No Commercial Potential: The Saga of Frank Zappa

Rating:
Summary: condescending
Review: This was a pretty comprehensive biography of Frank's earlier years, but the last hundred pages or so are terrible. The author simply pontificates on Frank's life and work, making judgement after judgement. This part of the book is extremely condescending toward Frank, as if the author were Frank's teacher and making notes on his final report card. This incredibly superior, pompous attitude toward the book's subject was very annoying. Including negative opinions about Zappa from people like Captain Beefheart is interesting and informative, but the author should have kept his own heavy hand out of the mix. A really good biography leaves conclusions about what kinf of guy the subject is up to the reader. Not so here, where toward the end the reader finds him/herself struggling to crawl out from underneath the heavy pile of the author's ponderous philosophy to glean any information at all about Zappa.

I did listen to all of the albums mentioned in the book, which, I guess, is all of them. I got a lot more out of listening to the records than I did this book.

Rating:
Summary: Outside of FZ's own book, the best bio there is...
Review: Walley's done his research, and he even writes with the wry humor Zappa would have approved of. Fascinating and entertaining. Written in the early 70s, this edition includes an updated section covering FZ's life since then. Complete discography and fan organization listing. A must for the complete Zappa library.