Zappa.com

If Howard Kaylan had sung only one song, the Turtles' 1967 No. 1 smash hit "Happy Together," his place in rock-and-roll history would still be secure. But that recording, named in 1999 by BMI as one of the top 50 songs of the 20th century, with over five million radio plays, is only the tip of a rather eye-opening iceberg. For nearly five decades, Howard Kaylan has been a player in the rock-and-roll revolution in addition to his years with the Turtles, Kaylan was a core member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention at their peak a wild and dangerous ride that he is only too happy to report on, naming names and shedding shocking tales of sex, drugs, and creative excess, before he finds himself a part of glam rock history with Marc Bolan and T. Rex, and giving street cred and harmonies to everyone from John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Alice Cooper to the Ramones, and Duran Duran, to name just a few. Among his memoirs, Shell Shocked will stand alone as not only one of the best told, but one with a truly candid and unmatchable story of rock-and-roll insanity and success from a man who glories in it all.

I'm gonna buy that bastard

Cut out the non-FZ stuff and I'll read it.

Didn't Frank once make a rather nasty comment about them, something along the lines of "one can sing and the other is an ok tambourine player"?
I guess this was from the period when they started bad mouthing Frank.

It was worse than that!!!! he said "...I regard Howard as a fine singer and Mark as a great tambourine player and fat person." from NME 17 April 1976

I think we'll get a nice glimpse of what "life on the road" meant during this time. I used to subscribe to the Zappa newsletter "Society Pages" about 20 years ago and I recall an interview with Howard where he used the term "hellacious partying" to describe the band's existence in those days. I also recall the story of Frank hooking up with "Sweet Connie" the groupie immortalized in Grand Funk's "We're an American Band".

Society Pages...ah, loved that fanzine!

It was worse than that!!!! he said "...I regard Howard as a fine singer and Mark as a great tambourine player and fat person." from NME 17 April 1976

I think the point of Zappa's comment about him being a great tambourine player (and fat person) is that he'd just said that Howard was a fine singer.
I know the book won't answer my question as it was a statement by Zappa but was Mark inferior?
I don't want to start a slagging thing here and I respect and like both of them but I always took them as a duo and never thought about the talent being one-sided.

Frank had a tendency to shoot from the hip, and if you will excuse me for humanizing him somewhat, he liked to make controversial statements (it fit FZ's perfected self-image as an iconoclast and curmudgeon). He moved past the Flo and Eddie Mothers, and they had to find work. Maybe he wasn't happy that they might have sung a MOI song or two in their post Zappa act...

Priceless!
Sadly, now that I am OLD, Mark doesn't look all that fat to me! Nor does Oliver Hardy, Ralph Kramden, etc.
Someone told me about an interview where Frank layed into Gail for being such a fatty, but I've never seen it, been able to confirm. So with that in mind, a little dig at Mark is a whole lotta nuthin'.

My 7 year old said this to to me a couple months ago (inspiring me to lose weight):

"Some people look good fat, right Dad? Like YOU!"

Thank you, Sweety.....