Zappa.com

When he died I just had a baby cousin I was probably visiting. Didn't know much about Frank until I started listening to him in 2001. I heard of his passing in a TV quiz when one team had to wear blinding goggles and a famous face on top of it, and guess who they were. Three FZ's was an amazing sight, but hearing of his passing brought me down.

_________________

Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

I was 10 years-old. My dad had played Apostrophe for me a few months before, so I was at least somewhat familiar with his music. He mentioned then that Frank was really sick, and I found out about his passing when my mom was reading the paper and said "Oh, Frank Zappa died."

A now-defunct radio station here did an hour-long tribute that week, taking phone calls and requests. It was pretty cool. That was my first exposure to "Dinah Moe Humm" and "Bobby Brown," both of which made it out uncut somehow. A few months later, I saw the A&E biography, and that pretty much solidified my interest in the man's music.

I was 17 and I saw it on TV, at Jornal Nacional, major brainwashing medium on Brazil (once in a while some serious/important piece of news pop up, like on that occasion)... I went: "Ahn? Isn't Frank the guy who comes over on weekends to play football with us? The one who wears a white shirt written Frank Zappa on it?" I always assumed he was Frank Zappa, since everyone calls him Frank and we have a Zappa in the family circle, who owns a store called Zappa, so it is a familiar local family name...

I was properly introduced to his music in early 1995, when I got to the university...

_________________
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true Art and Science. - Albert Einstein

I was driving into work and was passing the dog racing track when they announced it on the radio. I said out loud "oh no" which was quickly followed by "I don't believe it". That song was stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

_________________
I'm not bald; I'm taller than my hair.

I had only been living in NorCal about 8 months and it is very conservative here especially then and was surprised they announced on the news, I was totally bummed...

I think I found out after someone else had read about it in a newspaper, I can't be sure. But there's a good chance I was changing the nappy of my eldest son who was three days over one month old at the time. I'm sure I wrote something about this somewhere else on the forum a long time ago.

_________________
The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

No feckin' idea!

_________________
Stay with me flagrantly and we'll have ecstasy for all eternity.

I already knew by that time that he was ill but I heard the sad news on TV late at night. I was still in college then and the day after my friends used to make fun of me because I was all dressed in black. It was a sad day and I knew that I would never have the chance to see him in concert. That day, like many of you, I lost a good friend...

A friend of mine rang me up in the morning and told me the news, I went sorta blank and numb. I rang the hot line and from memory I think it was turned off, then it came back with a message not to send flowers but to make a donation to (forgive spelling) jaqu gusto's ocean foundation. The message was recorded by Moon, I think about two weeks later they played watermelon. The friend that told me had been the only guy that would listen to me about Frank, he got interested in my excitement about the Yellow Shark, which I had been following through a little fan rag called society pages. I had the Yellow Shark on the day it was released in Sydney 2-11-1993, I couldn't get there till late in the day and got the last copy the display copy, which probably means that 9 other Zappa fans had fondled my yellow shark before I got it which makes me feel all gooey inside. The guy that I used to get society pages from did some swaps from him I got a VHS version of the German broadcast of the Yellow Snow, with peefiacta. I bought him a 4 CD set of Leather (with his money) and I never recorded and sent him a tape of the Sinister Foot-Where (Serious Music) bootleg that I promised him, I still fill shitty with myself for that. That whole period for me was the first time in my life that I have experienced grief, I was fucked but that's life. The only thing that I'm sorta angry over is that Transfusion should have been released with civ three but what the hey,

_________________
Global Insurrection Against Banker Occupation
http://maxkeiser.com/

I was 4.
so, dunno

_________________

I thought I answered this a long time ago but I didn't see any of my old posts. I was at work in City Hall in Yuba City (the same place where Plook lives). Some guy who knew I was into Frank came to my desk to tell me. His words were something to the effect of "Well, Zappa bit it". I knew he was sick and wasn't expecting any miraculous recoveries but still I was shocked. I went home at lunchtime to listen to the local rock station to see if they would have any kind of mention or tribute. They did. They played "Smoke on the Water" to honor Frank. Dipshits.