Zappa Books

• 25 March. Action magazine of the Spectrum sports arena, Philadelphia. Zappa was the "Spectrum Rocker Of The Month" in April 1973.

• 25 March. The East-bloc Hungarian Világ Ifjúsága (Youth of the World) had a Zappa card in April 1981.

• 24 March. International Times, a weekly newspaper from Cambridge,  suburb of Boston. In October 1977 they republished a long interview with Frank Zappa by Rob Fixmer, that had appeared a few years earlier.

• 23 March. "Zappin!" - Italian translation of the interview with FZ made by Gary Steel from New Zealand. It was printed in magazine Ciao 2001, September 1991.

• 22 March. "Aynsley Dunbar: Rocker With A Jazz Heart", from Modern Drummer, October 2007.

• 22 March. Zäpo / Fingerprint File, a fanzine from Sweden.

• 21 March. Liberatore Glamour Book, published in 1985, contained an unpublished work by Tanino Liberatore from 1972.

• 21 March. Jam, Florida's Music Magazine, October 1998. Zappaween with Zappa tribute band, Bogus Pomp.

• 21 March. Illinois Entertainer, October 2024. Apostrophe (') 50th Anniversary Edition / Whisky a Go Go 1968.

• 20 March. Canadian Histoire du Rock, from 1975. It is an updated translation of the British series The Story of Pop into French. The changes mainly included the addition of Canadian artists, but also, for example, an article on Frank Zappa in vol. 43 was added.

• 19 March. British fanzine Saudade, January 1990. Includes reviews of Captain Beefheart's last three albums and a review of Broadway The Hard Way by Fred Tomsett.

• 18 March. French Compact, January 1988. Frank Zappa dossier on 7 pages.

• 17 March. The Daily Planet, November 1974. "Music Only A Mother Could Love" by David Fricke.

• 17 March.  A longer article in German about Captain Beefheart. Musikexpress, March 1981.

• 16 March. El Heraldo de México, October 1970. Good pictures, good read.

• 15 March. Strip magazine from Belgium, January 1969. A brief introduction "Frank Zappa sees music differently!"

• 14 March. A nice read for the weekend. The book Movies For A Desert Isle was published in 1987. There is a chapter written by Frank Zappa, where he talks about his own films and his favorite films made by others. It is noteworthy that this text has never been shared before.

• 13 March. Dutch Lust For Life, September 2024. Whisky A Go-Go 1968.

• 12 March. The Italian book Red Ronnie Presenta: '60 Peace & Love was published in 1999 and is mostly copies of articles and photos from 60s music magazines.

• 12 March. German record collectors' magazine Mint, November 2017. Francesco Zappa.

• 11 March. Cash Box, 6 May 1967. "Talent On Stage: Boston's American Festival Of Music".

• 11 March. S.P.E.W. #1, by the War Resisters League. Contains an exclusive interview "Frank Zappa on Rock and the Religious Right".

• 10 March. Three issues of the Italian magazine Ciao 2001 from 1990:
  - 13 March : You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 3
  - 27 March : Short new about "Times Beach" performance in New York
  - 17 July : Review of the Italian edition of The Real Frank Zappa Book.

• 9 March. New Musical Express, 12 January 1980. In addition to the Joe's Garage single review and the Joe's Garage Act II & III album review, Zappa is also mentioned and pictured in the synthesizer article.

• 9 March. Canadian paper Pop Rock. Three pieces from 1973: reviews of The Grand Wazoo and Over Nite Sensation; and an article on the guitar "Black Widow".

• 8 March. January 1972, Finnish monthly Intro. "Frank Zappa is a merchant of madness".

• 7 March. "America's Only Rock'n'Roll Magazine" Creem, November 1976. In the news: Zappa has a new manager, Bennett Glotzer, a new album Zoot Allures, a new band and concert tour.

• 7 March. Spanish monthly Rockdelux, November 2012. Twelve essential albums by Frank Zappa.

• 6 March. Don Preston Trio's album Transformation reviewed in Jazzwise, June 2001.

• 5 March. New Musical Express, 21 January 1978. Frank Zappa in gig guide.

• 4 March. Alternative Media, a quarterly review published by the Alternative Press Syndicate. Issue Spring 1980 contains a review of the Baby Snakes film.

• 3 March. British New Musical Express, 22 September 1979. Ian Penman reviews the album Joe's Garage. He did not like it.

• 2 March. Estonian cultural magazine Teater. Muusika. Kino, February 2025. On 15 December 2024, the concert "Zappa!", took place in Tallinn. The performance included both Frank Zappa's top orchestral works and a selection of songs from his rock band.

• 1 March. Arf Dossier #122, December 2024. This time the issue was exceptionally a few months late. But here it is anyway.

• 16 February. Interviews with Peter Wolf, keyboard player for Zappa's band in the late 70s, don't come along very often. Here's one - Music Connection, January 1986.

• 15 February. Australia's best and biggest television guide, TV Week, featured a Zappa poster in July 1973.

• 15 February. Review of the album Strictly Commercial in the British monthly magazine Mojo, November 1995.

• 14 February. The Daily Aztec, student newspaper of San Diego State, published two articles about Zappa and the MOI in October 1970, one before and one after the concert.

• 6 February. The third edition of Michele Pizzi's Italian book Frank Zappa for President! is coming soon. It will be published both in paper and digital form. Ebook is already available. Paperback is coming on 3 March.

• 5 February. Modern Drummer, January 1983. "Chester Thompson: Up For The Challenge".

• 4 February. French weekly Maxipop. 20 July 1972. Review of the Waka/Jawaka.

• 3 February. "America's Only Rock'n'Roll Magazine" Creem, October 1975. Frank Zappa's favorite booze and "worst thing that ever happened to you when you were drunk".

• 2 February. British Jazzwise, April 2020. Nice reflection on the front covers of jazz magazines.

• 1 February. Them Or Us, The Perfect Stranger, Thing-Fish, Francesco Zappa reviewed in French Intra Musiques, April 1985.

• 31 January. Belgian magazine Ritual, June 1995. "Zappa est mort, vive Zappa!"

• 19 January. Certainly the northernmost Zappa source we have ever encountered - Norwegian Finnmarksposten, which is published in the probably most northern city in the world Honningsvåg. We found one relevant issue from April 1978.

• 18 January. Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 17 September 2024. "The Fall of the House of Zappa" - another long review of the book Earth To Moon.

• 18 January. Earth To Moon review in the British monthly The Oldie, December 2024.

• 18 January. Moon Zappa's book Earth To Moon reviewed in The Telegraph, 10 August 2024.

• 17 January. Moon Zappa's memoir reviewed in Italy's most widely read daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, 10 August 2024.

• 16 January. German bimonthly Good Times. Some issues from 2024 added:
  February/March : The Beat Club Sessions DVD
  April/May : Napoleon Murphy Brock & Ensemble Musikfabrik: Bad Doberan & Elsewhere
  June/July : Whisky A Go Go 1968
  October/November : Earth To Moon by Moon Unit Zappa

• 10 January. Record Collector, November 2024. Apostrophe (') 50th Anniversary Edition.

• 9 January. Vintage Guitar, November 2024. Apostrophe (') 50th Anniversary Edition.

• 9 January. Classic Rock, October 2024. Apostrophe (') 50th Anniversary Edition.

• 8 January. Creem, May 1975. "Lip Stiffeners: A Guide To Facial Foliage".

• 7 January. "America's Only Rock'n'Roll Magazine" Creem, April 1975. The Mothers contest - questions and answers.

• 4 January. US student newspaper The Advocate.
  - December 1974 : Zappa is Misunderstood
  - January 1975 : Roxy & Elsewhere
  - October 1982 : The Valley Girl Mirrors The Eighties

• 3 January. Norwegian Lyd & Bilde, January 1980. Contains another interview with Zappa and Joe's Garage album review. Remember, that he was the man who in 1979 topped the Norwegian charts (both, singles and albums) and was named pop musician of the year in a readers' poll.

• 2 January. Norwegian monthly Lyd & Bilde (Sound and image) published a lengthy interview with Frank Zappa in May 1979 - "Musician or provocateur". The same issue also included a review of Sheik Yerbouti.

• 30 December. On 16 May 1973, Zappa performed in Toronto. During the concert, he was awarded the DownBeat magazine Pop Musician of the Year award. The event was featured in the magazine's July 19 issue and "Award Ceremony Ballet" can be heard on the concert recording.

• 30 December. Several issues of French Jazz Magazine each year contain material about FZ. Including the extensive special issues "Dossier Zappa". We added seven issues from the 20s. Mostly album reviews.

• 29 December. Finnish bimonthly magazine Riffi is known for its original interviews. We have added 4 issues that include interviews with Zappa drummers Chester Thompson, Chad Wackerman and Terry Bozzio, and guitarist Marzi Nyman, who has performed Zappa's work on several occasions.

• 28 December. Two issues of the Finnish quarterly WUM, year 1994. Both offer some brief news and an original photo of Zappa in Helsinki, like FZ and George Duke in studio in Helsinki.

• 28 December. German Musik Fans, November 1973.

• 27 December. German Popfoto, January 1969.

• 27 December. British monthly Mojo:
  - August 2024 : Whisky A Go Go 1968
  - September 2024 : interview with Moon Unit and Earth To Moon review

• 26 December. One of the most important Zappa books of this year was Frank Zappa, obra lírica completa by Manuel de la Fuente. A longer review of it appeared in the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia.

• 26 December. Zap! Frank Zappa Made Easy. Another AI creation.

• 25 December. "The Mother of Invention and Uncle Meat", a serious study by James Grier, Acta Musicologica, 2001. "... Uncle Meat, with its higly original structure, is the strongest single statement of Zappa's aspirations as an art music composer."

• 20 December. We offer a very interesting and original read. In 2017, Magdalena Westman's autobiography Hladce obrace nahodit sejmjut was published in the Czech Republic, where she describes, among other things, her meetings with Frank Zappa in 1991. She also stayed for a while at Zappa's home in Laurel Canyon. With the author's permission, the relevant parts of the book are available here.

• 19 December. A review of Manuel de la Fuente's excellent book Obra lírica completa was published in the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia on November 24.

• 19 December. German Popfoto, January 1969.

• 18 December. Italian weekly Ciao 2001. Three issues from the year 1989. The most important material there is probably Sergio Lacavalla's article "Musica e no" about the composers of contemporary music (Webern, Schönberg, etc.) and their influence on rock music (Zappa, Eno etc.).

• 17 December. Bow Tie Daddy comic from New York punk fanzine NUTS!.

• 16 December. British magazine One Two Testing. We can read good words about Zoot Allure's guitar playing and Dancin' Fool's production.

• 15 December. Have you heard, that "William George Jefferson Aeroplane Clinton was thrown out of an early Mothers Of Invention line-up for 'inhaling' whilst playing the sax ... His replacement was Frank Zappa!" This and many more illustrated stories you can find in the book Great Pop Things, which was first published in 1992 in UK (even with FZ and CB on the cover) and then in 1998 in USA.

• 14 December. DVD review - "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in the '60s" by Michael Aschenfelder. March 2010, Notes journal.

• 13 December. Last week, the Italian book Essere Frank Zappa, by Michele Monina, was published. In the author's own words "In short, no biography of Frank Zappa here, and perhaps not even a phenomenology, already read, but rather a reinterpretation of his art, of his style, of his essence, precisely, in full contemporary style."

• 12 December. Zappa Doo Wop by Bruce Whitaker was published in 2019. For some reason we missed it. But this book is very beautifully designed (front and back illustations by the author), meaningful and absolutely recommended for any Zappa enthusiast. Bruce Whitaker " The book explores Zappa's connections to and influences from the early L.A. Doo Wop and R&B scene of the 1950's and 60's and covers many of the songs that he performed on stage or referenced in his own songs throughout his career."

• 10 December. Australian short-living counterculture magazine High Times.

• 9 December. Zappa performed at the SDSU Open Air Theater on 9 September 1977. A review of the concert was published in the student newspaper The Daily Aztec. Student Ralph Hulett conducted an interview with Zappa, which was published in the same newspaper shortly after. Many years later, in 2008, Ralph Hulett wrote a thoughtful article about Mystery Disk in Record Collector News, using this 1977 interview.

• 8 December. New Year's calendar arrived - Zappalendář 2025. Planned, drawn and printed by Bohumil "Bohouš" Jůza, who is the chairman of the Czech Zappa fan club.

• 7 December. Sound & Vision stopped being published in print two months ago. We added some issues that talk about the film Zappa, the album Over/Nite Sensation, and the Deep Purple album mixed by Dweezil Zappa.

• 6 December. Spanish Rockdelux, special edition #200, October 2002. 200 best records of the 20th century according to Rockdelux, including We're Only In It For The Money and Trout Mask Replica.

• 2 December. Turkish Hey, April 1978. Zappa In New York.

• 1 December. The Italian magazine Ciao 2001 is back after a long hiatus this year. In several issues they repeated important articles about Zappa from the 70s.

• 30 November. Frank Zappa Biography For Curious Kids. Published in July 2024. We do not recommend this AI book.

• 30 November. Daily Variety, 10 June 1974. "Zappa Asks $2 Mil In Contract Breach Suit Against ATIL."

• 29 November. The Washington Post, 11 August 2024. "Growing up Zappa." Frank Zappa's children are still grappling with his legacy. With a lot of pictures.

• 28 November. Schott Journal, the quarterly magazine of one of the world's leading music pulishers.

• 21 November. East-German Melodie & Rhythmus published in two consequtive issues 12/81 and 01/82 a longer story about Zappa with several quotes from him.

• 19 November. Frank Zappa, obra lírica completa  (Frank Zappa, complete lyrical works) appeared yesterday. This is the first time that the complete lyrics of one of the most brilliant musicians of the 20th century are available on the market, both in Spanish and English. The Spanish translations are by Manuel de la Fuente.

• 14 November. Pay attention – Italian Classic Rock, issue 141, November/December 2024.

• 12 November. Dutch Lust For Life, May 2022. On the occasion of the recently released box The Mothers 1971, a look back at a disastrous December 71.

• 11 November. Hungarian film art magazine Filmvilág, July 2021. Alex Winter's Zappa film.

• 10 November. Zappostrophe #153 is out. Another news is that the active Czech Zappa fan club will release a 2025 calendar called Zappalendar during the month of November.

• 10 November. A report dedicated to the Spanish edition of The Real FZ Book. La Vanguardia, 24 November 2014. 

• 7 November. Italian Ciao 2001, 1988 edition.
  - February 17 : "Frank out", overview of Zappa CDs
  - March 30 : London Symphony Orchestra II
  - July 6 : 4 page article on Dweezil Zappa
  - August 10 : "Me, Frank", interview with FZ
  - August 24 : You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Sampler

• 4 November. "A wish come true or Who's really crazy here" - an interview with FZ by Alexander Goldscheider, made in Fillmore East before the 22 February 1969 shows. Czechoslovakian Melodie, July 1969.

• 2 November. Film Comment, July/August 2016. Eat That Question film review.

• 2 November. Italian Ciao 2001:
  - 1987 August 19 : Zappa's attempt to host The Late Show
  - 1987 September 9 : Does Humor Belong In Music?

• 1 November. In 2007, Scott Parker began a book series of Zappa recordings, which was to come in eight volumes. After a three-year hiatus, Scott Parker is now continuing this series with the ninth volume The Big One.

• 31 October. German magazine for vinyl culture Mint, February 2023. A review of reissues of the two albums from Zappa's big-band era - Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo.

• 30 October. Dutch Lust For Life, March 2021. Interview with Alex Winter on Zappa "From musician to cultural activist".

• 28 October. Apostrophe album ad, Creem, July 1974. The same issue contains Capt. Beefheart album review and Rock Dreams book review.

• 27 October. Here he comes again! ... that pantaloon duck, white goose neck.  "Low Yo-Yo Stuff: Getting Closer To The Captain" by Lester Bangs. Creem, January 1973.

• 26 October. Apostrophe album ad on the back cover of German Musikexpress, February 1976.

• 25 October. Two books in Dutch by Cor van Diejen. One of them is Een modder van inventie (A mud of invention), released in 2017 and is entirely about Zappa. The second, Een harlekijneend, gans wit genekt, kwaakt (The pantaloon duck, white goose neck, quacked), was published in 2019 and is half a book about Captain Beefheart, half about Zappa.
  

• 23 October. Label profile: "Barking Pumpkin – A Family Affair With Frank Zappa", Cash Box, 6 November 1982.

• 21 October. Dutch Lust For Life, March 2011. 6-page article on Zappa "Fanatical monk with double standards".

• 19 October. British Record Mirror, 25 August 1973. "Zappa - a booga of a good talker".

• 16 October. Excellent issue of Ciao 2001, 20 February 1987, containing two interviews with FZ. "Diabolico" is the fresh one, about Jazz From Hell, and "Private Zappa" contains memories from 1975.

• 14 October. Italian weekly Ciao 2001. Some issues from 1985-86 added.
  - 1985 April 5 : Jean Luc Ponty
  - 1985 November 29 : Porno rock
  - 1986 February 7 : Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (short story)
  - 1986 April 11 : Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (long story with full text)
  - 1986 December 12 : some short news

• 13 October. Some issues of Hit Parader magazine from 1968/69.

• 12 October. In 1967, Hit Parader included some FZ or the Mothers picture, advertisement, gossip etc. in each monthly issue from March to December. We added several of them today, but check them all out.

• 11 October. Bimonthly publication of the Film Society of Lincoln Center - Film Comment, January/February 2004. Rediscovering Timothy Carey's The World's Greatest Sinner.

• 10 October. Hits is a Hollywood-based music industry trade publication focused on industry news and innuendo. Some brief quotes from 1988 to 1995 added.

• 9 October. Andy Warhol: "the greatest work of art in the last decade." Rock Stars In Their Underpants, London 1980. FZ is on page 51.

• 8 October. One nice review of Varèse's and Zappa's music. San Diego Reader, 23 September 1999.

• 7 October. Fusion, 19 March 1971. This issue includes Nick Tosches' review of the early years of Captain Beefheart. Surprisingly, we couldn't find this text on any CB site so far. Recommended reading.

• 6 October. A British magazine, known in various years as The Guitar Magazine and Guitar & Bass. Several snippets from 2013 to 2019 have been added where you can find short reviews of FZ's various albums and songs.

• 5 October. Frankly Speaking is a new book by guitarist Bassam Habal. The book is a collection of ten transcribed interviews with Zappa alumni Ralph Humphrey, Lisa Popeil, David Logeman, Bobby Martin, Tom "Bones" Malone, Jim Pons, Bruce Fowler, Sal Marquez, Malcolm McNab, and Ray White.

• 3 October. Swedish Rock'n'Roll Magazine.
  - 2021 #6 : Historic Zappa - Zappa '88 The last U.S. show
  - 2021 #8 : Hugely exhaustive - 200 Motels 50th anniversary edition
  - 2022 #4 : Feels as if you are lazy - The Mothers 1971
  - 2022 #6 : Zappa never fades - Zappa / Erie

• 2 October. Fresh Arf Dossier #121, September 2024.

• 1 October. Two concert reviews by George Kanzler Jr. from The Star-Ledger, New Jersey:
  - 1978 October 16
  - 1984 August 17

• 1 October. British Sounds, 16 July 1977. A small Zappa bit.