Zappa Books

New Entries.

• 7 December. "Chad Wackerman: Enjoying All Challenges", from Modern Drummer, May 1983.

• 3 December. "Mother Follower Of Edgard Varèse" by Ralph J. Gleason, from Datebook, December 1968.

• 1 December. Frank Zappa Adult Coloring Book - an unlicensed coloring book printed in two editions in 2018 and 2019.

• 27 November. Modern Drummer, #37, November 1982. 12-page interview "Vinnie Colaiuta".

• 25 November. Modern Drummer, #35, August/September 1982. Here we have a 9 pages long interview "Ed Mann: Expanding Percussion".

• 24 November. Modern Drummer, #28, November 1981, contains 7 pages long interview "Terry Bozzio: Burnin'".

• 24 November. Polish music monthly Magazyn Muziczny, July 1987 and July 1988.

• 23 November. Zappa Coloring Book by Fantoons. Published in November 5, 2019. The only officially licensed Zappa coloring book today. We will present soon some unofficial coloring books too.

• 19 November. Prog issue 103, November 2019. "Dweezil And The Time Machine". On reworking Hot Rats for a new era, and ignoring his dad’s comedy songs.

• 10 November. Polish weekly Best, February 24, 1991.

• 10 November. Polish music monthly Magazyn Muziczny, June 1988.

• 7 November. Polish music monthly Magazyn Muziczny, October 1991.

• 3 November. Great Pop Things comic strip - The Frank Zappa story in four parts printed in LA Weekly, June and July 1991.

• 2 November. British iconic punk fanzine Sideburns, January 1977, contained not only the famous three chord punk manifesto but also surprisingly good Zoot Allures review.

• 29 October, Vintage Guitar, 3 issues from 2002, 2016 and 2018 containing articles on Dweezil and Frank Zappa.

• 28 October. Another remarkable article by Diedrich Diederichsen on Captain Beefheart - German Spex, Juni 1985.

• 27 October. Very good article by Diedrich Diederichsen on Captain Beefheart in German Sounds, January 1981.

• 26 October. The Cedar Rapids Gazette, September 26, 1977, containing concert review.

• 25 October. The Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 31, 1987. This weekend edition contains an article with FZ interview snippets "Master of the musically absurd" and another one with several album reviews.

• 21 October. "Good For A Few Yawns - Frank Zappa", comics in the most famous punk magazine Punk, March 1977.

• 20 October. "Zappa Plans World Orchestra" is a short article published in Music & Media, April 22, 1989.

• 14 October. French Jazz Magazine, October 2019. Article about Orchestral Favourites album.

• 13 October. Jazz Magazine, May 2019. In this issue you can find a 10-page file about Frank Zappa and The Brecker Brothers.

• 12 October. Jazz Magazine, April 2019. Zappa In New York Deluxe edition reviewed.

• 11 October. Jazz Magazine, August 2019. This issue is devoted to "the fantastic year 69" and contains an artcile about Amougies festival, with nice pictures of Archie Shepp & FZ, Don Cherry & FZ.

• 1 October. Mexican biweekly Ritmos Y Canciones, January 1969.

• 29 September. The biggest Scandinavian pop magazine of the 70's was Poster, which was published in Sweden in 1974-1980. The magazine was founded by German Hans Hatwig, who also took many of the magazine photos himself (but not the Zappa pictures). We found 3 issues from 1974, 1977 and 1978 containing Zappa posters.

• 27 September. Swedish music monthly GO, August 1974.

• 26 September Swedish Hej!, November 1968, containing nice MOI poster.

• 26 September. Swedish pop idol magazine Tiffany, September 1974.

• 24 September. "Mothers of Prevention" by Rip Rense. Printed in Spin, January 1986.

• 23 September. Circus, March 1979. Short note that L.Shankar signed to Zappa Records.

• 22 September. Crawdaddy, June 1978. Zappa in New York reviewed - "Plastic Man".

• 21 September. The Arf-Dossier issue 101 is out. As always, every three months on 40 pages it includes reviews of new albums and books, rare pictures gallery, back in time section, news from Belgium etc.

• 13 September. Zappa Bootz - Da Sources, a fan project edited by Burkhard Schempp. This hardcover book was published in Summer 2019.

• 11 September. UK edition of Prog, August 2019. Contains a nice article by Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood on Zappa.

• 8 September. Italian edition of Prog, November 2016, including Roxy & Elsewhere review.

• 7 September. In July the compilation album Mothermania was reissued as a LP with the original cover. On the back cover is German article "Die Spielsachen sind alle kaputt" (All the Toys Are Broken), taken from West-Berlin newspaper Der Abend, October 17, 1968. We posted here both full texts, original German and English translation.

• 5 September. Russian quarterly Music Box, 1997, issue 8. Contains a 6-page article on FZ.

• 3 September. Swiss newspaper Die Tat, February 3, 1978, including article "Zappa - Karajan des Rock".

• 1 September. Bay Area Reporter, June 21, 1984. "Berkeley Symphony Does Zappa".

• 28 August. From DDR - Melodie und Rhythmus, December 1988.

• 21 August. Finnish Suosikki, January 1976. Zappa is coming to Finland again.

• 16 August. Record Collector #205, September 1996. Contains article "Zappa In Läther".

• 15 August. Dutch underground paper Aloha, two numbers from 1971. #10 with Fillmore East – June 1971 album review, #18 with 200 Motels ad.

• 14 August. Record Collector #191, July 1995. Contains article on the latest mass reissue of Frank Zappa's catalogue, and another article on recent collectible promos.

• 13 August. Danish GO, January 1970, with FZ on the cover.

• 12 August. Finnish teen magazine Suosikki, January 1994, with Frank Zappa obituary.

• 12 August. Fifty years on from Trout Mask Replica - the weird album's weird album - MOJO finds its cast nearly recovered: "There was so much hell emotionally."

• 11 August. Czech bimonthly Rock History - year 1988. Article about Zappa's last tour.

• 6 August. British satirical magazine Private Eye, December 17, 1971, including 200 Motels ad.

• 5 August. Some issues of Czechoslovakian music monthly Melodie - 1982 May, July, August and 1983 April.

• 4 August. British rock monthly Cream - page updated.
  1971 November issue added
  1972 January issue, page scans added.

• 3 August. British counterculture weekly Ink, August 7, 1971, with Fillmore East – June 1971 ad on the back cover.

• 1 August. Analyzing Zappa - music theory essay on select compositions by Frank Zappa, written by Stefan Ullmann. This paperback is available in German and English.

• 31 July. NME, September 18, 1982. Kristine McKenna meets The Captain of the Mojave Desert. This is the interview where Captain Beefheart called Zappa “The guy who looks like a fly's leg”.

• 29 July. Curiosity - "Jean's West" ad with Frank Zappa. Appeared in Italian progressive culture magazine Gong, October 1975. If Zappa had known that ...

• 28 July. Very first Ukrainian magazine in our list - Galas, #1, 1996.

• 27 July. Advance copies of The Zappa Tour Atlas were available at Zappanale #30. This deluxe hardcover book provides a comprehensive listing of all Zappa concerts and venues, including maps and a lot of tour statistics. Also included are reviews of Zappa's 111 official albums.

• 27 July. Pretty harsh review of "Valley Girl", NME June 26, 1982.

• 26 July. Years around 1968 can be named the free-thinking years in Czechoslovakia. Pop Music Expres was a monthly magazine published in 1968 and 1969, 23 issues in total. Many issues of the magazine contained drawings by the famous Czech comic artist Kája Saudek. One of them, the poster of the Mothers Of Invention, was on the back cover of the October 1969 number.

• 21 July. Melody Maker, January 26, 1980. Frank Zappa was in London to promote Baby Snakes. Karl Dallas interviewed him and they talk mostly about Joe's Garage - "Enjoying the glandular arena".

• 19 July. Czech cultural-political weekly Tvorba, February 1990, with a cover picture, reportage, interview and translated lyrics.

• 19 July. Jazz Special, February/March 2004, a monthly music magazine from Denmark.

• 18 July. Jazz, June 1967. "The Joyful Noise" is article about emerging new music which, among other things, describes the MOI performance at the Garrick Theater.

• 18 July. MTV To Go from the MTV Record Club, January 1990.

• 18 July. International music monthly Rock World, German edition, September 1992. Contains an article by Chric Welch.

• 17 July. Italian weekly TV Sorrisi e Canzoni from December 1993 with Frank Zappa obituary.

• 16 July. Dutch Zappa Songbooks. "In the mid seventies a rare series of lyric books of rock groups was published in the Netherlands. Copies were sold at alternative book shops, independent record stores and fashion shops. The books contains the original lyrics of all records of the artists till publication of the book. No publishing company was mentioned. It remains a secret who is behind this series..."

• 15 July. Der Spiegel (German for "The Mirror") is Europe's biggest and Germany's most influential weekly magazine. We added 14 issues from 1968 to 2011 containing FZ references.

• 13 July. Canadian punk fanzine Teenage News, May 1977.

• 11 July. Polish weekly Angora, May 5, 2019, with an article on hologram shows.

• 10 July. Einmal Zappatown und zurück by Stefan Kleber is a German book about visiting Zappanale festival in 2018. Very nice!

• 10 July. Three issues of the Czechoslovakian music monthly Melodie - June, September and October 1980.

• 9 July. Sounds, December 18, 1976. Contains interview "Could a man who stamps on poodles and sings about lonely person devices become president of the US?", which is about Zoot Allures lp, NY Felt Forum concerts, Terry Bozzio's drumming style, orchestra musicians etc.

• 7 July. Sounds, September 9, 1978. This interview "I hate playing in England" includes the often quoted "Black Sabbath story".

• 26 June. Melody Maker, December 28, 1968. We're Only In It For The Money was picked up by the Melody Maker experts as the Pop Record Of The Year.

• 25 June. Frank Zappa Meets The Be-Pop Samurai. Volume Seven of Scott Parker's series covers the live-in-concert exploits of the first lineup of FZ's post-Mothers group Zappa, which toured from October 1976 through to March 1977, including a triumphant run of shows at the Palladium.

• 24 June. Playboy, August 1979. Quote of the month by Frank Zappa.

• 24 June. Estonian cultural weekly Sirp, June 14, 2019, with an article about hologram shows.

• 18 June. Playboy, February 1975. Roxy & Elsewhere review.

• 17 June. Melody Maker, June 14, 1969. Contains a review of the Uncle Meat album. Even two.

• 10 June. One of the best FZ covers in the last years. Prog, issue 98, June 2019. The magazine includes a twelve-page Zappa special with a lot of pictures. One article marks the 40th anniversary of Sheik Yerbouti. The 2nd one is a talk with Ahmet Zappa about the family legacy and hologram tour.

• 9 June. German fanzine Arf Dossier #100! Still alive and living well. Contents: Moo-Ah-Festival, "A trip to LA" by Wolfhard Kunz, "Us and the wonderful virus" by Jörg Wulf, a lot of reviews of the new albums and books, news stories from around the world.

• 8 June. Page scans added to Melody Maker, May 31, 1969. This issue contains an interview with FZ and Uncle Meat ad.

• 5 June. New book by Greg Russo - Ancient Armaments: The Frank Zappa Singles Project. Available now as a downloadable pdf file. Greg Russo has thoroughly researched and analyzed each Zappa-related single release from 1961 to the present.

• 2 June. More OZ issues with ads and reviews.
  - #7, October 1967, Freak Out ad
  - #30, October 1970, Weasels Ripped My Flesh ad
  - #37, September 1971, Fillmore East -June 1971, review and ad

• 2 June. Legendary British counterculture magazine OZ, #39, December 1971. Contains some Mother's ads and 200 Motels review.

• 18 May. Melody Maker, May 17, 1969. Contains some interesting articles and a nice MOI concert tour ad.

• 14 May. Two issues of the Czechoslovakian music monthly Melodie - February and May 1980.

• 11 May. Swedish music magazine Lira, June 2016, with an article on the 50th anniversary of Freak Out!

• 11 May. Classic Rock, October 2015, German edition. Contains 8-page article "American Graffiti", translated from the original British edition.

• 6 May. British conservative magazine The Spectator, March 23, 2019. Contains article on hologram shows and dead artists rights.

• 4 May. Goldmine, June 2019. "Mondo Zappa Live" article is about Zappa In New York reissue and Bizarre World of FZ hologram show.

• 2 May. Some fresh German magazines, all reviewing Zappa In New York 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition:
  - Classic Rock, April 2019
  - Rolling Stone, May 2019
  - Stereoplay, April 2019

• 1 May. Russian Musical Gazette, December 1992.

• 30 April. French Rock & Folk, May 2019, with article on Zappa in New York re-release.

• 29 April. Two Populár issues more - July and August, 1982.

• 28 April. First Slovakian magazine in our list - Populár. Two issues from 1979 included, October and November.

• 27 April. Guitar Player, April 2019. Eleven-page cover story "Dweezil Comes Clean" - Dweezil Zappa explains the art of the guitar solo and reveals how he culled his favorites to create his latest release, 'Live In The Moment II.'

• 21 April. Expect The Unexpected by Kent Nagano. This book was issued in German in 2014 and in English in March 2019. Part of the chapter 4, six pages, is "Frank Zappa, or The Serious Side of the Artist".

• 20 April. From Montana - Borrowed Times, September 15, 1974. Article "The Notorious Zappa" is about Apostrophe album.

• 19 April. Three issues of the Czechoslovakian music monthly Melodie - April, September and October 1977.

• 19 April. The Paper, July 15, 1968, and the Lumpy Gravy review "Zap And Other Hungers".

• 18 April. British fantasy and science fiction magazine Stardock, January 1970. Page scans added. Contains interview with FZ "Grandson of Ives".

• 18 April. Dutch Oor, March 24, 1976 containing interview with FZ.

• 14 April. San Francisco Examiner, July 10, 1966, includes some good words on Freak Out!

• 13 April. Czechoslovakian Melodie, March 1985, with translated Frank Zappa interview.

• 13 April. In a moment the oldest entry in our collection, where Frank Zappa is named. The Bakersfield Californian, August 13 1965 issue contains a Run Home, Slow ad with composer's name.

• 13 April. Long Live Vinyl, December 2018. Short review of the Hot Rats.

• 12 April. French Les Inrockuptibles, March 2019 issue about the year 1969.

• 12 April. Mojo, May 2019. "Zappa's Holo-spectre Spooks London, As A Play Remembers The Days".

• 12 April. Los Angeles Free Press, December 31, 1965. "A Year End Garland from the Free Press" where The Mothers Band is named.

• 9 April. Los Angeles Free Press, October 1, 1965. This issue includes an article about the movie The World's Greatest Sinner, but composer Frank Zappa is not mentioned. However, on page 6 is an ad "Rasputin say: The Mothers is a nice little band ... I suppose". This ad was repeated several times in next Freep issues in October and November 1965.

• 8 April. Record Collector News, issue 74, April 2019. 2019 is the year of Frank Zappa with The Zappa Hologram Tour and the 40th Anniversary Of Zappa In New York. Interviews with Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers included.

• 5 April. Dutch Hitweek, March 1, 1968. Articles on Beefheart and Zappa.

• 2 April. German fanzine Arf Dossier. Issue #99 arrived.

• 1 April. Record World, August 13, 1966. "N.Y. 'Freak Out'", about Freak Out! campaign in record shops.

• 31 March. Record World, July 9, 1966. One very early article on Freak Out! – "MGM Goes Way Out For 'Freak Out'".

• 31 March. Dutch Oor, August 30, 1972.

• 30 March. Los Angeles Free Press, August 18, 1972. Contains long interview with Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, "how two ex-Turtles left the Mothers of Invention and became the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie". A nice Hot Rats (actually Grand Wazoo) concert ad is also included.

• 30 March. Melody Maker, February 15, 1969. Ruben & The Jets reviewed.

• 29 March. Rolling Stone France, April 2019. "Rats en fusion!", a 5-page article by Dominique Dupuis.

• 29 March. Beat Instrumental, July 1968. We're Only In It For The Money review.

• 18 March. "The serious side of Frank Zappa" - article based on an interview with FZ a month before A Zappa Affair concert. San Francisco Examiner, May 18, 1984.

• 16 March. English-language music monthly from Greece – Burst. Two issues, May and November 2014, with articles on Zappa.

• 15 March. It's Only Rock 'N' Roll, an indie music newspaper from San Antonio, TX. The November 1981 issue contains Zappa concert review. In December 1981 edition is included You Are What You Is review.

• 14 March. Belgian cultural quarterly magazine Staalkaart, #24, Spring 2014.

• 9 March. FZ88 is a limited edition hardback coffee table photo book of Zappa’s last tour, based around the photos of Sergio Albonico who had exclusive access to the band during rehearsals. It is augmented with photos from the tour as well as narrative by Zappa author Andrew Greenaway.

• 4 March. Melody Maker, November 2, 1968. October 25 Royal Festival Hall late show review by Chris Welch – "Who Would Have Thought The Mothers Could Be Boring?"

• 26 February. Dutch Muziek Expres, January 1972. Four pages on 200 Motels.

• 25 February. Dutch bimonthly Heaven, #2, 2018. Contains article on Frank Zappa and interview with Dweezil Zappa.

• 24 February. "Zappa: Now It's Time For Gravy", interview with Zappa about planned Lumpy Gravy talk show and other things. Disc And Music Echo, November 8, 1969.

• 23 February. Classic Rock, issue 259, March 2019. "100 Greatest Albums of the 60s" includes We're Only In It For The Money and Hot Rats.

• 16 February. The first volume of the new trilogy devoted to Frank Zappa – Les Extravagantes Aventures de Frank Zappa by Christophe Delbrouk.

• 15 February. Russian Smena, July 1994, with a long profile article on FZ.

• 14 February. Three issues of the Japanese monthly Ongaku Senka, February, March and April 1976. Several articles on Zappa visiting Japan included. There are also some interviews that have been partially translated.

• 12 February. Russian Rovesnik, February 1990.

• 11 February. From Italy, Blow Up, February 2014. 16-page article about FZ in the '80s.

• 9 February. Two 1969 issues of Aloha. Issue #5 has a cover story on Wild Man Fischer. Issue #15 contains article on Uncle Meat film.

• 8 February. Italian monthly Blow Up, December 2010. In this issue is the article "Dio Fa. A lost project." This is all you need to know about proposed by Frank Zappa, but not accepted by Milan, world cup football opera. Includes interview with Fabio Treves, the only Italian musician who has performed on stage with Zappa.

• 6 February. Sounds, December 5, 1970. This issue contains interviews with Frank Zappa ("The Sounds Talk-In. Frank Zappa"), Aynsley Dunbar, Ian Underwood and George Duke ("Mothers In Town "). 

• 5 February. Aloha, #10, September 1969. Mothermania album review.

• 4 February. Dutch underground paper Aloha, #38, October 1970, with Weasels Ripped My Flesh review.

• 2 February. A peculiar interview by Roy Carr with Frank Zappa at his house – "Bizarre goings on with Uncle Meat". Published in New Musical Express, April 7, 1973.

• 31 January. French translation of Them Or Us, published in September 2018 by Philharmonie de Paris.

• 28 January. New Musical Express, May 25, 1974. Included is interview from the 10-year anniversary of the Mothers of Invention, "Mother's Day memories".

• 27 January. New Musical Express, January 3, 1976. Contains great article by Miles about Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and their working relationship. "BLLLAAAaaaaahhhhhHHHHHH – You have just heard Captain Beefheart shattering glass objects with the astonishing pitch of his voice".

• 26 January. Sounds, December 4, 1971. Interview with Frank Zappa by Steve Peacock – "Frank's turtles in disguise".

• 26 January. Russian quarterly Music Box #70, 2015. Contains interview with Chad Wackerman.

• 25 January. Melody Maker, September 21, 1968, with Royal Albert Hall concert ad.

• 24 January. Melody Maker, August 17, 1968. News on the front page – the Mothers are coming to London.

• 22 January. Italian monthly of alternative and obscure music – Blow Up, December 2018. This is a Zappa special issue to commemorate the 25th anniversary of death with 24 pages devoted to FZ.

• 22 January. Lizard, Summer 2014. A quarterly from Poland.

• 21 January. Portuguese weekly Blitz, January 1985, with an overview article about Zappa's last 20 years. Included in this issue is also an article on Captain Beefheart.

• 21 January. Polish quarterly Lizard, Autumn 2012. Contains article on Zappa albums and interview with Chad Wackerman.

• 9 January. Two nice interviews more. Melody Maker, July 11, 1970. "Listen With Mothers" is an interview wirh Frank Zappa. "Zappa’s so straight he’s bizarre" is interview with George Duke.

• 8 January Marvel comics Two-Gun Kid, March 1968, with We're Only In It For The Money ad.

• 7 January. British Beat International, December 1968, with Lumpy Gravy review.