Music Life
JapanProbably the BEST music magazine ever published in Japan and actually one of collectors' all time favorites. Since 1950 (!). Always has incredible color photos, tons of useful information including exclusive interviews. Issues from 70's look more like books than magazines. All of them are worth finding and fortunately are not that hard to find as this was the best selling music magazine in Japan at that time. (Yasuhiro Shiga)
The final issue of Music Life was printed in December 1998.
Translation by TAN Mitsugu:
p.30 The Mothers
Of Invention
"Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention going in their own
way with ever new, cutting-edge challenges. Making the most
of this electric age, they are devoting themselves to the pursuit
of sound. With their Japanese fan base growing day by day, this
band is a true flagship of art rock."
p.36 The Sound of Frank Zappa
"Frank Zappa, the leader of the Mothers - is he a genius, or
a mad man? He has his own world where something beyond our comprehension
is whirling around. A mysterious mad man - that's him."
Source: slime.oofytv.set
The full-page Mothers Of Invention picture, Frank Zappa with
Bunk and Buzz Gardner, is from unknown concert. The small picture
(#9) is Zappa at the London School of Economics in May 28, 1969.
This event is mentioned several times:
Frank Zappa: The
Mother of Us All
Zappa - The Great Satirist.
Source: slime.oofytv.set
TAN Mitsugu:
p 12 Color gravure
Frank Zappa
pp 101-102 "News A La Carte" reports "The Mothers
Disbanded".
Source: slime.oofytv.set
TAN Mitsugu:
p 43 B&W photo
of FZ and Hoshika Rumiko In
p 42, Hoshika wrote: "Frank Zappa - philosopher in the rock
world - is a kind man in contrast to his unique staging".
pp 75-77 Interview with Frank Zappa (Part of Hoshika's UK report)
Photographer: Hasebe Yoshihiro (now Hasebe Koh)
Note: Hoshika wrote that the press conference took place on
June 24, 1970.
p 104 "News a la Carte", mentioning FZ & the Mothers appeared
in the Bath Festival.
p 165 Hot Rats on the top 20 LP charts at number 18
p 181 "ML Readers Square", with a caricature of FZ (which also
appears in the next issue).
Source: slime.oofytv.set
TAN Mitsugu:
p 15 b&w photo
of the Mothers at the Bath Music Festival, England
p 30-31 Color photos of the Mothers & FZ (taken at the 1970/6/24
press conference by Hasebe)
p 54 "Like lips like lettuce: Which is which?" Frank Zappa,
Al Cooper & Daniel Seraphine
p 61-65 "Bath Music Festival: Live Broadcast on Paper" by John
Halsall
p 182 "ML Readers Square", with a caricature of FZ (which also
appears in the last issue)
Source: slime.oofytv.set
The title of this interview can be translated as "Taking a glimpse of the true face of Zappa the giant".
Following comments by TAN Mitsugu:
The title of this interview can be translated
as "Mad-academic lecture from Music Life: Genius is only
one step from mania".
The same interview also appeared in
Musik Express (July 1982). There're a bit
of differences between the two versions; some topics only appeared
in Musik Express, and vice versa. For example, the
Music Life version has a question about taking a vacation:
- Don't you take any vacation?
FZ: No, I don't. I took it once. Back in 1973, on my way from
the Australian tour, I thought I needed a vacation, so I reserved
a hotel in Hawaii for two weeks and brought my wife and children
in. But a week went by, I cut short the vacation and came home,
because I got so bored that it nearly drove me crazy.
