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Jawbone Press - Co de Kloet

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158 pages

English

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“With this book, the Zappa fan will get a glimpse into Frank that I don’t believe any other book written by him or about him expresses. And us Zappa fans love that. Thank you, Co.” Steve Vai

“I think the best way to start when somebody says something can’t be done, just look at them and say: why not?” Frank Zappa, Los Angeles, 1990

Co de Kloet and Frank Zappa were friends for many years, and during that time Co recorded nearly every conversation the two men had. They also corresponded frequently—about life, music, politics, and much more besides—and this book offers a unique chronicle of their friendship, from their first meeting in 1977 to Zappa’s death in 1993.

Co is renowned as an expert on Zappa’s music, but this book is about far more than that, and is unlike any other collection of interviews. As his son Dweezil writes in his foreword, Frank was a reluctant and sometimes combative interviewee, yet his conversations with Co were open and wideranging.

Through more than two decades of these discussions, Frank & Co reveals a thoughtful, sensitive, and expansive Zappa, offering readers new insights into the life and career of one of the great masters of twentiethcentury American music. It also includes Co’s favourite memories of Frank, as well as interviews with Zappa alumni Flo & Eddie, Jimmy Carl Black, Pamela Zarubica, and Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart.

Sujets

Musique

Culture musicale

Histoire de la musique

Styles

Genres

Business Aspects

MUSIC

Multiple signal classification

Rock

Informations

Publié par	Jawbone Press
Date de parution	12 février 2022
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781911036821
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Frank & Co

For Linde, Jasmijn Ziva & Fabian Jacobus

Frank & Co
Conversations with Frank Zappa 1977–1993
Co de Kloet
A Jawbone book
Published in the UK and the USA by Jawbone Press
Office G1
141–157 Acre Lane
London SW2 5UA
England
www.jawbonepress.com
Published by arrangement with Haver Productions haverproducties.nl
Volume copyright © 2022 Outline Press Ltd. Text copyright © Co de Kloet. All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews where the source should be made clear. For more information contact the publishers.

Contents
Foreword by Dweezil Zappa
Prelude to the afternoon of writing a book
1973: Take-off on radio
1974: Gaining status in high school
1975: Collecting
1976: Napoleon
1977: The first interview
1978: Fuck you, Captain Tom!
1979: Olive?
1980: Working for Zappa
1981: Dangerous precedents
1982: Rubio & Vai
1983: TV Glotzer
1984: It can’t happen here
1985: Old master
1986: Partners
1987: Maestro Nagano
1988: Genius with horns
1989: By the way
1990: Supplement
1991: Hello teenage Amerika
1992: The yellow shark
1993: Cup of cawfee
2000: Holland Festival
2006: Who could imagine?
2011/2012: Link your mind
2016/2017: DZOF
2019: Essence
Semi-fraudulent bonus track
Finale
Acknowledgments
About the author

Dweezil Zappa. Sven Doornkaat .

Foreword by Dweezil Zappa
The book you’re about to read will elucidate the important characteristics of a lasting friendship between my father, Frank Zappa, and the author Co de Kloet. The respectful and edifying conversations between them have been magnetically preserved by Co, and they reveal playful ease at times. This is quizzically uncustomary considering my father’s disdain for being interviewed. My father was more notoriously greeted with fear and trembling from lesser journalists as his comportment toward them appeared to grow more menacing in response to their aimlessly regurgitated questions. However, conversations with my father in ‘journalist’-free zones were very different. He was very curious, open, and anthropological. He was fascinated by people and the folklore surrounding their proclivities. His musical text is only a hint at his keen perception of humans in the wild. Some of his songs have content that could be ripped from today’s news headlines even though they may have been written more than fifty years ago. His countless interviews reveal an even deeper understanding of the underpinnings of society and his ability to predict foreboding world events. Fake news is not a new invention and he wanted people to be aware of their need to be critical thinkers at all times.
Since Co de Kloet is not necessarily a journalist by trade, rather more of a mysterious practitioner of inventive alliances, he was able to develop a rapport with my father, stratified with unusual regularity. Co has manned various positions in the world of production for music, radio, and television. Among other talents, he has a remarkable ability to create opportunities for atypical artists to work in the realm of orchestral music. He’s been described as a creative catalyst in that regard.
He’s been operating from ‘a secret conurbation of coastal dunes’ for decades and has found a way to consistently include my father’s musical works in broadcasted radio specials and other important events. Because of his pure love of my father’s music and other non-conformist tendencies, he’s an enigmatic character. I’m grateful that he understands and appreciates the things that make my father’s music different and that he has the enthusiasm and ability to articulate the significance and value of those differences, in comparison to other entertainment. I’m glad he got to know my father as a person. That further informed his understanding of the Sisyphean undertaking it was for my father to create his work.
This book is somewhat analogous to a documentary movie for your brain. The details that unfold are sourced from authentic recordings of interviews over a period of more than twenty years. Whether my father is expressing his views of religion and politics as well his opinions of their ill-advised enmeshment or his bleak opinion about some of his former employees playing his music in public, he gives it to you straight. Well, he gave it straight to Co, and now he’s giving it to you! There are many things waiting to be uncovered by you during your exploration of this book.
For example, did you know that some of you consume music improperly? My father has thoughtfully described the existing problem:
The main way of consuming it is you don’t listen to it—You dress up to it. The music reinforces your wardrobe. And so, by the music being like this, it gives people the chance to act out this fantasy of how modern they think they are.
What about other practical advice from my father? How about an idea called NEST, which stands for National Emergency Security Trust. He developed the idea back in the ’80s, but unfortunately it was not implemented.
Yeah, you start with a trust fund where all the people who advertise in the United States would put in one percent of their yearly advertising budget and if you started the fund off with that amount of money you could probably begin with a billion, a billion and a half dollars in the fund. And when there is an emergency someplace, the idea is that Congress always takes too long to appropriate the money, but the emergency fund would put the money out and Congress would in its time reimburse the fund, and of course the fund is gathering interest when it’s not being used.
You’ll also find succinct explanations of world events through his theological filter such as this:
Most of the world is endangered today—there are only certain places where people have comfortable lives, and everyplace else there’s nothing but imminent danger and death and destruction and pestilence and just horrible stuff going on. Well, who can we blame for that? Because if you blame the devil then you have to think that the devil is more powerful than that guy on the cloud. If the guy on the cloud is the boss, he’s the boss, he is making it happen. So what does he think? I don’t know. If he likes what he has created as it is said at one point, he was satisfied with what he built, then I am sure he is delighted. He is probably doing a little breakdancing up there.
Some people that like my father and his music are considered to be unusual. If you’re reading this book you’re probably one of them. When you see Co, thank him in person for keeping the unusual music we love accessible on the airwaves.
DWEEZIL ZAPPA

Prelude to the afternoon of writing a book
It’s February 26th, 1979 . I’m sitting in Frank Zappa’s room in the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam. Next to Frank sits a large cassette recorder, a suitcase full of cassette tapes, and a two-liter thermos of coffee.
Frank used to start his concerts with an amiable ‘Hello there!’ I tell him that would be an appropriate title, if I were ever to write a book about him. I suggest that he should design the cover, as a sign of approval. He laughs, grabs my pen and paper, and writes:
Hello There
Frank Zappa
by
Co de Kloet Jr.
(a personal fantasy)
Apparently, that ‘sign of approval’ wouldn’t be as easy to come by as I’d thought. That alone is reason enough to limit this book to actual quotes and conversations recorded, as it were, on the record. The ‘personal fantasy’ elements are my memories of experiences with Frank. Fortunately I have an eidetic memory, and with every experience with Frank being an event unto itself, the memories are more or less self-refreshing.
It’s October 31st, 2009 . Halloween.
I’m in a car with George Duke, driving past Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. We’re working together on a production with the Metropole Orkest, featuring George and Napoleon Murphy Brock.
I tell George that it was in that building, on September 9th, 1973, that I first saw Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention perform live. Of course, George was in the band! Wide-eyed, he tells me that—despite his long history of working in Zappa’s bands—there’s only one Zappa poster in his home studio: a promo for that exact same concert. He promises me that he’ll make a scan of it when he gets home and send it to me. That poster, that day, that concert—it was the start of a musical journey that continues to this day.
This book describes my time with Frank Zappa . I had the privilege of knowing him, of calling him a friend, and of working for him both in the media and otherwise. I’ve never stopped loving the man or his music, and still work hard to bring him into the spotlight. Working with such important musicians as Bruce Fowler, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozzio, George Duke, Todd Rundgren, Gary Lucas, Dweezil Zappa, Mike Keneally, Tom Trapp, and Steve Vai also helps affirm my respect for the ‘Zappa tradition.’
This book is far from exhaustive. Some memories are too personal, and some anecdotes told by others are perhaps recalled in a different light, so many years later. Emotions play a curious role when you’re dealing with someone as charismatic as Frank.
Another reason why this book isn’t exhaustive is that I’m busy working on future projects involving Dweezil and Steve. However, I’d like to include my accounts of four projects that hold a special place in my heart, all of which took place after Frank’s sadly premature death: the Holland Festival 2000, my four-hour documentary about Freak Out , my Dweezil project with the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, and my 1993 collaboration with Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart.
1973
Take-off on radio
Radio stations were already a familiar scene for me in 1973 . As a kid, I’d accompany my father (my namesake—he’d pr