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Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa by Pauline Butcher (2022, Trade Paperback)
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Freak Out!
- Buy it nowFreak Out! : Laurel Canyon 1968 – 1971, Paperback by Butcher, Pauline, Like N...
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherPlexus Publishing, The Limited
ISBN-100859655709
ISBN-139780859655705
eBay Product ID (ePID)20050085442
Product Key Features
Book TitleFreak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
Number of Pages352 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2022
TopicHistory & Criticism, Composers & Musicians, General, Genres & Styles / Rock
IllustratorYes
GenreMusic, Biography & Autobiography
AuthorPauline Butcher
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height1 in
Item Weight14.1 Oz
Item Length8.3 in
Item Width6.6 in
Additional Product Features
Dewey Edition22
Reviews'Irrefutably complex, infuriatingly enigmatic, Frank Zappa remained a mystery to everyone bar his inner circle. Now someone who was close to the musician throughout the turbulent 60s has broken her silence. Pauline Butcher was a quiet, shy English girl who was refreshingly free of any rock star hang ups... A fascinating insight into the life of Frank Zappa, it also stands as a wonderful fly on the wall account of a whirlwind era in the evolution of rock music. ClashMusic has gained a short extract, which includes a walk on appearance from a certain Mr M. Jagger and Miss M. Faithfull...' - ClashMusic, The book describes a formative time in the life of an innovative musical artist, which Zappa most certainly was. But it also captures a particularly intense experience of a very brief, yet enormously influential, period in the evolution of western womanhood. - The Guardian, 'The book describes a formative time in the life of an innovative musical artist, which Zappa most certainly was. But it also captures a particularly intense experience of a very brief, yet enormously influential, period in the evolution of western womanhood.' - The Guardian, Only the most ardent Zappaphile or various Mothers of Invention and hangers-on who made up the freak show surrounding Frank Zappa's Laurel Canyon log cabin would recognize the name of Pauline Butcher. Even so, Freak Out! gives the onetime English secretary and part-time modeling instructor the opportunity to tell her insider's view of the head Mother, one that's revelatory and keenly perceptive. In 1967, Zappa ordered a typist up to his London hotel room, and when Butcher arrived, they hit it off to such an extent that eventually he offered her a job as his personal secretary. She accepted, moved to Los Angeles, and was promptly thrown into madness that from the distance of time seems irresistible. With a backdrop of the chaotic late 1960s extending into 1972, Butcher battles Zappa's wife Gail, develops interesting friendships with musician Ian Underwood and album artist Cal Schenkel, wrangles the GTO's (an all-girl act produced by Zappa), and meets a variety of eccentrics and rock stars: Tiny Tim, Captain Beefheart, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, and members of Pink Floyd. Offering deeply personal glimpses of Zappa, Butcher's coming-of-age story is so captivating and vividly told that many will be surprised to discover it's her first book. - The Austin Chronicle, ' Freak Out! provides an affectionate, revelatory but clear-eyed portrayal of the peculiar dynamic at the heart of the Mother superiors inner sanctum. Zappas contradictory nature is deftly delineated (he stood in judgement on almost everyone in the outside world yet I knew no other man more unassuming, humble or compassionate) and a compelling cast of minor characters drift through the narrative: an elliptical, quixotic Captain Beefheart, the luckless, rudderless Wild Man Fischer, gentlemanly multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood, visionary sleeve artist Cal Schenkel and Paulines eventual charges, the unruly and elemental GTOs. A vital purchase for those that love their Mothers. 4*s Reviewed by Oregano Rathbone' - Record Collector, 'Contains lots of inside information about the true state of the grubby log cabin. Pauline's time with the Zappas was very eventful, with an assassination attempt, constant work-related squabbles with Gail (who she says "has three speeds: slow, very slow, and stop"), and general in-house strife. But she also had many good times, getting to see moments of pure brilliance as well as witness some of Frank's more fanciful projects (the GTOs, Wild Man Fischer, etc.). This is an honest, accurate - and very well written - account of her thoughts and feelings at the time, based as it is on her diaries and letters home. Entertaining and occasionally laugh-out loud funny too.' - Andrew Greenaway, author of Zappa the Hard Way, 'The insightful memoirs of Zappa's former secretary... Butcher paints a vivid picture of both the trappings of the LA rock lifestyle and Zappa himself, at once radical and reactionary; a complex man who saw himself as a commentator on humankind and was not always human himself (least of all the way he treated his band), who believed in free lust, but not for his wife from whom he demanded strict fidelity, who disdained plastic, ugly society but also drugs and revolution. Jagger and Clapton drop by; both are in thrall to Zappa, but Butcher maintains a healthy perspective on him in an account fascinating for Zappa fans.' - Classic Rock, Freak Out! provides an affectionate, revelatory but clear-eyed portrayal of the peculiar dynamic at the heart of the Mother superiors inner sanctum. Zappas contradictory nature is deftly delineated (he stood in judgement on almost everyone in the outside world yet I knew no other man more unassuming, humble or compassionate) and a compelling cast of minor characters drift through the narrative: an elliptical, quixotic Captain Beefheart, the luckless, rudderless Wild Man Fischer, gentlemanly multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood, visionary sleeve artist Cal Schenkel and Paulines eventual charges, the unruly and elemental GTOs. A vital purchase for those that love their Mothers. 4*s Reviewed by Oregano Rathbone - Record Collector, 'She was a strait-laced English typist. He was a sexually incontinent rock innovator. So why on earth did Pauline Butcher become Frank Zappa's secretary?' - Guardian, 'Only the most ardent Zappaphile or various Mothers of Invention and hangers-on who made up the freak show surrounding Frank Zappa's Laurel Canyon log cabin would recognize the name of Pauline Butcher. Even so, Freak Out! gives the onetime English secretary and part-time modeling instructor the opportunity to tell her insider's view of the head Mother, one that's revelatory and keenly perceptive. In 1967, Zappa ordered a typist up to his London hotel room, and when Butcher arrived, they hit it off to such an extent that eventually he offered her a job as his personal secretary. She accepted, moved to Los Angeles, and was promptly thrown into madness that from the distance of time seems irresistible. With a backdrop of the chaotic late 1960s extending into 1972, Butcher battles Zappa's wife Gail, develops interesting friendships with musician Ian Underwood and album artist Cal Schenkel, wrangles the GTO's (an all-girl act produced by Zappa), and meets a variety of eccentrics and rock stars: Tiny Tim, Captain Beefheart, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, and members of Pink Floyd. Offering deeply personal glimpses of Zappa, Butcher's coming-of-age story is so captivating and vividly told that many will be surprised to discover it's her first book.' - The Austin Chronicle
Dewey Decimal782.42166092
SynopsisWritten by his former PA Pauline Butcher, Freak Out! is the most revealing and intimate portrait of Frank Zappa ever published, vividly evoking the late sixties zeitgeist and offering a unique insight into the life and work of a rock'n'roll legend., This new, revised and updated edition of Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa by Pauline Butcher will be released in a slightly smaller paperback "B" format. Pauline Butcher realised after she had written the first edition of Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa that she no longer needed to live in his shadow. This realisation, along with the success of the book, gave her new confidence. In the first edition, she upgraded all of the women in Frank Zappa's life and downgraded herself. With this new confidence, she has revised her book so that the relationship between Frank and her is the central thread. Living and working at Zappa's log cabin for four years, Pauline spent her days and nights in the company of Hollywood royalty. From drinking sessions with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull to visits from Eric Clapton and Captain Beefheart, Pauline brings to life the realities behind the perceived glamour of Hollywood, and paints a perceptive picture of the creative process of Frank Zappa's writing and the backdrop that inspired it. In a new chapter about the Charles Manson murders of Sharon Tate and her guests, which happened just a few miles away from the log cabin, her musings on how quickly 'life could change from major to minor' provide a fascinating insight into the experience of living in Hollywood with a musical legend at a time when it felt like no one could be trusted. With this background of chaos that brought an end to the optimism of the sixties, this book captures the intense experience of a young woman thrust into the madness, both within the log cabin and beyond. Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa is a coming of age story in the 1960s with Women's Liberation being the driving force to change. This new revised edition will contain a wealth of new material, including a dossier of what happened to the cast of characters who hung out at the log cabin and who drift through Pauline's story, excerpts from the author's private letters home about life in Hollywood, and five interviews which Pauline conducted with Frank Zappa, published here for the first time, on subjects as diverse as parenting, children, AIDS, composing and evangelism. All these come together to create a revelatory portrait of Frank Zappa and the strange and unique friendship that the author had with him.
LC Classification NumberML410.Z285
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Ratings and reviews
Most relevant reviews
- 20 Aug, 2023
A view not to be found anywhere else of obscure niche of counter-culture.
The author was about as far from resonance with Frank Zappa's essence as can be imagined when first was engaged in his service-straight laced-not in tune with the counter culture-but Frank indulged her. Has credibility as an honest portrait of what came down back then-a time i remember very well from first hand experience-as was age 18 then and as deep into music as could be.Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
