The Real Frank Zappa Book

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 show more 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! show less

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 show more 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". show less

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.