I Shot Frank Zappa

I Shot Frank Zappa
Author: Robert JH Davidson
Publisher: Aureus Publishing Limited
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2022-07-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1899750592

This is the autobiography of Robert Davidson, who shot to fame with his iconic photograph of Frank Zappa with his trousers around his ankles, on the loo chatting to his wife on the phone. Known as the ‘Zappa Krappa’ these pictures gained cult status, as Zappa said, “I’m probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else.” On the 16th of August 1967, 25 year old Robert Davidson was at The Royal Garden Hotel with band promoter Tony Secunda as part of a press call for Frank Zappa’s upcoming concert at the Royal Albert Hall, a day that was to change his life forever. It was swelteringly hot. The room was heaving with press. Zappa disappeared to go to the bathroom. Wandering around the penthouse apartment, looking for a photo opportunity, Robert found Zappa, stripped, with his trousers around his ankles, sitting on the loo chatting to his wife Gail on the phone. The open doorway framed the shot perfectly. It was too good to miss. Robert asked permission to take some photos. Zappa saying to his wife. “Some limey wants to take my picture on the John. Sure, whatever turns him on.” This set of images, immediately gained cult status, a sentiment echoed by Zappa himself in 1983, when he stated, “I’m probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else.” Despite one of the photographs becoming a worldwide bestselling poster, Robert never received any royalties. I Shot Frank Zappa chronicles Robert’s efforts over the years to reclaim copyright and ownership of the negatives, and in the process takes the reader on a journey through the drug fuelled Swinging Sixties of London up to the current day, where characters like the Krays, the models Twiggy and Celia Hammond and later Kate Moss trip lightly over the pages. It is not just a story about stolen copyright. It describes a man’s personal journey and his struggle to balance the demands of family life with failing mental health. I Shot Frank Zappa is a story of serendipity and redemption and the refusal to give up when the world seems against you, all seen through Robert’s eyes, which filter events with warmth and humanity, like the lens of the camera, behind which he prefers to hide.

Real Frank Zappa Book

Real Frank Zappa Book
Author: Frank Zappa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1989
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0671705725

Recounts the career of the rock music performer.

The Hot Rats Book

The Hot Rats Book
Author: Bill Gubbins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781493047758

Hot Rats, the second solo album by Frank Zappa, is considered by his fans and critics alike to be a groundbreaking, important record, as well as one of his most innovative efforts of all time. The first recording project after the dissolution of the original Mothers of Invention, Zappa composed, arranged, and produced all of the music on Hot Rats while playing electric guitar on all tracks. The album contains the song "Peaches en Regalia," widely recognized as a modern jazz-fusion standard. This entire groundbreaking and historical record--including using new sixteen-multitrack recording and overdub technics for the first time ever--was captured in photos by Bill Gubbins, who shot the recording sessions and live performances of the record immediately following its release. Most of these images have never before been published in book form, appearing here for the first time. The "Hot Rats" Book: A Fifty-Year Retrospective of Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats" also contains essays by author Bill Gubbins; Ian Underwood, who was involved in working with Zappa on the recording sessions; Steve Vai; David Fricke; and Matt Groening.

Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism

Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism
Author: Michel Delville
Publisher: Salt Pub
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2005
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781844710997

A comparative account of the musical and cultural acts of Zappa and his cohort, collaborator and antagonist Captain Beefheart. Written in the iconoclastic spirit of Zappa's art, this book traces the mixed media experiments of California freakdom through the dada blues of Beefheart, mapping out the pleasures of imaginative excess.

Frank Zappa FAQ

Frank Zappa FAQ
Author: John Corcelli
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1617136743

In this volume, author John Corcelli reveals Zappa's roots as a musician, from his diverse influences to his personal life. We also learn more about his former band members and the enormous musical legacy inherited by his son, Dweezil. The book features a juried examination of Zappa's recordings and his videos. It also features a complete discography and a recommended reading list. Each chapter has a special focus on Zappa's life, with sections covering his family, his home studio – known as the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen – his keen interest in the Synclavier (a device he first used in 1980), his guitars, and more. Special attention is paid to the Mothers of Invention. Frank Zappa FAQ is a must-have for fans new and old looking to delve into some of the best music ever made by one of the most innovative artists the world has known.

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa
Author: Ben Watson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 597
Release: 1995
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780704302426

The Cinema of Hong Kong

The Cinema of Hong Kong
Author: Poshek Fu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2002-03-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780521776028

This volume examines Hong Kong cinema in transnational, historical, and artistic contexts.

Who Shot Rock and Roll

Who Shot Rock and Roll
Author: Gail Buckland
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2009-10-20
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0307270165

More than two hundred spectacular photographs, sensual, luminous, frenzied, true, from 1955 to the present, that catch and define the energy, intoxication, rebellion, and magic of rock and roll; the first book to explore the photographs and the photographers who captured rock’s message of freedom and personal reinvention—and to examine the effect of their pictures on the musicians, the fans, and the culture itself. The only music photographers whose names are well known are those who themselves have become celebrities. But many of the images that have shaped our consciousness and desire were made by photographers whose names are unfamiliar. Here are Elvis in 1956—not yet mythic but beautiful, tender, vulnerable, sexy, photographed by Alfred Wertheimer . . . Bob Dylan and his girlfriend on a snowy Greenwich Village street, by Don Hunstein . . . John Lennon in a sleeveless New York City T-shirt, by Bob Gruen . . . Jimi Hendrix, by Gered Mankowitz, a photograph that became a poster and was hung on the walls of millions of bedrooms and college dorms . . . For the first time, the work of these talented men and women is brought into the pantheon; we see the musicians they photographed and how the images gave rock and roll its visual identity. To bring together these images, Gail Buckland, acclaimed photographic editor, curator, and scholar, looked through the archives of one hundred photographers, selecting pictures not on the basis of the usual suspects, but on the power of the images themselves, often picking an image a photographer didn’t even remember he or she had taken. Buckland writes about the photographers, their influences, their relationships with their subjects, how they took the images, how they saw what they saw and captured what they captured: the spirit and essence of rock. A revelation of an art form whose iconic images changed the world as we knew it.

Shell Shocked

Shell Shocked
Author: Howard Kaylan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1480342947

(Book). If Howard Kaylan had sung only one song, the Turtles' 1967 No. 1 smash hit "Happy Together," his place in rock-and-roll history would still be secure. But that recording, named in 1999 by BMI as one of the top 50 songs of the 20th century, with over five million radio plays, is only the tip of a rather eye-opening iceberg. For nearly five decades, Howard Kaylan has been a player in the rock-and-roll revolution. In addition to his years with the Turtles, Kaylan was a core member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and the dynamic duo Flo and Eddie, and part of glam rock history with Marc Bolan and T. Rex. He's also given street cred and harmonies to everyone from John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Alice Cooper to the Ramones and Duran Duran, to name just a few. Howard Kaylan's life has been a dangerous ride that he is only too happy to report on, naming names and shedding shocking tales of sex, drugs, and creative excess. Shell Shocked will stand alone as not only one of the best-told music-biz memoirs, but one with a truly candid and unmatchable story of rock-and-roll insanity and success from a man who glories in it all.