eBook Zappa the Hard Way ePub

Things I found out after reading this book that I did not know:

1) Mike Keneally (Steve Vai's replacement as Stunt Guitarist in FZ's band) was the only band member who took the side of Scott Thunes, Zappa's totally brilliant but obnoxious and caustic bass player and appointed "Clonemeister" (person appointed by Zappa to rehearse the group until he shows up, basically imitating what FZ does) for the 1988 tour. Note: the clonemeister is usually the best musician in the band. Previous FZ clonemeisters have included Arthur Barrow and Ian Underwood. Keneally, himself one of the greatest musicians and guitarists in the world, acknowledges in this book that at the time he joined FZ's group, Thunes was a "dead-on mothereffer" and he was, at that time, having just joined FZ's band, nowhere in his league.

2) Thunes got bj's from the groupie-masseuse "Dot Stein" all the time by letting her write her name on the guest list of as many concerts as she wanted along with ther best friend, plus favors from other "road women," in addition to having a steady girlfriend at home but even all that didn't relax him enough to be somewhat cordial to the rest of the band members aside from his buddy Keneally. Thunes attributes the origin of some of his unfriendly and caustic attitude as being due to constant bullying by his violent and self-destructive older brother Derek (also an accomplished musician) when he was a teenager. He had a love-hate relationship with his brother and the fact that Derek died in a motorcycle accident just prior to the 1988 tour also seems to have affected his mental outlook.

3) Bobby Martin was Cybill Shepherd's man for 5 years from around 1993 to 1998, and musical director of her hit sitcom. They were even engaged to be hitched and it was Martin that broke it up.

4) According to Keneally, Robert Plant, Bill Bruford and Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears were only a few of the famous names that attended FZ's 1st Wembley London concert. Plant sat next to Keneally's wife and left during the intermission apparently because he couldn't hear the bass. Bruford was also present at least during the soundcheck for the second Wembley show.

5) Zappa was still friends with Lorraine Belcher, the girlfriend he got entrapped and arrested with in 1965 during a sting operation for peddling pornography, during the 1988 tour and they still had a sexual relationship.

6) When all the band members except for MK refused to play any more shows unless Thunes was axed and replaced, Thunes offered to quit but Zappa would have none of it. In FZ's words, the rest of the band had just consigned themselves to unemployment as far as any employment from him was concerned, for trying to blackmail him into firing Thunes. He took the 400 grand loss, kept Thunes and Keneally, fired the rest of the band and never worked with them again.

8) Since Aynsley Dunbar had offered to take Chad's spot, Zappa could have scrapped the entire tour set-list and only kept the guitar-solo driven songs and toured as a quartet with just Keneally and Thunes and Dunbar, played nothing but guitar-solo songs and still satisfied his fans. However, being a perfectionist, sacrificing all that rehearsal and work and all those intricated arrangements to turn the concert into an FZ "jam-band" tour, would have been just too much of a compromise, just so he could keep the rest of his tour commitments and not lose 400 grand and maybe even turn a good profit.

A short book easily read in a couple sittings that provides a nice overview of the 1988 tour filled with factoids and more than you really need to know. That being said, I saw more shows on the tour than the author did and he admits his shows were in one of the worst sounding venues of the tour.

My main complaint is that it seems poorly written and difficult to follow as who is actually speaking the quotes in the current sentence. Jumping from the author's opinions to Mike Keneally's tour journals to fan reviews all mashed together in the first person to create a Zappalike construction of a cohesive story that fits the authors narrative.
There is very little positive to be gotten from this book that adds to the Zappa history, instead it exposes the sad reality behind the scenes of Zappa's final tour.
The appendices are the best part of the book and almost a third of the total pages.
Caveat Emptor

I am glad this exists because this covers a great era for live Zappa music. I always wonder what really went down and this book makes it clear the answer is not so easy. I guess the question is....who's fault is it the tour crashed? Scott Thunes? I would say that it might not be his fault but had he possessed a more adult personality it would have probably gone on longer. He's annoying as ever even years later, based on the interviews. Plus, for my money, he is not the bass player Tom Fowler would have been. Period.

But no use crying over spilled goo. It seems Zappa was already sick as well as being over touring. That is what I think really was the root cause.

But it doesn't matter. These were all just people doing what they were capable of doing at a given time. What matters is the RECORDED EVERYTHING and I get to hear a lot of it. Despite the petty squabbles (and BOY were they petty) the music made it through. And it's the best.

I've probably read more books on Frank Zappa than any sane person should. After finishing Barry Miles' polarizing biography several years ago, I decided that I was about as well-versed in Zappa's life and work as I needed to be. Then this thing came along. A comprehensive account of the infamous, chaotic '88 tour was just too tempting to resist.

Andrew Greenaway does an excellent job compiling interviews from almost all band members (drummer Chad Wackerman chose not to re-live his experiences) to paint a nicely detailed picture of the tour beginning with the auditions and early line-up changes, through the rehearsals, to the eventual disintegration in Europe. While there are plenty of juicy quotes and anecdotes from various guys in the band, Greenaway presents a fairly well-rounded view of the tour without placing blame on any particular person. The book is unique in that it reads more like a fan's labor of love project (which it basically is) rather than a formal piece of rock journalism, making it a refreshingly enthusiastic read.

It probably goes without saying that this is not a book for casual fans, as it's about as "inside baseball" as FZ books get. Hardcore fans should find very little to complain about though. I only wish it were a bit longer--the actual body of book is only about 140 pages with the remaining content consisting of each show's set list and a "Where Are They Now?" section. Nonetheless, pretty much anyone who's a fan of the '88 band should pick this up.

This is an interesting book that should have been written about 10 to 15 years ago. Obviously Frank doesn't comment in the book so you get a lot of quotes from the guys in the band and stories from people who saw the shows. Fair enough, but while I'm reading the interviews from the participants you always get the feeling that there is something that is not being said. It always feels like there is a elephant in the room keeping them from saying what they really feel. Whether it is a loyality to Frank or the passage of time, it feels like there was more than a "personality clash" that brought this band down. It's an ok read.