Frank Zappa. La vita e la musica di un uomo «Absolutely free»

UK writer Barry Miles has a made a career writing solid biographies and histories on counterculture topics, mainly key figures of the Beat movement. Frank Zappa, the subject of a 2003 biography, is a less likely candidate for the Miles treatment than he might appear: A wildly creative middle-class o Leggi tutto

There was a time when I had a complete reverence to anything Z put forth. Years later, I'm safely on the other side of my demystification process, and happier, healthier for it. There are still the dozen or so Essential Frank Zappa recordings, the ones I'll stand by till death, but really, the guy h Leggi tutto

Turned the pages with zircon-encrusted tweezers.

Frank Zappa is the musical idol of my youth. I listened to Zappa's album "Freak Out!" almost 50 years ago, in 1966 or 1967, fascinated by what I considered the avant-garde freshness of the music, political references, and great sense of humor. Obviously, being a teenager, I dearly loved the scatolog Leggi tutto

I am not a big Zappa fan, but I always try and listen to any rare radio play of his songs of which I have heard "Montana", "Black Napkin" and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", but this book was on a return cart in the library and I decide to give it a read. Frank led an interesting life pretty much fig

Re-reading this book... It’s a good informative book, but to partial. Barry Miles keeps pointing fingers on what he dislikes about Frank. It bothers because I couldn’t care less about Barry Miles opinion. I know... When I read a biography we are reading someone talking about a person I like or I’m in Leggi tutto

I first heard Brown Shoes Don't Make It on the Dr. Demento Show in the 70s; I was thirteen and impressionable, so I latched onto the line "only thirteen and she knows how to nasty." It remains my favorite song in the world to this day. Frank may not have received a lot of airplay—on his first album, Leggi tutto

The book starts with an anecdote where Frank Zappa, as a teenager, ends up being entrapped by a crooked cop into making a fake sex audio tape and being arrested and tried over it, and it allegedly told Frank that America and authority in general was all a lie. Yet soon after, a description of Frank' Leggi tutto

Barry Miles gets trashed by other reviewers and some of the critiques are justified especially when you don't get Zappa's date of death correct. Nonetheless, Miles attempts to write a well-rounded biography that discusses warts and all. Some of it is disillusioning hearing the negatives about Frank, Leggi tutto