Blender
Frank Zappa is perfect fodder for biography: A gifted composer, staunch advocate of personal freedom and ground breaking guitarist, his achievements have been covered in many books. Kevin Courrier's Dangerous Kitchen is an ideal primer for the novice: In serviceable prose, he analyzes Zappa’s music and his efforts agitating for artistic freedom (such as his testimony before Congress in 1985 about dirty lyrics). It’s too bad Courrier doesn't reveal any evidence of firsthand reporting until page 194; without the journalism he’s borrowed from others, this struggles to get beyond a collection of album reviews.
Before he became MTV's newsreader, Kurt Loder was a music
journalist, and this reissue of his 1990 interview collection
functions as an'80s time warp. There's Mick Jagger before he
married Jerry Hall, and Laurie Anderson before she teamed up
with Lou Reed. Old-schoolers already know the fates of Loder's
subjects — whether death (Frank Zappa) or superstardom (Bruce
Springsteen) — but his access in an age before spin control
reveals him as a surprisingly emotional writer. Still, he might
have put a little more effort and insight into his hasty, tacked-on
intro ("And Prince, well, what can one say about Prince?").
See Bat Chain Puller.
2008 October
Did Frank Zappa really have a backing
band made up entirely of groupies?
By Sammie Avila, p 36