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When I discovered the music of Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention way back in 1970, I wasn't ready for it. W/in a few mnths I was all about it. I was 16 & this was, indeed, the music that got me really excited. It was experimental, it was rock'n'roll, it had some politics, it had some satire, it was complicated, it did the trick for me. I 1st heard the Mothers of Invention live when I skipped school on my graduation day to hitch-hike north of Baltimore to hear them in Harrisburg. THEY WERE GREAT! Very funny, very together. They were also starting to deteriorate into juvenilia. Nonetheless, Zappa continued to crank out the records that I was interested in & a new release was always exciting.. until things like some of those mid-70s live albums came out. Anyway, the more experimental & jazzy Zappa was, the more I liked him; the more "Titties & Beer" he got, the more I got bored. Then I lost interest altogether. Shortly before he died he started doing a few things that interested me again - about wch I was quite happy! Then, fuck it!, he died in 1992 - a mere sprat! W/ a zillion recordings left behind but so much more that he cd've done. Too bad.
So here's an authorized ghost-written autobiography. What Zappa enthusiast cd resist? All that droll commentary, setting the record straight & the like. No doubt, Zappa had alotof stupid bullshit written about him by alotof incomprehending hostile people over the yrs & no doubt it's still almost MIRACULOUS that his music STILL isn't played on rock radio stns while the most producer-created DREK sickens the airwaves unto death, BUT, LET'S FACE IT, Zappa pulled it off w/ balls & perseverance almost unprecedented in the rock music industry. Hats off to his memory! ( )
I've never been into Frank Zappa's music but I thought "here's the type of person who led an interesting life" so I checked out his autobiography. Zappa certainly has a few stories of rock 'n' roll excess which he balances with his childhood and family life. Some of the stories are amusing, some are outlandish and some are iconic (see, for example, his review of the events that led to his immortalisation in "Smoke on the Water"). ( )
I didn't know anything about Zappa when I started this. I just thought he sounded like an interesting guy. Usually these musician biographies turn out to be mostly about drugs and I'm not into drugs so I can't relate. Zappa was not into drugs. He didn't need them. His mind was already travelling a million miles an hour without them.
I liked this book and it made me like Zappa but I had trouble getting his humor a lot of the time. The book was written in 1998 so all of his political references were about a time that I wasn't really political. I mean I hated Reagan as much as the next punk rocker but I didn't really know anything about what was going on in the world. The other problem is that Zappa is a self-professed "grumpy old guy". So much of it is just complaining that the world is broken and it sucks and even though I agree with him it got to be a little much reading about it everyday.
The man was a genius and an incredible musician. I'm not really into his music but he was a savant.
Last problem with this book is that the "road stories" section was way too short and all of the stories had the same plot "random girl sticks random object in her no-no spot". ( )
The man gives his controversial opinions, which in the light of the last twenty years, make a great deal of common sense, and talks about his life's work. One of the most interesting men of the twentieth century, who I think will be even more well-remembered as time goes on. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
"I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird."
Frank Zappa (Baltimore Sun, October 12, 1986)
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO GAIL,
THE KIDS, STEPHEN HAWKING, AND KO-KO.
F.Z. August 23, 1988 06:39:37
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This book exists on the premise that somebody, somewhere, is interested in who I am, how I got that way, and what the fuck I'm talking about.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
I don't want to write a book, but I'm going to do it anyway, because Peter Occhiogrosso is going to help me. He is a writer. He likes books -- he even reads them. I think it is good that books still exist, but they make me sleepy.
For the records, folks: I never took a shit on stage, and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
Our school systems train kids to be ignorant, with style -- functional ignoramuses. They do not equip students to deal with things like logic; they don't give them the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any product or situation. They are groomed and launched to function as mindless buying machines for the products and concepts of a multinational military-industrial complex that needs a World Of Dumbells to survive.
The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively -because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?
If John Cage, for instance, says, "I'm putting a contact microphone on my throat, and I'm going to drink carrot juice, and that's my composition," then his gurgling qualifies as his composition because he put a frame around it and said so. "Take it or leave it, I now will this to be music." After that it's a matter of taste. Without the frame-as-announced, it's a guy swallowing carrot juice.
The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has the medieval aroma -- like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball -- I find this unfathomable -- but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing a bassoon. It's a great noise -- nothing else makes that noise.
It takes a long time to learn how to play a violin, and, after you whittle your fingers to the bone, what's the big payoff? A chair in the nineteenth row, sawing away on whole notes, while some guy who might be better at politics (or blow jobs) is sitting in chair number one, getting all the bitchen solos.
So, how did The New Guys get in there? Some got in because their Dad was one of The Old Guys. Some of them actually worked their way in -- the guy with the cigar said one day: "Sherman, look, I took a chance -- it went out there -- next thing I know, we sold a few million units. I still don't know what the fuck this shit is, but we gotta do some more. I tell you, Sherm -- I need some advice! Why don't we get one of those hippie bastards in here?" So, they hire the hippie bastard -- not to do anything 'big,' just carry the coffee; bring the mail; stand around and look happening. So one day the old guy says: "Sherman, listen -- I think we can trust him; he looks like he's 'happening.' We'll make him an A&R man -- let HIM talk to these stupid fuckers with the tambourine 'n incense. He understands this shit -- he's got the same hair."
From there, he's moving up and up; next thing you know he's got HIS feet on the desk and he's saying, "Get rid of Sherman, Ms. Maxwell -- and -- oh, that 'new group'? We can't take a chance on them. . . it's just not what the kids really want -- I know -- I got the same hair."
From there, he's moving up and up; next thing you know he's got HIS feet on the desk and he's saying, "Get rid of Sherman, Ms. Maxwell -- and -- oh, that 'new group'? We can't take a chance on them. . . it's just not what the kids really want -- I know -- I got the same hair."
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
It's been a pleasure talking to you -- and don't forget to register to vote.
So here's an authorized ghost-written autobiography. What Zappa enthusiast cd resist? All that droll commentary, setting the record straight & the like. No doubt, Zappa had alotof stupid bullshit written about him by alotof incomprehending hostile people over the yrs & no doubt it's still almost MIRACULOUS that his music STILL isn't played on rock radio stns while the most producer-created DREK sickens the airwaves unto death, BUT, LET'S FACE IT, Zappa pulled it off w/ balls & perseverance almost unprecedented in the rock music industry. Hats off to his memory! ( )