Customer Reviews

No Commercial Potential: The Saga Of Frank Zappa

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This was a pretty comprehensive biography of Frank's earlier years, but the last hundred pages or so are terrible. The author simply pontificates on Frank's life and work, making judgement after judgement. This part of the book is extremely condescending toward Frank, as if the author were Frank's teacher and making notes on his final report card. This incredibly superior, pompous attitude toward the book's subject was very annoying. Including negative opinions about Zappa from people like Captain Beefheart is interesting and informative, but the author should have kept his own heavy hand out of the mix. A really good biography leaves conclusions about what kinf of guy the subject is up to the reader. Not so here, where toward the end the reader finds him/herself struggling to crawl out from underneath the heavy pile of the author's ponderous philosophy to glean any information at all about Zappa.

I did listen to all of the albums mentioned in the book, which, I guess, is all of them. I got a lot more out of listening to the records than I did this book.

This is an adequate follow-up read to The Real Frank Zappa Book. This book is valuable to the FZ fan as it takes a slightly revisionist approach. The opinions are not always positive, and there are some unpleasant things said. Yeah, the hard-core Zappa fan-atic might find this unpalatable, but there's nothing here serious enough to put the book down.

This updated edition dates from 1996, and there is precious little this book tells about us about FZ in the years since the last edition. What the reader will notice is that the book previously was published in 1972 and 1980. It is clear that this updated edition has simply had the 28-page "I'm Not Satisfied" chapter added since the 1980 edition. The chapter's opening sentence, "Frank Zappa's last thirteen years . . ." is a dead giveaway that it's an add-on. As such, it just doesn't have any depth; the cynic in me sees a hastily-produced chapter put together to capitalize on interest in FZ after his 1993 death. (The lightweight, 25-page "Cosmic Debris" chapter covering the 1972-80 period is also a lame add-on to the original 1972 edition.) The years 1980-93 were FZ's most productive, most vocal, and most creative, and to sum up this period with a short chapter to justify an updated edition is just plain disrespectful. There are also updates to the bibliograpy, discography, and clearly a newly-added "Zappa on the Internet" section.

The book is best when discussing the early FZ/Mothers years. Keeping in mind that this book was first published in 1972, it's not surprising to see that the first 150-odd pages of this 211-page book are devoted to this period. There are lots of great quotes, photos, and graphics such as old handbills and maps. Lots of good information on the satellites in the FZ universe, such as the band members, groupies, the GTOs, etc.

The layout makes this book an easy and flowing read. It goes quickly, and is very much enjoyable. Despite some of the observations made above, I do recommend this book.

Even though it's 'diluted' with the added on chapters (ie 1972-1993) the earlier stuff is excellent. This was the first book on frank zappa, the benchmark. There are lots of negative quotes included here, giving a balanced view, because david didn't want his book to become just another piece of 'promotional trash'. These quotes are mainly from captain beefheart and artie tripp, who give their own controversial views on frank's genius. Anyway, frank tried to prevent it being published because he was angry with what it said. But this is an excellent read, it gives you a great feel for what was happening in LA/America in the 60s, the freak scene and all that, also it gives excellent insight into the albums. The later stuff is given a less intensive treatment, mainly because there is a lack of enthusiasm about most of it. There is also a piercing obituary ('afterword'), with some perceptive comments. You don't necessarily have to be a zappa fan to enjoy this book. Thank you.

This book gives a good description of Frank's early days with the Mothers of Invention, and it is loaded with interesting quotes from various band members, friends, and Frank himself. The book was originally published in the early 70's, which is where the problem comes in. Walley updated the book some time in the early 90's, but the added material really just skims through Frank's career from the mid-70's to his death. Walley's loss of interest in Zappa in the 80's is very evident, and he seems to have an irritatingly negative view of Frank and his music near the end of the book. This is probably the best book if you're looking for information on Zappa's early years, but if you want a more complete biography, you should look elsewhere.

This is an older book with a bit of updates and the old part is still a fun read for those who don't know anything about Zappa.

Aside from composing, the amazing thing that appears to get lost is that Zappa was one of 3 or 4 great guitarists of the 20th century. His use of the mixolydian mode combined with dissonance and fairly progressive technological effects throughout his career (speeding up oboes a minor third on Uncle Meat (1968) is an example) was extremely original and give his work its particular quality. It is true that Zappa was a control freak and he did abuse musicians since, as Gail Zappa has said, they (and anyone associated with Frank's work) were `hired hands'. Anyone who views their fellow musician like that is going to be hard to work with. The accusation, however, that "Zappa endlessly recycled his own material rather than spend his time coming up with worthwhile new works" is a bit harsh. The progression of musicianship from Freak Out to The Yellow Shark is clear.

No Commercial Potential does not discuss musical and working relationship issues but is more of a cultural look at how excessive and insular the 60's rock scene was - even though one has to realize that it does try to deify Frank in the first 150 pages.

I have read this more than once & find it very fascinating as the man himself of course was. It is interesting to see how w/ the later editions, Mr Walley becomes less impressed w/ what Zappa is doing, quite rightly since the late 70s/80s stuff, though occasionally amusing cannot compare to the greatness of his 60s & early 70s work, the pioneering of Lumpy gravy & We're only in it for the Money, & the beautiful sounds of Burnt Weeny Sandwich, the venturing into the film world of 200 Motels & Uncle Meat [both designed to very much freak out the average viewer] + just being associated w/ the great Don Van Vliet... The best thing about the book is how it chronicles the pre-fame Frank in his high school days. Also it has a bibliography & list of fanzine addresses @ the end which makes it useful. It really makes it!

David Walley third and last edition of NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: THE SAGA OF FRANK ZAPPA was published in 1995. After reading the 1st edition in 1972 (hot of the press) and in the spirit of "Absolutely Free," I immediately gave my copy to the organist of a rock band called The Last Rite (well known in Columbus, Ohio at the time). He, of course, was delighted and still has the book. Thus, when I saw the 3rd edition availabl, I immediately purchased it. However, this time, I won't give it away.

If you are like me, when you read this SAGA, you'll get flashbacks to your youth. It's a great book for those of us who want to remember the 60's and 70's.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" is a truism that hits the reader right between the eyes. I was stunned when I realized Zappa's freedom of speech struggle did not change over his entire life course. It is a book filled with paradox. Although the serious theme of freedom of speech is found in the book, it includes much to make one giggle. I read the entire book on an airplane and caught myself laughing aloud.

I enjoyed reading NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: THE SAGA OF FRANK ZAPPA just as much as I did the first time.

Walley's done his research, and he even writes with the wry humor Zappa would have approved of. Fascinating and entertaining. Written in the early 70s, this edition includes an updated section covering FZ's life since then. Complete discography and fan organization listing. A must for the complete Zappa library.

This book has been around for almost twenty five years now, and this edition picks up the story of Zappa where the last edition left off in 1980. Aside from covering the saga of FZ until his death in 1993, it contains an updated discography, bibliography, videography, list of fan zines as well as a survey of the best websites concerning the man and his music. Despite the fact that this book was originally written 25 years ago, in the opinion of many who listen to and follow the career of this major American composer, it has been deemed the most honest and fresh in its approach

Not surprisingly, there are numerous rave "reviews" of this book here by other Amazonians. Most of these people are the types who think "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" is a significant work of late-20th century music and who throw around words like "genius" and "philosopher" whenever Zappa's name comes up. They think that Zappa's songs, which they always rush to point out were "complex," included serious, penetrating social commentary in addition to their "killer solos" and "freakin' funny" lyrics. Unfortunately, for most of this book, its author, David Walley, also falls into this category of Zappaphile.

I'll be honest. Frank Zappa's serious music (read: "instrumental music"), from the early "Hot Rats" to "Jazz From Hell," his guitar solo discs, "The Perfect Stranger," and "The Yellow Shark," I find fascinating, exciting, and worthy of placement beside the works of other major late 20th century composers. I write this as a classically trained musician with a background in piano, theory, and musicology. Zappa loved (LOVED) name dropping Varese, Stravinsky, Webern, Takemitsu, and Penderecki, and in my opinion, his best music ranks with theirs.

His other music (read: anything with lyrics) I find about as scintillating, witty, and sardonically insightful as the latest opus by Weird Al Yankovic. This is the junk by which he made his fortune, and while I respect the demanding nature of much of it, it's also ephemeral, juvenile, utterly worthless stuff. Sadly, this is what attracts a lot of his fans, most of whom are not musicians and many of whom are fanatics who mistake FZ for a philosopher.

What does all this have to with this book? David Walley is obviously not a musician, and so his relentless references to the "complexity" of FZ's music and his inevitable references to Webern, et al., mar this book with the stupidity of the musically unlettered geek who tries to write about music. His attempts to write a "with-it," Zappa-esque book make his social commentary approximately as riveting as his attempts at musical analysis. His humor is heavy handed and usually annoying.

On the personal side, when he's not writing embarrassingly sycophantic psychobabble about Zappa, he does manage to reveal some interesting aspects of his subject. Zappa was a control freak who used and abused musicians, stole many of their ideas while crediting himself, endlessly recycled his own material rather than spend his time coming up with worthwhile new works, and, in three decades of near-constant labor, managed to produce only a handful of worthwhile discs. Not an appealing person. His annoyingly smug cynicism had a dark side; Steve Vai once claimed that he almost had a nervous breakdown after leaving Zappa's band, thanks to his own adoption of Zappa's startlingly bleak and nasty worldview. Apart from the (relatively little) good music, that is the man's legacy.

I hope someday a biographer will approach this subject responsibly and from a position of musical knowledge. In this book, we have an author with no knowledge of music who is blinded by his personal feelings both for and against his subject. From his early ecstatic proclamations of Zappa's genius ("philosopher"! "composer"! "social critic"! "film maker"! "scientist"!), he descends into a scathing attack in the afterword. Over three decades after its first appearance, this book remains as amateurish as its author's prose.