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Frank Zappa in His Own Words
The story of Frank Zappa with quotes from the man himself.
96 pages, Paperback
Published July 5, 1993
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About the author
Frank Zappa
71Ìýbooks1,176ÌýfollowersFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, musician, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa established himself as a prolific and highly distinctive composer, electric guitar player and band leader. He worked in almost every musical genre and wrote music for rock bands, jazz ensembles, synthesizers and symphony orchestra, as well as musique concrète works constructed from pre-recorded, synthesized or sampled sources. In addition to his music recordings, he created feature-length and short films, music videos, and album covers.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 17, 2018
Music journalist Miles has selected excerpts from various interviews Frank Zappa did between 1967 and 1990. As Miles points out in his introduction, Zappa is one of the most interviewed musicians ever, surprising given Zappa's famous disdain for the music press (only slightly greater than his disdain for virtually everything else). Miles selected material from lesser known interviews and arranged them by subject. Even though the reader might not have encountered these particular interviews before, they are highly consistent with the famous interviews that one usually finds. For the person who knows Zappa fairly well, there are not many surprises here. For the person curious about Zappa's notoriety, the book provides a pretty clear picture of Zappa's public persona. That persona is abrasive, cynical, and opinionated. However, Zappa himself knows this and makes no excuses or attempts to hide it. And to his credit, he makes no pretense to having higher knowledge or being the person that everyone just has to listen to. He makes it clear that he does not have answers, just opinions. It's a good introduction to Zappa's thoughts and ideology, packaged in glossy pages with many pictures not easily available elsewhere. Still, I feel that a reader can get a much better sense of Zappa's personality, and not just the abrasive public persona, from "The Real Frank Zappa Book" by Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso published a few years earlier.
September 14, 2021
Fun and intellectual. Daring and honest. Human... Perhaps some harsh words about himself. Being one of the most gifted composers ever and a top five in rock creativity, I wouldn't expect less. He was so close to being "The" genius that his guitar skills are extremely underrated. Mandatory reading to begin with, If we are to talk about music as an art form.
December 1, 2018
Slim volume of quotations from Frank covering a wide range of subjects. A fun little book.
October 30, 2021
Pretty unsatisfying collection of random interviews organized haphazardly, IMHO
September 24, 2008
Although I am huge fan of Frank, this book was a bit boring and most of it has not been new to me.
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June 22, 2011miles really gives good criticism for zappa's bitter, slightly dumbed down work in the 80's....the sexual perversions and stuff, gets old maybe
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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