There are revolutionaries who hail this former advertising executive as their own. There are record company executives who regard him as one of the most cunning capitalists in the business. There are musicians who consider him a fine composer – composers who rate him a superb musician.

Me? I think he is one of the greatest satirists of our time.

We are probably all wrong, or, at least, only partly right. Each of our do-it-yourself Frank Zappa kits only reveals more of what we want to believe' than it does of Zappa himself.

He is the distorting mirror in which we look at our twisted selves and the cock-eyed, unfair society we have constructed. (read more)

This issue contains interviews with Frank Zappa, Aynsley Dunbar, Ian Underwood and George Duke. 

Plus, there is a following note on page 22:

When Frank Zappa disbanded the original Mothers of Invention he said some pretty bitter things about the responses, or lack of it, that people gave to the Mothars' music. Time has mellowed his bitterness, but he still thinks he made the right decison.
"I won't say nobody like it, but statistically speaking it wasn't really a very popular musical phenomenon," he said last week. "Most of the people who liked it did so for the wrong reasons. People would come to the concerts and wait for me to do something outrageous -- they wouldn't care whether we played or not, they were waiting to be shocked out of their minds."
He blames a lot of misunderstanding on papers and particularly on radio stations who play little bits of his music taken out of context. This still happens, he says.
"I think there are aeveral things on the 'Chunga's Revenge' album that even have singles potential. 'Tell me you love me' was even released as a single in the States, but it's not getting played. Why not? Because it's got my name on it."

Frank Zappa's movie monster "200 Motels" was premiered in New York last week. The film comes to London on November 17, and a two record soundtrack album is released by Bizarre/UA on November 5. Album and film are previewed on page 9.

Plus two news from page 6:

DYLAN SEES ZAPPA
BOB DYLAN attended Frank Zappa's early concert last week (October 11) at Carnegie Hall. Dylan was seated halfway through the orchestra section and left the hall just after the concert ended. He also stopped by the Graham Nash David Crosby gig two weeks ago .... At the Zappa concert, was Alice Cooper who should be in England with a new album while you read this ....
ZAPPA TOURS
FRANK ZAPPA was in town recently setting up publicity for "200 Motels." Frank did a David Frost show, and went on tour here in the states for 13 concerts and then Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium and finally England. Zappa and his tired Mothers return to the States in time for Christmas, and then release the first three LPs out of the 9 LP anthology set.

Source: slime.oofytv.set

THE guitar music of Frank Zappa is something which has been shamefully overlooked as critics seem to prefer talking and writing about some of the more obvious aspects of his music – dig in the ribs humour, non-conformism etc... but the fact is that he is an undisputed master of the electric guitar and is one of the handful of guitar players who uses a wah-wah pedal with taste and good sense. The depth of Zappa’s music is immense and so it may be that a lot of his underlying licks go unheeded but should they be left out you’d soon feel the loss. “Hot Rats” was Zappa’s “guitar album” and it was his first till then which gave a lengthy taste of his picking. He is basically a technician on guitar but he weaves perfect pictures which demand precise timing and control. Again like so many other guitar players mentioned on this page, you either have a taste for Frank Zappa, guitar player, or you don’t. However, “Hot Rats” and especially the track “Gumbo Variations”, shows him at his supreme best. Try it and see.

Source: worldradiohistory.com

I was starting to ask about the way he's approached making the movie. He's explained at length before what the film was about how it showed that touring makes you crazy, but presumably he'd seen other pop films and he had ideas about how to do it himself. He immediately picked up on the phrase "pop films".

"I'm not an avid fan of pop films, but you get dumped into that category by virtue of the fact that the film revolves around a group of people who happen to be musicians. I think I would use the same people whether they were musicians or not. I happen to be interested in making a musical film, but a lot of the music in it is not pop. In a way that's unfortunate because it's not like one of those regular rock and roll movies." (read more)

The time is right, thinks Frank Zappa, to unleash on an unsuspecting public the long-awaited nine-album anthology of Mother's music, together with a 30-page booklet. It's set for release next March.

A year ago, I asked Zappa when he'd ben releasing the set, and he said: “In about five or 10 years when they assume more historical importance.” Things have obviously moved a lot faster than he'd expected. (read more)

Source: Geir Myklebust (geirmykl.wordpress.com)

Page 6: Busy Frank. IT WAS a busy week last week for Frank Zappa. Frank, inactive since his Rainbow Theatre accident, has been trying to block the publication of "No Commercial Potential", written by New York writer David Walley. Walley, who has been working on the book for almost three years says Frank has been putting pressure on the publisher not to release the book. The book follows Zappa from his early days up to the present.

Source: ebay

Frank Zappa is to make an exclusive British appearance at next month’s Oval rock concert, promotors Ron and Ray Foulk announced this week.

Source: ebay

IT'S BEEN a long time since the Rainbow: for the rest of us, life's been going on, but for Frank Zappa a large proportion of that time has been spent lying in hospital beds, and resting inhis Californian home, recovering from the disastrous incident in London which left him badly injured. Lately though, he's been writing and playing music; he did the 'Wawa Jawaka' album, and started a tour with a 20 piece band based on essentially the same ideas as the album. Lying in his hotel room last week, an air or weariness and a brace on his leg the only outward reminders of the Rainbow, he talked with little bitterness in his voice of his experiences in the world of rock and roll. (read more)

Source: slime.oofytv.set

ALTHOUGH DEPICTED as vicarious forms of slimy nightmare, Frank Zappa is NOT creepy, when asked about days of old (when everyone was groping around, trying to be realistic, you were being surrealistic, and more real than the rest. Did you ever feel like a turnip lost in a cabbage patch, or the gardener?), he replies, "None of the above." Frank says that he is doing lots of fantastic things, in fact, EVERYTHING. Right now, he's editing a new film for next year. (read more)

Source: slime.oofytv.set

There are three or four great interviews in rock and roll. Lennon obviously, Pete Townshend certainly, one or two others. Zappa is one. A master of outrage from the moment 'Freak Out' had mothers (the other kind) locking up their daughters, and record companies wondering if there might not be a fast buck in all that nonsense somewhere. (read more)

Source: Geir Myklebust (geirmykl.wordpress.com)

[1] ... How about Francis Zappa? 
"He is great, he really is. He may be the most competent producer/engineer in terms of creating an entity beyond a sound ... a whole thing ... a jungle.
"Zappa and I worked on stuff, I'd say twelve years ago. I had a group and he said: 'It's a great group, I'll produce it.'
"He would cut two sides and they were such fun. He said: 'OK now this is what I want you to do, sing like four or five of your favourite singers and we'll go over one track. OK now this is my Mick Jagger imitation.'
"And he'd speed it up and then – he ran it back at the proper speed, and I was doing a Mick Jagger.
"I don't think he knows what he's going to do before he goes into the studio. There's a lot of trickery involved."
What about Zappa on his own stuff?
"He's not as good as he would be with someone else. And that's also my problem in that I have a tendency to try really too hard." ...

Source: worldradiohistory.com

HAD TO review this album. It was the only way I could wean it from the fanatical clutches of my mate and have a listen for myself.

But how can I review it?

How can anyone review a Zappa album with any genuine authority? We’re just mere observers of his vast complex empire. (read more)

Source: ebay

Frank Zappa is alive and well and touring in the USA with his new band, Zappa, and there's a record off called 'Zoot Allures' (only comprehensible to frogs at Brooklyn) which, like the other 14 Zappa records, has its moments of waggish controversy and finely conceptualized identity. Beware though, you may learn something from a Zappa record, ignorants need not apply. (read more)

Source: ebay

Page 32: Frank Zappa, [...]  he reamins among the top half-dozen musicians that rock music has produced.

This is the Beefheart album very few people are going to hear unless the record and management companies involved with the Captain get moving. It sees Don Van Vliet returning to an area somewhere between 'Trout Mask Replica' and 'Clear Spot', undoubtedly his most satisfying period. (read more)

HACK WRITER Sandy Robertson once again finds himself with nothing constructive to say, and so resorts to the usual cop-out of writing down almost everything on the tape and giving it a flashy title like... 'AUDIO WASTE', the soundtrack to a non-existent movie, starring FRANK ZAPPA as 'the hero', GENESIS P-ORRIDGE as 'the other hero', SANDY ROBERTSON as 'the rock fan', and THE BODYGUARD as himself. Stills by Harry Murlowski. (read more)

Frank Zappa in Hammersmith Odeon.

Reader's letter about the f word. 

Yes, I've heard Television. I don't care for them too much. I heard Blondie and I like them. I have some stuff by the Stranglers which I thought was pretty good. There's a song by Lew Lewis that I thought was nice – 'Caravan Man' (originally on Stiff, now deleted). And I just heard one Elvis Costello song for the first time, I thought it was really good. 'Radio Sweetheart'.

But with me now I have most Penderecki, Schoenberg, Webern, lute music, medieval vocal music, organ music, rhythm and blues, Pat Martino, Weather Report, Stravinsky, Gentle Giant, PFM, the Outlaws, two Queen cassettes, Black Sabbath, Mott The Hoople. (read more)

Source: ebay

This article is a review of  two albums - Sheik Yerbouti and Sleep Dirt.

Source: slime.oofytv.set

The article on the gossip page 12 with pictures of FZ and Cherry Bomb points to the March issue of Cheri.

Source: ebay

Joe's Garage II and III review.

Source: ebay

Source: worldradiohistory.com

How did the concert with the London Symphony Orchestra come about?

“Well, I originally didn’t want to do a concert. I just came over here to make the record but doing the concert was part of the problem that every composer has in getting a new piece played, for instance. (read more)

Source: ebay

MAYBE FRANK Zappa’s mellowing in his old age. Last time I interwewed him I was ushered into his presence by his archetypal bodyguard, and when I put my tape recorder on the table Frank promptly produced his own and we spent an hour talking into our respective machines.

This time he’s alone, sitting benignly in the press offices of EMI, his latest record company. He’s pausing between a European tour and an American tour which will keep him on the road until December 23. On Boxing Day he begins a TV special for French television and then takes his band off to Japan and Australia. (read more)

"WHAT'S THE ugliest part of your body?" asked Frank Zappa way back in 1967 on his 'We're Only In It For The Money' album. "I think it's your mind," was the answer, and Zappa must have been sorely tempted to re-vamp that particular number for this latest, cleverly titled snork of outrage. (read more)

Source: worldradiohistory.com 

The Zappa Collection albums advert on the back cover.

Source: ebay