Frank Zappa
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Review by Mark Leviton, Creem, March 1971
THIS ALBUM IS a preview of what is the ultimate rock opera-symphony, 200 Motels, which is constantly growing and taking on amazing proportions. ...
Frank Zappa: The Lost Episodes
Review by Dave Rimmer, MOJO, March 1996
DESCRIBED BY UTILITY Muffin Kitchen engineer Spencer Chrislu as a "sort of stealth project", this excellent little album of studio leftovers was put together by ...
ARTICLES IN LIBRARY
The Mothers of Invention: If You Get A Headache…
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, July 1966
MOTHERS AND fathers, you thought the Beatles were bad. You got up in arms about the Rolling Stones. Sonny and Cher made you cringe. Well, ...
Mothers Of Invention: Freak Out! (Verve)
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, March 1967
Freak Out with the Mothers ...
Frank Zappa's Comments on The Mothers of Invention's album Absolutely Free
Interview by Miles, International Times, August 1967
When Zappa arrived in London in the summer of 1967, he naturally looked to the underground press for support, just as he did in Los ...
Frank Zappa: Head Mother Speaks
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Fifth Estate, The, December 1967
HIS NAME has a certain zing to it. Zappa – a name you don't easily forget. Like the man, Frank Zappa, leader and creator of ...
Review by Miles, International Times, July 1968
WITH THE guile and cunning of a Zaptieh, Zappa presents his first 'solo' record: a ballet, an opera, a collage of all the elements then ...
Frank Zappa: Reviled, Revered Mother Superior
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, October 1968
FEAR OF THE abnormal isn't a trait confined to Americans, but they do seem to express their fears more vociferously than most. ...
The Case of The Cock-Sure Groupies
Report and Interview by Ellen Sander, Realist, The, November 1968
THE CHORDS come flooding out of the amplifiers like a tonal wave, swelling to an impossible amplitude, blaring, ringing, pounding. A broad beam of noise ...
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention: The Truth Is, They're Not As Ugly As Their Pictures
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, June 1969
Watching With Mothers: Chris Welch survives a week with Frank Zappa ...
Interview by Miles, International Times, August 1969
FRANK: There are some things I'd like to clarify about my editing technique. The editing technique is an extension of the composition because, as I ...
Review by Felix Dennis, Oz, 1970
A review by A.J. Weberman Jnr. ‘The world’s only living Zappaologist’. MY OLD man’s become something of a celebrity these days. Seems like every time ...
Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Reprise)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1970
Hot Rats is hot stuff! ...
Zappa Press release, on disbanding Mothers, 1970
Report by Miles, International Times, April 1970
"The Mothers of Invention, infamous & repulsive rocking teen combo, is not doing concerts any more." ...
Frank Zappa: Listen With Mothers
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, July 1970
FRANK ZAPPA has emerged as one of the most interesting, lucid, energetic, entertaining and creative figures in contemporary music. He has frequently complained of being ...
Interview by Miles, unpublished, November 1970
This interview recorded at Rattner's on 2nd Ave, New York City, on the 14th November 1970. After we'd eaten we escaped the rude noisy waiters ...
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: The Coliseum, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, December 1970
PROBABLY only Frank Zappa and his musicians could properly review their concerts at London's Coliseum on Sunday. So much happened in each two-hour segment, one ...
Interview by Miles, Changes, March 1971
Interview with Frank Zappa – recorded at Rattner's on 2nd Ave. New York City November 14th 1970. Interview continued in an empty dressing room, backstage ...
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, June 1971
Zappa's Musicians Rock Through Epic Of Stylized Traveler ...
Howard Kaylan: Mother Was A Turtle
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, September 1971
LOS ANGELES – Working in the Turtles, working in the Mothers, it's all the same, Harold Kaylan says. But he has undergone a transition nevertheless. ...
The Foulk Brothers: Pop Promoting Blues
Report by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1972
"RONNIE..." RONALD Foulk's secretary broke into the conference. "Will you accept a transfer call from America?" ...
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, January 1972
Frank Zappa was staying at the London hotel which possesses the actual loo shown on his internationally famous poster. When I arrived at the reception ...
Frank Zappa: Portrait Of The Artist As A Businessman
Interview by Paul Phillips, Rob Partridge, Cream, January 1972
"IF you’re making £10 a night, you’ll be screwed. When you’re making £1,000 a night, you’ll still get screwed... only you’re being screwed for more." ...
Frank Zappa: Rude, Pompous…And Frank
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, January 1972
EVERY ONE has a right to an opinion but there are some who believe he has no right to express it in public. There are ...
Frank Zappa: Zappa On Rock, Porn And Blues
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, February 1972
HE LOOKS a bit like an identi-kit picture of our own most infamous anarchist Guy Fawkes, this much-vaunted, often-maligned rock guitarist who more than anyone ...
Frank Zappa on Death, Rock Writers, Money
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, February 1972
ZAPPA IS NOT renowned for his appreciation of rock writers and their work, and he makes his point quite forcibly on the subject. ...
Frank Zappa: Fearless Frank Tells What He'll Lay On You At The Oval Concert
Interview by Danny Holloway, NME, September 1972
IT'S THE Frank Zappa show ... starring Larry The Dwarf with his guests Suzy Creamcheese, Ruben Sano, and Willie The Pimp. ...
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1973
"ZAPPA'S IN TOWN," they said. "Wanna go along and talk to him?" Oh sure, sez I, always glad to have a chat with Frank. So ...
Frank Zappa: Past Flops And Future Shocks
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, August 1973
HIS ARMS AROUND a red-haired girl whose ample chest was covered with a Mighty Thor t-shirt, debonair Frank Zappa (32) sank deeper into the couch, ...
Frank Zappa: Penguins in Bondage and Other Perversions
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1973
WHERE WERE WE? Oh yeah, Frank Zappa. Anyway, ol' Frank is sitting in his hotel room above Kensington, discoursing on this and that and demonstrating ...
Ugly, vulgar, insulting — Zappa scores!
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, November 1973
The Mothers: Overnite Sensation (Discreet)Faust: Faust IV (Virgin) ...
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: Over-Nite Sensation (Discreet)
Review by Noe Gold, Crawdaddy!, December 1973
THERE HE sits, perched atop his Olympian toadstool, dropping farts and thunderbolts into a tape recorder. Few have escaped his world unscathed by his grungy ...
Frank Zappa: Ultra-modern String Bean
Profile and Interview by Jon Tiven, Sounds, December 1973
ALTHOUGH depicted as vicarious forms of slimy nightmare, Frank Zappa is NOT creepy. When asked about days of old (when everyone was groping around, trying ...
Frank Zappa: Outrage And Invention
Profile by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, July 1974
FRANK ZAPPA is the only West Coast musician who emerged in the 1960s without giving free promotion to the California Tourist Board. ...
Frank Zappa: Relax, Frank. We Ain't No Liggers. A Few Of Us Just Came To Join In…
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1974
WHY IS Stephen Stills not smiling? To be more precise, why are those noble, rugged features sporting an expression roughly equivalent to that of a ...
Frank Zappa: Roxy And Elsewhere
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1974
CAPSULE REVIEW for the Busy Reader: if you like Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation better than any of Uncle Frank's other efforts, then ooze into your ...
How To Write, Sub, And Lay Out A Frank Zappa 'Lookin' Back', part 1
Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1974
"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING. You've got our recordings, you've seen us work a few times, you interviewed me three or four times, you've read a ...
How To Sub And Lay Out A Frank Zappa Lookin' Back Part 2
Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1974
"PERHAPS THE most unique aspect of the Mother's work is the conceptual continuity of the group's output macrostructure. ...
How To Complete The Subbing And Layout Of A Very Long Frank Zappa Lookin' Back, Part 3
Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1974
THE ALBUM and movie of 200 Motels erupted late in 1971. Both received near-unanimous critical meat-axe jobs and both were ignominious commercial failures. United Artists, ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words', 1975
ALTHOUGH PRIMARILY considered a composer, Frank Zappa's lyrics reflect his unique approach to rock 'n' roll almost as well as his music does. Combining a ...
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, NME, April 1975
Mothers albums nestle amongst the legal papers. A stereo system has been set up in front of The judge. The scene is Law Court Seven. ...
Frank Zappa: What Did You Do In The Revolution, Dada?
Essay by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, June 1975
Karl Dallas asks the pertinent questions... ...
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, July 1975
THE FIRST WORD of this review is "deteriorate." It means to Lose Your Magic. ...
Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart: Bongo Fury
Review by Mick Farren, NME, November 1975
THE STORY SO far. ...
Zappa and Beefheart: Penguins In Bondage
Interview by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1976
Master MasterThis is recorded thru uh flies ear 'n you have t' have uh flies eye t' see it it's the thing that's gonna make ...
Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart: BLLLAAAaaaaahhhhh
Memoir by Miles, NME, January 1976
Actually, it didn't work. However, something that did work was the re-uniting of THE CAPTAIN and FRANK ZAPPA a few months ago for a tour ...
Tom Wilson: The Man Who Put Electricity Into Dylan
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, January 1976
TOM WILSON is an elegant, very tall (6ft 4in) black American, a former Harvard man who talks a little like Bill Cosby but whose pencil-thin ...
Frank Zappa: Any Resemblance is Purely Conceptual
Report and Interview by Miles, NME, December 1976
MILES SCOOPS THE POOP ON UNCLE FRANK ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1976
THIS ALBUM is neither Bizarre nor DiscReet, but that's neither here nor there. ...
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, January 1977
FRANK ZAPPA – guitarist, composer, producer, avid roller derby fan, and leader of the Mothers Of Invention – is, at 36, probably the elder statesman ...
Overview by Mick Brown, Sounds, February 1977
A long look back at F Vincent Zappa and his very special bands from LA (and other places) ...
Live Review by Miles, NME, February 1977
Frank Zappa: Hammersmith Odeon, London MILES gets his time organised ...
Frank Zappa: Frank Panned (Almost)
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, February 1977
Frank Zappa: The Rainbow Theatre, London ...
Frank Zappa: Zoot Allures (Warner Bros.)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1977
Zappa and crew, contemplating a tap dance, a pose debonair. ‘Just smile, sugar.’ ...
Frank Zappa: O.K. Frank, Let It Roll…
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, March 1977
IS THE CONCEPTUAL CONTINUITY of your output macrostructure still operative? "Yes," nods Frank Zappa solemnly. ...
Frank Zappa: Carry On Composing
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, January 1978
No Edgar Varèse trip for Frank Zappa, who's just sold out four shows at the Hammersmith Odeon (not bad for a hippie in '78, eh?). ...
Frank Zappa: Zappa Digs Sabs Shock!
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, January 1978
Sandy: Can I ask you firstly about one of my own obsessions, Kim Fowley, (Oh No! – Ed) Who was on the Freak Out album, ...
Frank Zappa: Stern Words in Knightsbridge
Interview by Paul Rambali, NME, January 1978
…when cynical ol’ Uncle Frank knocks punk, record companies and U.S. presidents, and reveals the CIA plot to spike San Francisco… ...
Frank Zappa: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, February 1978
GOOD EVENING ladies and gentlemen. The lights have gone down, the Zappa band are all ready, so let's get on with the show, 'cos that's ...
Frank Zappa: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1978
"FRANK ZAPPA is the leader and musical director of the Mothers Of Invention. His performances in person with the group are rare. His personality means ...
Review by Ian Penman, NME, September 1978
STUDIO TAN drops into the industry's autumn orgy unheralded. ...
Frank Zappa: Joe's Garage ; Richard and Linda Thompson: Sunnyvista
Review by Ian Penman, NME, 1979
ROCK AND ROLL survives on an illusion of dynamism built upon critical inertia, upon endlessly repeated truths such as the oft-heard oppositions of 'old/new wave' ...
Frank Zappa: Sheik Yerbouti (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, NME, March 1979
THE MODERN-day composer refuses to die and, sadly, so too does Frank Zappa. ...
Frank Zappa: The Myth Of Joe's Garage
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, December 1979
I'M STANDING ON the loading platform at L.A. International Airport at 2:30 in the morning, listening to a prerecorded voice that keeps repeating "...the white ...
Frank Zappa: America's Weirdest Rock Star Comes Clean
Interview by John Swenson, High Times, March 1980
FRANK ZAPPA is probably the most misunderstood man in the history of popular music. ...
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, April 1980
FRANK ZAPPA'S CONCERT at the Sports Arena tonight will be his first local appearance in 2 years, but rock's iconoclastic satirist certainly isn't viewing it ...
Interview by John Swenson, Guitar World, March 1982
FRANK ZAPPA was at the Palladium in New York for his perennial Pumpkin Day concert celebration with his most loyal fans. ...
Frank Zappa: Only In It For The Money
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, November 1982
FRANK & MOON ZAPPA GO AM ...
Frank Zappa: Surreal Anarchy From The Mother Superior
Retrospective by Miles, History of Rock, The, 1983
Frank Zappa was born a composer. Had he been born in a different time or place, he would probably have become a 'serious' composer. But ...
Report by Gavin Martin, NME, January 1983
"OH GAWD! Can anyone tell me the way to London Wail?"The fat flustered city gent looks like he's been stuck in the middle of the ...
Live Review by Mat Snow, NME, January 1983
Frank Zappa/London Symphony Orchestra: Barbican Centre, London ...
Frank Zappa: The '60s Mother Still Breaks Social, Musical Convention
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 1984
STOP THE presses! Frank Zappa, that mother of a curmudgeon, has been spotted actually smiling! Get out the red ink – he even chuckled once ...
Interview by Noe Gold, Guitar World, April 1987
FRANK ZAPPA'S fully-equipped home recording studio is where he'd most rather be. "I never go out," he says, though his Laurel Canyon home commands a ...
The Rock & Roll Disc Interview: Frank Zappa
Interview by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, December 1987
FRANK ZAPPA is nothing if not an American original. As American youth swarmed to record stores in search of Monkees and Archies records (it ...
Profile by Richard Gehr, Village Voice, February 1988
If I may be so crass as to adjudge a rock icon by his fans, I'd say Frank Zappa might have a demographics problem. Admittedly, ...
Frank Zappa: Frank's Wild Years
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, December 1989
AT DEAD OF night, behind barred gates and video security cameras up in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles, a tall, angular man with neatly ...
Review by Andy Gill, Q, August 1990
UNCLE FRANK'S EXTENSIVE reissues programme continues apace with eight more blasts from various bits of his past. ...
Frank Zappa: The Mother of Inversion
Profile and Interview by Richard Gehr, Fanfare, June 1991
Frank Zappa is a long-standing foe of warning about violent or sexually explicit lyrics – advocated by the Parents’ Music Resource Center and adopted by ...
Review by Andy Gill, Q, November 1991
JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS, to quote Uncle Frank: yet another record label, and eight more Zappa albums hot on the heels of his two ...
The Double Life Of Frank Zappa,
Profile and Interview by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, September 1992
SINCE CONTRACTING prostate cancer in 1989 Frank Zappa, now 51, has cancelled many public appearances and new projects. Tonight he re-emerges at the Frankfurt Music ...
Mothers of Invention Don Preston and Bunk Gardner
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, Winter 1992
DON PRESTON: a man whose career with Frank Zappa spanned the period 1966 to 1974 all told, with time off for good behaviour in between, ...
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, Daily Telegraph, December 1993
A FEW YEARS AGO, Gail Zappa, wife and business partner of the late Frank Zappa, was shopping for groceries in Los Angeles when the cashier ...
Captain Beefheart: Dropout Boogie
Retrospective by Miles, MOJO, December 1993
IT WAS 2am, September 1969, and I was having a cup of styrofoam coffee with Don Van Vliet in the 24-hour automated snack-bar of TT&G ...
Obituary by Michael Gray, Daily Mail, December 1993
FRANK ZAPPA, who has died of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 52, might well be seen as the last wild man of ...
Obituary by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, December 1993
FRANK ZAPPA, who died last week at the age of 52, has long been regarded as one of the most important figures in rock, a ...
Obituary by Dave Rimmer, MOJO, January 1994
[NOTE: This was part of Mojo’s obituary for Frank Zappa, and was published in January 1994. The brief was simply to look at his career ...
Obituary by Andy Gill, Q, February 1994
Francis Vincent Zappa II, 1940-1993 ...
Frank Zappa: Dr Zircon's Secret Lab
Memoir by Miles, MOJO, March 1994
I FIRST MET FRANK Zappa in July 1967, outside the Garrick Theater at 152 Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village. He was standing on the sidewalk, ...
Report and Interview by Bill Holdship, BAM, February 1995
IF ANYONE OUT there is wondering why Lou Reed (who never had a good word to say about Frank Zappa during Zappa's lifetime) was chosen ...
From Z to A and Back Again, or: QUANTITIES AND LEER
Comment by Ian Penman, Wire, The, July 1995
I CANNOT FOR the pop life of me see why anyone over the age of 17 would ever want to listen to Frank Zappa again, ...
Essay by Mark Sinker, Wire, The, June 1996
2005 note: Savage Pencil did a nice illustration for this: John and Yoko hilariously naked, among other excellent things. It also elicited an angry postcard ...
Frank Zappa: I was a Teenage Moose Freak!
Report by Rob Chapman, MOJO, December 1998
FREE-FORM RADIO was one of the great innovations of the American Underground. From 1966, when the Federal Communications Commission freed up the FM band, to ...
Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999
"There is no undertaking more challenging, no responsibility more awesome than being a Mother."– RICHARD M. NIXON ...
Frank Zappa: Too Much or Not Enough?
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, unpublished, April 1999
By the time of his death from prostate cancer on December 4, 1993, Frank Zappa's taste for life on the road had all but vanished. ...
Essay by Edwin Pouncey, Wire, The, July 1999
ONE MAY evening in 1967 at San Francisco's Matrix club, Steppenwolf's bass player Nick St Nicholas got up on stage, plugged his guitar into an ...
Flo and Eddie and Marc, Frank and More
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 2002
THEY WERE THE VOICE of the American 1960s, sainted providers of the angelic harmonies and grooved-out choruses that served up the most innocent psychedelia your ...
Zappa And The Mothers – The Flo And Eddie Years
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 2002
BETWEEN MID-1970 and the end of 1971, Frank Zappa was at his peak as rock’s premier satirist and spokesman, an 18-month period during which he ...
Frank Zappa: The Mother Of All Reinventions
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, November 2003
IF CIGARETTES AND COFFEE are available in the afterlife, the shade of Frank Zappa is probably allowing himself a wry smile from beneath his formidable ...
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, Spring 2004
FRANK ZAPPA was an irrelevant, redundant figure by the late ‘70s. The object of dorkish devotion, Ol’ Silly Beard had meandered off into cul de ...
ROCK CLIMBING: Jon Stewart Asks, 'Does Humour Belong In Music?'
Column by Jon Stewart, Guitarist, July 2009
HIGH SUMMER, the silly season, is the time to examine humour in music. ...
Frank Zappa: The Freak-Out List (Chrome Dreams)
Film/DVD Review by Gene Sculatti, Ugly Things, 2010
YOU GOTTA HAND it to the folks at Chrome Dreams. Recognizing a good thing, they've come up with yet another "unauthorized" Zappa title (their fifth, ...
Frank Zappa's Manager: A Smile On His Lips, And A Pistol Under The Bar
Obituary by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, March 2010
Mick Brown pays tribute to Herb Cohen, who managed Frank Zappa while maintaining an enthusiasm for music, cheese, confectionery and armaments. ...
Herb Cohen: Combative label boss and manager of Frank Zappa and Tom Waits
Obituary by Rob Hughes, Guardian, The, April 2010
HERB COHEN, who has died aged 77 of complications from cancer, did not elicit much affection from the artists he managed, but he played a ...
see also George Duke
see also Wild Man Fischer
see also Flo & Eddie
see also GTOs, The
see also Mothers Of Invention, The
see also Ruben and the Jets
see also The Grandmothers
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