Book about frank zappa biography

New York: Grove Press, 2004 / London: Grove Atlantic, 2004.

My publisher suggested this, knowing that I used to know Zappa. I first met him in New York in 1967 when Ken Weaver of the Fugs, who I was staying with in the Lower East Side, took me to see the Mothers of Invention who had taken a downtown theatre for the summer season.

Frank was touting the show on the sidewalk and wanted to know everything about the English scene.

Book about frank zappa biography

When Zappa came to London later in the year, he used the Indica bookshop as his HQ, doing interviews there and receiving phone-calls. International Times was published from Indica’s basement, and when his British record company refused to print the lyrics to Absolutely Free on the British edition of the album on the grounds that they might be arrested for obscenity, he ran them in IT instead.

It was for this article that the notorious photograph of Zappa sitting on the toilet was taken which was turned into a poster