In the past month Detroit area music-lovers have had the opportunity to attend performances of the Jefferson Airplane, the Cream, Donovan, the Who, and Ravi Shankar. The biggest threat is to come December 1, when the MOTHERS OF INVENTION invade our hallowed Civic Center’s Ford Auditorium. Detroit will never be the same. (read more)

Source: Steve Hecht

His name has a certain zing to it. Zappa – a name you don’t easily forget. Like the man, Frank Zappa, leader and creator of The Mothers of Invention who perform at the Ford Auditorium on Dec. 1. (read more)

Source: Steve Hecht

Zappa refers to his music as “total annihilation” rather than a total amalgamation of all music. “Same as a carburetor boil-out”. He also considers the success of the group “pretty piddly” compared to other less magnificent groups who are rolling in coin. He wouldn’t pin his music down to forms such as jazz or blues; but compared it instead with a group like The Cream who takes blues and interpret it, “Improvisation based on what we really like to hear”. And 5 of the 9, including Zappa, started out in blues. (read more)

Source: Javier Marcote

Zappa, in England, must wield much power. Granada TV, a semi-national TV station, has asked Frank to produce an hour for their station to show.

Frank, when asked of the proposed idea for the show, said: “Visualize: a huge aircraft hanger with at one end, a huge form, 15 feet high, completely concealed by canvas and screened off with velvet ropes, with armed sentries pacing up and down in front of it. Enter three midgets, in full drag, as cheerleaders with briefcases instead of batons. Then gradually enter members of Congress who take their seats in front of the mysterious form and are served with bourbon and water by white-coated Negro waiters. (read more)

Source: Javier Marcote

Last weekend’s Frank Zappa concert at Oakland University was probably the major rock event of the year in Michigan – and a lot of people even got in free, through nearby woods and over fences. (read more)

Source: Javier Marcote

Frank Zappa's new movie, 200 Motels, is a humorous indictment of the whole pop star, rock touring scene. At the same time, Zappa also pokes fun at both himself and his group, the Mothers of Invention. In the film, Zappa, played by Ringo Starr, is characterized as a mad genius. The rest of the Mothers, played by themselves, are portrayed as a group totally exploited by Zappa, who is "always watching us, and using what we do and say to write new music."  (read more)

Source: Independent Voices

The scene was a full house at Cobo Hall – hippies, weekend hippies, pseudo-hippies and, mainly, a lot of people looking for some real feeling in their lives. They were hoping to find it in the “concert of the year” – John McLaughlin the Mahavishnu Orchestra plus Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on the bill. (read more)

Source: Javier Marcote

You can tell how many new albums have been released by the number of concerts slated on the major concert hall circuit (Cobo Hall, Masonic, etc.). Record companies push groups to travel around the country and promote their new albums. The November 2 concert at Masonic was a Warner Brothers Show. (read more)

Source: Independent Voices