California shows this week, the tour carries a new and sharply pointed name – take a deep breath before you try this – 50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the (Bleep) He Wants – The Cease and Desist Tour.

Is there a story behind that? Why yes, yes there is, one involving family and money, legacy and pride.

We’ll get to that unhappy family feud in a moment, but first let’s also note that this year offers plenty of reasons to shine the spotlight on Frank Zappa again. A new documentary, “Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words” debuted to strong reviews. A series of album reissues is underway.

And then it’s also the 50th anniversary of “Freak Out!” the recording debut album of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the double album that provides a good part of Dweezil Zappa’s set list this year.

“We’re not playing the whole record,” Dweezil Zappa says, happy for the moment to talk songs and musicians before the inevitable shift to lawyers and dirty laundry. “But some deep cuts and some stuff that Frank didn’t play live, at least not like on the record.”

Frank Zappa, who died in 1993, was often ahead of the curve in the studio and onstage. Sometimes that came through in his lyrics: The Watts Riots-inspired number “Trouble Every Day” is still as relevant in its commentary on racism, media and politics and social injustice as it was when “Freak Out!” arrived at the end of June 1966.

Other times it’s reflected in the sonics he managed to coax out of the analog instruments and gear of the mid-’60s.

“Frank was using the studio as an instrument,” Dweezil Zappa says. “So trying to capture the spirit and energy of that is one of the things that is a challenge in terms of trying to re-create and perform.”

“It Can’t Happen Here,” for instance: “There’s a ridiculous and hilarious thing on the record that’s all vocal overdubs,” he says of that track. “I’m sure when that came out, people were like, ‘What the heck is this?!’”

Frank Zappa never tried to play that song live as it is on “Freak Out!” but Dweezil Zappa says he and the band do their best to capture the lunacy of the studio concoction – and concertgoers are still stunned when they hear it.

“If they haven’t heard it before they kind of look at you like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” he says. “There’s other things on the record that have that same kind of experience.

“If you put it in the perspective of other music that was coming out in 1966, this must have terrified parents when their kids brought it home,” Dweezil Zappa says. “It’s kind of like bringing home a wild animal and saying, ‘Can I keep it?’ That’s kind of the spirit of the record.”

A few years after the death of his father, Dweezil Zappa, now 47, took on the role of keeping his music alive. Outside of a few novelty numbers such as “Valley Girl,” a duet with daughter Moon Unit Zappa, and “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” Frank Zappa never got much mainstream radio airplay, so his son worried that many people didn’t really know the richness and breadth of his work.

“The impetus for me to play his music was to re-educate the fans,” Dweezil Zappa says. “Not the fans who already knew, but fans who if you said the name Frank Zappa would say, ‘Who?’ They might know the wacky songs or that his kids had funny names, but that’s about all.”

This year, unfortunately, the casual fans might also know the Zappa name for the public battling between Dweezil and his brother, Ahmet Zappa, over control of their father’s legacy. When their mother, Gail Zappa, died a year ago, she left the Zappa Family Trust that she had managed for more than two decades in the control of Diva and Ahmet, the two youngest Zappa kids, with Dweezil and Moon holding minority positions.

Gail Zappa had trademarked the name Zappa Plays Zappa as well as Frank Zappa’s image, and while the trust was supposed to get a portion of the money from merchandise sales on the Zappa Plays Zappa tours, Dweezil Zappa says she had not paid him any of his share for years.

This spring Ahmet Zappa and the trust told Dweezil Zappa he’d have to pay a fee to continue using the name, sparking a battle of open letters and blog posts that dragged the whole mess into the open.

“Now the trust owns that name and they’re saying, ‘Well, we own that name, you can’t play under that name unless you let us keep all the merch money, and you only have to pay a dollar (to license the music),’ but that’s not really a good deal,” Dweezil Zappa says.

“They’re not recognizing the fact that I’ve already been doing this for 10 years,” he says. “I offered to sell Zappa Plays Zappa merch on tour and split it 50-50 and they said, ‘Nope, we want it all.’”

Thus the long, attention-getting name of the new tour was born, Dweezil Zappa says.

“It’s the equivalent of making lemonade out of the lemons being thrown at me.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com