On 8/18/05 12:17 PM, "Career Records" <eldeluxe@mcn.net> wrote:

> Yes, not for everybody, and if you make too much fuss about Zappa, you can
> get a bad reputation.


Ha ha! Well, if I were worried about my reputation, I wouldn't be so into
music in the first place. There are some people out there who have a
particular disdain for music geeks. And I'm the worst of all because I was a
"band geek: in school.

I encountered Zappa in 1983 when I was about 13. I used to work at a radion
station in Bridgeport, CT (WPKN). They have a great free form FM station and
an adjoining campus station. I got my feet wet on the smaller station, did
production for their nightly news cast and basically learned the ropes of
radio production. I also took it upon myself to act as assistant librarian
and go through their 25,000+ LP collection, cleaning up the filing.
So at a sponge-like age, I had access to every kind of music imaginable. I
would look through records and if I found something that looked interesting,
I would make a tape of it--Zappa, the Jam, the Clash, Art Blakey and the
Jazz Messengers, off the wall classical and electronic music--anything. I
couldn't have asked for a better musical education, especially at just the
right age.

Anyway, the first two Zappa albums I encountered were "The Man From Utopia"
and "You Are What You Is". I loved them both. Since then, going back and
finding more and more of his extensive catalog has been a real treat. I
think My personal favorite group must be the Roxy-era band.

--Ken