Book review
Dangerous Kitchen
(The Subversive World of Zappa)
By: Kevin Courier
Want an alternative to banal boy/girl band contrived pop pap?.
Well! Here's a road map of 60 years of fighting conservative Amerika.
From the avant-garde of Edgard Varese, Anton Webern and Igor Stravinsky,
Kevin Courier traces an understanding of Frank Zappa.
"Coming from a devout Catholic family he attended church until
the age of 18, when "Suddenly, the light bulb went on in my head"
he told journalist David Sheff. "All the mindless morbidity and
discipline was pretty sick, bleeding this,painful that and no meat on
Friday. What is this shit?"
He found that there was more to come when arrested for vagrancy the
night before his racially integrated 2nd band (The Blackouts) were due
to appear at the Lancaster Women's Club where racial integration was
deeply frowned upon.
Often as happens with history, anything that does not fit with ruling
class norms is written out. It is important that Frank Zappa does not
suffer the
same fate. What cannot be co-opted or exploited, especially when the
music represents an "anathema to liberalism" is ignored. You
cannot imagine Broken Hearts are for Assholes or The Legend of the Illinois
Enema Bandit as a catchy tune to sell personal hygiene products.
In 1993 Frank Zappa joined the expanding universe he once
claimed worked -
Despite our concerted efforts to continuously fuck it up.
Clive Peace.
|