Customer Reviews

Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Worthwile reading for any Zappa fan. The books help one gain insights on Frank, his music and performances. There are several photographs and much historical perspective. However the book seems to tell as much (or more) about the author as about Mr. Zappa. The author's love of, and anger towards, Zappa may allow for a distorted picture. I questioned the accuracy of some of the information.

It was a nice readable book with information that is interesting and plausible. If you like Zappa, and you like information about Zappa, it's interesting, but the writer also has some self deprecating and humorous stories to tell about her relations with him during this mid-career point for Zappa.

This book is an accurate, funny, and well-observed portrait of one of the most enigmatic figures on the American music scene.
It is most of all a portrait, warts and all, of a human being trying to deal with a human universe, something which Zappa held at a great distance from himself, and despite his protestations to the contrary had difficulty in dealing with. It will and has ticked off many members of Zappa Anonymous who've been fed a steady diet of well... publicity which Zappa in his lifetime encouraged and ironically and inevitably became its victim after his death. I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in historical and sometimes hysterical accuracy. She was there at a crucial time in Zappa's life as a confidant, a lover, and a working member of his band when he was recuperating from a grievious accident which nearly cost him his life. This book is part sociology, part auto-biography and describes her coming of age and the influence that one of America's great enigmatic figures had on her life. She writes well with a great sense of ironic detachment, which is as idiosyncratic as the person whose life for a time she shared.

Lennon was your average rebellious teenager in 1960s California, until she discovered a strange looking album by someone named Frank Zappa at the local record store. She bought everything she could find by him, and wore out the albums due to playing them over and over. A budding songwriter, she and her boyfriend recorded several songs on reel-to-reel tape and sent them to Zappa.

Months went by, until the phone call came asking if they could stop by at the offices of Zappa's record label. That would be enough for most people, but to realize that Zappa actually listened to the tape was overwhelming. His general opinion was that she didn't stink, but that she wasn't ready yet. On thing led to another, and a trip to the Zappa residence led to an invitation to be a substitute guitarist on his next tour.

On tour, Zappa rarely, if ever, indulged in the alcohol and drugs that are part of any tour, if only to keep that boss/employee distance. He was obsessive/compulsive and a perfectionist who, because of constant stomach problems, drank kaopectate by the gallon. Lennon's time on the tour was rather short, only a couple of months. Zappa sent her home after word got to Mrs. Zappa that their relationship wasn't exactly platonic.

Time went by, and after Lennon got thrown out of the house (the relationship with her parents was not good), she was able to crash in the basement of the Zappa residence, on the understanding that she not disturb him while he was composing. He had been seriously injured at a concert in England, and, physically and emotionally, things had changed. The arrangement lasted for a while, until Zappa went back on tour.

More time went by, and Lennon attempted to continue her music studies at a local college. She again ran into Zappa while he was rehearsing a grand, orchestral piece called The Great Wazoo. She tried to be as helpful as possible, while also learning as much as possible. Zappa seemed to tolerate her, more than he actually wanted her around. The relationship between them ends badly.

Zappa fans should read this book. He is shown to be a lot more than just someone with strange ideas about music. For rock music fans in general, this is a gem of a book.

Nigey Lennon's book is problematic for the Zappa fan. First off, it seems to contradict with the image of Zappa that he himself created and that the Zappa Family Trust continues to perpetuate: that of a brilliant composer and thinker, who while being somewhat of an iconoclast and eccentric, was also well-grounded and devoted to his family. Lennon, on the other hand, talks about Frank on the road, and presents an altogether seedier side of him. The problem is, who do we believe?

I tend to be somewhere in the middle, leaning towards the Zappa picture, not just because I happen to be a Zappa fan, but because there is a lot more evidence for it. No doubt he was not a perfect father or family man-- when you're on the road half the time and in the studio the other half, it can be hard to make time for your kids. Not to mention that when women are throwing themselves at you, like they no doubt were, fidelity is a difficult trick to manage. But I find Lennon's claims to be more than a little outrageous.

As another reviewer already pointed out, while it's perfectly plausible that she worked with Frank, there is no evidence apart from her word that she ever played on stage with him. And her claims about their relationship seem to be her romanticized recollections, tinged with bitterness from later in life. I have no problem believing that Frank and Nigey had some sort of sexual relationship at one point in time, but Lennon presents it as some sort of "true love" and tries to make herself into Zappa's muse. I'm sorry, but I have only one abbreviation for that: B.S. Her claim that "Andy" from the "One Size Fits All" album is really Frank's bitter lashing out at her for their break-up? HIGHLY doubtful. Her claim that the material from Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka was written for her as some sort of synaesthetic musical/sexual gratification? Yeah, right. And I've got a bridge to sell you.

As other reviewers have pointed out, most of this book is really about Lennon, and not about Zappa. More auto than biography, this is the work of a jaded ex-groupie, who found herself briefly on the fringe of the life of a mysterious and talented composer, and has tried to imbue her very minor and periphery role with far more importance than it ever warranted.

On a purely stylistic note, Lennon's writing style is a little weak, and unoriginal. Rather than writing in HER voice, she uses a watered down imitation of Zappa's style from his Autobiography, the Real Frank Zappa book.

If there was ever a tell-almost-all book that needed another trip through the typewriter, this is it. Lennon can't decide whether to name names or keep quiet, so usually you're left to guess who she's talking about. (Everybody knows it was Tina Turner and the Ikettes, Nigey. Why not just say so?) That's no problem if you're a know-it-all, dyed-in-the-wool Mothers fan like me, but what if you're not?

Lennon claims to have spent a portion of the '71 tour with the Mothers as Zappa's guitar tech/road whore/stand-in guitarist. That much is believable, and band members have since said they remember her. HOWEVER: She also claims to have played on stage with the Mothers at a couple of shows--shows which, conveniently, have no booted copies floating around among collectors, so there's no real way to check. (None of the aforementioned band members remember her EVER playing on stage, but they admit that 25-30 years is a long time ago, and they may have forgotten.)

Worth reading, but it needs another draft.

I found this little number at the library, and I suggest that if your even remotely compelled to read this strange bit of fact/fiction/fantasy, you should get a free copy that can be returned also. I find plenty of these accounts plausible and probably just a groupie account of some wonderful events that meant more to her than anyone else. There is nothing wrong with that but it does'nt warrant a book.

I bought the book when it came out years ago. I desperately wanted it to be true, however portions of it sounded familiar. I took a highlighter and marked any part of the text where the information in it could be found in secondary sources. Granted most of the stories were Zappa favorites, "... the closest that I ever came to eating sh** was at a Holiday Inn in Fayetteville North Carolina," but other moments make oblique mentions of things like an article in Guitar Player from around that time period. Most of the information in the book can be found in secondary sources. What remains deals more with the author's life than Zappa's. If someone has a lot of Zappa in print, they won't need this book at all.

What a terrible book! No insight on FZ, but tons of insight on the author. Save your money. Here's the insight. She's an idiot.

Who is Nigey Lennon? There are no reference anywhere else to her.
If she knew Zappa ever, it is insignificant.