Happy Birthday Frank

Notbob

Senior Member
Frank Zappa would've been 74 today. For any drummer since 1970 or so, "I played with Zappa" was an enviable mark on their CV. Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson, Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Chad Wackerman...


And happy Winter Solstice as well!!
 
YES! Happy birthday Frank.
It might be fun if I share an encounter my garage band had with Frank Zappa. This actually happened to me.

John was the bass player the garage band that I played in. It was 1967. At the end of the school year John’s girlfriend Francine had a brilliant idea. Ok, maybe not a brilliant idea but an interesting idea none the less.

At the time, Francine’s girlfriend was taking piano lessons from Ian Underwood. Ian Underwood was a member of the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa’s band. The last day of school was coming up and Francine thought it would be cool if she could get Frank Zappa to give a lecture in her music appreciation class at North Hollywood High School. So she and her friend talked to Ian Underwood and got Frank Zappa’s home address.

John, Randy and Francine took a ride to Frank Zappa’s home. They knocked on the door and Frank’s wife answered the door. Francine told her what she wanted and so Frank’s wife went and got Frank. Frank Zappa came to the door and Francine said she would like to have him talk to her music appreciation class about modern music on the last day of school. Frank asked where and when this would be. She said it was tomorrow at 8 o’clock in the morning. Frank said “8 o’clock in the morning is usually when I go to bed”. Frank said that he would do it but that he needed someone to pick him up because he didn’t drive. Francine said OK, we will pick you up tomorrow.

The next day John and Randy picked up Frank Zappa and drove him to North Hollywood High School. Frank Zappa was wearing a letterman sweater. And the sweater was way too small for Frank. Of course it was just Frank’s sick sense of humor. On the trip to school John began sharing some of the lyrics to some of our songs that we played and that John had written. Namely, Valley Cruiser and Do the Horn. Both of which were right up Frank Zappa’s alley. Making fun of our teenage culture. Frank Zappa was amused and enjoyed the songs.

When they finally got to the school some of the students recognized Frank Zappa and he signed a few autographs in their annuals. The teacher was shocked that Frank had shown up but was more than happy to have Frank talk to the students about modern music. There were kids peaking in all of the classroom windows while Frank gave them a 45 minute lecture on music. I wish I had been there to hear that lecture. I was attending a different high school at the time.

On the trip back home Frank Zappa told John and Randy that he was forming his own record company, Bizarre Records, and that he might want to hear their band play. So he sent Ian Underwood over to John’s Dad’s house to hear us rehearse. Ian reported back to Frank saying that “These guys are good”.

After several months Frank Zappa finally calls and sets up a recording date for us at his recording studio. The time slot was 12 am to 4 am. A little bit challenging for high school students to stay out at that time of night, but we pulled it off. We recorded two songs. Valley Cruiser and Do the Horn.

Right after the recording session Frank Zappa went on tour to New York. He left the phone number of his band’s business manager, Herb Cohen. John called Herb many times trying to get some kind of commitment from Herb and Frank on producing our songs. However, Herb did not seem interested. Finally when Frank Zappa returned from his touring, John went over to his house again. Frank was nice about it, but always seemed too busy to spend time on our recordings. However, John was able to spend time with Frank and hang out at his home on several occasions. Where are those recordings today? I wish I could get them.


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That's a great story and, based on his autobiography, sounds like vintage FZ!
 
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