There was a disc when in my teens which – really – blew my young mind, changing my life and not in better… this very music was so different from my mom beloved 45 rpm's... it was the music to be special to me, of course, BUT the cover and the pixies inside the cover really intrigued me…
Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats was this marvelous wax… it was my first exposure to Capt. Beefheart’s voice and art… Willie the Pimp and The Captain with the Hoover in arms… and Frank Zappa with a bowler hat and those Winston fags… no need to ask that, when a smoker, my cigarettes of choice were red packet Winston’s.
Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats was this marvelous wax… it was my first exposure to Capt. Beefheart’s voice and art… Willie the Pimp and The Captain with the Hoover in arms… and Frank Zappa with a bowler hat and those Winston fags… no need to ask that, when a smoker, my cigarettes of choice were red packet Winston’s.
Peaches and Regalia… Flo & Eddie… everything was carved in my mind, heart, DNA.
I still have and enjoy my Italian first pressing on Bizarre/Reprise and I’d never, ever change it for a promo, white label or a first U.S. pressing, like I did in a collector’s frenzy with many other discs.
Why?
Because every groove in the vinyl disc was sipped by me and enjoyed to be part on me, as well.
... so impossible to selle or give away.
So what?
Well, only few hours ago, on a local newspaper, I read a short article dedicated to… Christine Frka?!?!?
Christine… whoooo?!?!
Lady Christine Frka was a young, handsome, busty and hyper-hairy gal who slept in Zappas’ Gail and Frank basement and was - for a period of time - the nanny of the Z-couple’s kids, Moon Unit and Dweezil.
Then she got involved in Laurel Canyon’s freak scene and commune life and… fifes and drums, was part of the Girls Together Outrageusly aka G.T.O., also part of the Bizarre/Zappa/Herb Cohen managed cohort…
… but…
… why am I talking about the late, poor, cute and unknown Christine Frka?
On Hot Rats' cover there is an hairy head on the infrared picture coming out from an empty swimming pool… a crypt…
A very weird pix…
…
The hairy persona who I always, mean ALWAYS, guessed to be Frank Zappa himself… was… YES! the above mentioned Christine Frka, of course…
Strange having the wrong belief for almost my whole life and discovering that wasn’t my Z-hero… but a groupie!
Music, like life, really is a never ending story… and worth going on, indeed.
BTW, folks: take you time to browse this incredible site devoted to Frank Zappa and related.
A masterpiece... like Hot Rats still is!
Frank Zappa forever!
