There had to be a time when Frank Zappa entered this process. So many little things from the Mothers got in to me and influenced my sense of irony, my sense of humour, my politics, my musical taste, my love of the bizarre and, with Cal Schenkel’s cover art, my sense of design.
I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard the words “The Mothers of Invention” – on the bus on the way to school as we went round Rookery Corner! By 1969 “Freak Out” and “Absolutely Free” were part of the soundtrack of my life and prunes and vegetables and “Caledonia mahogany’s elbows and green things in general” were spattered through my speech. A few years later I heard the last part of “Fillmore East – June 1971” and I was smitten again, a love consummated when a month or two later I happened across a whole mass of mint-condition LPs in a village jumble sale including all the Mothers albums up to “200 Motels”. My fate was sealed
And all this was spurred by my ironic thoughts about how exiting this repetitive act of art can be (Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby) and my indoctrinated brain spewed out “This is the exciting part. This is like the Supremes see the way it builds up? Feel it?” Thanks Frank!