Fall 1995
Vol 6. No 4

The Present-Day Composer Refuses To Die!
Robert Lehnert; 7 pp

From the EDITOR

I was in high school when I met Frank Zappa. As it happened, my best friend and I were introduced to him by her parents (!) at Lenny Bruce's funeral. Before long, she and I were trekking to the Whiskey A-Go-Go and the Shrine to hear the Mothers of Invention, and to hang out around the United Mutations of America. This all seemed normal. So we petitioned our Current Affairs teacher at Ulysses S. Grant High School for permission to bring Frank to class as a sort of show-and-tell freak. Oddly enough, the teacher agreed. That day was not immortalized (the yearbook staff passed on the photo op because they already had cool shots of Three Dog Night from a school dance), but nevertheless a profound imprint was made upon the impressionable young minds of 26 high school juniors. Zappa's basic message was, "Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts."

Well, I did forget the prom and have been trying to follow the rest of his instructions ever since.

As for our cover story – Stereophile magazine Music Editor and eminent Zappa freak Richard Lehnert provides the definitive poop on the new Rykodisc reissues of Frank Zappa's work – 70 CDs in all. Be informed. Never again suffer a dinner party faux pas when the conversation inevitably turns to one's favorite FZ album. Best Letter to the Editor on this story gets a prize, I think.

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Kristina Melcher