Saturday 10th May

A most unusual man, a brilliant musician, a composer of both rock and avante-garde music, one of the weirdest looking geeks around and a sense of humour that he just couldn’t keep out of his music, a true rebel and a strange sort of democrat too.  And all of that was just for starters.  He died a few years ago of cancer but though he was barely fifty he produced a huge catalogue of recorded music.  To say he was prolific is an understatement, he churned out albums, many of them live versions of songs he never put on studio records, often four or five in a single year.  On top of this he also played many many live concerts.

How he managed it all I have no idea, but then he was most certainly a genius.  During the eighties he released a trio of albums which managed to be both commercial and beautiful and funny and clever at the same time; “Sheik Yerbouti, Joe’s Garage (a triple) and You are what you is (a double).  Full of great songs and great tunes they are the best starting point for any potential Zappa-ite.

Joe starts a garage band but gets arrested for making music which has become illegal.  He goes to jail and then is released, meets an evangelist, has strange sex and dreams of imaginary guitar notes….you get the picture.

Frank was held in great esteem strangely enough by revolutionaries behind the Iron Curtain who saw in his irreverence for authority a beacon for their own fight against Communism.  His estate still releases live albums every year, as he apparently kept a recording of every note he ever played….  As I said, a very strange kind of genius, but undoubtedly one of the best.