Frank

Isn't that a great picture? Raised eyebrow challenging you to listen to what's in store. But pensive as well, he's dying you know. Altogether needlessly. Mr. Zappa died of prostate cancer, a totally treatable disease, it's a shame that he had die so young - in his mid fifties. I'll be 50 in August. If I'm not mistaken this was the last LP he made in conjunction with Ensemble Modern. Truly, it was his swan song. So why am I writing about Frank?


I guess I want to thank him publicly for expanding my musical horizon. You see, when I was a teenager, I was listening to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Alice Cooper (who Frank originally produced) and everything was hunky dory(David Bowie), I remember my best friend had just bought "Overnight Sensation" and as we listened to it I was amazed. The musicianship was nothing that I'd ever heard and Frank's guitar was nothing that I'd ever heard. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana they never even came close to Frank's virtuosity. Of course, I appreciate the musicianship of Eric, Jimmy and Carlos but Frank was unreal.

Frank was a veritable farm of musicians, during his tenure he introduced such musicians as George Duke, Adrian Belew, Jean Luc Ponty, Captain Beefheart and Alice Cooper to name a few. I guess for me he raised the bar of music. He launched my exploration of all types of music, with simple writ:

That it must be played from the heart. Nothing else is real. That's why music is so banal today. It is completely NOT real. That said, I'm old enough to recognize the cycles the music business goes through - something exciting happens: rockabilly (Elvis), the British Invasion, Punk, Rap, Hip Hop, Grunge... The corporate world ALWAYS co-opts the music, and eventually there is a push back.

So I'm waiting for the push back. If you know it's happening, let me know.

In the meantime, thank Frank for his contribution to music.