Saturday 7 March 2015

Seven reasons Frank Zappa would've made a great Welshman




Frank Zappa on stage 1990

The Bangor Music Festival kicks off tomorrow and has set aside a whole day to commemorate the music of late American rocker, campaigner, iconoclast and composer Frank Zappa.
There'll be live performances, plays and films in honour of the "zany, irreverent genius" and fans will even be able to chat to his widow Gail live by video link from the US.
But it got us wondering how rock history might have turned out very differently had Frank actually come from Wales in the first place.

7. He would have been a great Mayor of Aberystwyth




The Incredible String Band - the future Mayoress of Aber is seated at the bottom of the pic

Don't laugh, it's not so improbable - Zappa was a fan of '60s Scots prog-folkies The Incredible String Band and let them shoot a couple of their album covers in his garden.
Furthermore , the band's singer and bassist Rose Simpson ended up Lady Mayoress of the Ceredigion town in 1994, as a result of being the partner of Lib Dem councillor Bob Griffin.
If only Frank had hooked up with her and gone into regional Welsh politics instead, who knows what the outcome could've been.

6. Despite famously never having taken drugs, he'd have got on really well with Howard Marks




Howard Marks
Howard Marks





Indeed, the notorious hashish smuggler-turned-best selling author from Bridgend was a huge fan of Zappa, especially his 1968 doo-wop album Cruising With Ruben & The Jets.
"When I get stoned one of the things that appears to happen to me is time slows down - the only explanation I can give for which is that I start thinking quicker and begin noticing things I previously didn't," said Marks.
"Well, this is one album which does that to me without me having to get stoned - both the complexity and simplicity of the music is incredible."
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Frank Zappa is considered to be one of the most influential rock musicians of the late twentieth century. Between the start of his career in the late fifties and his death in 1993 he recorded and rele..


On September 19, 1985, Frank Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organizati..

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