Daffodil Anniversary

Frank Zappa FAQ@10

It all started with a phone call. Robert Lecker, an agent and former owner of ECW Press, called me up to see if I would be interested in writing a book about Frank Zappa. He told me that Kevin Courrier made the recommendation.

I felt like Charlie Brown when he was asked to direct the Christmas play. Kevin recommended me? To write a book about Frank Zappa?

Like Mrs. Donovan, Lecker was cool to my exhilarating reaction. He told me more about the project. He described a series of books called FAQ published by Backbeat, an imprint of Rowan & Littlefield, out of Lanham, Maryland. The series was created by Robert Rodriguez, a music historian, who penned The Fab Four 2.0. The books were a hit with fans eager to learn more about the band, yet less interested in a full-length biography. FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, is a hybrid of facts, trivia, and reviews on popular rock bands and musicians including The Beatles. When the series ended, 80 titles made the collection, some of which are now out of print.

My exhilaration soon ebbed into panic. I had never written a book before.

I called Kevin to thank him and asked him why he turned down the opportunity. He said that he had already written a book about Zappa, (The Dangerous Kitchen) and felt that I was the best person to write for Backbeat. I’m forever grateful to my late Zappa-brother.

I knew little about the series and the format of the book so Lecker sent me a pitch for The Doors FAQ, by Rich Wiedman that was released in 2011. It was the only template I had to create a proposal for a Zappa FAQ.

Proposal? What’s that? I had never written one for a book before, only a radio documentary show, like the ones I produced at CBC.

I had two weeks to draft a proposal featuring all the elements of the FAQ book: introduction, over two dozen chapters, an index, bibliography, and discography. In the end, it was the hardest part of the process. Robert was a big help in the final version of the pitch.

I began with a personal reflection: “I first heard the song ‘Dirty Love’…when I was about sixteen years of age. It was my musical gateway into the world of Frank Zappa…” This was the perfect launching pad, one that granted me the chance to reflect on how his music came into my life and why it continued to resonate with me. A good book pitch features a mix of the personal with the academic. It’s a way of introducing your voice into the written word.

But the demands of the FAQ format, featuring up to 35 chapters, was hair-raising (and hair pulling). I also had to track down and obtain up to 80 images, and the word count was a minimum of 120K, according to the Backbeat guidelines. Most of these conditions were negotiable. Nevertheless, I felt overwhelmed and inspired at the same time. How could I get all of the essential parts of Frank’s complex life into so many chapters.

I kept it simple. He was born in Baltimore, the eldest of four children. He moved around a lot and suffered from asthma. He grew up with comics; chemistry sets and 45s. From there, I went into his early years as an artist, his fascination with percussion, at first, and his life-long love of R&B singles that he collected. I’m always on the lookout for good origin stories in any biography, especially the early years of someone’s life until they turn 16, the same year I discovered Zappa. Frank’s autobiography from 1988, was a critically important resource.

But Frank’s exotic tastes had to be revealed as well, namely his admiration for the music of Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varese, and Maurice Ravel. No rock musician, to my knowledge, had these composers in mind when they emerged. Learning how to incorporate them into a book was challenging. It simply meant that I had to listen to all of Zappa’s recordings in chronological order. It was like getting to know a writer by reading all of their books. This was the easy part.

It was writing about the rest of Zappa’s life as readable nuggets, that took some doing. I went to the tape, aka YouTube, and watched hours of video. Frank was one of the most interviewed artists during his lifetime. He was smart, sarcastic, and a strong believer in the First Amendment. He wasn’t afraid to challenge authority, or pursue his own artistic direction, despite the obstacles before him. He was a man with a vision, and he wasn’t going to conform to anyone else’s rules regarding his look, lifestyle, artistic choices, and his songs. He was the father of invention.

Zappa’s twisted sense of humor grabbed my attention, yet offended most people. I wanted to understand why. It was important for me to defend, explain, and critique his life and work but just because I was a fan, did not mean that he should be given a pass on some of the more controversial things he said and wrote. I added Chapter 18 specifically to address Frank’s songs about women that were considered sexist. Chapter 13 looks at his use of humor in music, while Chapter 30 discusses his anti-censorship campaign. It’s important to note that Frank took time away from his music to go on the road and defend U.S. legislation that threatened the First Amendment. His encouraged young people to register to vote, and believed in participatory democracy.

I came up with as many questions that I could answer in the FAQ format, leading to a final 30 chapters in the proposal. Backbeat accepted the pitch. After I signed an agreement with the Lecker Agency, who finalized my first publishing contract, I working. I took a $5,000 (USD) advance and started my research.

At first I didn’t know who I was writing for, one of the fundamentals of being a good writer. I was worried about the fanatics; the Zappa fans who would scrutinize my every word. I had to get the facts right, and I often took to writing just to please them. But I wasn’t pleasing myself. Over time I came to understand that my focus was to bring readers into the wonderful world of Frank Zappa. This was a book to act as a literary gateway into Zappa’s vast and rich catalogue of music, lyrics, and videos. I didn’t want to get trapped into the minutiae that many scholars loved to swim in. This was going to celebrate Zappa in broad strokes. Consequently, the arc of the book was just the opposite. Each chapter had to discuss one particular aspect about Zappa from his birth to his death, and why he was, and remains, one of the most important composers of the Twentieth Century. But based on the subjects, a reader could go back and review any chapter from Frank’s fearless use of technology, to his collection of guitars.

I had to deliver manuscript within a year, which is a goodly amount of time, at first! But it’s remarkable how fast the time goes when you have a full-time job, and a huge pile of material to survey. I really didn’t start writing in earnest, until six months into my contract. The good news was that I had a lot of help from friends, family, and colleagues, who I could talk to about Zappa. The most frequent response to “I’m writing a book about Frank Zappa” was about the names of his kids, Moon Unit and Dweezil. Some people recalled his hit single, “Valley Girl” while others remembered seeing Frank in concert. (Alas, I had never seen him in performance.) Nevertheless, I was enjoying my new career as a “writer,” which in itself was difficult to believe. The learning curve was steep, so I trusted my intuition, shared chapters with a few trusted friends, and learned how to write a book by writing one.

After my initial manuscript was submitted on time, a few months later I heard from my editor telling me that I needed to add more words to flesh out the publication.In other words, I was short. I had a contractual obligation to meet, but I ran out of words describing my style of writing as “economical” and to the point.

That was okay, but they wanted more words to flesh out the text making it comparable and compatible with the other books in the series. I took two weeks’ vacation from my full-time job at the CBC, and wrote another 20K words in that precious time. I couldn’t believe I did it, until I handed in the extra work.

My editor suggested adding a chapter on Frank’s relationship with Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, which I did. Plus I added a weaker chapter (in my opinion) on Frank’s “topical songs” of which he made political statements in standard pop song arrangements. These include “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted” which Frank released after President Carter’s decision to start drafting young men into the military. (pg. 103)

I also added a chapter on the musicians who played with Frank over the course of his career. So many players, all of whom had to audition for the man, and offer some party trick to make the stage presentation more entertaining to the audience.

Those chapters, 23 and 31, were my personal favorites to write and research. In fact, most of the reviews the book liked their inclusion. I envisioned myself trying to audition for Frank, as a horn player, and him giving me some impossible piece of music to play by sight without a warm-up. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I admire all of the musicians who indeed, passed the audition, and got to perform some of the most challenging, interesting, and funny music ever composed. Chapter 31, “Yearbook Signing,” is a tribute to the players who joined Frank for the crazy ride. We recently lost Frank’s lead singer Ike Willis on May 16th.

When I saw the electronic galleys in Acrobat, I was impressed by the layout of the book and the smooth editorial process which followed. I did not know, nor have any say in, the cover image. I chose mostly album covers, reproduced in B&W, and a few low-cost images to enhance the book. I was especially proud to get a copy of a picture from Montreal of the Mothers of Invention, days before Zappa broke up the band. I paid the City of Montreal, $25 (CAD) for that gem on page 180.

Four thousand copies were published and released into the world. My advance was paid up when I finally got a royalty in 2021, five years later. Now ten years have passed and you can get it at second hand stores, but I’ve never seen it at my locals. I’m happy to know that my book is available from the library among so many others about Frank Zappa waiting for its next curious reader. It’s also available as an ebook, which wasn’t a thing in 2016.

On August 1^st, Frank Zappa FAQ turns ten. Like a musician’s first album, I took a lifetime to write it, and it changed my life when I opened the box and held my new born baby for the first time. Like a proud father I said, “welcome to the world.”

I wasn’t offered an anniversary edition with a revised copy, but maybe in the year 2041 at 25? So much more Zappa stories to tell; best to start the research process now, I think.

I’m contractually obligated to add this link. (It’s never too late to promote a book.)